We're glad to see that St. Louis's original gun toting bad boy is coming home. After nearly a century of growing folk legends and songs, the criminal minded Stag Lee is coming to raise hell in a St. Louis bookstore. Stagger Lee, a graphic novel by writer Derek McCulloch and artist Shepherd Hendrix, is currently making the rounds in signings across the United States, and the pair's next stop will be St. Louis's Star Clipper Book Store on November 11. Those that attend wearing the coveted Stetson hat of western antiquity will receive a special prize.
Based on true events, this novel recognizes a Black character among the infamous ranks of Dirty Harry and Billy the Kid. The tale of two Black men engaging in a deadly brawl over a hat is only the launching point of this highly stylized graphic novel. At its heart the tale is less consumed with the actual violence nestled in the collective unconscious of Black America, and more focused on the attempts to make such violence conscious through the mechanism of music. From Mississippi John Hurt to Neil Diamond, the tale of the original Gangsta, Stagger Lee, has been told in a variety of ways, yet this is the first time it's been made visual. Each musical version gives artist Shepherd Hendrix a chance to re-organize the source material into new sequences. The choice of sepia tones gives the book an aged feel reminiscent of one of the better episodes of Deadwood. Hendrix's illustrations run the gamut from comic to tragic, while writer Derek McCulloch bounces between the historical reality of Stagger Lee and the songs about him.
We've noted similar care given to African American popular culture in efforts such as Ho Che Anderson's King and Kyle Baker's Nat Turner in the medium of the graphic novel, and the current offering from Hendrix and McCulloch appears to continue the tradition of the brainy comic.
BONUS: Code Z's Afrogeek spoke to McCulloch and Hendrix at length.
