Graphic Novel Review: White Shaka Boy by Alan Brody
Published September 04, 2008
In the 19th century, John Dunn, a white South African hunter, became quite a sensation when he was declared a 'White chief of the Zulu': the British gave him the largest piece of land of all thirteen chiefs of Zululand, and The New York Herald ran a piece on him in 1881.
Over a hundred years later, Alan Brody, another South African - currently living in Scarsdale, New York - was inspired by this story to write White Shaka Boy. It is the story of one of John Dunn's (renamed Robert Mahon in Brody's tale) descendants, a young denizen of New York City by the name of Brad Mahon.
Bard is an aspiring rapper, but he is laughed off stage and scorned by other rappers as "nothing but a phoney a no-talent white boy" (sic), so he decides to go to college, where he applies for financial aid. Much to his surprise, his request is turned down because the college officials have discovered he is an heir to a Zulu kingdom in South Africa. Intrigued, Brad flies to Durban, the biggest city in the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal (formerly Zululand). There, he quickly finds himself neck-deep in local politics. His family, the Mahons, claim the land is their own; some squatters have settled on the land and refuse to move out; Tsotsis, local crime gangs that plague the poor townships, abound; and a white-owned sugar cane company is also - somehow - involved. Everybody seems to be after the deed to the land - which Brad, it turns out, possesses.
White Shaka Boy is Brody's first work of fiction - hitherto he has been involved mostly in marketing: doing it or writing about it. It is, needless to say, also his first graphic novel. Regrettably, it shows. Story-wise, the book is not half-bad. True, there are several flaws: the politics are a bit confusing, and the time-scale is vague (for instance, just a day after Brad lands in Durban, we learn a few months have passed since he learned about his roots, although in the book only one panel has transpired), to name just two of the more obvious problems. And yet, it's a compelling story and rather enlightening when it comes to contemporary and historical circumstances of living in South Africa: Brody manages to weave historical, political and cultural lessons into the narrative without making it seem forced, and Brad makes for an interesting character.
- Graphic Novel Review: White Shaka Boy by Alan Brody
- Published: September 04, 2008
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Comics and Graphic Novels
- Writer: Adam Klin Oron
- Adam Klin Oron's BC Writer page
- Adam Klin Oron's personal site
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MORE THAN THE PRICE AND THE PICTURES.....
Adam asked me to add these notes to the review since there are relevant factual updates. Yes, this book is trial version of the full 124 page book that will be released in November and only came out in an advance version to be available for viewing at Comic-con.
The full version will sell for about the same price and the original buyers will be able to buy it for half price.
As for the art and music credits, they are up on the www.whiteshaka.com website along with samples of my original storyboarding. The only reason this didn't show up on the trial copy of the book is so my collaborators could finish what had to be done without critical interference.
Now that I got that out the way, a few rebuttals.
Many reviewers forget to listen to the music, Adam did and rightly, loved it. The music of Imbube by Draztik is there to illuminate the drama of the book and reminds us, as Paul Simon found out with Graceland, South African music is wonderful. I am a fan and even wrote he last song, "Someday" in that idiom.
As for the criticisms, they boils down to one thing: "Why would a comic book outsider have the temerity to create this book?" The answer is that I was inspired by a truly unique story and by a rising geo-political situation: Africa is really our friend and we need to come to grips with it in a way that doesn't also gloss over its realities.
Sorry if the art isn't up there with Caravaggio's chiaroscuros.....and if the book looks like it wants to be a movie, so what......
Interestingly, the people who buy this book - the fans - are teens, often racially mixed. They just want Brad, a/k/a the White Shaka, who of course, isn't actually white, to do more......and he will. He has yet to discover the lost tribe of the bible or the magic spear - all based on real stories and plausible magic.
Thanks to this book and the interest it has attracted from schools and libraries, we have teamed up with a major University in New York to produce a conference entitled "Graphica in Education" to bring this visual communication phenomenon to a higher level of understanding.
That's also why I wrote this book: I heard something, I saw something and my inspiration was to simply make it happen! No other medium allows a creator to bring people as close to their vision as this, and that's why I chose to be graphic novelist - with music and live events.
I'd like to thank Alan Brody for taking the time to read the review and even change his site in accordance with some of the points I made.
However, it's important for me to say that none of the materials Brody mentions were online when the review was written, nor was it mentioned anywhere that the book is an advance copy.
If I may be so bold, I would suggest a little more information about Imbube (like the links I have in my review) and Revo Yanson (this is his personal site, by the way) be added to the book's site - they are very important contributors to the book and deserve more credit.
Finally, I never said a comic book outsider should avoid entering the medium. On the contrary, I'd be happy to see more diverse subjects in the comics field. However, any enterprise worth doing - and make no mistake, I believe 'White Shaka Boy' was worth doing - is worth doing well. The art doesn't have to be Caravaggio, but it has to aid the story rather than hamper it, and there's simply no excuse for typos and mis-aligned text in a printed book that is sold to the public (advance copy or final version).
'White Shaka Boy', in spite of everything, tells an interesting story and, as Brody writes, offers a glimpse into a foreign land many of us would rather ignore. It is for this reasons that the lack of attention to detail is more rather than less important: a good story and an important subject deserve the very best vehicle.
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I read about you on the BC group, so I decided to see what you were writing about. Good article. I like that people are trying out more than just American comics/graphic novels or manga. From what you've read and shown, I don't think this book would appeal to me, but I think I would at least give it a show because I do not read works outside of the fantastic, fictional stuff.