Voodoo Nations 1 of 4

Travis Gibb, writer
Luke Stone, artist
Alan Emmanuel, coloring
Jerome Gagnon, lettering

Buy a copy at Travis' online store HERE.

To look at it one way:

The world is made up of cultural clashes.

One side is bigger, better equipped than the other. One side is on the ascent, the other on the decline. One side is woven from the very cultural fabric of the region, the other is the intruder.

Crusaders to Jerusalem vs. the Muslims.
Westward bound Pioneers in 19th century America vs. the Native Americans.
White colonialists in South Africa vs. the African Tribal people.

And now...

Voodoo Nations.

... the cultural touchstones of the Brazilian people vs. well meaning Christian Missionaries.

The clash is made more vivid with how meek and ineffective the message of Jesus seems to be compared to the power of Voodoo. The people who carry that message are powerless too.

Missionaries RJ and Brent fly down to an area near Rio de Janeiro after a toxic landslide kills and affects hundreds of the natives. They have come several months after their real savior, a Voodoo chief named Bishop Lucas has done much work burying their dead and getting their community back on their feet... at a price.

At first the Bishop tries to join the Missionary Rituals at the church but is turned away by Brent for mocking their attempts at helping people with their 'false god'.

Here's where the story starts to resonate with me on the level of the cultural clash again. It's not that RJ and Brent want to help. It's that it comes in the Christian packaging, that those receiving grace must also believe and obey. Bishop Lucas sets about a plan of attack not over idealogical differences, but because he sees the Missionaries as a dangerous cultural infestation. So far so good.

To talk further of the story's plot will give too much away. Suffice to say, I was pleased to discover there was a clear and understandable set of conflicts and characterizations to have a good tale set upon.

Things that work well:

There were a number of really interesting panels that showed some action and supernatural phenomena. The lettering stood up pretty well in spite of a few balloons here and there that seemed placed confusingly. The overall packaging was cool (with the real cool tchotchkes that spilled out I was worried that I would find a shrunken head). The cover is beautiful and the colors chosen inside are a real gem.

But...

I felt a bit let down because of the way the comic failed to fully exploit the cool factors in its subject matter. Deep jungle Brazil and Voodoo cults just scream out for lavish renditions of flaming stakes and half-naked dancers in the night, with heavy drumming and intoxicating incantations. Voodoo Nations' story steers away and focuses instead on the most boring part of it: the white-bread missionary couple.

There's so much in this story that would be comic book candy to both the artist and the reader that simply doesn't get depicted here. I see that there's three more installments to go, and on their website the story moves to New Orleans for Issue Two, so there's hope that the visuals will rise up to the level of the subject matter.

(Two weeks from now) Tuesday review:

Next time, I'm going to skip a week because 'gasp' I'm going to read and review the complete 60 issue omnibus of Y: The Last Man Standing. Yikes!

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