Writer: JD Arnold
Artist: Rich Koslowski
Title: BB Wolf and the 3 LPs
ISBN: 978-1-60309-029-2
Format: 6” x 9” graphic novel, sepia-toned
Page Count: 96 pages
Binding: Hardcover
Audience: Young Adult (13+)
Price: $12.95
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Release date: May 2010
As you may have guessed BB Wolf And The Three LP’s is a retelling of the three little pigs and their run in with the Big Bad Wolf. In the usual story the Big Bad Wolf is the bad guy, but this book sets us straight and we see that the pigs are bastards. BB Wolf is a blues singer and a farmer in 1920’s Mississippi while the pigs are a bunch of conniving businessmen and members of the PPP (a pink KKK) who are out to take Wolf’s land.
Author JD Arnold takes the familiar story and makes it a tale of racism and revenge. The Littlepigs are trying to use Jim Crow laws to take over the town of Money, Mississippi but BB fights back and rallies the entire town around his farm and family. The Littlepigs seem to be giving up after a while so BB takes a break and goes into town to play some Blues, when he comes back he finds his farm and family burnt to the ground and the symbol of the PPP carved into a tree. This gives us the start of our familiar story. BB wants to find each of the little pigs and take them down.
He starts with the pig who is buying up all the land in Money, Mississippi and tears him apart with his bear hands. He does it with ease, just like the house of straw. He then moves on to East St. Louis getting odd jobs and playing the Blues but before long he finds out the entire time he’s been working for another one of the Littlepigs and moves on to take him down. Its a little harder for him, just like the house of sticks. He then finds out that the oldest brother is running all the crime out of a factory in Chicago and he moves on to him. I wont spoil the ending but Big Bad goes after the house of bricks and we learn why hes telling us the story.
Along with the great (and sometimes very gory and brutal) illustrations by Richard Koslowski there are some of BB’s songs and a history of the story told from the Medias view showing us how we came to see Wolf as the bad guy in the story. All in all this was a great story and a really interesting take on a classic and on racism in the American South after the Reconstruction. I highly recommend you pick this up and for on $13 for a hardcover why wouldn’t you?