DH Comic Book of the Month (June): Comic Chat

This month, one of our other comic book club readers (not present on this blog) chose Bayou by Jeremy Love as our reading for May. Read our reactions below. -Brenda

Let's start with some raw reactions, what did you think of the book?​

Terri: I thought the book was good. The art and story are great. I know that there is a second book so this one leaves many questions unanswered. The art gives the feeling of the mugginess of the bayou and a southern summer. The artist's use of yellows and browns relay the heat and muddiness of the bayou, and the usage of green conveys the swampy feel of the bayou.

Jennifer: I thought this was a weird little book. Literally, it doesn't follow your standard size comic trade. It's about 6 inches tall and 8 inches wide (I'm not a math major, so the dimensions I describe might be totally wrong). The texture itself was interesting, too, because it felt newspaper-like which brought to life some of the embedded newspaper articles in the text. Overall, the story itself breaks down into a little girl's hero journey. There were strong folkloric and classical themes that ran throughout the story that were both regional and monolithic in nature.

Tory: I was immediately turned off to this book from the start. I felt like the writing relied heavily on white guilt and black trauma to make up for flat characters. Additionally, it doesn't even feel like a period piece because of the magical element. I do not have a southern background, and this book didn't make me feel like I learned anything about the South. It left a bitter taste in my mouth because the writing felt so gimmicky and emotionally leading. 

My first impression of Bayou was that it was a children's story. The art can be described as employing simple lines and there are some fantasy elements that can easily be compared to some other children's stories. What is the intended effect of such art on the reader?

Terri: I think the intended affect is to lull the read into thinking it is going to be a romantic look at southern life. I feel many white Americans have a romanticized vision of life in the south before and after the civil war. The children's book element speaks to this romanticized memory and contrasts it with the reality that Blacks in the south had and still have to deal with.

Jennifer: I don't have the background or experience to speak about the South in the way that Terri just did, but I do think that this graphic novel does follow the trope of other children's literature works. The simplified lines and art parallel the straightforward and simplified diction you can find in other children's works. In this instance, I am thinking about Harry Potter wherein the story while written in simple prose deals with adult and dark themes. Like Harry Potter, I think Bayou tries to present itself as visually digestible for primary readers so as to communicate these larger and complicated themes and historical such as race and Jim Crow laws.

Tory: I feel like Bayou tries to use several rhetorical strategies to make the reader feel uneasy. Normally I am all for that. However, I struggled to understand the reasoning and logic behind some of the writing choices made. On the other hand, some of the rhetorical moves made are brilliant. I think the simplicity of the art and making it look like a children's book was a way to displace darkness and childhood innocence. Normally I would be all over this displacement, but it just seems out of place here. I don't understand the meaning or what they are trying to make me feel with this move. Other moments, such as the Jim Crow Laws, were brilliant. I thought it was a fascinating way to tie in real history and filter it through the lens of childhood innocence. 

The first scene in the story is of Lee Wagstaff, our young (maybe 6 or 7 year old) heroine, diving into the Bayou to retrieve a Black boy's body. The young boy was killed for "whistling at a white woman." Why do you think the author chose to open with this scene?
Terri: That scene in particular, for me, highlights that for white people, Black children do not have or deserve a childhood. This is visualization of the real-world views of Black children as being somehow more adult therefore less fragile that white children. The words that were used to describe Lee indicated this. "She's a strong gal, she can do it". The fact that no one took into consideration the traumatizing affect this act has on Lee only serves to reinforce the view that Black children are just mini Black adults. As a Black man, Lee's father has little choice in whether Lee has to do it or not. However, Black parents then and now want their children to see the dangers that exist in society when they step outside of the boundaries created by the white majority. The perceived notion that you've step outside the arbitrary boundaries can be life or death for Black children. The writer's opening with this scene is intended to show you what black childhood was like, and for some continues to be like.

Tory: This was such a disturbing scene. It reminds me of Emmett Till's short life. In addition to murder I also was disturbed by the reasoning for Lee needing to be the one to dive into the bayou. She was only chosen because she was small and her dad needed the $3.00. This just echos the writing focusing on white guilt and black trauma to get emotional responses to the work.

Not to call on our nation's racist past…wait, no actually, to totally call on our country's racist past (and present), there are some crows in the story that take Lily away after Lee saves her from Cotton-eyed Joe. What role do the Jim Crows play in this narrative?

Terri: This symbolizes for me the way Jim Crow laws were used to punish Blacks and protect Whites. The Crows carrying Lily away represents for me, the protection of Lily's virtue as a white woman. Lily's mother can now shift the lies and bad judgement from her daughter to a Black man, thereby protecting the white woman's reputation. I mean for God sake she's called Lily=Lily-white.

Tory: To piggy back of Terri, I also felt like they were used to take Lily away to a safe place while Lee has to deal with the "consequences" of her alleged stealing (which she didn't do).

Bayou anthropomorphizes a number of Southern cultural artifacts, like the Bayou itself, why?

Terri: The author is infusing the story with African folktales that often have non-human things, animals etc having human traits, qualities and forms.

Jennifer: Again, I think it's part of that literary trope of metaphor. I think when we think of cultural traditions, knowledge, or physical touchstones, we are always removed from them. But, when we anthropomorphize these things and ideas, we can build immediate and intimate connections.

Tory: The world under the bayou is so interesting. I almost feel like it is not real and Lee never woke up from getting hit in the head. Another theory is that the bayou itself is a metaphor for disassociation during trauma.

Explain the significance of reading something like Bayou?

Terri: Geez, that's hard. I guess for people who are unfamiliar with the south and the treatment, lives relationships of Blacks and Whites during Jim Crow it can be educational. Not saying this is for teaching children, but that it is for reeducating adults.

Tory: I think it would have had potential if it changed the writing up. I didn't feel like it was trying to teach anything. I didn't even really feel like it was trying to bring awareness either. It reminds me of the child in the elevator that pushes all of the buttons and wait for the chaos to ensue. I felt like the writing was just trying to get reactions as opposed to bringing awareness or even capturing the authentic struggle of being black in the South.