#simmons and bossman

[nowicantlose]

Unnumbered #103 Workplace Rules

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[missmitchieg]

i don’t go here but what happened to penelope garcia’s hair ? isn’t it like shoulder length ? did she cut it ? !

/lh , tell me about penelope garcia please ?

Yay! I love talking about babygirl! Ok, so it looks like she did indeed cut her luscious locks so rip to her long princess curls. They will be missed until they grow back. 💖

Ok, so season 1-15 Penelope was MY GIRL, ok? She was MY GIRL.

She's, like, a super genius super cutie and she's super sweet and kind and loves animals. (Seriously, one of the reasons she started working for the FBI is she was a computer hacker and hacked into the website of a cosmetic company that tests on animals and her options when she got caught were literally work for the FBI or her ass is getting thrown in prison. She chose the FBI. We love a queen that fights for animal wellfare. The other reason was she wanted to get away from her garbage, and I do mean GARBAGE, boyfriend and have a better life.)

I'm pretty sure she has ADHD. Maybe autism. IDK, but she's definitely some kinda neurospicy.

She's a walking sparkly neon rainbow. You know the way Flynn's bedroom is described in the one jatp book? Season 1-15 Penelope is that and I love it.

She went ginger once and it was a whole vibe.

Wow, I love her.

She was super nice to her ex boss all the way from s1 to his departure in early s12, and I'm 99% sure was the only one that actually called him bossman or sir bc everyone else just called him Aaron or by his nickname, Hotch. She was really good at making him smile, which actually wasn't that hard but people exaggerate the rarity of a Hotch smile for some reason.

After that, she was still really nice to the replacement he handpicked, Emily Prentiss, who she already adored after working with her since s2.

Hotch was literally physically incapable of saying no to this woman and she fully knew and took advantage of that shit, ok? Seriously, one time, Penelope made a joke like "who could say no to me?" and Hotch just smirked a little bit because he knew he couldn't say anything. Penelope does an incredible imitation of the pleading emoji. Or the Puss In Boots face. Whatever you wanna call this:

"Boss, I want you to hire Tara. 🥺" "Ok. Tell everyone else the position has been filled." "Boss, I don't wanna eat dinner alone. Do you want a veggie omelette? 🥺" "Ok. Do you have jalapeños?"

The hilarious thing is she doesn't even have to make that face. She does it to mess with him.

And then there's her, uh...... interesting little flirtationship with Derek Morgan. Or as Penelope calls him, chocolate thunder. He loves that name and encourages it. He calls her babygirl. They also have about a million other adorable pet names for each other.

*gestures at these gifs* They love each other so much, it's kind of gross. I've said before that before I actually started watching and only had the massive comp of him calling her that, I genuinely really thought Morcia was canon. Like, oh, my GOD, dude. These two are disgustingly obsessed with each other. The shit they say on work calls. He calls her sexy and brilliant Goddess and told her it drives him crazy when "she talks that voulez coucher stuff to him". Like, hello? Honestly, I'm amazed Derek only had to sit through one HR lecture about creating a hostile work environment. Or at least, we only saw one.

Then there's her very sweet friendship with baby genius, boy wonder, good doctor, Agent Doctor Spencer Reid.

MY BABIES. I LOVE THEM. I want them back. Gimme back my Penny², damnit.

And her very sweet friendship with Matt Simmons! Oh, my god. I love them. 🥰🥰🥰

They're cute and I wish at least Penelope mentioned Matt in season 16 more.

Penelope and Luke! Oh, my God. Penelope and Luke.

They are in love and both think it's unrequited and it's exhausting but at least s12-15 were FUN. Mostly.

Season 16 Penelope, though....

Season 16 Penelope got abducted by aliens. Or lobotomized. Hard to tell.

[wrestlingfaves]

The Royal Rumble Marathon: 1988

I’ve been re-watching the Royal Rumble, starting with the first one in 1988. Only the Rumble itself.  Let’s begin the marathon:

Warning, spoilers ahead for the past Royal Rumbles…

1988

I remember reading there was a Rumble before the first televised one in 1988. The 1988 Royal Rumble is the one that introduced the concept to the world at large. Battle royals had been used in wrestling for decades, but the Rumble introduced the concept of starting with two men and adding more in various intervals.

The Rumble in 1988 was still in prototype mode, missing many of the staples of later Rumbles:

No participants had entrance music.

Fans weren’t counting down for the next participant.

Managers were allowed at ringside.

No comedy spots.

No rapid eliminations.

No surprise entrants.

No big man going on a rampage, causing multiple eliminations.

No tag team fighting each other.

No “winner goes to Wrestlemania”.

No storyline to the Rumble.

The 1988 Rumble only had 20 participants as opposed to the traditional 30.

The participants, in order of entrance:

Bret Hart (accompanied by Jimmy Hart), ½ of the Hart Foundation

Tito Santana

“The Natural” Butch Reed

Jim Neidhart, ½ of the Hart Foundation

5) Jake Roberts

Harley Race

Jim Brunzell, ½ of the Killer Bees

Sam Houston

Danny Davis

Boris Zhukov, ½ of the Bolsheviks

Don “The Rock” Muraco

Nikolai Volkoff, ½ of the Bolsheviks

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

“The Outlaw” Ron Bass

B. Brian Blair, ½ of the Killer Bees

Hillbilly Jim

Dino Bravo (accompanied by Frenchy Martin)

Ultimate Warrior

One Man Gang

Junkyard Dog

Bret had the longest performance in the Rumble. Not many highlights in the Rumble as the “tropes” weren’t in place yet. Bret and Tito were my favorites to watch as they are my preferred type of wrestler. Butch Reed and One Man Gang are interesting as they would be in much different spots in the next year. Butch Reed would leave for WCW and form the “Doom” tag team with Ron Simmons. One Man Gang would turn into Akeem the African Dream and form the Twin Towers with the Big Bossman.

Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, the Ultimate Warrior, and Junkyard Dog received the biggest reactions from the crowd.

Jim Duggan wins the Rumble.

Of the twenty participants, eight have passed away: Butch Reed, Harley Race, Nikolai Volkoff, Ron Bass, Dino Bravo, the Ultimate Warrior, and the Junkyard Dog. If you include non-wrestling participants, the total is eleven: Howard Finkel (the ring announcer) and Joey Marella (the outside referee).

Overall Rating: 4 out of 10

[goodsirism]

the sheer woobiefication of goodsir in the simmons novel. not only does bossman refuse to describe him without mentioning that he’s fucking tiny, he also gives him an alcoholic dad and makes everyone on the stupid boats hate his guts! the scenes.

[wwe2k19customcover]

In this WWE 2K19 Custom Game Cover.

Here’s the Roster for the men:

Golden era WWE Savage Andre Bam Bam Bigelow Dusty Rhodes Bossman Rick Rude Warrior Undertaker Steamboat Bret Hart Jim Neidhart British Bulldog Jake Roberts Texas Tornado Shawn Michaels Sid Ric Flair Mr. Perfect Honky-tonk man Greg Valentine Tatanka Papa Shango Dustin Rhodes Luke Butch Earthquake Typhoon Arn Anderson (Returning from 2k16 and earlier) Roddy Piper Sgt Slaughter Haku Iron Sheik Big John Studd King Kong Bundy Hulk Hogan General Adnan Virgil (Suggested Additions) Jacques Rougeau(as the Mountie & his tag team gimmick) Raymond Rougeau(tag team gimmick) Tully Blanchard Hacksaw Jim Duggan WCW/NWA Golden era Ric Flair Dusty Rhodes Arn Anderson Lex Luger Sid Kerry Von Eric Sting Roddy Piper Ric Flair Steamboat Jake Roberts Mean Mark Rick Rude Big Bubba Larry Zybysko Steve Austin Brian Pillman Vader Dustin Rhodes Cactus Jack Booker t Ddp Vinnie Vegas Diamond Studd (Returning from 2k16 and previous) Ron Simmons Stevie Ray Iron Sheik Terry Funk (Suggested Addition) Tully Blanchard New Generation WWE Bret Hart Shawn Michaels Diesel Razor Ramon Undertaker Yokozuna Lex Luger Brutus Beefcake Ted Dibiase Sid Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vader Mankind British Bulldog Jim Neidhart Billy Gunn Roadie Earthquake Randy Savage Mr. Perfect Bam Bam Bigelow Tatanka Jake Roberts Steve Austin Brian Pillman Ultimate Warrior Ric Flair Randy Savage Kama Mark Henry Issac Yaankem Justin Hawk Bradshaw Rocky Maivia Goldust Luke Butch Brutus Beefcake Fatu (Returning from 2k16-12) 123 kid Hulk Hogan Scott Steiner Roddy Piper Jerry Lawler Faarooq Terry Funk (Suggested addition) Samu Mabel Carl Ouellet(as the Quebeckers) Jacques Rougeau(as the Quebeckers) Hacksaw Jim Duggan Bob Holly WCW New Generation Ric Flair Sting Lex Luger Vader Cactus Jack Ron Simmons Arn Anderson Larry Zybysko Ric Rude The Boss/Big Bubba Rogers Meng The Giant Ddp Avalanche/The Shark Terra Ryzin/Jean Pierre Levesque Steve Austin Brian Pillman British Bulldog Sid Ricky Steamboat Dustin Rhodes Booker t Chris Jericho Eddie Guerrero Brutus Beefcake(& his many gimmicks) Randy Savage Hall Nash Dibiase (Returning from 2k16 and earlier) Hulk Hogan Stevie Ray Syxx Vincent Scott Steiner Steven Regal (Suggested additions) Dean Malenko Perry Saturn Raven Carl Ouellet(as the amazing french Canadians) Jacques Rougeau(as the amazing french Canadians) Hacksaw Jim Duggan Attitude era WWE Steve Austin Bret Hart Shawn Michaels Undertaker The Rock Kane Mankind Cactus Jack Dude Love Hunter Hearst Helmsley/Triple H Kurt Angle(shoe in for 2k18) Matt Hardy(shoe in for 2k18) Jeff Hardy(shoe in for 2k18) Tajiri (shoe in for 2k18) Chris Jericho Eddie Guerrero Big Show Big Bossman Albert Sid British Bulldog Jim Neidhart Kama Mustafa/The Godfather/Goodfather Mark Henry Edge Christian Billy Gunn Road Dogg Ken Shamrock Vader Brian Pillman Bubba Ray Devon Golga Goldust Bradshaw Mr. Mcmahon Shane McMahon Rikishi (Returning from 2k16-12) Terry Funk Faarooq X-Pac Sgt Slaughter Gangrel Val Venis Scotty 2 Hotty Grandmaster Sexay William Regal Haku (Suggested additions) Dean Malenko Perry Saturn Viscera Carl Ouellet(as team Canada) Jacques Rougeau(as team Canada) Bob Holly Al Snow WCW Attitude era Goldberg Hall Nash Bret Hart Ric Flair The Giant Sting Sid Booker T Chris Jericho Eddie Guerrero Dustin Rhodes Arn Anderson Curt Henning Ric Rude Randy Savage Larry Zybysko Fit Finlay Bam Bam Bigelow Ted Dibiase DDP Steven Regal Ultimate Warrior The Disciple Lex Luger (Returning from 2k16-12) Stevie Ray Meng Syxx Roddy Piper (Suggested additions) Dean Malenko Perry Saturn Billy Kidman Raven Which leaves the only new characters added that wasn't in 2k16 as Jacques Rougeau Raymond Rougeau Tully Blanchard Hacksaw Jim Duggan Samu Mabel Carl Ouellet Raven Dean Malenko Perry Saturn Viscera Bob Holly Al Snow Billy Kidman

[digicrunchpage]

Realizing you can’t have enough JK Simmons, new sci-fi spy series doubles him

Enlarge / Counterpart is ready to give you all the JK Simmons you can handle. (credit: Starz)

Warning: The following preview outlines general details for the premise of Counterpart, a new Starz sci-fi series debuting this weekend.

The “actor as multiple roles” genre has been done in a seemingly infinite amount of ways as of late: clones, siblings, whatever Cloud Atlas was. With Starz' new series Counterpart debuting this Sunday (8pm ET), the premise gets a slight twist. Beloved institution JK Simmons (everything from those Allstate ads to Justice League and Whiplash) portrays mild-mannered office man Howard and alternate-universe spy bad-ass Howard Prime.

Confused? Luckily, audiences get the gist of this situation early in the series premiere: 30 years ago during the Cold War, scientists were experimenting when something went wrong, opening a passage between two seemingly distinct worlds. “Go through this door,” bossman Peter tells Howard. “And you’re in a world identical to ours.”

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Realizing you can’t have enough JK Simmons, new sci-fi spy series doubles him published first on https://medium.com/@HDDMagReview

[techbotic]

Realizing you can’t have enough JK Simmons, new sci-fi spy series doubles him

Enlarge / Counterpart is ready to give you all the JK Simmons you can handle. (credit: Starz)

Warning: The following preview outlines general details for the premise of Counterpart, a new Starz sci-fi series debuting this weekend.

The “actor as multiple roles” genre has been done in a seemingly infinite amount of ways as of late: clones, siblings, whatever Cloud Atlas was. With Starz' new series Counterpart debuting this Sunday (8pm ET), the premise gets a slight twist. Beloved institution JK Simmons (everything from those insurance ads to Justice League and Whiplash) portrays mild-mannered office man Howard and alternate-universe spy bad-ass Howard Prime.

Confused? Luckily, audiences get the gist of this situation early in the series premiere: 30 years ago during the Cold War, scientists were experimenting when something went wrong, opening a passage between two seemingly distinct worlds. “Go through this door,” bossman Peter tells Howard. “And you’re in a world identical to ours.”

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Realizing you can’t have enough JK Simmons, new sci-fi spy series doubles him published first on https://medium.com/@CPUCHamp

[cbilluminati]

In my previous column here at Just the Good Stuff, I took a look back at works of African-American literature in graphic format. In the column before that, I reviewed three graphic biographies of extraordinary Black Americans.

This time, I’m focusing on African-American genre fiction.

All of these books are good stuff, and I’d recommend them all to anybody and everybody. I think kids would be particularly interested in these books and their heroes, so school and public libraries will definitely want copies of these trade paperbacks.

And now, without further ado, here they are…

Blackjack: Second Bite of the Cobra

By Alex Simmons ; illustrated by Joe Bennett ( Dover : 2015 ). Blackjack is a mercenary looking to avenge the humiliation of his father at the hands of The Cobra, a charismatic Bedouin warlord. He hires two other mercs, white Southerners named Bo and Red (“short for Redneck”), who function as sidekicks (I liked this reverse tokenism – after all, these sidekicks are fighting for money in Africa, where they’re a minority). Silas Lincoln, best friend to Blackjack’s father, is crippled when he goes solo after the recently re-emergent Cobra, who is robbing caravans in a carefully targeted manner. Since Silas can’t fight, he introduces Blackjack to Maryam, an Arab woman who took sanctuary with Silas after she was targeted for honor killing ; trained to fight by Silas, Maryam is eager for battle. Blackjack gathers support from the merchants being robbed, then leads his forces in an exciting climactic battle. Joe Bennett’s art is distinctively stylized, and the color in this Dover edition is stunning.

STORY 4.6 ART 4.6 OVERALL 4.6

#gallery-0-16 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-16 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

  Dayblack

By Keef Cross ( Rosarium Publishing – 2015 )

This is a story about Merce , a great tattoo artist and the world’s coolest vampire, ever. He collects blood with modified tattoo equipment of his own invention, and this allows him to have something like a normal life in the town of Dayblack, Georgia, where a permanent darkness in the sky blocks out all sunlight, keeping the town in perpetual night. I could go on and on about how great DayBlack is, like how the art is a real source of wonder, but I still wouldn’t be able to tell you all the good things between the covers – so I’ll just say Read It.

STORY 4.6 ART 4.6 OVERALL 4.6

#gallery-0-17 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-17 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-17 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-17 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Shaft: A Complicated Man

By David F. Walker and Bilquis Evely (Dynamite: 2015)

In this, John Shaft’s graphic novel debut, Walker successfully re-creates the magic of Ernest Tidyman’s savvy knight-errant. Here, a young Shaft has just come home to Harlem from Vietnam, chased out of the boxing game by the Mob when he won’t throw a fight. He takes his first case, tracking down a missing person for his girlfriend, and winds up as a target of both gangsters and dirty cops. I especially liked the art in this one – it’s carefully detailed, with first-rate draftsmanship. In closing, I’d note that I’m not the only one who likes this book, since Shaft : a Complicated Man was the winner of the 2015 Glyph Award for Story of the Year.

STORY 4.5 ART 4.5 OVERALL 4.5

#gallery-0-18 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-18 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Watson and Holmes, Volume 1: A Study in Black (2013)

By Karl Bollers ( writer ), Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman ( artists ).

This is the only graphic novel I’ve come across from publisher New Paradigm Studios – and that’s a shame, because this is one great comic. Bollers has written comics for 20 years for Marvel and Archie, and it shows here : re-imagining Holmes and Watson as Black men couldn’t have been easy, but Bollers transplants the pair to twenty-first century Harlem with a surgeon’s sure touch, and the resulting story is eminently satisfying. I especially liked the work of both of the artists on the series.

STORY 4.5 ART 4.5 OVERALL 4.5

#gallery-0-19 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-19 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-0-19 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-19 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Bayou, Volumes One and Two ( Zuda/DC Comics 2010)

By Jeremy Love, is a mythic tale set in 1931 in the Jim Crow South. Lee Wagstaff is a young Black girl who must find her missing white playmate Lily before angry whites lynch her father. Lee’s search will take her into the bayou, where she enters the magical reality of the spirit world – there, she meets up with Bayou, a gentle, gigantic Black bluesman, caught up in sharecropping peonage and oppressed by Bossman, a living symbol of white supremacy during the Jim Crow Era. Bayou takes Lee on a monomyth quest, introducing the fleshly girl to this strange, supraphysical world and its host of totemic bayou denizens, who call her Pigmeat because the living can usually only experience this world through dreams – but Lee is different, marked by destiny to change the world.

To create this mystical reality, Jeremy Love uses allegory to weave together traditional Black folklore with the popular Black culture of the early Blues era, e.g., one of the secondary characters, B’rer Rabbit, is a bluesman who plays the juke joints with Bayou. Like the other supernaturals, he can take on human appearance, but he normally travels as a chain-smoking rabbit-man. Another supernatural, Staggerlee, is an assassin conjured up by Bossman from the bowels of Hell to hunt down Lee and Bayou.

This is a great story, even if it was never completed : it’s still a must-read for the art alone.

STORY 4.5 ART 4.7 OVERALL 4.6

#gallery-0-20 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-20 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-20 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-20 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

And that’s it for this special extra edition of Just The Good Stuff – see you next week !

In the meantime, please also see :

my last column, where I review some great graphic adaptations of African-American literature ;

my column from last week, where I cover three first-rate graphic biographies of extraordinary Black Americans ; and,

my review of the March trilogy by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), the third volume being the first graphic novel to win the National Book Award.

Just the Good Stuff SPECIAL EDITION: African-American Genre Fiction

In my previous column here at Just the Good Stuff, I took a look back at works of African-American literature in graphic format.

Just the Good Stuff SPECIAL EDITION: African-American Genre Fiction In my previous column here at Just the Good Stuff, I took a look back at works of African-American literature in graphic format.

[outright-geekery]

In my previous column here at Just the Good Stuff, I took a look back at works of African-American literature in graphic format. In the column before that, I reviewed three graphic biographies of extraordinary Black Americans.

This time, I’m focusing on African-American genre fiction.

All of these books are good stuff, and I’d recommend them all to anybody and everybody. I think kids would be particularly interested in these books and their heroes, so school and public libraries will definitely want copies of these trade paperbacks.

And now, without further ado, here they are…

Blackjack: Second Bite of the Cobra

By Alex Simmons ; illustrated by Joe Bennett ( Dover : 2015 ). Blackjack is a mercenary looking to avenge the humiliation of his father at the hands of The Cobra, a charismatic Bedouin warlord. He hires two other mercs, white Southerners named Bo and Red (“short for Redneck”), who function as sidekicks (I liked this reverse tokenism – after all, these sidekicks are fighting for money in Africa, where they’re a minority). Silas Lincoln, best friend to Blackjack’s father, is crippled when he goes solo after the recently re-emergent Cobra, who is robbing caravans in a carefully targeted manner. Since Silas can’t fight, he introduces Blackjack to Maryam, an Arab woman who took sanctuary with Silas after she was targeted for honor killing ; trained to fight by Silas, Maryam is eager for battle. Blackjack gathers support from the merchants being robbed, then leads his forces in an exciting climactic battle. Joe Bennett’s art is distinctively stylized, and the color in this Dover edition is stunning.

STORY 4.6 ART 4.6 OVERALL 4.6

#gallery-0-16 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-16 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-16 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

  Dayblack

By Keef Cross ( Rosarium Publishing – 2015 )

This is a story about Merce , a great tattoo artist and the world’s coolest vampire, ever. He collects blood with modified tattoo equipment of his own invention, and this allows him to have something like a normal life in the town of Dayblack, Georgia, where a permanent darkness in the sky blocks out all sunlight, keeping the town in perpetual night. I could go on and on about how great DayBlack is, like how the art is a real source of wonder, but I still wouldn’t be able to tell you all the good things between the covers – so I’ll just say Read It.

STORY 4.6 ART 4.6 OVERALL 4.6

#gallery-0-17 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-17 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-17 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-17 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Shaft: A Complicated Man

By David F. Walker and Bilquis Evely (Dynamite: 2015)

In this, John Shaft’s graphic novel debut, Walker successfully re-creates the magic of Ernest Tidyman’s savvy knight-errant. Here, a young Shaft has just come home to Harlem from Vietnam, chased out of the boxing game by the Mob when he won’t throw a fight. He takes his first case, tracking down a missing person for his girlfriend, and winds up as a target of both gangsters and dirty cops. I especially liked the art in this one – it’s carefully detailed, with first-rate draftsmanship. In closing, I’d note that I’m not the only one who likes this book, since Shaft : a Complicated Man was the winner of the 2015 Glyph Award for Story of the Year.

STORY 4.5 ART 4.5 OVERALL 4.5

#gallery-0-18 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-18 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Watson and Holmes, Volume 1: A Study in Black (2013)

By Karl Bollers ( writer ), Rick Leonardi and Larry Stroman ( artists ).

This is the only graphic novel I’ve come across from publisher New Paradigm Studios – and that’s a shame, because this is one great comic. Bollers has written comics for 20 years for Marvel and Archie, and it shows here : re-imagining Holmes and Watson as Black men couldn’t have been easy, but Bollers transplants the pair to twenty-first century Harlem with a surgeon’s sure touch, and the resulting story is eminently satisfying. I especially liked the work of both of the artists on the series.

STORY 4.5 ART 4.5 OVERALL 4.5

#gallery-0-19 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-19 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-0-19 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-19 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Bayou, Volumes One and Two ( Zuda/DC Comics 2010)

By Jeremy Love, is a mythic tale set in 1931 in the Jim Crow South. Lee Wagstaff is a young Black girl who must find her missing white playmate Lily before angry whites lynch her father. Lee’s search will take her into the bayou, where she enters the magical reality of the spirit world – there, she meets up with Bayou, a gentle, gigantic Black bluesman, caught up in sharecropping peonage and oppressed by Bossman, a living symbol of white supremacy during the Jim Crow Era. Bayou takes Lee on a monomyth quest, introducing the fleshly girl to this strange, supraphysical world and its host of totemic bayou denizens, who call her Pigmeat because the living can usually only experience this world through dreams – but Lee is different, marked by destiny to change the world.

To create this mystical reality, Jeremy Love uses allegory to weave together traditional Black folklore with the popular Black culture of the early Blues era, e.g., one of the secondary characters, B’rer Rabbit, is a bluesman who plays the juke joints with Bayou. Like the other supernaturals, he can take on human appearance, but he normally travels as a chain-smoking rabbit-man. Another supernatural, Staggerlee, is an assassin conjured up by Bossman from the bowels of Hell to hunt down Lee and Bayou.

This is a great story, even if it was never completed : it’s still a must-read for the art alone.

STORY 4.5 ART 4.7 OVERALL 4.6

#gallery-0-20 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-20 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-20 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-20 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

And that’s it for this special extra edition of Just The Good Stuff – see you next week !

In the meantime, please also see :

my last column, where I review some great graphic adaptations of African-American literature ;

my column from last week, where I cover three first-rate graphic biographies of extraordinary Black Americans ; and,

my review of the March trilogy by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), the third volume being the first graphic novel to win the National Book Award.

Just the Good Stuff SPECIAL EDITION: African-American Genre Fiction In my previous column here at Just the Good Stuff, I took a look back at works of African-American literature in graphic format.