Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story

by Mat Johnson, Simone Gane (Illustrator)

From Mat Johnson, writer of the acclaimed INCOGNEGRO, comes a graphic novel thriller set in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Two small-time ex-cons with big dreams get the idea that this would be the perfect time to rob a bank. Catch is, the bank is in New Orleans, and they're on parole in Houston. Now, as every sane person tries to get out of The Big Easy, Emmit and Dabny will do whatever it takes to get in.

As they journey through a tide of human suffering, Dabny wants to help, and Emmit sees only the money. But a rogue commander of the ruthless security force "Dark Rain" has his sights set on taking down the same bank. If Emmit and Dabny don't outrace him, their last hope for a second chance could be washed away in the floodwaters – along with their lives.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Thriller, Adult

160 pages, Hardcover

First published August 10, 2010

About the author

Mat Johnson is an American writer of literary fiction who works in both prose and the comics format. In 2007, he was named the first USA James Baldwin Fellow by United States Artists.

Johnson was born and raised in the Germantown and Mount Airy communities in Philadelphia.

His mother is African American and his father is Irish Catholic. He attended Greene Street Friends School, West Chester University, University of Wales, Swansea, and ultimately received his B.A. from Earlham College. In 1993 he was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Johnson received his M.F.A. from Columbia University School of the Arts (1999).

Johnson has taught at Rutgers University, Columbia University, Bard College, and The Callaloo Journal Writers Retreat. He is now a permanent faculty member at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Johnson lives in Houston.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last night I picked up this book just to read the first few pages and ended up reading the whole thing.

I see that Mat Johnson isn't from New Orleans, but he got every non-fictional detail of the days immediately following the levee failures after Hurricane Katrina right, even down to the types of people who live in the section of N.O. he concentrated on. Amazingly accurate.

I think it's the art that makes the book though. If it's true that some events are beyond the scope of words, that you have to see them to be believed, this is certainly one of them, and the illustrations bear this out.

The fictional story (of a corrupt "security" firm coming in to the city to exploit the situation) ends up not being as compelling as the real story (and perhaps that's because it's more of a 'comic book' story and not my thing) but I can see why the author wanted to set such a story in a flooded, chaotic city -- use what you can.

[Tom LA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Art is great, writing is really bad. Sorry, blunt and very honest reviewer here.

One major problem is the way the two protagonists are portrayed. They are both criminals, but one is BAD, and the other one is GOOD. So good in fact that he ends up acting in a way that it’s either unbelievable or virtue-signaling hypocritical, while replacing without any hesitation the mother of his child with another woman (a lot of grand-standing from this character, but no, sorry, charity should begin at home).

Then you have the heavily politicized, shallow look at Hurricane Katrina as “Bush is racist” and (quote from the book): “it’s all because we are poor, black and never vote republican”.

The book also seems to be pushing the conspiracy theory that goes: “white rich folks bombed the levees in New Orleans causing worse flooding in some areas”.

I don’t like politics, even less so in comics. And what a surprise, when they come up, they’re always ridiculously superficial and stereotypical.

Even a Wikipedia article bears more weight and pays more respect to reality than this book - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criti...

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this, after adoring Johnson's Incognegro.

This book is more of an action movie. It's about a few different characters as Hurricane Katrina occurred. Much of the plot connects to an attempted looting/robbery of a bank in the middle of the flood.
Grayscale, plus some blue tones for the sky and water.
I'm assuming Dark Rain stands in for Blackwater, so in some ways, it's an expose on that agency.

Pretty intense, but not super memorable. But then again, my expectations were raised.

[Hugo · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very dull story that meanders far too much (character motivations seem to vacillate just to pad out the plot), and adds little or nothing to the post-Katrina discussion. I bought this for the (admittedly lovely, though his action panels can be a little static) Simon Gane art, but was left unimpressed by the writer.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent graphic novel about the trauma of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. A bunch of criminals decide to make a hit on one of the banks in the centre of town. However this is not the simple plan that they expect. Along the way they encounter lots of the locals suffering and also involved in scams. It is a redemption story, gritty and a bit nasty. Loved the art too.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was rather hoping to like this more than I did, but it definitely has some very good qualities. The basic story involves a plot to rob a bank's safety deposit boxes set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Two different groups are after the money, one the well financed and armed Dark Rain, a private security force, and the other two ex-cons who are looking for a fresh start. The main hero of the story is one of the ex-cons, a man named Dabny. He's a likable sort and I definitely rooted for him. The ending was nice and tight and ended about where you expected it too, but I didn't mind that.

I felt a few things could have made the story stronger. First, there are some very weird transitions early in the book that I could barely follow. A couple of times I turned back and forth between sections thinking I'd missed a few panels somewhere. There is some stuff that seems to be done out of linear sequence, and for no reason that I could discern. Second, most of the characters, both good and bad, could have used a few more nuances. The idea that the government was the chief villain in what happened after Katrina hit, while all the folks who stayed in the city were pretty much angels, is a bit simplistic. As with humans everywhere, there was both good and bad, and any story that tries to embed a crime story into a realistic portrayal of such an historical moment needs to show that.

As for the art, I'm not an artist at all so I appreciate anyone who can draw something better than stick figures. I thought the art was fine and complimented the story well. The characters were easy to distinguish. I didn't understand the "blue" water in many of the flooding scenes. In fact, when I first saw the blue water rising in the story I thought it was something else entirely. Believe me, that water was not blue, nor any shade approximating it.

All in all, though, it kept me reading right through to the end and held my attention.

[Nick Kives · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what to really say about the book. The story was alright, but for the most part has nothing to do with New Orleans. It was more of just a back drop at best. I guess if the title was different didn't say "A New Orleans Story" it would have been better

[Mati · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad as it was. Story about two men who served they deal in prison only to be able to run around in New Orleans during hurricane. Racial issues were brought up in very bad way. The plot was crap. Avoid!

[rhea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½

I really enjoyed this, the art and colors were very moving along with the story. The end was a bit cheesy and you saw it coming, but as a whole a good book.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Rain is beautiful and painful to read. The story switches following the three main characters, two paroled convicts in Houston who make their way to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina--one reluctantly, the other determined and pushy; a young woman, caught in the middle of the storm and the flood, left stranded on a roof and pregnant; the pushy convict's cousin; and wider snapshots of the desolation and heartbreak in the wake of the storm. The stories of the survivors were wrenching for me, as someone whose lived through hurricanes, but never a storm like Katrina. Their pain and also the compassion they show for one another, and the compassion shown by the main lead, a man who landed in jail out of desperation to right wrongs, for stranded survivors feels genuine. Interspersed throughout the stark images of destruction and survival, there are humorous moments throughout, particularly when two cousins are made to eat their own prejudice and their superficial behavior is highlighted. The ending is particularly brutal, regarding the fate of the main antagonists, even with their cruel treatment of groups of hungry and injured Katrina survivors, the insight provided into their motivations gives their fate a heavy weight.

[J.I.]

Mat Johnson is a talented writer who goes astray in his graphic novels. It starts off on the right foot. An otherwise good guy with some problems makes a bad decision and goes to jail because of it. Alright. The other character, the thief, is paralleled as well, but his character isn't particularly interesting. Then Katrina happens and the thief is going to take the opportunity to rob the bank that caught him stealing; this being the backdrop for race/class relations that are actually pretty interesting. Unfortunately, three quarters of the way through our hero, a good man, all in all, makes a plot decision that doesn't fit his character at all which leads to an all-too-short climax action and a resolution so hackneyed and rushed it hurt. If this book had been 120 pages longer, I think it could have been truly wonderful, but it isn't and it just feels crammed. Maybe it's a money issue and he is given only so much space or maybe it is him trying to cave to convention too much that he dips below even the convention standards. I don't know. If you enjoyed this or Incognegro, I recommend checking out his novels as they are given the space they need and are much better for it.

[Tyler Jing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hurricane Katrina has crushed the city of New Orleans to smithereens. The city is havoc and has now turned into a ghost town under water. But this may not the worst thing for Dabny and Emmit, planning to take this chance to rob the bank... but they will soon find out that greed and impatience is not the key to life.

I thought the cover had a cool graphic design and the topic really interested me. I am a person who is really into science associated with weather, so the natural disaster of Katrina interested me a lot.

At first I thought it was about the wreckage OF Katrina, but as I read, I found out it was about the plot of two men to get money...so I slowly lost interest. But I decided to finish the book to see what would happen so I made it to the end.

I recommend this book to Victoria because I believe she also likes the study of weather, and I saw her read many graphic novels dealing with bad stuff... like robbery... so I recommend it to Victoria.

[Emilia P · Rating 3 out of 5]

More interesting than I thought it would be -- I think it was kind of a brave choice to set a morally questionable story (bank robbery!) in a setting (New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina) ready for moral absolutes -- government, FEMA, rich people bad; poor people, helpless people, the soul of New Orleans, essentially good. Instead, it was about some ex-cons trying to rob the guy who set one of them up, being thwarted by contract security guys (Blackwater in Iraq types) who were using their intel to rob the bank, right in the middle of the 9th ward, first. That said, it was very much a Comic Book, with flat characters, fairly predictable outcomes, and tons of action. It's possible I got into that a little, and I thought the illustration was pretty great, but in the end it doesn't really stick. Nonetheless, kind of fun, in a comic-booky way.

[Thomas Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel set during and around Hurricane Katrina follows the story of two ex-cons who return to New Orleans after Katrina in order to rob a bank. The two men are completely unprepared for the amount of destruction and chaos when they arrive. Through their tale we are able to get a look at some of the conditions that people were forced to live under during the weeks following the hurricane.

I thought this was a good book and nice short story about two men trying to get their second chance, but I think that a novel like Zeitoun would give anyone a better look into the conditions of New Orleans after the storm hit.

[Mersini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Two ex cons try rob a bank after the hurricane hit, and find themselves encountering people who need their help, while a private security group made of ex-military men rob the same bank.

The power of this book lies in the story of the people who just wanted to survive, and whom the government abandoned in their time of need. The limited colour palette brings out this sense of despair.

The story isn't the most fascinating thing you might ever read, but it's not bad.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Read in one sitting.

[Apiwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

remember Katrina

[Meepelous · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second Mat Johnson read and review. I picked this book up for my Black comics TBR and Vertigo TBR.

Content notes for fatphobia, guns, character death, pregnancy, mercenaries, extreme flooding, water scarcity, corpses, dead kids and pets.

Keywords that came to mind reading this volume: parole, family, community, mercenaries, heist, abandonment, segregation, disaster, and death.

Looking at the writing I think perhaps the most important thing to highlight about Dark Rain is that it is very genre and is a heist adventure story not a literary novel sort of story. For something more along the lines of the latter you might be more interested in **AD New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld**, which I reviewed all the way back in 2019. That said, if you've been watching Literally Graphic for any amount of time I hope I've made it clear that genre fiction is awesome, and I think there are a number of key things that Johnson is saying through this particular kind of story that I really appreciated. Most central to the story I think was a real exploration of key buzzwords such as looting, and an examination of who is good and who is bad.

Following this story we see a lot of stigmatized people, poor, black, and/or criminalized by the so called justice system being caring, limited, selfish, selfless, noble and many other things that push back against the one note dog eat dog sort of narrative that often gets centred in post apocalyptic stories. Digging just beneath the narrative that says "civilians should be shot for looting", a story that persists to this day every time there's a disaster where we see people, trapped and abandoned trying to survive. We see a world that I find to be much more genuine; a world of violence orchestrated to keep people trapped and the violence that keeps resources on the shelves of capitalism rather then in the hands of people who need it.

Scrolling through the small number of negative reviews I could find for this title people felt like the pacing was off, which is fair, and/or that it was too political, which is less fair. Life is political lol.

Moving on to the artwork; it wasn't super distinct, which is fine and did not detract from it's intrinsic goodness, and there was a nice use of limited color scheme.

Moving along to the different kinds of people we find represented in this story, as we do in each review...

Race was obviously pretty central to this story alongside class. Das Capital it is not, but it does illuminate a bit on the restrictions on a person's life when they are poor and caught up in the correctional system. A striking example is why people can't evacuate in the face of a hurricain.

Disability vs ability did come up a bit, largely in the character of Emmit's cousin Speedy who faces a lot of derogatory/fatphobic comments about his body and does run into some limits as to his own abilities. Kind of a mixed bag to my mind because while we do see him as capable of important plot needed things, and generally deeply respected by Emmit it felt like I was supposed to find that a bit too surprising. Obviously I read plenty of books where bad people do bad things, but it felt like this was laid on thick enough to make it that much more difficult for people who have experienced this sort of discrimination to enjoy it?

Similarly, I was actually a bit relieved for the eye rollingly heterosexual/cis one noteness of the story because in Incognegro... Inclusion of more diverse characters did not go well in my humble opinion. But yeah, our main hero does get the girl in the end.

Wrapping things up, a book with lots of pluses and a smattering of minuses, I guess I would say it's a three star read. Pick it up if it sounds interesting but certainly not a must read.

[Tifanee Mask Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this gritty graphic novel, characters from varying backgrounds representing both the diversity of and hardships of the New Orleans area come together to highlight the casualties of systemic oppression. An abrasive thrust into the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, this novel forces readers to question the difference between "ethical" and "moral." Each character reckons with a broken governmental system in their own way, with some maintaining solemn resignation and with others assuming a vigilante spirit. It is a stark reminder that there is no wrong way to handle a system that is inherently flawed, a system that thrives on sacrificing the already-disadvantaged when threatened. Additionally, it shames the selfish spirit of self-preservation in the aftermath of tragedy, particularly highlighting that this mindset is most prevalently fostered by white people, in contrast to the communal spirit that many people who found shelter in the superdome mustered.

I like that this book is unabashedly in-your-face. It does not beat around the bush in reminding the reader that the flooding of the Ninth Ward and the, yes, murder of many of its inhabitants was done deliberately to spare the wealthier, whiter locals. I also like that it is not an attempt at virtue-signaling and suggesting what people should do in the face of tragedy. If anything, it suggests that, in times of tragedy, people need to come together to ensure the welfare of the masses.

Admittedly, the book can be a little hard to follow, especially in the first quarter as you are getting accustomed to the characters and their relationships.

[Jonathan Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a true story! There was so much ignored reality in this book that I thought that every character was a real person. To the point that I tried to google them just to follow them on social media. I looked for "El Banque De Congo Square", couldn't find it. The reason I got so confused is because of how much fact was in this book entirely. I was enlightened. You watch the news and we american's are so desensitized that we look at it and say "eh, hurricane. New Orleans is destroyed. Sucks."

No, not this graphic novel. In this Graphic novel you had to sail the waters while dodging dead bodies. You had to try to escape while being stopped by neighboring police forces because you were considered a monster. You had to sit next to a mother carrying and tending to her dead child because she refused to accept it.

It was deep and worth the weekend I spent reading it.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally got my hands on a copy of Mat Johnson's graphic novel, Dark Rain. Two ex-cons in Houston, Emmit and Dabny, decide that while Katrina devastates New Orleans and all sorts of police and power are out of commission, that is the best time to pull off a bank heist in the 9th Ward. Neither of them was prepared for was the waves and waves of human suffering they would see along the way. What started out as a risky gamble for a second chance quickly turns into a race against a crooked commander of the security forces who sees this as the perfect time to cash out. Much like he did with his earlier comic, Incognegro, Mat Johnson has a way of humanizing the troubled history of race in America, this time focusing his gaze on the many ways we failed our most needy in the wake of Katrina.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. As a heist story, it's okay. As a story about second chances and survivors, it's quite good. Johnson handles the small touches very well, such as how people help each other in the aftermath of Katrina, though the plot and the "villains" are a little predictable. Worth reading, but maybe not worth buying.

[Devon Munn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 stars

Read this back to back with Incognegro. Pretty decent books. The background of New Orleans during Katrina mixed in with commentary about how the government handled the disaster and the under and overtones of racism made it stand out then your average heist story. Plus lovely to see Simon Gane's work again

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and rich adventure story set among the thousands of tragic stories of New Orleans during Katrina. Sometimes just two or three panels will set up the elements of a betrayal of trust or help from an unexpected quarter.

[Bea Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A captivating tale set during Hurricane Katrina. The personal stories help weave in actual events and there are some heart bounding moments. A little moralistic with the "good" guy getting his second chance and riding off into the sunset with a new love interest but still a good read.

[Rosa K · Rating 4 out of 5]

sad, nuanced story of the hurricane katrina victims 😭. gov incompetence played a huge part in why so many lives were left neglected and lost, and this graphic novel weaves through complicated stories of who truly is allowed to survive?

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

totally fine action comic. honestly probably could have been set anywhere though. the "new orleans" story part is kind of shtick

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept but the artistic style was not for me, and I found the subplots more intriguing than the central plot.

[Rachel Fortin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea but I couldn't get excited about any of the characters

[Ming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling story, with a couple of sympathetic and interesting characters, in a nightmarish setting. Read it in one sitting, and enjoyed it. It'd probably make a very watchable movie too.