Having grown up in the Fifties and Sixties, my taste in comics runs mostly to superheroes, but I sometimes read the more offbeat stuff, too. This new graphic novel from DC/Vertigo by Mat Johnson, for example, is set in the 1930s and concerns a light-skinned black reporter from the North coming to the South and passing as white so he can investigate lynchings. Since he’s working undercover, so to speak, his stories are by-lined “Incognegro”. His current assignment is more personal than usual, because his brother is in jail, accused of killing a white woman.
In the best tradition of hardboiled mysteries, and very appropriately in this case, not everything is what it appears to be. The investigation revolves around moonshining, murder, and a number of secrets that have little or nothing to do with race. It won’t come as any surprise to the reader that the deeper the reporter digs into things, the more danger he’s in, and not only because he’s a black man pretending to be white in 1930s Mississippi.
This is an excellent example of crime fiction in the graphic novel format and ought to be of interest to anyone who enjoys hardboiled historical mysteries.
In the best tradition of hardboiled mysteries, and very appropriately in this case, not everything is what it appears to be. The investigation revolves around moonshining, murder, and a number of secrets that have little or nothing to do with race. It won’t come as any surprise to the reader that the deeper the reporter digs into things, the more danger he’s in, and not only because he’s a black man pretending to be white in 1930s Mississippi.
This is an excellent example of crime fiction in the graphic novel format and ought to be of interest to anyone who enjoys hardboiled historical mysteries.
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