b.b. free #1 Review Gives Girls a World to Just be Themselves

Words by: Gabby Rivera/ Art by: Royal Dunlap/Boom! Studios b.b.free #1 was released a month ago by BOOM! BOX the imprint of Boom! Studios that has given us such fan favorites such as Giant Days, Goldie Vance and Lumberjanes. It is the second comic series being helmed by writer Gabby Rivera (America Chavez’s solo series from Marvel) and debuting artist Royal Dunlap whom I came to know from Twitter from such hashtags like #DrawingWhileBlack. Opening the first five pages reveals that It’s been over a hundred years since the Plague That Ate Greed wiped out half the population, and it’s the only world that b.b. and those her age have ever known. Rivera has penned a narrative of one b.b., the protagonist of this comic who is finally almost fifteen. She’s bright-eyed and has big ideas on what she wants to accomplish and where her path in life may take her. She lives with her papa in a shared type of community set up in the swamplands and quietly abides by the image he has of her: obedient, on time and quiet with approved clothing. What’s interesting is when she’s not this perfect daughter, this “good girl,” she’s comfortable in her favorite clothing, loud as she wants to be and secretly broadcasts her underground radio show. In the fractured states of America, turning fifteen seems to be akin to doing a walkabout while b.b. wants the freedom and thus, agency to do so–it sounds like her papa is on the furthest side of the spectrum.

Dunlaps’s art is–can I add a chef’s kiss gif her…