In for the Ride of Their Lives
In 1930s Mississippi, two young girls, Mattie and Emma, are navigating the journey through adolescence and are excited to learn about and do all the things previously reserved only for adults. The girls are of mixed Black and Choctaw ancestry and, as such, would normally have been sent off to residential schools where they would be kept apart from the traditions and cultures of their ancestors and taught to assimilate into the world of white people. Fortunately, the elders responsible for the girls managed to shield them from this fate.
Art © Teo DuVall
Unsurprisingly, the part of being an adult that most excites Emma and Mattie is learning how to use magic. It makes for an exciting new skill, but learning magic is also incredibly dangerous. The government carefully controls who practices magic, transporting children who show magical skill to government magic schools where they are taught a very carefully curated curriculum. Government agents are constantly prowling the countryside looking for signs of unsanctioned magical activity and either punishing the practitioners with lifetime bans on magic use or taking them away for supervised instruction. Permits to practice magic can be purchased, which exempts the bearer from these regulations, but these are very expensive.
Art © Teo DuVall
The elders know that Mattie and Emma’s excitement to learn magic, combined with their proficiency at using it, make it only a matter of time until the girls’ magical talents are discovered, and they are either punished or sent away. If only there were a way to make the money necessary to pay for exemptions. Luella, who has been teaching the girls magic and was herself stripped of magic use by the government, suggests a daring plan that could provide the money to pay for permits. A network of underground broom races operates across the south, with the winning team taking home prize money at each race. If the girls can join a skilled team and win a few races, they should have the money to buy their magical freedom. But this plan is not free of peril. These races are criminal enterprises, and those participating in them are unsavory miscreants and scoundrels who are certainly capable of malevolence. Flying at top speed, high off the ground, introduces the risk of injury and death. Even practicing magic enough to learn to fly a broom skillfully increases the girls’ odds of being discovered. In the end, they decide the rewards of this plan outweigh the risks, and Mattie and Emma embark on a pulse-pounding adventure.
Art © Teo DuVall
If the Fast and the Furious movies were graphic novels set 100 years ago, featured magical outlaws instead of car-racing thieves, and were populated by a more diverse and emotionally resonant cast of characters, then they might come close to capturing the magic that is Brooms.
BROOMS is Sweeping the Nation
Available wherever comics are sold.
Brooms | 9781646142682 I $18.99 I Paperback I On Sale: 10/10