| I have always enjoyed the adventure, the art of storytelling and the pure fun found between the delicate pages of comic books. Comics have helped me maintain a vivid imagination, kept me reading something, lead me to other books and philosophies and even ignited my interest in visual art. During the early 70s there were little images that reflected anything relating to my experience as a young African-American. When I did find a Power Man book, the stories were lame and it seemed writers made no effort to make black heroes heroic. | 
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I have always enjoyed the adventure, the art of storytelling and the pure fun found between the delicate pages of comic books. Comics have helped me maintain a vivid imagination, kept me reading something, lead me to other books and philosophies and even ignited my interest in visual art.
During the early 70s there were little images that reflected anything relating to my experience as a young African-American. When I did find a Power Man book, the stories were lame and it seemed writers made no effort to make black heroes heroic. Anyone who had never met a black person would think all black men talked jive or had escaped a blaxploitation film. In truth, I’ve always been more Peter Parker than Luke Cage.
Today’s comic conventions and book stores are filled with artists, writers, publishers who come from every background, race and state you could find in the US. For the next few hundred words or so let’s look at the evolving face of the Black Comic Book Super Hero.
It started in a cold New York office. When I attended my first comic convention Marvel and DC were essentially the only companies producing super hero comics in America. Marvel had introduced Power Man as an answer to portraying the Black experience while DC gave us Black Lightning. I met Black Lightning’s creator, comic book veteran Tony Isabella in Philadelphia during the East Coast Black Age of Comics back in May where he presented the GLYPH Award for “Writing an African-American Character.”
Isabella explained how he came to create Black Lightning. “I had worked at Marvel writing here and there. I even did a few issues of Power Man, but I didn’t like the fact he was an ex-con. I had been thinking about a character when I got a call to help develop a script DC had for their first black character.” Isabella laughs as he explains “This was the most racist piece of garbage I had ever seen. The character was a white supremacist that un-knowingly turned into a Black super hero…the script was peppered with intellectual words like ‘jungle bunny.’ I told DC if you print this you’ll have a riot and I’ll be the first one to throw some fire.”
Unlike Marvel’s Power Man Isabella said “I wanted to create a character that kids could relate to.” His vision was to make a person that a kid could look up to whether they were from Beverly Hills, California or the Bronx, NY. Before Isabella came up with a single power he decided that Thomas Jefferson Pierce would be a school teacher. “Every kid has a teacher,” Isabella said, “so right off the bat I felt this would be a character that kids could relate to.”I asked him about how he and his work was received at the ECBAC since he was the only white guy there. “Like family,” he answered with out hesitation. “Attending that event was more like a family reunion than just a comic con. The people that I met all thanked me for developing a positive image of a black man at that time.” Isabella admits he wasn’t necessarily trying to change the world but develop a comic that was fun and that kids would enjoy.
Unfortunately, all of Isabella’s dealings with Black Lightning have not been positive ones. When the Super Friends became a hit cartoon series, Isabella says “Rather than pay me royalties for Black Lightning, Hanna-Barbera chose to rip-off my character.” The character that appears in the first season of the Super Friends called Black Vulcan almost never speaks yet has all of Black Lightning’s powers and wears a costume with the same colors and a similar design.
Welcome to Big City! Black Lightning never took off and to this day is not as well known as Power Man. Black super heroes were never marketed properly at Marvel or DC during the 70s or 80s. Neither company really cared about the characters and kept them around as little more than tokens, while thousands of African-American kids spent real money supporting The Avengers, X-Men, The Hulk, Superman and Batman. Marvel and DC kept a super grip on the industry until Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles finally broke through as a financially successful and popular non-Marvel/DC brand of comic book. Soon Dark Horse comics would follow with successful characters. In April of 1990 readers who longed for quality art and story telling from a black perspective got a front row seat as Big City Comics changed the game.Straight out of Philly brothers Jason (now Dawud Anyabwile) and Dave Sim produced the classic comic book Brother Man Dictator of Discipline. If one man could take full credit for the success of black creators and super heroes today it would be artist Dawud Anyabwile (www.artbydawud.com.) In 1990 Anyabwile created a piece of work that was praised by The Source Magazine and also used in the class room as a way to get young urban kids into reading. Also at the East Coast Black Age of Comics I asked Anyabwile how he came up with Brother Man and his alter ego Lawyer Tony Valor? “First things first, I didn’t want to make the same mistake that other creators before me made. I was not trying to make a ‘black Superman’ or ‘black Batman.’ I wanted to create characters and situations that were solely products of my imagination and the foundation of my reality.”
Anyabwile and his brother had developed the book out of drawings and notes taken while selling air brushed t-shirt designs art at National Black Expos. What their short-lived book did was inspire everybody who touched it for seven issues and then broke our hearts by never putting out issue number eight. Still Big City Comics was the publishing company that could and did. For thousands of writers and artists of color who had comic books they created on typing paper, the genie of self publishing and spreading your vision beyond the people in your role-playing group was out of the bottle.
And here we are, attending the New York Comic Con in February and The Wizard Comic Con in Philadelphia. Back in June it was clear that Marvel and DC had to indeed make room for women, teenagers, Asians and African-Americans as well. Through out the convention centers all types of artists and creators sold unique books, did character sketches and discussed their ever expanding vision for what super heroics on the printed page is and will be in this young century. With today’s advanced technology in printing, computers and communications the next great book by creators of color is often a mouse click away.
Christian and Antonio Montalvo (www.alphagodz.com) are keeping the tradition of brothers/publishers alive that was established by the Sims. I came across their book Revolutionary Warfare/Donni Bling Bling at February’s New York Con. I spoke with Christian about what makes their work unique. He said “a lot of new stuff lacks heart and soul. I try to infuse my comics with just that.” Christian’s goal is to be recognized one day as a major writer/artist in comic book history. “When they write an anthology of who’s who in the industry, I want you to find us there.”
Writer Shaun Noel (www.lonemanstanding.com) who teamed up with artist Abede Lovelace to create a visual literary gem called City of Walls spoke with me at The Wizard Con in Philly about how he’s waiting for some classic characters to be worthy of their place in history. “I think black heroes are just starting to get better.” Noel began “Luke Cage has dropped his yellow shirt and is being written well in Avengers and Dare Devil. Black Panther has had a few high points but I’m still waiting on a definitive take on him he has so much potential.” Noel sees unique potential in comic books in general “I have always been curious about teaching comic books as literature,” Noel explained. “Some graphic novels are a lot better than other material today that is considered ‘literature.’”
Noel’s partner Lovelace believes what’s missing from mainstream is authentic black voices. “We bring something that’s not there right now…women with nice asses,” Lovelace joked. But on a serious note: “There’s an attitude and perspective both literally and visually that black creators bring. Our road is different as is our history and our present. At times our perspectives may be similar but they’re not the same.”
Isa Richardson (www.arsonentertainment.com) creates characters of diverse backgrounds and places them in locales as far away from the projects and urban streets as one could imagine. “I strive to create characters that haven’t been seen before.” In fact, Richardson is striving to tell all of his stories: “As many as I can get out before I die.” He explained “I try to push the old standards of comic creating and see if I can add to the pot.”
As black superheroes, villains and their creators smash their way into the late half of this decade fans and readers of all colors are the real winners. While at The Wizard Con, the thing that made me smile the most was seeing other young kids who like myself some 20 years ago were attending their first convention. Yes, they were able to meet the people who made Superman fly. However, they also were able to do what I wasn’t—shake hands with someone who looked liked they might in the future know that even for girls or for African-American kids there are real people behind the stories.
