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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Baraka and Black Magic in Morocco
Review by Michael May
Written by Rick Smith
Illustrated by Rick Smith
Published by Alternative Comics
$14.95
When I first heard about the concept behind Rick Smith's Baraka and Black Magic in Morocco, I was skeptical. I don't like looking at friends' vacation photos, so how interesting am I going to find a comic book version of a stranger's slideshow of his trip to northern Africa? But, hey, I review comics. Part of the gig is keeping an open mind about concepts that you might not ordinarily be drawn towards. So, with open mind in head, I started reading. Baraka and Black Magic in Morocco is about a young couple named Rick and Tania as they backpack through Morocco. Along the way they find themselves continually overrun by greedy taxi drivers, merchants, guides, drug pushers, bellboys, children, policemen, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. They also hook up, travel, drink wine, and take drugs with other backpackers along the way. And that's pretty much it. Remember, this isn't a fictional story. It's not a thriller. It's a vacation slide show. There's no Peter Lorre in Casablanca wanting to anyone to hide Nazi letters of transit, just a cab driver who doesn't speak English and drives too fast. That's not to say the trip was completely without adventure, but it's more along the lines of having your tea spiked by a carpet salesman hoping to lower your defenses so that he can make a sale. There's very little real danger in the story and the conflict is oh so subtle. But the conflict is there. All of Rick and Tania's fellow travelers are men. Most of the Moroccans with whom they interact are men. There were a couple of instances in which Rick left Tania alone to run an errand and I was worried about her physical safety, but my anxiety was groundless. Again, it's not that kind of story. But Tania's being the only woman around made her discontent with the whole experience. She describes Morocco as "one big fraternity." Rick doesn't argue with her. He admits that the guys they're traveling with are fun and that that's probably why he's having such a good time – even when Tania isn't. This comes to a head later in the story when the greed of the local Moroccans really gets to Tania and she loses it in a Kasbah. I'd been getting frustrated right along with her up to that point, thinking as I sat reading in my air-conditioning, "I am never going backpacking in Morocco." So when she blows up and confesses to Rick that she's "just so sick of never knowing the rules" and that the country "has no structure" and that she's "tired of having to guess at every turn," I completely relate to her. Rick explains to her, "It's just how they operate. They make the rules up they go along. You just need to go with the flow or it'll eat you alive." And when he says that I think about how I've always been a pretty easy-going guy and not at all Type-A in personality and I wonder why I'm having the exact same reaction to Morocco as Tania when I'm not even there! And then I realize that I am there. That in spite of my skepticism about reading a travelogue, Smith has taken me beyond just telling me about his trip and has actually helped me experience it with him. And that's pretty cool. It's just that Morocco isn't a place I want to go back to. At least not backpacking. If they've got five-star hotels in Casablanca, we'll talk. So not only has Smith transported me to Morocco (his excellent depictions of landscape and scenery and easy page layouts are a big help, by the way), he's also got me thinking about my reaction to the country and what that says about me as a person. Pretty huge accomplishments for a vacation slideshow.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
