Ratings12
Average rating3.8
Nnedi Okorafor’s story of Chioma, a young Nigerian-American woman whose destiny is revealed during a furious rainstorm
After the Rain is an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor’s short story, “On the Road.” The adaptation, written by John Jennings and illustrated by David Brame, begins in Nigeria during a powerful and unexpected storm. While visiting her grandmother, a young Nigerian-American woman named Chioma answers a knock at the door and is horrified by what she sees—a young boy with a severe head wound is standing on the doorstep. When he touches Chioma, his hand burns like fire and just as suddenly as he arrived, he disappears. Her grandmother comes down to see what is wrong and chastises Chioma for opening the door for a stranger. Outside there are only footprints in the mud which vanish in the same manner as their owner. This event sets off a chain of mysterious occurrences that become more and more terrifying. Chioma knows that something is wrong, and that the boy has “marked” her in some way. . . . Haunted and hunted, Chioma must embrace her heritage in order to survive.
Reviews with the most likes.
This hurts to say but I think the art hindered the story. Sometimes the words would refer to a visual that wasn't there, like the bronze ring Chioma says is still on her dismembered left hand but is never drawn. The scene would have been a lot more powerful had words and images matched, instead I was looking for the ring that wasn't there and that was never drawn. Shortly after the part about the ring it talks about a woman with red orange beads in her braids but the artist draws the girl with red orange hair. Again this would have been a much more powerful scene had images and words matched but instead of being in the scene I'm taken out of the narrative flow wondering if the artist looked at the words.
Some aspects of the art was good in that I felt the urgency of some scenes. Some pages were hard to look at and now as I flip back to check on something I realize that Chioma's hair style has been drawn inconsistently.
Outstanding. The art and literal framing is unlike anything I've ever seen in a comic book - lush and treacherous.
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