by SE Mathews

Created on: March 24, 2009   Last Updated: March 29, 2009

Title: Me and the Devil Blues 1: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson (Contains Volume 1 and 2) Author/Artist: Akira Hiramoto Published in US by: July 29, 2008 / Del Rey Publishing Category: Manga/American Myth

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Summary: In 1929, a young African-American by the name of Robert Johnson found himself at the crossroad making a deal with the devil that sent him on a path to become a legendary bluesman.

Impression: There are three things that stick out from this beautifully packaged manga re-imagining of Robert Johnson's mythical encounter with the devil at the crossroad: 1) the art is incredible; 2) the story is not a biography of Robert Johnson; and 3) the freedom to re-imagine the story rather than make it a biograhy actually breathes more life into it.

Akira Hiramoto is a Japanese manga artist known for his comic manga, Chinless Gen. His Me and the Devil Blues is a complete detour from that earlier work.

RJ (as Johnson is called in this story) is a young man with no desire to do the backbreaking work that his sister and her husband have accepted as their lot. He is a man with a girl named Virginia who is expecting their child. He is also a man who is already enamored with the desire to learn the blues.

One night, he is told the story of meeting the devil at the crossroad and in exchange for the gift of the blues, you'll have to sell your soul.

Like any myth, RJ neither believes nor disbelieves. Much to his later dismay.

One night, there is an incredible bluesman playing. His music saves from being untrue to his Virginia. When he gets back to the jook joint, all that is left is the man's guitar. Wanting to meet the man, he takes the guitar to see if he can find him. In the shadow of a church in the middle of an open field, RJ finds himself in the crossroad. Sitting down, he plays a song that is rather pitiful given his lack of talent and he jokes that he'd give his soul to be a bluesman.

And RJ's fate is sealed.

The first part of the book is Volume 1 and it is dedicated to how RJ receives his cursed gift. The second half of the book is Volume 2 in which RJ is now on road with his guitar and his uncertain future. If Volume 1 is full of shadows and hoodoo of his African American world, then Volume 2 is full of blinding fear of reality for a man whose color was enough to string him up from a tree with an audience whose laughs away their humanity.

Hiramoto does a good job of rendering the early 20th century South in all its rural barrenness. He combines the historical fear that an African American might have with an America whose history at that time is shrouded in tragedy and myth. As RJ encounters people like Clyde Barrow and Roy Thornton with moonshiners and corrupt officials, the blend of history and myth combines to make a unique fantastical world that brings to life reasons why Robert Johnson seems so sublime today.

Recommended for manga fans who want to read something different. Recommended for comic book fans who normally don't like manga but might be interested in something different from heroes in tights. Recommended for anyone who might be interested in an American myth rooted in history.

There are two more editions of this series that are planned to be released (or have been released) by Del Rey Publishing. I look forward to reading those as well to find out more about the unreal life of Robert Johnson.

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