The Daughters of Django is a comic written by Sherman Augustus & Tim Cogshell with art by Zac Atkinson. These three violent sisters travel to Omaha in search of their father. This is a Western historical fiction comic with very bloody action, familial drama, and a large cast. The leading ladies here are: Bapoto, Eloisa, and Antonia Django. Bapoto is the eldest with a black mother and she went to college; she has a rough exterior and is well-read. Elosia is the middle child with a Mexican mother and she is handy when it comes to mechanical things; she also speaks Spanish. Antonia is the baby with a Swedish mother and a limited education; she is also flirtatious and wants to be in front of the camera. The two older sisters like to dual-wield pistols whereas Antonia’s specialty is knives. They haven’t seen their father Django in years. This story begins in Tijuana, Mexico where Antonia is playing poker with and beating a group of men who think she is a “cheating whore”. After she wins yet another game one of the players gets vocal with his accusations and after a bit of arguing and drawn weapons she quickly ends the threat with a knife. When the other men get aggressive and decide to retaliate Antonia warns them that her sisters are coming. This takes place in 1918 in Nebraska. The violence is very bloody with many gruesome attacks. The pacing here is overall steady with a few slower sections as these characters can occasionally get preachy and/or info dump. This has the tone of a revisionist Western leading into our more modern era with a focus on anti-black racism. There are many dramatically and violently intense moments; most of these have racist or sexist undertones. The dialogue here is very conversational with a lot of back-and-forth, plenty of aggression, and injections of humor. The talking style seems to fit the time period with a number of slang words and old sayings. There are at least a few word-heavy pages. This is an exciting and informative comic that blends together Western-style violence, Southern racism, and Black American History into a riveting tale about three women trying to find their father.
The art here is drawn in a somewhat smoothly-detailed style that is a bit reminiscent of older comics with decent lighting and shading. The color palette is very Western with browns, reds, and blacks being the most prominent. For scenery there are long stretches of dusty plains and some forests scattered about. This story moves all over the place but the central location would be the Lincoln Motion Picture Company in Omaha. It has many different areas including a theater, offices, and a prop room. Some of the other places visited are the Omaha Monitor, a saloon, some houses, and the Sheriff’s office. The backgrounds are usually a foggy/cloudy gradient color but on occasion it’ll show the actual surroundings. The expression level here is above-average as these characters are constantly reacting with overt and subtle looks. Emotions here are all over the place with anger, rage, and aggression, sadness and sorrow, and happiness, smiles, and general joviality. The faces have an above-average amount of detail and they usually show the different expressions clearly. There is some face sameness here across all genders. Weapons used here are mainly different types of firearms but some knives are used. There are many gruesome attacks that lead to large amounts of blood and gore. The action scenes tend to come in multi-page bursts with a flow you can follow and stylized panels. All the sisters have notable busts but Antonia is the only one really wearing revealing clothes.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like historical fiction revisionist Westerns that star three Black sisters with some fatherly drama, Southern racism, and bloody action then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Why thank you, Oscar. I do believe I just learned something new.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gensevencomics/daughters-of-django/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
*
*
*
*
*
Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 74
Violent Pages: 17, for 23% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 4
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 4
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
