Monday Media – Ignition Press Comics!

Just wanted to quickly say I, personally, wasn’t at New York Comic Con. My sister braved the Artist Alley floor to reach my booth of interest: Ignition Press!

After resting from the general day-to-day activities and our respective bouts of moonsickness, I was able to collect my comic goodies and dive into two of Ignition Press’ opening titles, Roots of Madness and NO Place.

Roots of Madness

Writer: Stephanie Williams 
Illustrator: Letizia Cadonici 
Colorist: Alessandro Santoro 
Lettering: Andworld Design 

Inspired by the life of Madame CJ Walker, this alternate history follows a young Black chemist named Etta Knight, who picks up the tradition of her late mother for creating special medicines using natural ingredients and secrets passed down from generation to generation.

The book of recipes and formulas her mother left behind also contains strange symbols and dark musings that Etta doesn’t quite understand.

When a mysterious woman presents an opportunity for her to continue her research with the Meridian Fellowship, Etta packs up her mother’s book and heads to the school. But things are more than they seem and while Etta might finally find understanding in her mother’s mysterious work, she has to ensure the dark forces surrounding her don’t claim her first.

When you’ve spent years honing your personal media preferences, you get really good at pinpointing stories you’ll like. From the first peek of Roots of Madness, it was love at first sight. The story at the forefront is mystical: a family notebook filled with strange symbols, a magical flower lost to time and a darkness held at bay through careful perseverance and survival. (“There’s power in knowing things. But there’s wisdom in knowing when you’re ready to learn them.” Etta’s mother tells her time and time again.)

At the same time, there are these subtle undertones that add to the setting and the world these characters live in. Like Etta father mentioning how a school is starting to accept black students or how a white mother comes to Etta’s shop for a remedy for her son after leaving a ‘proper’ pharmacy. And of course, Etta’s work to create a better hair straightening solution for women of color instead of the damaging solution currently being sold to them.

So when a shady lady claiming to know the work your family has done for literal generations (shady, I tell ya!) comes to you with an offer to good to be true, it’s makes sense for Etta to accept the offer, not because she’s disregarding the danger but because she believes the risk to be worth it if it’ll help reduce the harm happening in her community.

So now you have a story where Etta toes the line between heading and honoring the knowledge her ancestors have preserved throughout their lifetimes and Etta’s own ambitions to reach beyond what she knows and her own potential for the sake of her community, even if the price ends up being more than she expects.

NO Place

Writer: Tim Seeley 
Illustrator, Colorist: Stefano Simeone 
Lettering: Andworld Design

Years after vanishing, Mariposa Montiel has returned to a traumatized family and a media circus with nothing but a tiger-striped feather and an extraordinary tale of her time away as the champion of a magical jungle land called Mayahuela.

But Mari doesn’t receive a hero’s welcome when she comes back to her Chicago neighborhood. Instead, her story has made her an exile in her own life—until a secret organization with an interest in fictional worlds puts the fate of our own at her feet.

I’m not sure if it has an official name or well-known phrase but I love stories that explore the aftermath of a hero’s journey.

They’re swept away to this fantastical world that’s in danger and only they can save it. Of all the other adolescents, or better yet, adults, they could have chosen, they chose them. And the journey is terrifying and exhilarating and even when the odds are stacked against them, they keep going.

And maybe they agree to the whole world saving thing because it’s the only way to get back home. That’s a reasonable goal to have. At last, the big evil is defeated after many trials and challenges thrown at the hero and their companions.

What happens then? Ideally, they get to go back home after completing their heroic deeds. But what happens when that world moves on without you? Do you try to regain that same sense of adventure or do you forget years of another life lived? And what happens when that world needs its hero back? There are so many ways these questions can be explored and expanded.

What we get in the Cold Open issue of NO Place is a snapshot of Mariposa’s life since returning from Mayahuela. Parents both worried and frustrated about their child’s seeming reluctance to explain what “truly” happen and how she went missing, even though Mariposa is telling the truth. The people in her town, once pitying, now mocking at her insistence. Dark ichor in a room where her companions should have awaited her. Even the vibrant colors of that jungle world clash with the duller tones of reality.

I also can’t get a specific piece of dialogue that Mari says when talking to the journalists: “…there are better places out there. Really, truly beautiful places that the people who live there take care of. People who welcome outsiders.” Obviously she’s speaking of her time in Mayahuela. But I wonder how much of it is also a reflection of her experiences on Earth in comparison. And if so, how will those experiences influence her actions when this secret organization comes into play. So many questions!

If these two titles, of the seven total hitting shelves through the rest of the season, are any indication of what to expect from Ignition Press, then we’re in for an exciting time. Well, exciting for me at least. Though, with these two specific titles being a limited series, my current concern is that the stories will be over sooner than I’d like.

.chel