If you’ve ever spent some time online following comic creators and comic fans you’ll see one thing echoed over and over again: we need more diverse comics.
Thankfully we’ve seen a recent surge in more diverse books. More and more series feature female protagonists who break all previously established stereotypes. Books like “Rat Queens” and “Ms. Marvel” have really led the charge for more progressive and all inclusive books. One book in particular that has become important to this cause is Larime Taylor’s “A Voice in the Dark”. It is the exact kind of comic series that was needed in the marketplace for multiple reasons, but the book is currently on “life support”, as Taylor says, and it needs your help to continue. With the second arc starting and in stores tomorrow, today we’re going to talk about why it deserves your help.
“A Voice in the Dark” follows the early college days of Zoey Aarons. Zoey is a freshman in college with her own radio show and a dark secret: she has homicidal tendencies and she’s given into them once already. She killed a very popular kid in school who forced her best friend Seven (now living with her family) to come out of the closet, thus causing her family to disown her. Zoey has decided to attend college far away from home to start over and control her violent tendencies. Unfortunately for her, things do not pan out as she wants as she finds herself in a position where she kills again. Taylor tells the story in a spectacular backwards fashion where we know what she does but we don’t know all the details; it’s one of those cases where the journey is much more important than the destination.
You’re probably asking yourself what makes this book so special? There have been lots of canceled books so why does this one matter so much? At least part of what makes this book special is that “A Voice in the Dark” is the most authentic series I’ve ever read. For a vocal fanbase clamoring for more inclusiveness, this is the book to support, beginning with the creator Larime Taylor. Taylor was born with Arthrogryposis, and because of this, he writes and draws this entire book with his mouth, but despite (or even in spite of) his disability, he’s an award winning playwright and cartoonist. When we talk about being all inclusive, we almost always forget the disabled. We almost subconsciously think they aren’t capable of this kind of creativity — yet they are, and they need a voice. Larime Taylor provides that.
“A Voice in the Dark” also does everything most mainstream comics do not and it starts with the cast of characters. Zoey and her roommates are nothing like what you see in other comics, specifically because they are real people; not real in a biographical sense of course, but in the sense that they aren’t oversexualized or over drawn. Zoey, Ash, Krista and even Mandy look like real women. They dress like real women and more importantly have body proportions like real women. They also represent different kinds of women; Zoey, the protagonist, is a woman of color, Ash is a curvy, punk rocker, Mona is a statuesque woman of color and Krista is a bubbly, blonde sorority girl — and none of them are any of these ideas taken to the extreme. They are done is a realistic and down to Earth way that really only exists in this book.
The story is also incredibly appealing and something many readers would be open to if they gave the book a shot. What we have here is a drama akin to what we see today on television. It’s heavy on dialogue but the dialogue is sharp, witty and vital to the story. There are no odd side scenes that fulfill little towards the bigger plot; Taylor has plotted out this series carefully with surgical precision, with each issue working like an episode and each arc acting like a season. Issue #7 in particular ended on a cliffhanger you’d easily see in a cable drama.
The moment that tied me to the series for good was actually not the first issue, though. I was into what I’d read so far, and the first issue had perfect dark humor similar to Heathers, but it wasn’t until Zoey’s first radio show that I was hooked for the long run. In this scene a young woman named Heather calls the radio show and tells Zoey she wants to kill herself, her reasons being that she’s under enormous pressure from her parents and her social circle. Because of all this, she feels responsible for the attempted suicide by another girl in her class; she was made a fool of at a party that Heather was only at because she wanted to impress the popular clique. Needless to say, this doesn’t pan out as Zoey would have liked.
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This moment in “A Voice in the Dark” #2 was where I fell in love. It was when I knew this was a book for me — not because it was violent and dark, but because of how Zoey handled it and how it effected her.
It was real and it tied not only into Zoey’s bigger issues but got into much of what women deal with on a regular basis. This poor young woman never felt loved by her family, she forced herself to be someone she wasn’t for her friends and she struggled to be perfect. Nothing in life was ever effortless and it drove her to a breaking point.
“A Voice in the Dark” speaks to me on many levels. Take out Zoey’s homicidal tendencies and this is the story of a young woman experiencing life for the first time. New job, new friends, new everything. It’s something I took to quickly being a college student myself who has been through all this. It’s also exciting to see people who look like you in a comic book. I don’t look like Wonder Woman; I look like Zoey. The fantasy is fun (I can be a total superhero apologist at times) but there’s something special to seeing people that look like you in a comic book. I almost feel sometimes that I can exist in this story because all of these women behave in such a natural and normal way. I’m emotionally bonded to this story because I genuinely care about Zoey’s well being — I don’t want her to continue giving in to her deepest desires. I keep reading to see if she will somehow escape ever being caught and if she’ll find it in herself to move past this.
If that’s still not enough for you to go out and get this book on Wednesday then think about the titles you’ve enjoyed in the past. Are you a fan of Terry Moore’s “Strangers in Paradise” and “Rachel Rising”? What about “Mind MGMT”, or even “Saga” (to an extent)? If you’re a fan of character driven books then this is an absolute must read. There is no spandex and no mindless violence. Everything is driven by the things these people say and do, with the things they do being completely believable and authentic. Like what Terry Moore does, Larime Taylor lets his characters almost do things on their own. You’re left feeling like the characters are making their own decisions without a writer. It’s that organic.
Still not sold? What if I told you that “A Voice in the Dark” would leave you rooting for the villain? Because in a sense that’s exactly what happens when you read this. In the last few years we’ve seen characters like Dexter Morgan in Dexter (the closest thing to Zoey on television), Loki from The Avengers and Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal becoming fan favorites despite the horrible things they do, and Zoey is a killer who will keep killing and justifying it because that’s just who she is. Despite this, though, there’s just something about her that brings you to a place of actually liking her. You’re able to understand her in a way that you may never thought you could. Zoey, like the characters mentioned, taps into that dark place in all of us. She’s as close as you can get to that side of the human psyche without going to these extremes yourself.
Hopefully by the time you finish this you’re clamoring to read the series. If you’re still not sold, here’s an amazing trailer that was made for the first trade with voiceover by Jon Bailey (you know, the guy from the Honest Trailers on YouTube):
And here’s how to buy the book:
- Your local comic shop. Don’t know where it is? Use this great website.
- If you’re in the middle of nowhere or your town isn’t cool enough to have an LCS, you can get it on Amazon.
- And if you’re way too cool for school and like digital comics over print, then here’s the Comixology page.
The next arc “A Voice in the Dark: Get Your Gun” begins this Wednesday. It’s a great place to start reading but you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not picking up the first arc. So, hey, why not do both?
