Broken Frontier

Blak is a coming-of-age rapper who uses the power of his words to save his city, in what may be the first fantastical hip-hop heroic epic ever conceived.

The hip-hop angle in comics is one largely ignored, an approach and aesthetic wholly avoided save for the occasional rap-icon-franchised one-shot or mini (and even those rarely explore the culture, but rather dress some other, more conventional comic story in vaguely Blaxploitation-esque conceits). There’s been a fair number of small press and zines that tackle such subject matter, but never has there been a four-color, super-powered adventure in the vein that Blokhedz sets out to establish.

Meet Blak, a wannabe rapper with a gift for creating powerful rhymes. Blak lives inside Empire City (think Metropolis by way of Detroit), an urban landscape of broken-down housing developments run by record producers and enforced by literally rabid gangs, cybernetic cops, and entrenched, recorded rap artists. Somehow, as shown by his reformed older brother, Blak must negotiate his way through streets dense with violence, friends that can’t seem to stay out of trouble, and contract offers far too seductive to dismiss, and yet come out the other end as the man he dreams of being. As if that weren’t enough, Blak also seems to be the center of an ages-old legend, a prophecy that spotlights him as the only one to save Empire City from its own self-immolation!

The story starts out simple enough, with a cast of characters easy to like, memorable for their foibles as well as their aspirations. Gradually, the weird factor gets upped and upped until the book undergoes a series of metamorphoses, shifting suddenly from the mundane to the larger-than-life and then back again. Creators Mike and Mark Davis as well as scripter Brandon Shultz have managed a pretty well brilliant blend of gritty realism and ridiculous overstatement in Blokhedz. I was unsettled by the rhythm of the book at first, the odd flip-flop from low to high and back, but ultimately, it does indeed establish a rhythm (not to get too metaphorical with the subject matter, but it’s true!), and the ride is a unique and highly entertaining one.

I loved the earnestness of the characters, both the uncompromising villains and the emotion-fueled, well-meaning protagonists. The story is unconventional, and large portions – especially the battles – consist of little more than rhyming wars between characters (kind of like an anime idea, only treated with a much more down-to-earth sensibility). Still, the creators smartly pay little heed to the oddity of their work, and barrel through with a heart and fervor that’s contagious: a few pages in, and you never doubt an intent or event for a second.

The art by Mark Davis is an even furthermore enthralling aspect of the book, offering up beautifully angled animation-quality drawings, sort of a cross between Gumby and a Disney Studio. Coupled with Mike Davis’ panoramic colors, Blokhedz is a gorgeous graphic novel, prettified as pretty gets, more a cartoon on paper than a comic (and indeed, news of an upcoming animated feature has already been released!).

Perhaps the greatest strength of the work, though, lies in its accessibility to those who wouldn’t know a Mac from a Milli (and that’d most emphatically be me). Regardless of how hip-deep into hip hop and rhythms and rhymes you may (or may not) be, Blak and his cast of enemies, allies, and long list of troubles are nothing more than a fount, a total comic book cache of creativity and cool as hell storytelling that shouldn’t be overlooked.

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For all the sneak peeks, news, and ordering info, visit: www.blokhedz.tv