AKISSI

More comic strips by Abouet and Sapin make it across the Atlantic, delivering big laughs about a rambunctious Black girl making joy and making life in the day to day of an Ivory Coast village.

In 2013, the debut volume introduced North American readers to the larger-than-life character of Akissi, a bold, crafty, adventurous Black girl who sees the neighborhood as her playground. In this set of stories, readers see her wrestle with an impending nightmare: She’s to be shipped off with her uncle to the freezing-cold, wolf-infested streets of Paris, a world away from the village streets and neighbors she has come to know so well. Imagine that, a story about an African child that doesn’t hinge on escape or opportunity elsewhere but rather centers itself in the bountiful abundance and beauty of life among her people. In her introduction, Abouet writes about reclaiming her happy memories of being an Ivorian girl in her homeland in order to provide “a different view of Africa than the one we are usually shown. An Africa full of life, rather than sorrow.” Full of laughs and a heartwarming embrace for friendship, the episodes draw on real-life experiences in order to deliver a narrative unlike any other. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last we see of Akissi, Fofana, Spectreman, and more.

Big heart. Big laughs. Get this collection and all the rest, too.