Book Review: The Girl Who Married a Skull and Other African Stories by F. E. Hicks et al.

The Girl Who Married a Skull and Other African Stories: A Cautionary Fables and Fairytales Book written and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks and many others

This anthology of fifteen stories draws inspiration from all over the continent of Africa, from the jungles to the plains to ancient Egypt. Like most folk and fairy tales, the stories have a strong sense of good and evil and emphasize the triumph of virtues like kindness, honesty, and bravery in what are often the most adverse circumstances you can imagine. Some tales explain natural phenomena like thunder always following after lightening or turtles living in water or hyenas being the least popular animals in the animal kingdom. The characters are sometimes normal humans, sometimes gods, sometimes anthropomorphized animals. Sometimes they are all mixed together in one story. The tales have a lot of whimsy and imagination. They are a delight to read

The art in these comics is quite varied. Each creator has their own style of drawing. I was surprised I liked them all--usually there's one or two in an anthology like this that don't work well. The styles all suit their stories and look good in the black and white format of the book. I will definitely be looking for more of this series in the future.

Highly recommended.