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Afrodisiac
by Brian Maruca & Jim Rugg
Richmond, VA: Adhouse Books
96 pp. $15:00

Afrodisiac has got to be the zaniest, most over the-top and in-yo-face ‘black’ graphic text/comic book in existence. Authored and artfully drawn by the tag-team of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, it is unclear whether either or both are ‘black.’ And it doesn’t matter, except that Afrodisiac is a savvy satire on American comic books and so-called blaxploitation flicks of the 1970s.

So, our hero, Alan Diesler, who is a janitor when he is not a super pimp, was, alleges one story, a white kid who, thanks to a freak lab accident, turned black and superhuman. (If you ain’t got no funny bone, leave this book alone.) Afrodisiac is itself a series of short, madcap adventures, each given its own cover and a different comic-book style. In each tale, though, Afrodisiac prevails, and wins—no sweat—the love and lust of white girls who throw themselves at his feet.

In the first story, “Shock-A-Con” (a shout-out to 1970s Soul star Chaka Khan), Afrodisiac is drawn in the manner of the superheroes of Jack Kirby. Tied up in a chair, and about to be tortured by two blonde Lesbians, Afrodisiac is freed when his once-captors attempt his seduction. As he chases the master criminal who had tried to murder him, Afrodisiac resembles Richard Roundtree’s 1971 detective hero, John Shaft.

In “Night of the Monster Cockroach,” Afrodisiac has to save his “stable” of women—who look like Archie strip versions of Betty and Veronica—from the gigantic marauder. (The insect is “giant … [even by ghetto standards]).” This story ‘mashes up’ Kirby’s shadowy style with the Archie-like heroines, and the critter is killed when fearless Afrodisiac smashes his Cadillac again and again into his prey’s head. (Though our hero falls from his car and onto his own head, his big-ass afro causes him to bounce up and land on his feet.) Afrodisiac is so slick, so cool, so out-of-this-world wild that, when he meets Death, and she proves a nubile redhead, he impregnates her before returning to life to slay the racist, would-be assassin who has tried to rub him out.

If Shaft and the Bond films are, themselves, really, adult cartoons, so is Afrodisiac a supposed, black male fantasy: “By day he cleans up your office, by night he cleans up the streets: Alan Diesler, a.k.a. Afrodisiac! A mysterious man from a far-away land – the original unbeatable, irresistible, smooth dark chocolate brother, bitch!” Afrodisiac is outrageous – and fun. The art and the narratives are raw, comedic, exhilaratingly intelligent, and knowledgeably appreciative of popular culture.

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