BRIGID
Jovan's father was a notorious fugitive archeoligist who commonly traveled with an international shipping operation called the Journeymen. Refuted as guerilla smuggling faction they were often noted for transporting and selling weapons, foreign currency, refugees and valuable artifacts. For the latter - the value of a variety of these artifacts - found, stolen, or bargained for - were not just monetarily priceless but culturally and spiritually treasured.
Gerard traded with many tribes for the exchange of goods but enriching his son with a global experience was truly his profit. Handed over with all the riches of the world Jovan was to be trained in the ways of chiefs, warriors, priests, priestesses, and prophets.
An early sketch of the Middle Passage cover. The story follows Jovan immediately after issue 3. On their way to the Gulf Coast the boat capsizes and Jovan finds himself in the deep dark depths of the ocean. WitchDoctor confronts the Rada spirits - enraged souls left in the wake of the slave trade - on their resting grounds.
Jovan faces a variety of trials that outline his abilities as WitchDoctor - each of which are based on the horrors of the middle passage.
This is one of the last WitchDoctor images I drew in ink before the Tablet PC. This is the cover to Zero Hour - a prequel to the Bootleg series where Jovan wakes up and realizes he can see. The shot derives from a scene where Jovan goes to the mirror in his bathroom and sees himself for the first time in a ling time; the chains and the masks appeared in a series of traumatic visions that follow and create the obstacles of the episode.
The masks always represent the actual spirits (LOA) of the story and the pantheon of ancestral and natural spirits. The cane represents Legba who is Jovan's guide through most of his adventures.
Another important aspect of this shot was to show Jovan's whip scarred back. In the Middle Passage episode WitchDoctor is possesed by the Rada spirits who empower him as he endures the trials of enslavement - ultimately Doc bears the scars and the endurance of his ancestors.
Before Katrina I had written a few stories that brought Jovan to New Orleans in his first appearance as WitchDoctor. In the story he drops onto the port of the French Quarter in the midst of a hurricane and seemingly causes a flood of the city. Through the flood the spirits of enslavement take over the city and wreak havoc on our hero.
Through the relocation/reconstruction effort - widespread chaos and panic feed into the horrow that Jovan faces. Ultimately paramilitary forces, a badly beaten police force and a community of scared civilians perpetuate a zombie myth that encourages the slaughter of thousands of undead people - these victims literally were not dead.
The first story of this series - Voodoo Dawn would be just the beginning of various adventures in the Big Easy. I did some photo research there and found the spiritual energy overwhelming but had no idea what was about to happen.
After Katrina I saw the reality of what I had proposed in my story and the setting became much bigger. Since my fiction was now startlingly realistic I not only had to revisit the stories but get them up to speed with how things actually went down, beyond that I had to be even more careful about addressing the topic.
BUT HE CAN FALL!