Congo Bill #1-4, (October 1999 – January 2000)
Written by Scott Cunningham
Illustrated by Danijel Zezelj
Coloured by Lee Loughridge
Spoilers (from twenty-two to twenty-three years ago)
There was a time in my life when I’d pick up just about anything with the Vertigo name on it. When this series came out, I don’t think I knew anything about Congo Bill and the Congorilla, aside from having probably seen the character show up in things like Crisis. I was drawn to the Richard Corben cover and the dark interior art by Danijel Zezelj, who would go on to be a favourite artist of mine. I don’t know that I would have known who Scott Cunningham was, or I knew his name from letters pages in books that he edited.
I was also at a point where I was just beginning to understand the lasting effects of colonialism on much of the world, but am not sure I would have made the connection between characters like Congo Bill (a white man who mentally controlled a golden gorilla) and the racist tropes they perpetuated.
I distinctly remember loving the first issue of this series, but I don’t remember why. I also remember that the rest of the series couldn’t capture whatever it was that worked so well at the start. Right now, I have no idea why I felt any of these things, so I’m curious to get a look at it and see how it holds up, in the light of today’s understanding of the need for decolonization and authentic voices.
Let’s track who turned up in the title:
- Devilin DuPaul
- Thomas Glass
- Toni Lin
- Third operative (unnamed; #1-3)
- Tshimumba (guide; #1-3)
- Dr. Forester (#3)
- Congo Bill (#3-4)
- Congorilla (#3-4)
Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:
- The series opens in the Virunga National Park, in Zaire in 1997 (this is just before the country changed its name to Democratic Republic of Congo). We see some mountain gorillas get shot by a trio of poachers. They laugh over the bodies, even putting a lit cigarette in the mouth of one, but then they hear some noises above them. One by one, the poachers are lifted into the trees, and we hear cracking noises and see their blood dripping down. In Virginia, one week later, Devilin DuPaul enters a briefing at CIA headquarters. The person speaking explains how the heads of the three poachers, identified as Hutu soldiers, were placed on bamboo stakes. He takes time to explain how the heads had been ripped off the bodies, but placed on the poles with precision and care. The speaker then provides some context, explaining how the Hutu who fled Rwanda after losing the civil war were considered assets by the US. He explains that a local search party that was sent looking for the soldiers disappeared. After that, one hundred and eight more Hutu heads were found on stakes in a clearing. The speaker talks about how Laurent-Désiré Kabila is challenging the rule of Mobuto Sese Seko in Zaire. The US, being supporters of Mobutu, are concerned, but also thinking of switching their support to Kabila. The speaker then explains that a satellite photo of the clearing with all the heads revealed that they spelled out a name – Devilin. At this point, we start getting first person narration, not from DuPaul, but from Thomas Glass, a black ops operative in a plane flying into Zaire. He’s concerned that he doesn’t know anything about this mission, and can intuit that DuPaul is nervous. Glass, a Black man who always wears sunglasses, talks to the team’s sniper. Her name is Toni Lin, and she comments on how she won’t fit in as easily in Zaire as Glass will, due to her being Asian. She mentions that she heard a story about Glass having killed a Colombian drug lord with chopsticks, but he denies it. The third operative in the group, who doesn’t get named in this issue, mentions that he heard a story that Glass doesn’t respond well to mistakes in the field. Glass, in return, makes it clear that he knows about this guy, who once took over an orphanage in El Salvador, for unsavory reasons, and had to be brought back to the US. They land at the airport in Kinshasa, and blend in with a UN relief mission. They meet Tshimumba, their driver and guide, whose presence Glass sees as confirmation that they are going into the bush. DuPaul takes them to their hotel and suggests they stay close until the next morning. A man on the street tries to sell them monkey meat. Glass sits, naked, in his hotel room and thinks about his past. In a flashback, we see him on a sniper mission, worrying that there are too many people around his target. We see him decide to take the shot, just as a woman and child enter from the left, but before we see what happened, a knock on the door interrupts his reminiscing. Tshimumba notices Glass’s blue eyes, and tells him that he wants to take him to a ‘féticheuse’. He decides to go, even though it’s against orders. As they walk through the city, they see a gang of crippled teens attack a man. Once they arrive at the ‘witch-doctor’s’, she has Glass sit in front of her and reads the cowrie shells, saying that he’s at the centre of what’s going to happen. She takes his shades, suggesting he’ll see better without them, and then cuts open a chicken, finding it has a black heart. She can tell he’s done something terrible, and then asks for fifty dollars in return for a fetish she has made for him, which she tells him to never take off. She also tells him that he’ll never go home. Returning to the hotel, Glass feels like he got ripped off (he paid more to get his sunglasses back), and disagrees that he won’t be going home. He sees Toni and DuPaul together, in their underwear, and heads to bed. The next morning, they prepare to board a boat, but are interrupted by a soldier with a note for DuPaul. He explains that they lost all contact with the refugee camp, and that the last message they received was for DuPaul. It simply says, “I wait.” Glass can tell that DuPaul knows what they’re facing, and he feels it’s time for him to tell them. We see the radio hut at the refugee camp, and see two men hanging from the wires.
- The group has been moving upriver for six days now, and Glass and the others are getting restless. Glass and Lin watch the start of a funeral when a coffin is offloaded from the vessel they are on. Glass tries to find out if Lin knows anything about their mission, but all he learns is that DuPaul doesn’t really trust him. Glass feels like DuPaul is out of control, and thinks about how many bodies they’ve already seen dropped off in different communities, and how the communities always blame the supernatural for the deaths (when he thinks it’s obvious that people are dying of AIDS). He ends up speaking to a boy on the dock who speaks English, having been taught by missionaries. It turns out the dead woman is the boy’s mother. This triggers Glass, who sees a boy in a red beret – the same kid we saw in his flashback to his assassination mission from before. Glass freaks out a little, and is taken back to that rooftop, where we learn that his shot killed both his target and the boy’s mother. Glass froze, and thought that the boy looked right at him, even though he was two blocks away when he took the shot. We learn that Glass carved an ‘x’ into his chest after this mission. He walks through the crowd and starts to freak out a little, pulling out his gun and firing it into the air to clear some space around him. He heads back into the ship, and finds DuPaul burning the note he received last issue. The group meets with DuPaul and Tshimumba, who explains his story. He was a ranger in the Virunga National Park, assisting a white woman who was studying gorillas, but after the Hutu refugees came and started poaching for meat, things got tough. Soldiers came and insisted he lead them to a part of the forest where no one goes. Seeing how afraid he was of the place, they killed his family. This is when the original three poacher heads were discovered, and Tshimumba took this as a chance to escape. He hid from the soldiers, and fell asleep in the jungle. When he woke up, it was to the sound of them being killed. It looked to him like the trees were grabbing the soldiers and ripping off their heads. He ran, but ran into one of the soldiers who was about to kill him. There was a flash of gold above them, and then something pulled the soldier up into the trees and ripped off his head too. DuPaul explains that some American advisors found Tshimumba and learned his story, then confirmed the 108 soldiers’ heads on stakes. The operatives don’t believe this interpretation of what happened, but DuPaul makes it clear that logic is suspended in this land, and that everything is infused with folklore, and he believes that Glass understands this better than the others. As they continue to talk, there’s a knock on the door (apparently Tshimumba left the room), and the guide tells them from the other side that it’s important. When they open the door, they see that soldiers have Tshimumba held at gunpoint. These are Kabila’s men, and he wants to meet with the Americans. Glass waits for a signal from DuPaul, but when one isn’t forthcoming, decides to take matters into his own hands. He kills two of the soldiers, but thinks he sees the boy with the red beret fall from an upper deck of the boat. Distracted, he gets hit with the butt of a rifle in the head, and falls into the river. He still thinks he can see the boy sinking, but is attacked by a crocodile. He manages to kill it with his knife, and surfaces, finding himself between another crocodile and some rifle muzzles.
- We learn that the rebel soldiers helped Glass by killing the crocodile, which they are now cooking. DuPaul speaks with the head rebel in the area, who explains that everything that happened at the boat was a misunderstanding. Glass’s narration explains that Kabila has sold mining rights in the region (which he is not yet in control of) to an American mining company (called American Mining Company, which is headquartered in Bill Clinton’s hometown), and as such, the US is swinging its support behind Kabila. Kabila’s interests require that DuPaul’s group complete their mission, so he has supply them with a plane. The group is at one of Mobutu’s many palaces, this one in the Gbadolite region. While rebel soldiers execute some locals, Toni swims in the swimming pool. Tshimumba explains to Glass that America has always supported whoever is stealing control of Congo, and shows the ridiculous opulence of the mansion. We learn that Tshimumba was born in this area. Toni wants to go for a drive, so the three of them head out in a jeep, with Tshimumba lecturing about King Leopold and America’s constant support of the wrong people. Glass thinks he sees the kid in the beret in the road, and stops the car. They hear screams, and see a white woman being dragged out of a hut by rebels. She’s yelling that they shouldn’t touch her or they’ll die. Tshimumba recognizes her as Dr. Forester, whom he worked with at the National Park. We learn that she has ‘the fever’, and when Glass asks her what’s going on, she recounts having gone looking for the three gorillas she was watching for her studies. She didn’t think poachers had killed them, as there were no remains. She ended up near the border with Rwanda, where she found an old mining cave. Inside, she found the three gorillas tied to an odd altar. She found a man, another American, inside, chained to something. He seemed off, and talked about losing control of ‘the beast’. He further explained that he hadn’t been able to save the three gorillas, but that he sent a message to the other poachers. He showed her the pile of corpses, all headless, within the cave. Forester ran at that point, and explains that the fever (is this meant to be Ebola?) came on her, and that in her delirium she felt like she was being carried. Forester knows that the fever can’t save her life. Some rebels come to collect the operatives, and they leave without Tshimumba, who wants to stay with Forester. When they meet with DuPaul and the other guy on the airplane, they learn that Tshimumba already spoke with the unnamed operative. As the plane takes off, we can see Dr. Forester mourning Tshimumba, who is clearly dead. DuPaul flies the plane around in circles over the jungle. He’s still being cagey about the mission, and tells them that they’ll have to parachute in. We see a large shadow jump out of a tree and onto the side of the plane, but can’t really make out what it is. The plane starts to list, and gets torn apart. The nameless guy starts shooting at something, and gets pulled out. DuPaul recognizes whatever is outside, grabs his parachute, and jumps. Glass and Toni learn there aren’t any more chutes, and realize they’ll have to jump. Glass goes to get more clips from his bag, and ends up grabbing the fetish he got in the first issue. They jump into a pond, and kiss. While looking for Toni’s gun, they find the head of the nameless guy, next to a large footprint. DuPaul finds himself tied to the same altar we saw the gorillas on earlier, and sees the same American man that Forester met sitting in front of him. This guy clearly knows DuPaul, and sent the message for him. The man talks about working with the CIA, as a liaison with local tribal leaders. Toni and Glass can smell the bodies in the cave from a ways off, and realize they need to track the smell. The man tells DuPaul that he can’t always control the beast. He says that he has to chain the beast up to keep him from running away, and mentions his gentle nature. We see, at the end of the issue, that the man is wearing a ring, and that he’s chained to a massive gorilla; he refers to himself as ‘The Beast’ just as Toni and Glass enter the cave.
- Glass and Toni begin to plan how they’re going to rescue Devilin and kill the giant gorilla. They figure that Toni can reach a higher ridge in the cave and use her sniper rifle, but for that to work, Glass needs to create a distraction. They separate, with Glass quietly watching the scene playing out between DuPaul and the man in the cave. The man, Bill, talks about when they first met. It turns out that DuPaul and Bill had different ideas about Patrice Lumumba, the man who was elected the first post-colonial leader of Congo. The US government didn’t like that Lumumba was a black nationalist and had ties to communism, and wanted to stop him. Bill, it seems, was a rich man from the States who had moved to Congo and lived among tribal people, who have now been slaughtered, their hands all cut off. Bill holds the hand of the chief, Kawolo, which had a large ring on one finger (the same one we saw Bill wear before). Bill told DuPaul that the ring was passed through the line of chiefs of the Kongola people for centuries, and that it could summon a tribal god to protect them. Bill ended up taking the ring. DuPaul wanted Bill to see that Lumumba’s rule was over, that Mobutu had already taken the capital, and that if their fight didn’t end, the Congo would become the next centre of global conflict. DuPaul wanted Bill to go see Lumumba, whom he knew, and give him a small dose of some kind of bioweapon he held in his hand. In the present, Bill recounts how this all felt, not knowing that Glass is listening. Glass thinks he sees the kid in the red beret, but it’s actually Toni, coming to tell him that she needs to try another tunnel in the cave system to get to where she wants to go. Bill explains that he knew that it was actually DuPaul who arranged to slaughter the people at the village as a way of getting Bill to work for him. Before Bill could get to Lumumba, Mobutu’s people caught him and beat him, giving his side a martyr. Now that Bill wasn’t needed, DuPaul was going to kill him to tie up any loose ends. While DuPaul held a gun to his head, Bill rubbed the ring on his finger, and the giant golden gorilla, wearing a matching ring, switched bodies with him, and killed DuPaul’s men. The vial of poison fell into the river, where it came into contact with Bill’s human body. We learn that thousands of people downstream died from the virus that was released, and realize that this is the fever that we’ve seen various people infected with. Bill explains that so long as he lives in the gorilla’s body, and the gorilla lives in him, the fever doesn’t progress, which is why he’s stayed in the cave for so many years. Glass sees that Toni is in position and gets ready to act. Bill explains that he can feel the fever progressing in him again. He says he wanted DuPaul to see what he’s done, and that’s why he summoned him. He explains that his time as (with?) the Congorilla (that name is never used) has shown him truths about humanity, and now he wants to give DuPaul the ring, so he can learn the same lessons. This is when Glass makes his move, preparing to shoot Bill. As he aims, he sees the kid in the red beret in front of him, and yells for the kid to move. This alerts everyone to his presence, and Bill rubs his ring, switching minds with the gorilla again. Toni prepares to take her shot, but the gorilla is on her instantly, ripping her head off. Glass holds on to Bill’s body, threatening to shoot it. DuPaul yells for him to shoot, but Glass and the gorilla stare each other down, and then stand down. Glass turns to DuPaul, angry at how he was manipulated his whole life by his superiors. He knows he has the fever now, and that he’s going to die. He tells DuPaul that he understands Bill, and that they are very similar. What he doesn’t understand is how DuPaul has lived with himself for the things he’s done. As they argue, the roof of the cave starts collapsing (why? This seems like a cop out of an ending). Glass grasps his fetish bag, hoping it can help him. The gorilla picks up and throws Glass out of the cave as it comes down. He lies in the grass, feeling alive as the fever burns through him. He imagines the boy in the red beret leading him to a circle of gorillas that surround the hand of Congorilla, sticking out of the rubble. We see the ring on it.
When this book came out, I was just beginning to learn about post-colonialism, and now I wonder when and how this series fit with the more scholarly reading I was doing in university. Is this where I first learned about Lumumba, Mobutu, and Kabila, or did I already have some idea of the horrors of Leopold before I read this book? One of the things that I’ve always loved about comics is how they’ve broadened my understanding of our mundane and non-fantastical world, as well as filling my head with mythologies and improbable sciences.
Anyway, while this book wears its influences on its sleeve, it’s still an impressive and compelling piece of work. With Glass as our point of view character, I found myself fascinated by this story, although more in the parts before the giant gorilla made an appearance than after.
That said, I found myself wondering if a story like this could be told today, as it relies so heavily on older tropes that today we view as on the spectrum between racist and problematic. The structure of the story reminds me of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and as the story progresses, there’s more of an Apocalypse Now! vibe, but returned to the Congo. At the same time, the story clearly portrays America as the aggressor state, making it clear that the decades of interference in how the country governs itself has led to the sad state of affairs that was the Mobutu regime.
I like that Glass became the central character. Using a Black American as narrator helped to underscore the differences between African and American society, and helped upend the white savior narrative that was probably common in the original Congorilla comics (I’ll admit I’ve never read any, but seeing as they were about a white man who controlled an orange gorilla, and who hung out with a white boy raised by animals, I can’t imagine they were very progressive). If there’s any certainty in this book, it’s that the white characters are all there to get something from the Africans, be that artifacts (in Bill’s original case), access to primates (Dr. Forester), or regime change. I think the book is also suggesting that Ebola was introduced into Africa by Americans? Perhaps this is a different fever, but with the clear use of real life political figures, it would make sense that we are also looking at real life diseases.
There are only two Congolese/Zairean characters who receive any development. Tshimumba is revealed to be more complex than originally assumed. He’s clearly very smart and loyal, as well as clear eyed about what the Tutsi refugees and Americans want from his country. The ‘witch doctor’ that he takes Glass to is a bit of a problem, in that her character is another well-worn trope, but we do see her taking pleasure in milking Glass of his money.
I also thought that Glass’s two companions were interesting. The third operative is never given a name and next to no character development, but Toni Lin was curious. A Chinese-American female sniper is a rare sight in comics, and that Cunningham had her sleeping with DuPaul but also flirting with Glass was odd. I’m not sure what he wanted to do with her character.
I think this book also needs to be looked at within the context of Vertigo Comics at the end of the 20th century. Vertigo, even before it was given that name, made its name by taking old under-utilized or forgotten DC characters and looking at them from a more mature perspective. It’s the formula that gave us long runs of Sandman, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Shade the Changing Man, and Doom Patrol. Cunningham looked at the old Congorilla/Congo Bill comics, and knew they were a problem, so he appears to have written this to try to redress some of the historic wrongs of that series. I think that, in a 1999/2000 context, he was successful, but today, I would expect that this series would have needed an African or Black writer to get published. And I’d be curious to see what their take would be (I’m currently reading New Masters, by Nigerian creators Shobo and Shof, and would love to see them do some work at the Big Two, although their creator-owned stuff is phenomenal).
One thing I haven’t talked about yet, which was the biggest appeal of this book to me, is the art by Danijel Zezelj. I’m pretty sure this is the first place I saw his art; it was definitely the first place that I noticed him. He covers the page in thick lines and blocks of ink, making the story a little abstract at times, but also full of emotion and foreboding. If you consider the descriptions in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (the image of a boat firing its cannon indiscriminately into a dark jungle has stuck with me), Zezelj’s work is perfect for obscuring much of what we’re meant to see. Even bright days seem dark on his pages, and it’s next to impossible to tell what’s moving around in the jungle’s canopy.
Zezelj, a Croatian artist, reminds me of Richard Corben (who did the excellent covers for this book), but his work is darker and less accessible. I don’t know if I can think of a better artist for this title. His work evokes so many emotions, and he conveys so much with a few lines, like how we are able to tell if the fever has overtaken someone. Lee Loughridge is the perfect colourist for this book, really understanding the palette that fits with Zezelj’s vision.
I’m glad I decided to check out this book again. My fond memories of it hold up, and it leaves me wanting to read more of Zezelj’s work (which, admittedly, has been pretty sparse over the years). It also leaves me curious about other shorter Vertigo works of this era.
Expect another column very shortly, as I want to revisit a one-shot that was written by my favourite superhero writer, but you could argue that he didn’t write it at the same time, featuring two of Marvel’s biggest characters.
If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.
