![]() (Hazel and Mari also have different skin tones, and it’s nice to see both that diversity, and that Image Comics invested in high quality color printing). How delightful to see vital, attractive, and energetic examples of women who hit a trifecta of underrepresentation in graphic novels – black, plus-size, and older. Be warned – the inevitability of Hazel and Mari’s aging does give this book a tearjerker finish. Hazel’s husband James is a scene-stealer, and the author packs a lot of life and history into the limited pages spent on Hazel’s marriage. Mari is a bit less well-developed, but we get the sense of her as a professional woman with California cool. A shy, well-behaved nerd, she is in awe of Mari, who relocates to her small town as a teenager and is seated next to Hazel in class. ![]() Hazel is the main character of this book, and she is, frankly, adorable. In the meantime, however, both Hazel and Mari have married and had families. Prejudice and family ultimatums pushed the two apart, but forty years later, a bingo hall brings them back together. ![]() A bingo hall brought Mari McCray and Hazel Johnson together as young women in 1963. ![]()
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