Yawa The Adventurer #1 is a comic written by Bernard K. Mensah with art by Matylda McCormack-Sharp and Jazmin Guzman. After receiving a distress call from her father a young girl travels to Ghana to find out what’s going on. This is fast-paced tale that feels like a lighter-hearted Indiana Jones. The star of this comic is Yawa Ansah, a very smart 13-year-old girl who works with her dad after school at the Natural History Museum. Her dad is Dr. Ebo Ansah and he has gone missing in Ghana. Yawa also has a friend named Kodjo. The plot is pretty straightforward; her dad goes missing so she sets out to find him. There is investigation, scientific revelations, and a reasonable helping of luck. The action here is reminiscent of classic Scooby-Doo episodes with things never getting too hairy but the risk is still there. This comic moves pretty fast and won’t give you too much time to catch your breath. The dialogue reads like something you would hear on shows like Arthur or Cyberchase. By that I mean they manage to balance sounding like a kid but still being easily understood. Pages can get word heavy but that only happens a few times at most. This is an entertaining story about a resourceful and determined girl doing what she has to do to save her dad.

            The art here manages to look cute but not silly and has a charm reminiscent of children’s books. We get a nice range of colors and they are never too bright. This comic’s main location is a mine, meaning we have purplish-gray backgrounds with pipes running to-and-fro with wooden frames keeping everything in place. This is a very expressive comic with the characters giving looks that fit the moment. Because the art leans a bit towards cartoonish the detail isn’t extremely high on these faces but it’s up there. Their faces even get flushed occasionally! The action here is more of the quick move-then-they-stumble kind but the scenes can get relatively lengthy. You might ponder how they get from one panel to the next but it isn’t immersion ruining.

            At end of this comic book there are eleven pages of historical facts and little games about Ghana and the Obuasi Gold Mines.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories starring black girls solving mysteries taking place in Africa this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG. It gets dangerous.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I guess first aid in scouts is useful after all.”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.booksbybernardkmensah.co.uk/product-page/yawa-the-adventurer-issue-1

Kickstater Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kobinamensah/yawa-the-adventurer-1-the-secret-of-the-whistling-caves/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 4, for 17% 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 – 2

“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 – 1

“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 – 1

“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.”