When it comes to the fantasy and horror genre both fiction types tend to be overwhelmingly monochromatic. Some of my favorite books by some of my favorite authors that write fantasy and horror tend to marginalize people that look like me. Normally when they include people of color they’re the best friend or the villain, never the protagonist. When Netflix had the opportunity to do something revolutionary and make Sabrina The Teenage Witch someone of color they chose the same safe docile excuse that has always been used “They have it done it this way all the time.”

Witches who aren’t melanin deficient have been written about for centuries. The fact that this history was not explored in such a wide medium is deplorable. One of the first witches in North America, written in the fictional account I Tituba: Black Witch Of Salem by Maryse Conde, is one of the first purveyors of Black Magic in the colonies. That presence was underwhelmingly highlighted in the show Salem. As a son of a West Indian, I’ve heard about these women who can heal any ailment and can make any trouble go away all my life, and go by a certain name. In Jordan Clark’s monumental Obeah, one runaway slave meets one such group of women who may save her life.

We’re taken to 1691 where meet Ade, a runaway slave who has escaped to Salem, Massachusetts, and who has come down with an enigmatic malady, one that no one knows how to cure. This causes distress amongst the family who saved her. They found her tired and hungry with her daughter. As her sickness takes holder of her she starts having fever dreams. It connects to a world in a nocturnal state presided over by a coven of witches.

Overall, an invigorating take on the supernatural witch genre. It’s one which will get under your skin while remembering everything has an origin most don’t know of. The story by Clark is stimulating, smart and eerie. The art by Clark is sophisticated and sharply drawn. Altogether, this is exactly what creepy stories are made of.

Story: Jordan Clark Art: Jordan Clark
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy