Stagger Lee

A couple of my passions come together in one of the books over there on the right -- roots music and comic books.

Somehow this got past me when it came out last year. Thanks to Amazon's recommendation thingee, I had it pointed out to me.

You've probably heard a version or two of "Stagger Lee" (Stacker Lee, Stag-o-lee, etc). Perhaps you recall that "Stagger Lee shot Billy Lyons, shot him 'bout fo' five times." or maybe you remember that it was all about "that John B. Stetson hat." Or maybe you don't have any idea what I'm talking about.

Well.

It seems that there was a murder in St. Louis in the 1890s. Lee Shelton shot and killed Billy Lyons. Before the trial was over, whorehouse piano players were singing a song about it. Over the next thirty or forty years, scores of versions of the song were sung and dozens were recorded. This book attempts to sort out what the facts of the case were, the history of the song, and some of the social conditions that lead to each.

Part graphic novel, part graphic essay, part graphic research paper. This is a brilliant work that deserves to be widely read. Printed on sepia paper with brown ink, it evokes the era beautifully.

But what makes it work as a brilliant piece of art is the introduction of flashbacks that delve into the (fictional) psychology of Lee Shelton and what *really* led him to shoot Billy Lyons. This is a really amazing piece of work for first-time graphic novelists. I strongly recommend that comic book readers or roots music enthusiasts get a copy and read it. It's good stuff.