A Look at Bitter Root, the New Eisner-Winning BEST CONTINUING SERIES
By Ariel Baska — The Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series this past weekend at SDCC at home was given to a series that is endlessly rich in storytelling, and imbued with the power of history and allusion - Bitter Root. Make no mistake. It is one hell of an action-packed story that draws you into the fray from the word go, and flies from frame to frame, almost popping off of the page with Sanford Greene’s animated style. At the same time, the series is very intentional about interweaving into a monstrous mythology with a monstrous history only now emerging in the consciousness of the zeitgeist. The weave is so fine that to pick apart the layers entirely would be folly, but to understand the texture of the thing, I feel I have to point out a few.
Set in 1920s Harlem, the highly unusual Sangerye family hunt down and reform monstrous creatures (the Jinoo) who were once men and women, through use of their Fiif’no roots. The women do the conjure work, while the men track the Jinoo and inject them with Fiif’no. Except these women are multi-talented badasses - Ma Etta, the grandmother, and Blink, the young rebel, both prove themselves as greater fighters than anyone expected. The setting, and the characterization of these two women recalls the work of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the great writers of the Harlem Renaissance. While it’s not necessary to know about her to enjoy the story, knowledge adds depth, and the authors have helpfully enlisted John Jennings to provide scholarly background on all things Bitter Root, that both inspired the writing of this incredible work, and are connected to it in spirit. This layer of allusion and connection to Hurston’s literature is a thread that holds incredible strength and power.
The historical context is as important as the literary, as those monstrous creatures they fight have monstrous beginnings that trace back to the Red Summer of 1919, when violence against African-Americans was on the rise. The campaign of terror, conducted through lynchings, mob riots, burnt churches, and other forms of terrorism, culminated in the Tulsa Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The American government dropped incendiary devices on its own citizens for the first time, taking lives, destroying homes and businesses, and leveling what was then known as “Black Wall Street.” Walker, Brown, and Greene envision a world where the survivors of this massacre experience the fear and hatred and trauma of the event as a virulent infection that turns them into “jinoo” who will stalk and kill anyone in their path. This history that Bitter Root taps into adds another layer of context and meaning to the story.
One of the easiest ways to differentiate among the members of the Sangerye family are their attitudes towards the Jinoo. Are these monstrous humans in need of roots for rehabilitation? Or is it necessary to kill them to move on to the next fight? This moral question becomes more complex as the series progresses and more beings with other motives appear. This ethical conundrum (among others) adds a layer of philosophical dialogue to the series.
For many though, these layers would go unnoticed if not for Sanford Greene’s spectacular line drawings. They jump from the page in this world of steampunk and high fantasy and grounded mythology. The characters streak and blur at times to indicate the power of their movements, cutting between triangular panels that further emphasize and animate their strength. He carefully details abstract scenes of jazz musicians playing and crooning. When the series kicks into inter-dimensional gear though, with the entrance of Adro, references to classical art abound, as well as African mythology and references to wood carvings, drawn with varying line weights.
Sofie Dodgson’s work, as the colorist who picked up in the Rage and Redemption cycle, sets off Greene’s work with an incredibly daring color palette. She uses this palette thematically to humanize the Jinoo, connecting the monsters to Nora, Cullen, and Ford with daring pinks, in contrast to the yellows and greens surrounding them. In other sequences, she creates beautiful shadows on the faces of new characters with startling complexity, adding depth and gravitas.
The writing of this series channels literature, mythology, and history to create a potent mix that recognizes the Black experience in America, in the early 20th century amid white racial terrorism, but which also speaks to this moment in white supremacy. While the back of the book states that it is set in 1920’s Harlem, the series never stays rooted to one place. The characters are forced to stay on the move by circumstance, just like many in the African diaspora - think about the Great Migration, as described in Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns.
Walker, Brown, and Greene have created something meaningful and magical here. My only complaint is that there’s so much action going on all the time, that it can be difficult to visually or literally parse exactly what is going on. The script switches between three perspectives in the middle of climactic scenes, which made it difficult for me to even process the surface plot points, let alone their ramifications or meaning within the work. The good news though, is that it has the effect of slowing the reader down, to really think and absorb the book more thoroughly.
The characters of Blink and Etta are my favorites in this series, as the voices of the men don’t feel very distinct, other than Berg. The choice to include a character like Berg absolutely delights me. As a self-taught man all too happy to showcase his huge vocabulary, even though he uses it just a shade incorrectly (like nearly all auto-didacts), the writers give Berg a unique power of speech and expression that no one else has. In one place he uses “katabasis” (which literally means descent into the underworld) in a context where he’s looking more for a word like “exodos” (he’s looking to make a swift exit, not a swift descent into hell), but he has the ability to enrich the people around him with his use of literary quotations and advanced vocabulary, while at the same time the writers make clear his limitations from a lack of formal education, something that was denied so many for so long.
This series, currently in pre-production for a film, has found a huge fan base, and it’s no wonder. The tremendous popularity is entirely deserved.
At the same time, the series is highly literary as a text, treading the pathways of Zora Neale Hurston to W.E.B. DuBois by way of Octavia Butler’s speculative retrofuturist visions.
This series is action-packed, yet rich and complex, rooted in lore and history, yet centers itself mostly on the way forward, on what it will take to heal the wounds of racism.
Overall: Bitter Root represents a landmark in storytelling, with page-flippingly good action and stirring emotional strength, that you’ll want to read again and again. 10/10
Eisner-Winner, Bitter Root
Bitter Root
Writers: Chuck Brown and David F. Walker
Artist: Sanford Greene
Colorists: Sofie Dodgson and Rico Renzi
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Once known as the greatest monster hunters of all time, the Sangerye family specialized in curing the souls of those infected by hate. But those days are fading. A terrible tragedy has claimed most of the family, leaving the surviving cousins divided between by the desire to cure monsters or to kill them. Now, though, there's a new breed of monster loose on the streets of Harlem, and the Sangerye family must either come together or watch the human race fall to untold evil.