"The Devil on Fever Street"
LUCIFER'S GARDEN OF VERSES vol 1 (2004; w/illo Lance Tooks)

Narrated by hermaphroditic Lucifer ("Light-Bringer," à la similarly illuminating herm Tiresias in graphic novel marrying illustration + photo à la un/reality) pondering own relevance in face of (unambiguous) human atrocity (weight of real world pressing on superstition ) as apocalypse approaches (for him: end of fantastic face of evil – "man shall ascend"), summons hip-hop demons Beelzebub + Belial (Milton’s fallen angels; society’s rejects engine of soc’s downfall), who’ve cooked up scheme to tempt arts activist (w/illo Tooks’ diabolical plot to spur personal Armageddon thru work) Black Lily (mixture of im/purities; temptation testing own motives in creating) Baptiste (cleansing/initiatory function similar to Luc’s); switch in voice to hers (emergence of Luc’s fem-side – mirrored on opposite pages/panels – as he becomes purely masculine, fem influence in world to counter macho-fueled destruction), introducing self + community (explosion of devil + demons’ own : good outweighing bad in world/self – including Luc, who interjects to express interest ["to be closer to her is to be closer to Him": men’s salvation in own femininity]) tag-teaming w/ his narration (story still his).

Lily coordinating poetry slam (dream, when various voices of own multifaceted psyche come out to speak mind) at Fever St (not-hell/hell on earth) Community Center (unconscious theater in Luc’s "fevered" hell-mind) she organized w/ lottery winnings (favored by God aka chance) + run by "Popi" Miguel (Father figure w/ questionable motives angling for possession over Luc conscious Authority w/ own selfish aims), finds Dark Figure in her office (mind/vulva: shadow poised 2B re/born) she immediately recognizes (as he her: self-described former "ho + a junkie" Shadow itself, of which she unashamed [not-Eve redeeming hash man’s made o/t Garden]) + spurns when he begs her help (only traded darkside for light, not yet ready to deal w/t gray); Luc/"Nix" (negating element à la Angel Heart’s Louis "Cypher") delivers most eloquent poem in slam (on spiritual conflict, vs other's personal, social, political + conscientious) – on slavery (to God, as designated antagonist; ie, to White Man, as Eternal Other, + opposite Lily’s past indentured duty as sexual ideal) – attracting Lily to rooftop (elevation + perspective) for ontological debate (he turning whiteface: mask revealing true self; sadness, over ostracization f/t divine aka acceptance) before Popi’s intervention (she alone "thinking…" – dialogue w/i).

Dreams that night (his speech inspiring her imagination) of sex w/ Lucifer (communion w/ castoff part of psyche [unknown father; both seeking to re-birth selves thru other], approaching from behind as from back of mind) + Ken Russell montage (cue Carmina Burana) of Goya/woodcut/etc visions (sampling à la hip-hop, mind constructing scenarios not from material reality but one-step-removed art; ie he not o/t world but o/t mind), next day confessing to Popi (his concern jealousy over new influence on life: God’s dominion based not on unconditional love but frustrated physical desires ["he has some unfatherly feelings twd you he has not dealt w/"]), then dialoguing w/ Luc on his fall from grace (to which she has ascended, switcheroo humanity’s possible salvation) + desired restoration ("I do not want 2B His devil anymore" – eternal struggle predicated on scapegoating seeking resolution in '’goat’s rejection of projection [Popi’s unrealized sensuality]); convinces Popi of Luc’s good intentions (persuading superego, demons’ suspected coup-plot reciprocal self-defeating mechanism) by reuniting him w/ his son (tipped off by L: she in tune w/t benevolent dark ), then plans global healing (in mountain valley, vs city heights: his issues elevated, art/ificial metaphor for down-to-earth humans’), his embrace taking her to "middle of a cloud" (the Empyrean, for revealing Her history) where she describes epiphany (rooftop neighbor shot abusive pimp [higher view of self terminated own s-d.m.] + she found lottery ticket [on averting eyes from corpse: reward for refuting victimhood]) + renovation of warehouse/whorehouse (self-loathing/denigration of uterine femininity) she turned into Community Center (restored to creative environment).

Reveals true self to her (à la Man Who Fell to Earth; hermaphrodite reflecting her "masculine" strength) awa own birth-origin (along w/ God: fem Source of all, Lily/wmn’s denigration as of Gaia), calling her "key to the great mystery" of himself (their coupling opening up enigma, 2nd "temptation" restoring unity lost on 1st w/ Eve [learning of her primacy upsetting world founded on man’s supremacy; this time, 2B its salvation]); Luc’s Big Broadcast (revelation going global; ie, thru’out personality) appears on TV, computers, mirrors + puddles (ubiquitous: imminence of moral reckoning; man’s "spiral into self-destruction" brought by Light-Bringer’s dereliction of duty, ie Industrial-Age – thru which he slept – abandonment of nature) to introduce antidote to world’s ill, Black Lily return to floral/natural world; no lilywhite this time, nor classical innocent), just as she’s hit by machine-shop truck (deus ex machina, world tooled to defeat most altruist ambitions, + self-thwarting "mechanism" again), Street transformed into "center of all suffering" (heart, "fever" as in blood).

His img breaks up (humanity losing focus on wounded darkside)+ people’s memory of speech evaporates (like forgotten dream, mind returning to consciousness after receiving signals from subconscious depths [or, receding back into dayworld stupor following near-enlightenment]), his physical form breaking down (on recognition of "jealous God" whose taking of Lily an "act": nature of man to have selves in opposition [only in his absence did world deteriorate]) to reconstitute self in underworld (reverse-Orpheus or Persephone, story not of maturation or seasonal regeneration but of dysfunction + eternal verity), where he dispatches demons (parallel to warring Fever Street juveniles Bad Boy + Death Row, fed on hip-hop + Hollywood hatred – work of a slumbering enlighten’t) + retreats into poetry slam monologue (public i.d. turned private as unconscious turns in on self) on dwelling in hell (being Light-Bringer ostracized f/t Light; artist forever seeking the just-out-of-reach + realizing heights people/self can attain but will never).