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Flowers, Ebony – Hot Comb
This is really her first book? Really? Well, consider the bar raised, everybody else who’s putting out their first graphic novel! This is a collection of stories about growing up and just generally living while black. Starting things off is the title piece, which deals with Ebony convincing her mother to let her get a perm as a kid, and exactly what goes into it. White people who have never considered such a thing, it’s excruciating, and she goes into detail here. Other stories are about dealing with a crazy lady on the train, the flood of memories that hits her at the funeral for an elderly relative (and her conversation with another relative that caused the older lady no end of grief), a particularly odd reaction to her hair from a child, her little sister and how her relationship to her softball team changed her life (her hair changed when she went into the pool, which caused her to become a sort of “good luck” symbol for the team, which is not something she wanted, to put it mildly), her playing with ducks and the utter lack of patience from her mother when she was playing, and (maybe the highlight of the book, although it’s tough to choose) a long conversation with three friends that goes over several locations. It’s difficult to describe why it was riveting without going into minute detail, which would ruin your reading experience, so just trust me on this one, OK? Bottom line, it’s a pile of great stories from an author I’m assuming we’re going to be hearing a lot from going forward, so get in on the ground floor before she takes over the world! $21.95
