Blackwax Boulevard Is Listening
Dmitri Jackson
North Street Book Prize 2023 (view all the winners)
First Prize, Graphic Novel & Memoir
Critique by Jendi Reiter
Blackwax Boulevard is back! Our 2019 Graphic Novel winner, Dmitri Jackson, returns with an even stronger second volume of his comic strip about the staff of an urban record store contending with unrequited love, addiction, fallen idols, and customers who have terribly basic taste in music.
Blackwax Boulevard Is Listening has a compelling narrative arc inspired by the #MeToo movement. Snobby record clerk Marsalis idolizes Chester Vick, a hard-partying music critic who is finally being held somewhat accountable for decades of preying on women. His co-worker Veronika has fallen off the wagon again, as this news story triggers her sexual abuse memories. Marsalis is the proverbial self-styled "nice guy" who feels entitled to his unrequited love interest Salimah's attention because he's not as obviously patriarchal as her bossy boyfriend, an activist who calls himself Brother Rage. Meanwhile, the genderqueer Gen Z hipsters who patronize the store think Marsalis's enthusiasms are pathetically out of touch.
The characters' priorities clash because everyone is reacting to different wounds and marginalizations. However, Blackwax really is a place where people listen to each other, even when it's painful. The resolution of their conflict is hopeful but not hokey. Along the way, there's much witty repartee and a ton of sight-gag details, like the bus ad "Is your pet saved? Not sure? Please visit our website" and the recurring delivery guy from "Merchant Jack's, the healthiest grocery store in America" who's too busy scratching out a gig-economy living to be drawn into Marsalis's political arguments.
Jackson's work has standout composition, clarity, and dynamism. The black-and-white panels feel like a complete three-dimensional world because of effective variations in lighting, distance, and poses. The lettering, in traditional comic-book block capitals, is always clear and large enough to read easily. My co-judge, Ellen LaFleche, commended him for including page numbers, which too many of our graphic entries leave out. Ellen noted, "I wish he had made Marsalis's stuttering a little less dramatic. Just one set of But-t-t per dialogue bubble would have had as much impact without being so distracting."
I cared about all of these characters and look forward to their further adventures. Perhaps we'll see more of Dexter, Marsalis's scheming and skirt-chasing brother, who slept through most of this volume like the oblivious airplane passenger in The Langoliers. Bring on Volume Three!
