Bayou Review

If they ever pitch the idea for Bayou to be made into a Movie it will be hard to resist the temptation of describing it as “Coraline with a black girl” or “Alice in Wonderland down South.” The Southern Gothic Tale in which the lynching of a young black kid and the possible lynching of one of the main characters makes any such comparison pale in understanding how dark and adventurous this story is.

Bayou is a Online Comic by James Love and the main character Lee unlike Alice, does not need to go through the looking glass to encounter a dangerous world, both side of the looking glass in this story are frightening places.

James Love does a great job of balancing child like wonder and magic, with the harsh realities of a racist South, a ever present fact that informs the entire story.

Once we leave the not so Genteel South we go into the swamp, a heartland of Southern mythos. Pollywogs, Brer Rabbits, Jim Crows, and a very scary Cotton Eye Joe and other creatures of Southern mythology including Bayou a huge man child like swamp creature that aides Lee.
Lee after being established as a sassy defiant kid in a world where being sassy and defiant can get you killed, must rescue a young white girl whose disappearance is being blamed on her father.

To say she has to risk life and limb in entering the mystical swamp to rescue her friend and prevent her father from being lynched is not a cliche. There are literally quite a few panels where you think Lee will not make it to the next page with either life or limbs missing.

I'm hoping to check out the rest of this series ASAP the world of Bayou is definitely worth another trip through the looking glass.