By Akira B.
Published by Levine Querido
Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall is a historical and magical reminder that resistance against oppression is a tale as old as time for POC and Queer communities. Based in 1930s Mississippi, this story reimagines history with a magical twist in a way that feels so engrained in already established history it could have been true. And in certain ways, it is.
Brooms follows a queer and brown community of illegal witches who turn to broom racing to raise money in an era of segregation and economic downfall. In this era of prohibition, where alcohol and street racing were banned, there is a new addition to history that restricts the practice of magic, specifically for people of color. And, as we all know, in this era these laws were racially biased.
This doesn’t stop our protagonists. The stakes may be high, but the winnings are higher. While we’re introduced to Mattie and Emma as our young and fresh protagonists that have just come into their powers and each of the members in their racing group named Night Storm(s)
all get their spotlight. Each of them are racing with different purposes for the same goal. This group of childhood friends and family are trying to earn money for magic permits, to move out west where people of color have more freedom, to avoid being thrown into residential schools and magic academies, and even to just keep their families afloat with what they’ve already established.
But their diversity isn’t just in purpose and race, it is also respectfully represented in disability. It’s as seamless as the story itself, where the team learns sign language to speak with Emma, how there’s leg braces and hooks to make broom racing easier, and even how having one arm doesn’t stop a person from racing. With DuVall’s artstyle, these small details and this written sense of community makes every little part of the story feel much more realistic as if magic and broom racing has been part of society for just as long.
There’s also a lot we don’t get to explore, but being given brief glances of it creates a depth that rounds out the world. Wells does a good job giving just enough that satisfies and creates a curiosity into the worlds of characters that we do and don’t get to follow. There’s hints and mentions of how one of the main characters, Luella, a Choctaw woman was forced into a residential school and while we don’t learn the depths of what happened, the audience is entrusted to understand that history even in this magical capacity was not kind. We get the brief window of a coming out story too, but instead of the potential hardships and the emotions that it’d bring, the audience receives the outcome - and a positive one at that. Wells doesn’t try to glorify or erase the realism but respectfully handles it with care and hope.
And this is a story of hope.
People are as strong as their communities and together they can make change happen.
Brooms is a story of resistance and echoes as a reminder that people have fought and still today fight to end that oppression that has caused so many of us to suffer.
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You can purchase Brooms here: Brooms Graphic Novel and check out more of Jasmine’s published work here and Teo DuVall’s work here.
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(*) - WildStar Press does not own the rights to these illustrations. Contact the copyright holder for more details.
We’ll see you in the next one.
-Akira B.
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