Frizzy

Sometimes seemingly simple things are super complicated. Take hair, for instance. I don't think much about hair. I have long, straight hair now, and all I know about it was that long ago when I tried to get it feathered and wavy, it never responded. So, I just went with a short, pretty standard haircut for most of my life. That is certainly a position of privilege and convenience I have learned. Claribel, the star of Frizzy, does not enjoy such privilege. This young, Dominican girl has long, curly hair. It has flair and presence, and she learns from her mom that what she needs to do with it is tame that hair through regular visits to the salon. It constantly needs to be straightened and treated so that it is more manageable and she can fit in.

Bound up in all this thinking are all sorts of cultural assumptions of what people should look like, especially if they want to gain cultural capital and respect. Also, racial and ethnic identities come into play here, as some peoples' hair are seen as acceptable while others need work. Claribel and her mother clash over hair, and how it contributes to her being a "good girl," "presentable," and a maturing person. Claribel's Tia Ruby adds a different voice to this conversation, and over the course of the book all of the characters get the chance to interact, learn, emote, and engage in a debate over what people should look like and how it contributes to how they feel and what they can do in life. 

What I love about this book is how it engages in all sorts of complex issues without being didactic or prescriptive. The characters all feel real and relatable to me, and none of them present "straw man" arguments. They have their stances and feel justified in them, and they each have their strong points. Also, none of them is perfect, so the debate about what it takes to grow up as a realized person is palpable. Unless you are made of stone, this book will provoke your thoughts and move you.

This book is a collaboration between writer Claribel A. Ortega and artist Rose Bousamra, and Frizzy was the debut graphic novel from both. Ortega is a best-selling YA novelist whose books Ghost Squad and Witchlings have been very popular. Bousamra is currently working on her follow-up graphic novel, the self-authored Gutless. You can see both creators discuss this book in length in this video interview.

This book has won the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children's Text as well as the 2023 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Kids, and it has received many extremely positive reviews. In their starred entry, Kirkus Reviews summed it up, "An exquisite excavation of hair politics, family dynamics, and self-love." In another starred review, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Ortega expertly examines themes of colorism, generational trauma, and toxic beauty standards via authentic, heartstring-tugging dialogue and Marlene’s pitch-perfect narration." Esther Keller concluded, "This is a wonderful addition to the middle-grade repertoire of coming-of-age graphic novels. It will give young girls a great sense of self and help them be happy with the features they were born with."

Frizzy was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more here.

Hot Comb

Like Fights, Hot Comb is a book that explores childhood, race, and growing through an unique lens, in this case hair care. It is a collection of eight short stories set in different times and places where young African-American women navigate their families, relationships, and worlds.

The title story is a great example of what this book entails. It is a tale of Ebony, as a fifth grade girl who wants to have her hair permed because she thinks it will stop her classmates from teasing her. She finally convinces her mother to let her do it, and what follows is a complex web of emotions. Her mother is ambivalent, against her daughter messing with her natural hair but also capitulating, and also saddened by her growing up and becoming more independent. Ebony gets her world broadened with her experiences at the beauty shop, learning more about how to take care of her hair and also about how people talk to each other there. She is excited but also surprised by how painful and laborious the process is. Also, she just can't keep from touching her newly transformed hair.

It seems that both Ebony and her mom pay some price from the perm, and what becomes painful for Ebony is that all her efforts do not pan out as she expected at school. This story works in multiple ways, as a coming of age tale, as a family relationship story, and even as a contemporary fable. It is packed with emotion, humor, and humanity, and it introduces the reader to a great many themes that crop up in the following stories.

Other stories in this volume include "Big Ma," "My Lil Sister Lena," and the generational tensions of "Sisters and Daughters." They are all noteworthy for how many emotional and cultural issues they touch upon. The "Lena" story in particular, about how her sister was the only black girl on her swim team and was dramatically changed by her teammates' attention to how her hair changed when it got wet. They all invaded her privacy and space and were compelled to touch it, which created a sense of anxiety that manifested in self-harm.

As you can see from the excerpts, the art here is packed with all sorts of energy. This book has an emotional wallop, and I love how it plays with line work that is sometime simple and strong and other times tangled and complex (like hair!). Also there are framing images, parody ads for various hair care products that act as interstitials that inform the identity politics of the stories. They show how central and varied the seemingly mundane matter of hair care is for these characters. And how much pressure there is to alter themselves to conform to constructed ideals of beauty.

This book's creator Ebony Flowers is a cartoonist, ethnographer, and teacher. One of her mentors along the way was Lynda Barry, one of the greatest comics creators in my opinion, and I feel that her work packs as much a punch as Barry's, in spirit and not in any derivative way. She has won a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, and she speaks about her work on Hot Comb in this interview as well as this one.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been full of acclaim. In a starred review Publishers Weekly called is a book "rich with both sorrow and celebration." John Seven wrote, "What makes it so special is the way she wraps these elements around larger themes of race without ever making you feel like you are reading A Very Important Work With A Heavy Purpose." In a starred review from School Library Journal, Desiree Thomas summed it up, "Ideal for most public and school libraries." Paul Lai also has lots of great insights in this podcast episode.

Hot Comb was published by Drawn & Quarterly, and they offer a preview and more info about it here.