King Warrior is a story with incredible heart and compassion that debuted with quiet confidence into the cannon of Yellowknife storytelling in 2021 and has only gotten more impactful since then.
This graphic novel, written by Yellowknifers Jay Bulckaert and Erika Nyyssonen and illustrated by Lucas Green, follows a young man named Afrah who learns to take his story into his own hands. Recently winning the Northwords Book Award in the youth category for an outstanding piece of Northern literature, the way this graphic novel explores the deep impact of familial love as well as hosting a variety of inside jokes for Yellowknifers makes it a fantastic read for all ages.
Inducing the nostalgia of films like The Pagemaster or Labyrinth, Bulckaert, Nyyssonen, and Green work collaboratively to create a story that brings together the international and the local with a visual flair that firmly establishes this book as a story with style.
King Warrior follows Afrah, a boy from Gaalkacyo in Somalia who exchanges letters with his father while his father is working as a cab driver in Yellowknife. These letters include an immersive and imaginative comic book that, letter by letter, tells the story of Prince Afrah, a young man who traverses the arctic training to be a warrior.
Afrah’s father, Awale, includes Northern touches to the comic book he is writing as a love letter to his son, but when he is unable to write any longer, Afrah must pick up the story where his abo left it in this high-stakes adventure. Just before the great distance between the father and son is closed as Afrah and his mother Warsan fly to Yellowknife to visit Awale, it is cracked open again when an unexpected tragedy strikes and this comic becomes even more vital to their relationship.
Imaginatively weaving the world of the comic book between and beyond Afrah and Awale’s own lives this comic becomes a place for Afrah to process his feeling.
It is unexpectedly difficult to write coherently about books that I love. I can, and have, written tirades on — we’ll call them reviews of — books that have repulsed me. Trying to describe this warm hug of a book, on the other hand, is giving me some trouble. I want to say, “This book made me cry and I think everyone in Yellowknife could learn something from it”, which is absolutely true but just imagine how big the author photo would have to be for that review to fit my regular slot.
This graphic novel includes many humorous details that bring me delight as a Yellowknifer. For example, referencing local establishments and geography all in ways that are just slightly removed from reality, like showing the Navigator Hotel or having a cabbie called to MacDonald Drive.
In a sense this book was a similar reading experience, despite their disparate genres, to Ramshackle: A Yellowknife Story by Alison McCreesh. Both books bring the specifics of living in Yellowknife to the page in a way that generously brings outsiders into the fold while providing a place to record the specific, oddball humour of Yellowknife’s more quirky neighbourhoods and traditions. This charm makes both books my go-to gift items for those who live down south.
King Warrior brings together the immigrant and Indigenous cultures that are so present in Yellowknife in this exciting and heartfelt graphic novel. Assembling King Warrior was no doubt a vast undertaking. Including local and territorial Indigenous culture alongside Somalian and Finnish creatures and stories, which were reflected in the writing team as well as the cultural consultants on this project like Halima Muhamud, this book was five years in the making and that dedication shows on every panel.
Perfect for comic and graphic novel fans and even better for anyone who has loved Yellowknife and wants to share that experience with others, King Warrior walked me to the edge of tears and then gently shoved me right over the edge.