Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston story.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: COMICS - Brief article - Book review

In his latest work, cartoonist Peter Bagge (a Reason contributing editor) continues his venture into serious historical biography. The artist followed up his book-length comic about Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger (Woman Rebel) with Fire!! (Drawn & Quarterly). His topic: the Harlem renaissance novelist, playwright, and cultural anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston.

What Bagge seems to love most about Hurston, and gets across ably, is the fierce and ever-blossoming independence that led her, among other things, to celebrate the inherent values of black culture, from American southern life to Haitian voodoo, over white liberal uplifters' attempts to change them.

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Fire!! perhaps tries to cover too many...