All this month I'll be reviewing different comic books by African-American creators, based on submissions from the actual creators of the comic books themselves. Check out the archive to see what books have been spotlighted so far.
Today we look at the first three books of Fashion Forward by Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs (writers) and Linda Chung (artist). Covers by JM Tolman (Books #1 & 2) and Adam Fay (Book 3).
Samantha Tate is just a cog in the fashion game as her boss, the designer Ivan Fellipe is at "war" with another designer, Wang Wang, to see who gets to design the new line of clothes for a major pop star.
Sam gets to work before anyone else and does fine work but her boss doesn't even know who she is. Not only that, but her direct superior (a total jerk) steals one of her designs and plans to FIRE her for daring to accuse him of doing the exact thing he DID do (steal her designs)!!!
Enter her old friend, Carey, who is a bit of a mad scientist. He has developed time travel technology, only instead of using a tacky DeLorean, they're using BOOTS designed by Sam!
She goes to the future, where she discovers that she had landed on her feet and now is a top designer working for Wang Wang! But when she returns, she ends up bringing back the winning designs from the future!
Designs that suddenly make her boss in the past reconsider firing her...
and instead...
Of course, things don't just stop there and, as they say, hilarity ensues (as does chaos).
The Gibbs sisters have come up with one charming comic book adventure here, with a compelling lead character, a great setting (the fashion world is nuts!) and a catchy (and wacky) premise. They use time travel to keep the story constantly fresh, as just when you think things are settled, the time travel throws things out of whack.
Linda Chung does a good job of centering everything - her style reminds me of those great turn of the century Oni Press artists like Steve Rolston, Brian Hurtt, Chynna Clugston and Christine Norrie. Her characters are expressive and her storytelling is strong.
What I like about the sample pages that the Gibbs sent in is that they really do a marvelous job of capturing the spirit of these comics. If you're intrigued by these pages at all, then this sounds like just the comic for you.
Luckily for you, as well, you can read the story for FREE at their website here! Go check it out!