“A volcano goddess named Keegan is loose in the world, and the prophecies are unclear whether her coming will bring humanity’s destruction or salvation. In the shadow of a sacred volcano, from which Keegan derives her powers, lies the ancient city of Azar. Holding the key to the mysteries of her past, Keegan and her friends must get to Azar before it is overrun by a horde of forest monsters. Meanwhile, The nefarious Cult of the Goddess has plans to summon forces as old as time to extinguish Keegan’s flame permanently.”

FIREBUG  
(C, W, A): Johnnie Christmas (C): Tamra Bonvillain (L): Ariana Maher

Comics can deep dive into some aspects of family, loss, and love. However, if a writer can balance this with elements of folklore and mythology, they always have my heart. They can create something entirely out of this world that allows readers to fully immerse themselves in the world until the very last panel. Firebug formulates a perfect combination of folklore layered with a tale of family and finding the fire in you. (See what I did there? WINK.)

via Image Comics

Johnnie Christmas is a masterful and commanding storyteller. You can tell just how much passion, love, and patience went into this project and the results are outstanding. Christmas creates a mesmerizing and touching story. This comic is enriched with lore that can be from any culture but explicitly his to translate and expand upon. Firebug feels like a personal piece in the making, something that needed to be told. Christmas writes of love, grief, heartbreak, discovery, self-acceptance, and most importantly family. Within a story that carries a sweeping narrative of lore, this doesn’t distract from the story but enhances it into an extraordinary adventure.

Christmas develops illuminating characters that will stick with you. Keegan, our lead and Fire Goddess will have you wanting to follow her adventures even after the tale has ended. She goes through a lot within this graphic novel. We travel with her throughout the journey of different phases. She’s a radical, a goddess, fighting her beliefs and what prophecies may tell. After all of this, she finds her strength to be herself with the help of her mother, found family and learning the rights and wrongs. There was something about Keegan that will very much resonate with readers that will leave your heart ablaze.

via Image Comics

Johnnie also lends his pencils and inks to this gorgeous comic, and I do mean gorgeous. Remember how I said this felt like a passion project? That’s what his art lends to the story as well. Every panel is tied together in glorious detail that beings the lore to life and extends the story to something that can stand by itself it wanted to. The facial expressions, the movement, the depth of the comic go so deep with Christmas’ art. We sink into this world filled with the emotions of the characters, the features of the gospels and everything in between.

However, Christmas’ art would be nothing with Tamra Bonvillain’s colors. She sets the mood for this comic from the start. With every panel, she puts her own personal touch to it that blows you away. Bonvillain’s another one of my favorite colorists. The way she works with a range of different colors from any piece of the color wheel or spectrum is phenomenal. She melts them to fit into a story so magically. With Firebug, she keeps those sublime backgrounds and incorporations of the primary colors green, brown, orange and blues. She then introduces other colors to drive different aspects of the characters, sentiments, and passions from the characters, heartbreak and more.

via Image Comics

Ariana Maher does a fantastic job of placement in Firebug. Maher does a killer job in genuinely creating the storytelling from Christmas’ script. She places in a way where the narrative is in constant motion like you’re reading from a book of lore. Everything in this comic feels like its put together with such a genuine passion and love for what they do.

Firebug is emotional, mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful. You’ll fall in love with the setting, the characters, the story and the creators who put it together. It’s seriously a comic that was made with fiery passion from all sides. Firebug will be available March 7th on Comixology and your local comic shop.

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