Landfall

In Landfall, Maya DeLewis is a stoic and stubborn paramedic who has built an emotional wall around herself following the loss of a beloved friend and mentor. One night, Maya crosses paths with a young, reluctant gang member named Tareen who both robs Maya’s ambulance of drugs and inadvertently taps into Maya’s little-known past with Hoodoo, an old folk-magic practice with which Tareen also has a history. When a hurricane strikes the island, Maya has a chance to help Tareen escape her tormented life in the gang, but she must decide if it’s worth the risk of retaliation from Tareen’s sadistic gang boss, Raven. As the stakes of Tareen’s situation escalate, Maya’s undeniable bond with Tareen begins to chip away at her stony exterior — but will Maya come far enough out of her emotional fortress to save Tareen from Raven’s wrath?

Landfall is a multimedia graphic novel rooted in the author’s own personal experiences as a paramedic and later, a resident of Galveston, Texas. It is also derived from her experience as an adult convert to Judaism, and the seemingly incompatible emotional intersections she stumbled upon between the EMS world and her own spiritual world. This uniquely, digital narrative experience weaves together illustration, photography, and video to tell the story of Maya’s journey, not only through a menacing storm and an unexpected relationship, but also through the complex and neglected world within herself.