BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

BB has enough troubles to make any wolf sing the blues. A poor Mississippi Delta farmer in the mean old ‘20s, BB has to scrape by to support his wife and cubs, a job made no easier by the pigs (meant literally) who keep harassing the beaten-down wolves, and threatening to take his property. So he drinks, and belts out the blues at night in a honkytonk. Just when it looks like things might get better, tragedy intervenes, and BB is forced to leg it out of town—but not before taking revenge on just one of the Three Little Pigs who brought his family to ruin. Arnold’s debut young-adult graphic novel pushes the envelope for that audience in terms of slashing, bloody violence, but also tries to pair it with thoughtful commentary. Aiming for a Jim Crow-era take on Maus, in which blacks are wolves and whites are pigs, Arnold’s fast-paced story (with energetic artwork by Koslowski (The King) doesn’t quite do the subject justice, but fills it with enough action and gutbucket blues to keep readers interested. (May)