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David F. Walker, Chuck Brown: Bitter Root Volume 1 (Paperback, 2019, Image Comics) 4 stars

Review of 'Bitter Root Volume 1' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A series with a lot of potential, where racism turns folk into monsters and we meet the family who tackle and treat them. My main gripe is that the pacing is too frenzied, there's hardly a moment to reflect on what has happened so far and there's at least one point where I was wondering if I'd skipped a page or two. This is a shame because the series is tackling some big ideas in innovative ways. The art is frenetic and busy, the series opens with a splash scene that sets the bar and it rarely does under it. The colours are particularly striking and effective.
They seems to have solicited articles from African American academics as the back matter which is a bit overwhelming when put back to back, and while it's quite likely I'm not the intended audience for these, I'm not sure most readers of this comic would be either. It doesn't help they all seem to spend at least a paragraph praising the cultural importance of the monster hunting action comic that came before it.
I'll pick up the next volume to see if it settles down a bit, it does seem like an interesting premise.