The New Mythology Saga
4 Pages 16 Bars: A Visual Mixtape Vol 9: 23 to
I forgot I had this smorgasbord of comics from the Kickstarter last year. Griot Enterprises releases these every few years or so. I liked Vol 8 so I figured Vol 9 would be interesting as well. And yes, it is interesting but not in the way I feel the organization was going for.
It reads less like a mixtape and more like you're in the car with your friend and he keeps changing the station on the radio when you're settling into the song. Dude, can't you finish a song?! My guy!
About the only concurrent theme is history- there are little inserts about black people in comics and how it related to things going on in the rest world like the early civil rights movements, the assassinations of X & MLK, the rise of gangsta rap and the Wu-Tang Clan's interest in comics. I liked the historical snippets, since I only remember a few bits of it myself.
Deep inside the comic is a few pages from a failed Wu-Tang comic production in the aughts. I think they were planning a collab with JLA/Avengers but things didn't work out. Nonetheless, I think it would have been special on its own. There are a few pages and frames from artists across the Black comic collective, so there's something for everyone.
The greatest utility from this mixed up mixtape would be to learn about artists you hadn't heard of so you can look up their works online. I'll be doing that in subsequent posting as I saw a few I liked. You can find this comic on Amazon and DriveThruComics. It'll lead you to greatness.
Kickstarter Comic Reviews Part X: Manifest Destiny
A good Kickstarter comic rolled into my mailbox this week. I should probably put ‘good’ in quotes like this.
The Horsemen saga is what I think would be considered “Epic Urban High Afrofantasy” because it covers the turning of men into gods to fulfill a complex destiny to change the world and/or fight Ragnarok. It’s a little bit confusing at times because new characters keep appearing and it seems like every page brings in one.
Basically, the US tried to invade Nigeria and got stomped because the Horsemen hero team was there. A special agent wants to stop the Horsemen from making Africa great because it’s harming USA’s pride or something. So, both sides are confronted with the rise of the Manifest, humans turned super from the activation of a hidden gene that gives 1% of humans demigod abilities. This is all leading up to the big event…next issue. It’s always next issue.
I have mixed feelings about the artwork. The faces just don’t seem…right. They’re really off and in some cases, awful. The costume game’s on point, though.
However the action effects are a bit hard to read at times. The art team adds a lot of smoke effects and the art of the smoke effects doesn’t resemble the art of the background nor the characters. It’s a bit jarring and hard to read at times. Though the lettering itself is much better and the story/plot made a bit more sense this time.
All in all, a solid continuation of the saga. 3 out of 5 stars. Would certainly pledge again.
You can find Manifest Destiny and other comics in the genre at Griot Enterprises.
Kickstarter Comic Reviews:
The Horsemen Birth of A Spark
Once again, I find myself impressed with the Horsemen series. Although, I wasn’t as impressed with the artwork, especially the faces. I am impressed with the fact Griot Entertainment’s been publishing this series for 20 years! I wasn’t impressed with the stories, but I am impressed they’ve kept the lore consistent.
The thing about Horsemen is that it is not quite a linear story. You got a lot of beginning, a lot of middle, but not a lot of ending. You also got the fact that they don’t do a lot of framing, preferring to use the whole page to tell the story. It makes some stories seem more like pinups than a cohesive narrative, though you won’t forget the characters. I think it works well given the godly highest-fantasy elements in the story.
But the faces, though. I had hope they’d improve the way the faces are drawn. Especially women’s faces. They had a tendency to look like they’re about to sneeze. I just don’t get it.
I found the essays written by fans and experts to be quite nice and the soundtrack to be bangin’. A lot of love went into this, as with previous books. It’s 80 pages of wild afrofantasy that might confuse you at times. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
https://www.griotenterprises.com/thehorsemen