Paris born Yvan Alagbe builds upon his childhood in Benin, West Africa and adult years back in France to study physics and math to create a series of semi-autobiographical comics. A French citizen, Alagbe knows first hand the struggles of colonial born nationals who flee to France in hopes of a better life. Despite being French, the people of Algeria, Benin and French Guiyana who come to Europe for refuge are treated by the government and its French born subjects as second class. This is primarily because they are black.
'Yellow Negroes' is Yvan Alagbe's most famous work of which this collection of stories is named after. The term 'yellow negro' is used to describe blacks who are extremely light skinned. Originally a racist term coined by American whites, the term itself has a controversial love/hate relationship among the global black community. Alagbe is known for using thick brush strokes and black ink in his art. The use of pitch black ink on stark white paper paves the way for a shocking twist reveal at the end of 'Yellow Negroes'; a story about a ersatz family of Benin refugees who become the obsession of a mysterious old man named Mario.
'Yellow Negroes' was originally published in serialized form from 1994-95 in Le Cheval Sans Tete (The Headless Horse) a French anthology series co-created by Alagbe. The story was met with international acclaim and put the artist on the forefront of French alternative comics. In 2012, Alagbe's groundbreaking story, along with several other short pieces was released. Les Nègres jaunes et autres créatures imaginaires went through several printings before being translated into an English edition in 2018 as Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures.
The other works in this collection include the wordless 'Love' showing 2 lovers in a passionate embrace, 'DYAA' based on a fevered dream of Yvan Alagbe and 'Postcard From Montreuil' which records the daily struggles of undocumented workers in a Paris district.
This English edition was translated by Donald Nicolas-Smith. Being translated from one language to another, albeit both Romance languages, a lot of this book was a difficult read. It wasn't until after reading 'DYAA', that I learned that this was a dream of the artist's and not meant to really be understood. But a lot of the rest of this book felt very chaotic. As a fan of E.C. Comics, I loved the twist ending of the title story and I thought 'Postcard From Montreuil' was a powerful travel guide to an area of the City of Lights often not visited by tourists.
Still, I wasn't really excited to read this book and if it wasn't that I needed it to complete my 2024 reading challenge, I probably wouldn't have read it at all.
Completing this review completes Task #35 (With the Word Yellow in the Title) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge. And with this review, my 2024 challenge is completed!
Not Worth Consuming!
Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.
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