Interplanetary travel, ETI immigration and discrimination are the main topics of LaGuardia, a comic that burst with African culture. It’s like delicious savory African dish in NYC.
A mix of vivid colors and enticing characters, it awakens in your mind a world of fantasies. At the same time, it tells us a profound, unique and moving immigrant story.
Nnedi Okorafor, the writer, is the main character of the story. The writer tells us a true story that outraged her at La Guardia airport, which the comic is named after. The summary text at the beginning of the story resembles Star Wars. It is a cool way to make the reader understand what is going on. Future is the main character’s name; a tall, young, attractive African-American woman with long hair. She is pregnant and advocates for aliens and immigrants as well. As a result, this comic will entice a wide audience.
LaGuardia arises delicate topics that immigrant faces, such as discrimination, the need to root in a different and new environment. But, what is even more interesting is that it uses an analogy to talk about immigrants. The immigrants in the story are aliens. The writer expresses her belief in outer space life. It makes you question If we cannot even be at peace with our terrestrial fellows, what would it be like if we had to deal with extraterrestrial ones. That would be the ultimate legislation problem.
The comic is absolutely creative. It says that our airports in New York City would be not only national or international but interplanetary. That is a mind-blowing fact. It appeals to our imagination. Most of all humans have the desire to explore outer space. That is something that only astronauts, rich and famous can fulfill. At this moment, it cannot be achieved, but let’s keep hope alive. According to the book, one day La Guardia and JFK airports will change their name from international to inter-planetarian. That I will be a memorable and breathtaking moment; worth of celebration.
The comic recounts how Future is detained at the airport because she looks suspicious to the TSA workers. She was questioned. They look for any ETI smuggling. They reviewed everything to no avail. It turned out later in the story that she had smuggled an ETI in her belly. That is used as a means to show the fear and distrust that exist in America for foreigners.
An emotional part of the story is when the smuggled ETI decided that he needed an American name to become part of the culture. He called himself ‘Letme Live.’ The ETI is plant-like. After he said, “ My time is up Future, I need to root.†It shows the reality of many immigrants in the US. Sometimes they need to change their names to a more common one. The need to root like a plant in their new home.
If the power of the story wasn’t enough, the book has a visual appeal as well. The letterer did an excellent job when putting in the speech balloons in different colors. Future’s speech balloon was white and ETI’s one was green. That was creative. James Devlin and Tana Ford excelled at making the comic alive. The mixture of colors is not only appropriate for the theme but vivid and enticing. The details and facial expressions contributed to its success as well.
Thanks to a great story and look, is a wonderful trip to a fantastic imaginary world. It is entertaining, colorful and culturally loaded. It will make you question if the world at large and will leave you with the desire of more.
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