Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook174 pages3 minutes
Hot Comb
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
AN AUSPICIOUS DEBUT EXAMINING THE CULTURE OF HAIR FROM THE RONA JAFFE FOUNDATION AWARD-WINNING CARTOONIST
Hot Comb offers a poignant glimpse into Black women’s lives and coming of age stories as seen across a crowded, ammonia-scented hair salon while ladies gossip and bond over the burn. The titular story “Hot Comb” is about a young girl’s first perm—a doomed ploy to look cool and to stop seeming “too white” in the all-black neighborhood her family has just moved to. In “Virgin Hair” taunts of “tender-headed” sting as much as the perm itself. It’s a scenario that repeats fifteen years later as an adult when, tired of the maintenance, Flowers shaves her head only to be hurled new put-downs. The story “My Lil Sister Lena” traces the stress resulting from being the only black player on a white softball team. Her hair is the team curio, an object to touched, a subject to be discussed and debated at the will of her teammates, leading Lena to develop an anxiety disorder of pulling her own hair out. Among the series of cultural touchpoints that make you both laugh and cry, Flowers recreates classic magazine ads idealizing women’s needs for hair relaxers and product. “Change your hair form to fit your life form” and “Kinks and Koils Forever” call customers from the page.
Realizations about race, class, and the imperfections of identity swirl through Flowers’ stories and ads, which are by turns sweet, insightful, and heartbreaking. Flowers began drawing comics while earning her PhD, and her early mastery of sequential storytelling is nothing short of sublime. Hot Comb is a propitious display of talent from a new cartoonist who has already made her mark.
Hot Comb offers a poignant glimpse into Black women’s lives and coming of age stories as seen across a crowded, ammonia-scented hair salon while ladies gossip and bond over the burn. The titular story “Hot Comb” is about a young girl’s first perm—a doomed ploy to look cool and to stop seeming “too white” in the all-black neighborhood her family has just moved to. In “Virgin Hair” taunts of “tender-headed” sting as much as the perm itself. It’s a scenario that repeats fifteen years later as an adult when, tired of the maintenance, Flowers shaves her head only to be hurled new put-downs. The story “My Lil Sister Lena” traces the stress resulting from being the only black player on a white softball team. Her hair is the team curio, an object to touched, a subject to be discussed and debated at the will of her teammates, leading Lena to develop an anxiety disorder of pulling her own hair out. Among the series of cultural touchpoints that make you both laugh and cry, Flowers recreates classic magazine ads idealizing women’s needs for hair relaxers and product. “Change your hair form to fit your life form” and “Kinks and Koils Forever” call customers from the page.
Realizations about race, class, and the imperfections of identity swirl through Flowers’ stories and ads, which are by turns sweet, insightful, and heartbreaking. Flowers began drawing comics while earning her PhD, and her early mastery of sequential storytelling is nothing short of sublime. Hot Comb is a propitious display of talent from a new cartoonist who has already made her mark.
Unavailable
Related to Hot Comb
Related ebooks
Ghost Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Colonial Comics: New England: 1620 - 1750 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kimiko Does Cancer: A Graphic Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lulu Anew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5PTSD Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hasib & The Queen of Serpents: A Thousand and One Nights Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Goldie Vance Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Backside of the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snapshots of a Girl Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On the Odd Hours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Bird: The Fight For Elder's Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaigon Calling: London 1963-75 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Travesía: A Migrant Girl’s Cross-Border Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blue In Green OGN Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Save Me! (From Myself): The Existential Crises of a Creative Introvert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Planet Paradise Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5May Day: A Graphic History of Protest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Day the Klan Came to Town Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Prison Island: A Graphic Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Come Home, Indio: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaha Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bingo Love Vol 1: Jackpot Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Work Is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Comics & Graphic Novels For You
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monstress Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gender Queer: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cycle of the Werewolf: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Saga Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stranger in the Lifeboat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fantasy Art Book 1: Sketches Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Saga Vol. 2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Casual Day Has Gone Too Far: A Dilbert Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invincible Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paper Girls Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wash Day Diaries Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pierce Brown’s Red Rising: Sons of Ares Vol. 3: Forbidden Song Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Christmas Carol (Illustrated Edition): In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Garbage Pail Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex Criminals Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saga Vol. 3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work), in Words and Pictures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History & Handbook Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowie: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Can't Remember If We're Cheap or Smart: A Dilbert Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for Hot Comb
Rating: 4.125 out of 5 stars
4/5
8 ratings0 reviews