‘Aloe Adventures’ Review: One of the Realest NYC Stories in the Streets

It’s wild refreshing to read a comic book that isn’t bound to the rules and structure of the big 2. Off the rip, you can tell Aloe Adventures is written by one of the homies from NYC. How do I know that? Because every single page of this book exudes point blank, deadass, no cap facts! And while this comic is very much an NYC product, it has some of the most fire ass translations that’ll help any ATLien, DMV repper, Nawlins shawty, LBC rider, and everyone in between keep up with the story. Ok, so boom. This is a crazy story about a cat named Aloe who lives with Grandma dukes, rocks a gold chain that he got from his pops, has a homegirl named Josie from the Bronx, a homeboy named Bhow who can turn into a dragon and his best friend named MD (*short for Mohammed…see how this book is narrated/translated?) who casually has? owns? knows? a 5,000 year old magic genie named LaLa that helps them out in times of need. This story is cool and engaging for many NY ass reasons, but it’s also well written and not to be taken lightly. Sure, the fantasy elements cement it as an intriguing work of fiction, but everything it’s based on has historical merit, and the pages are filled with little gems of socially conscious insight.

Take Aloe meeting Josie’s friends for the first time. Though they aren’t given an ethnicity, they speak Spanish and live in the Bronx so it’s safe to say they’re Puerto Rican or Dominican (I’m from the Bronx, trust me). After Josie introduces them, she tells Aloe to “…