Get Graphic: Mervyn McKoy Brings Noir to Colonial Jamaica
Dec 13, 2021
Art by Mervyn McKoy
Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen
Meet Mervyn McKoy. Jamaican-born, artist and co-creator of Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew, an unabashed fan of Kevin Maguire and Frank Quitely, an NYCC regular, and one of the contributing creators behind Noir Is the New Black (DEC211583).
In comic shops now, Noir Is the New Black is a graphic novel from FairSquare Comics that pays tribute to the Noir genre while highlighting Black artists and writers. Inside, you'll discover 40 Black creators delivering 16 Noir stories. From David F. Walker (Bitter Root), Brandon Thomas (Excellence), Brandon Easton (Future State), N. Steven Harris (Watson & Holmes), and many more.
In the following interview, Mervyn was gracious enough to invite us into his process, his heritage, and his contribution to Noir Is The New Black..."The Black Constable."
Keep reading...
PREVIEWSworld: Firstly, who are you and where do you hail from?
Mervyn McKoy: I’m Mervyn McKoy, illustrator and co-creator on Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew, The C-Listers, and Child of the Sun, not to mention a few other things coming down the pipeline. I originally hail from Jamaica, not Queens, and was just recently naturalized.
PREVIEWSworld: What is Noir Is The New Black?
Mervyn McKoy: I believe this book is supposed to be about Black experiences by Black creators, simply told through the lens of the noir genre. While my story does not feature any African Americans, my personal approach was to add a reminder that the Black experience isn’t a monolith: hence, a story that takes place in Colonial Jamaica. So to combine those thoughts, this book is about the stories that you don’t typically get to read or see and how amazing they can be. It’s an opportunity to play in a larger sandbox while sharing history from the African diaspora many may be unfamiliar with. So, thanks to Nick Allen, my co-writer, and TC Harris for giving this little six-pager a chance!
PREVIEWSworld: So what is 'The Black Constable?'
Mervyn McKoy: That’s a loaded question and in a way, it has three answers all equally correct.
Literally, 'The Black Constable' is the story of Constable Black (his real name is a story for another time), who is a special investigator brought in following an unsuccessful and disastrous ‘special’ slave auction at the hands of the mysterious Nanny and her Maroons. He must uncover what went wrong before the British and Jamaican business/political powers lose faith in the machinations of his taskmaster, plantation tycoon, Lord Charles Allerdyce Blackbyrne.
Mervyn McKoy: Technically, it’s a story that spawned out of necessity. There was no Constable Black. Initially, I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to use Nanny in a noir story because I didn’t think it would be appropriate to have her play in the same traditional noir molds. Then, it came to me that I could have her more as a theme and an overarching presence, and in that thought, I came up with Constable Black. His name came from necessity as well, since the word ‘detective’ wasn’t a thing back then, so a constable was as close to an approximation as it got.
Mervyn McKoy: The metatextuality of the Constable is that he does a job he doesn’t want to do, and for people who don’t genuinely respect his work. So, that being said, I think many people might admit that on a daily basis they take part in systems they don’t agree with or support under the simple umbrella of survival. You can be the smartest person in the room and know all the angles, and yet still find you’re just another chair. Enter Nanny, who represents a truly outside perspective, and as a result, she is able to orchestrate on an even grander scale. Someone whose intelligence and cunning can actually serve her means as opposed to those of the powers that be.
PREVIEWSworld: What intrigued you about the Nanny of the Maroons?
Mervyn McKoy: Growing up in Jamaica meant learning about some very amazing pioneers in Black liberation, but above them all, I was fascinated by Nanny. Nanny and the Maroons fought the British to a standstill because they were enough of a force to be reckoned with: the resulting treaty left their lands unconquered, which Maroons still reside on to this day. So as I got older, it dawned on me that she was just as crafty and cool as Jubei from Ninja Scroll, Solid Snake from Metal Gear, or even Batman. It was only through constant consumption of other cultures’ heroes and archetypes that I started realizing that she and the Maroons were just as viable and as important as any Viking, Knight, or Cowboy.
PREVIEWSworld: It puzzled me as to why nothing was ever done with her apart from putting her on the Jamaican $500 bill. The problem now arose on how to actually tackle her story and if I was the person to do it. I still say the answer to that is probably not, but I’m what you’re stuck with, and I’ll do my best to try and at least make it seem like I’m worthy.
Mervyn McKoy: I actually visited Nanny Town (now Mooretown), one of the Maroon strongholds from yore, and met with Captain Bongo, 3rd in Command. He was initially reticent to speak with me, but I gave him a pitch: I mentioned the Battle of Thermopylae (300 Spartans), their overwhelming odds, and how inspiring their story was, but that it was also a story of martyrs. I then mentioned that during colonial times there were on average 500 Maroons at most to 5,000 British soldiers, and isn’t it remarkable that I’m right here speaking to an actual Maroon. So why isn’t there a story about you guys? At that point, he warmed and provided a small tour. He showed me the bump graves (unmarked graves where Maroons are buried) as well as Nanny’s monument. He invited me to stay the week and learn some boar hunting techniques using just traps, (but I had a flight the next day). He did, however, share secrets of Nanny’s adventures, many of which would make Anansi blush at their creativity. It was a beautiful place and in some ways reminded me of the Shire from Lord of the Rings. Quiet, peaceful, serene, and away from it all. With that visit, my passion for this project multiplied tenfold.
PREVIEWSworld: How did you get involved with Noir Is The New Black?
Mervyn McKoy: I was introduced to TC Harris by my co-creator on Child of the Sun, Michael Van Cleve. I was ambivalent at first because I was in the middle of deadlines and pre-production work on Nanny. In order to actually tackle the project, the idea was that if Nick Allen, my co-creator on The C-Listers, was able to collaborate with me on this, it would make for a much more viable undertaking. Not only did Nick assist in making the writing process much smoother, but he also enlisted the inking help of a very talented young man named Thiago Gomez to ensure we could hit our targets for the project’s timeline. We were cooking with gas, and this allowed me to put more focus on finessing the finalized inks and coloring the project the way I envisioned it. We adopted more of the ‘manga studio style’ for the project, and in many ways, it worked.
Noir Is The New Black (DEC211583) is in comic shops now. And if you've enjoyed discovering Mervyn's work, give him a follow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
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Troy-Jeffrey Allen is the producer and co-host of PREVIEWSworld Weekly. He is also the Consumer Marketing Manager for Geppi Family Enterprises. Troy's comics work includes MF DOOM: All Caps, Public Enemy's Apocalpyse '91, the Glyph Award-nominated Fight of the Century, the Harvey Award-nominated District Comics, and the Ringo Award-nominated Magic Bullet. |
