Bayou Volume 1 by Jeremy Love

From the Publisher

The first title from the original webcomics imprint of DC Comics!

South of the Mason-Dixon Line lies a strange land of gods and monsters; a world parallel to our own, born from centuries of slavery, civil war, and hate.

Lee Wagstaff is the daughter of a black sharecropper in the depression-era town of Charon, Mississippi. When Lily Westmoreland, her white playmate, is snatched by agents of an evil creature known as Bog, Lee's father is accused of kidnapping. Lee's only hope is to follow Lily's trail into this fantastic and frightening alternate world. Along the way she enlists the help of a benevolent, blues singing, swamp monster called Bayou. Together, Lee and Bayou trek across a hauntingly familiar Southern Neverland, confronting creatures both benign and malevolent, in an effort to rescue Lily and save Lee's father from being lynched.

BAYOU VOL. 1 collects the first four chapters of the critically acclaimed webcomic series by Glyph Award nominee Jeremy Love.

Publishers Weekly

Extremely beautiful, scary and wonderful, this Web comic takes readers to a pair of almost familiar, frequently threatening worlds. We first journey back in time to Mississippi, 1933, where a black sharecropper's daughter, Lee Wagstaff, is learning how to be strong in a segregated society. While Lee and her white friend, Lily, are playing near the bayou where black victims of racial violence are thrown, Lily is abducted by a monster-but Lee's father is blamed. To save him from a lynch mob by rescuing her friend, Lee enters the parallel universe of Dixie, where Southern folklore comes to life in disturbing echoes of our world. There she meets the eponymous character, a hulking creature living alone in a shack, troubled by disturbing memories and threatened by hateful embodiments of the South's violent past. When Lee convinces Bayou that he doesn't have to remain a victim, the two of them set off on a joint quest for understanding and redemption. Love's script and art, laid out in big blocks like Sunday comics, are lovely and eloquent; Morgan's coloring fills the panels with hazy sunlight and menacing darkness. (June)

Library Journal

In 1930s Mississippi, the swamps house an alternate world of bad juju, strange forces, and stranger critters—like giant Cotton-Eyed Joe, who gobbles up Lee's best friend, Lily, Miss Westmoreland's daughter. When the sheriff hauls in Lee's sharecropper daddy for Lily's murder and a lynching party is on the move, Lee's only hope to rescue both daddy and Lily is the equally gigantic Bayou, another swamp critter and Joe's opposite number. But Bayou operates under the thumb, er, paw of bossman Jubal, a bloodhound gotten up as a Civil War general with Klan-type sidekicks. Love's Southern gothic magical realism infuses the plot with seductive frisson, even if the symbolism gets a bit heavy-handed. Certainly, Lee's no cringing little girlie, and she kicks and shoots like the best manga heroines. The graceful and semirealistic drawings are enhanced by Patrick Morgan's lush coloring, in a muted earth-toned palette. VERDICTBayou swept the 2009 Glyph Awards, and its blend of history, racial issues, beautifully drawn fantasy, and appealing story will attract fans in high school and public libraries. Teens and up.—M.C.

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