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comic book

12 mins read

TUSKEGEE HEIRS CREATORS MIX HISTORY WITH FANTASY TO CREATE HIT KIDS COMIC

In 2016, artist Marcus Williams and writer Greg Burnham came out of nowhere with a Kickstarter for a comic book concept that blew everyone away.

They took the real-life story of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps (the precursor to the U.S. Air Force) and updated it with kids and superpowered mechs to create Tuskegee Heirs.

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The story is set 80 years in the future and follows five young pilots who are being trained by a fictional descendant of one of the real-life Tuskegee Airmen. They end up being the last line of defense against an advanced robot army and, in turn, getting an upgrade to their jets, giving them the ability to transform into giant robots.

Needless to say, Williams and Burnham’s concept was a hit, and they made their initial ask of $10,000 in the first three hours of the Kickstarter’s launch. Today, they are three issues in and dropping the first full volume of Tuskegee Heirs very soon.

SYFY WIRE caught up with the creative team at C2E2 to ask what it was like creating their first indie comic on their own and what they would change if they had to do it all over again.

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Growing up, what was your favorite comic book?

Williams: I didn’t have a favorite growing up until someone gave me a Wolverine comic. That was my very first, and it kind of blew my mind. I was drawing Street Fighter and video game characters like Sonic, and then someone shows me this guy with claws popping out of his hands, and he couldn’t get killed because he had healing factor, and it blew my mind! It was drawn by Jim Lee then. So that was my first comic art explosion moment. Then the cartoon came out, and maybe a few months after I got that first book. And now I hate the movies because they ruined what I saw as a child.

Burnham: Spider-Man. I remember my first memories were living in England as a military kid, and the main thing I remember is I’ve always had this Spider-Man toy. He had Velcro on his hands and feet, he went with me everywhere.

So I was just always in love with Spider-Man, but I realized as I get older, it wasn’t just because he was cool but it was because he was young, he was into the arts, he had to have a job, like all these different things. He was realistic. I’m not trying to diss DC, but a lot of their characters were real linear, like just a good person with powers.

So you probably saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse a few times.

Burnham: I bought out a theater for it. Not a whole theater. More like half a theater. Yeah. I’ve seen it many, many times.

So when did you decide creating comics is something you could do for a living?

Williams: I was always drawing on things. I was failing classes because of it. My teachers praised me and also scolded me at the same time. I had no idea I could make a living [at it].

For a long time I wanted to be an animator, until I was old enough to see how much work animation is, and it was then that I decided I didn’t want to be an animator anymore. So comics was it for me.

Burnham: As a kid, I would create my own comics. I was terrible at drawing, but I liked writing. Many years later, after I had kids and moved to Atlanta, I had this idea to do this comic book. I knew I could write, but I couldn’t find anybody [to draw it] until one of my friends introduced me to Williams. And Williams was able to draw the characters the way I wanted them to look and better.

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What was your first published comic?

Williams: My first published comic was Hero Cats of Stellar City, and that was with Action Lab Comics. It was exactly what it sounds like, a bunch of cats who were heroes. The actual creator was like, “Hey, man, you know how to draw cats?” And I was like, “I have no idea. Let’s give it a shot.” He was a comic shop owner who had daughters who loved cats, and he wanted something that he thought would be really easy to market. He was so right, cats are super easy to market, and the fans were some of the most passionate people on the planet.

After that, did you decide to try self-publishing or did you continue to draw other work for other people?

Williams: No, it was directly after. I figured I understood the business enough. I did actually ask a million questions when I worked with Action Lab, I paid close attention to the business side of comics. So that helped me to understand how they make their money as a publisher.

From that, it literally opened up a lot of the conversations I had between my business partner/writer Burnham and myself. Everything up to that point, we don’t know what we’re doing. So it helped a lot once I learned the business.

Why the Tuskegee Airmen? Why Tuskegee Heirs? Where did the concept come from?

Burnham: During a children’s book signing, an older gentleman put the seed in our ear. He was kind of mean in hindsight, actually. He walked up to our table [at a convention], looked at our stuff and said, “This is nice, but you guys should have stuff about pilots and planes. These kids don’t know anything about history …”

Williams told me later that he was thinking about drawing some young Tuskegee Airmen, and then I had the idea to put it in the future. Then he said we should add robots and our heads exploded and it just started coming together.

It has a very manga/anime feel. Were you a fan of manga growing up in anime?

Burnham: I would say I wasn’t as much as a fan as Williams is.

Williams: Any large robot that you can think of. It goes all the way back to VoltronTransformersGundam, of course, when I was younger. Oh, and Macross. When the internet came out I finally understood how many different anime there were that featured giant robots and team pilots. I knew I wanted to do something like this one day, even though I hate drawing machines. So that’s a conundrum.

Why do you hate drawing machines?

Williams: I don’t like straight lines. I hate them. I know it’s stupid, but I love human characters because they’re curved, and animals are too.

So when you did your Kickstarter, did you have any idea that it was going to be as big as it was?

Williams: No. We set our goals for $10K, and we were kind of worried about just meeting that, because we felt that might be a little much for our first time out. But eight hours after hitting the button on Kickstarter, we got $10K. From there, we screamed to ourselves and jumped around a little bit, and then 29 days later it was up to $74K.

And then the first volume dropped how long after that?

Williams: I would say it was at least a good six to eight months after, because we were literally working on the book and building the brand at the same time. So it worked out really well, but it was a lot of work between just two people.

And now you have three issues in total, right?

Williams: Yes. Issue 3 just came out not too many months ago. Now we’re going to have our first volume, our first graphic novel coming out in the next few weeks. So we can get that in the library in schools, which is great.

A lot of libraries and schools can’t take single issues because they’ll get torn to shreds by children. So finally we’ll have the first volume, Issues 1, 2, and 3 sandwiched together for them.

Now that you’ve been through this whole process of successfully creating your first comic, what’s your advice to somebody who wants to do the same thing?

Williams: Really learn the business, so you’ll understand how you’re going to make your money back. Not just the publishing, it’s printing, travel, hotels, all of these things. How you are going to reach your market, what shows to go to, what shows not to go to.

Talk to people that are doing what you’re trying to do and literally make those smart business decisions. It’s no different from any other business. If you open a restaurant and you don’t know how to reach your market, you can be the best chef in the world, you’re still going to have a closed restaurant if no one comes in to eat.

In terms of Kickstarter, the biggest mistake we made was not finishing the book first. That’s the best way to do it, once the Kickstarter is done, you just mail it out. So that was a really hard lesson. You have to grow and change as the industry grows and new methods of selling your products come out. Be flexible and keep learning.

 

Source: SYFY

9 mins read

Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse: Philly’s Black Woman Owned Haven for Geeks

The world of comic books has become big business. Comics that used to cost less than a dollar are now million dollar collector items.

Comic book character-based movies are grossing millions of dollars world wide. Even events like Comic-Con have become huge international conventions, while gatherings like the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention are growing in popularity.SynergyConart2One lady who has taken her love for comic books and turned it into a business is Ariell Johnson, founder of Philadelphia-based, Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse. We recently chatted with her and this is what she had to say:

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How did your love for comic books begin and what is it about them that interests you till this day?

I have always loved fantasy.  He-Man, She-Ra and Thundercats were mainstays for me growing up.  And it was a cartoon that would launch me into the world of comic books. 

The 90’s X-men cartoon that aired on Fox introduced me to Storm, the first Black woman superhero I ever saw, and it was an experience that stayed with me. 

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She was such a powerful and interesting character and I wanted to learn more about her.  I knew she originated in comic books so I figured if I really wanted to know more about her I would need to start reading them. 

A friend in high school was also a huge X-men fan and a comic book collector, so my comic reading started there with his collection.  I started buying my own comics a little later when I was in college.

I still enjoy comics because I love the endless possibilities that they offer.  They can introduce you to entirely new worlds, new universes, and they help you think outside of the box.
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You have described yourself as a “geek”. What does being a geek mean to you and what is “geek culture”?
 
To me a geek is anyone who gets excited about comics, books, movies, television, games, and pop culture.  You can “geek” about anything really. 
You can be a Sci-Fi geek, but not really care about superhero stuff.  You can love table top gaming but hate console gaming.  There are no hard and fast rules that dictate who is a geek, but you know them when you meet them. LOL.
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Geek culture is the realm in which geeks live.  Much like any culture, it is made up of different things from language and style of dress to how you treat another geek when you meet them in passing. 
It is also very broad but the common thread that links all aspects of geek culture is the excitement that those who identify as geeks have for their fandoms.  
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 You have stated that there needs to be more diversity in comic books. Why do you feel it is important for all types of people to see themselves in these publications? 
As I mentioned, Storm was the first Black woman superhero that I ever saw.  I think that if I had never been introduced to Storm as a child I would have probably grown out of my love for geeky things. 
Seeing a black woman as a superhero was life changing for me.  Before, it always felt like I was watching everyone else be the hero, but seeing Storm made me feel like I could be a hero too. 
I didn’t have to be on the sidelines, I could take part in the action.  That’s what representation does, it helps people see themselves in the stories they are reading. 
When you are represented, it’s like someone is saying to you “your story is worth being told…you are worth learning about”.  And that just feels plain old good, everyone wants to be valued.
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 Obviously, you did research before starting your business. What data and statistics let you know that opening Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse would be a great idea?
I spoke to a few different comic professionals and coffee professionals when I was working on my business plan.  My biggest concern was about the comics.  Coffee shops are mainstays in our current way of life. 
The biggest challenges on the coffee side have to do with location and making sure you have a solid customer base that can afford your product.
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Comics are a little different because in addition to being luxury items they are also a niche item.  Not everyone is
interested in comics, so you need to make sure you are in a good location where you will have access to your target market.
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I used demographic research as well as plotting out the location of other coffee shops and comic book stores to choose Amalgam’s location and I used comic industry resources and articles to gauge the current climate of the comic book industry.  
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Where do you get your comic books from and how do you choose which ones to buy?
Most comics come from Diamond Comic Distributors.  They are the exclusive distributors for mainstays such as Marvel and DC.  The independent stuff is a little harder to come by. 
We have to reach out to individual publishers to get those books.  It’s a little more time consuming, but definitely worth it.  We have also had a fair share of creators reaching out to us, asking us to carry their books in our store.  
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How did you finance the business?
Funds from the business came from a few different sources.  My own personal savings, a crowdfunding campaign, support from friends and family, a special loan program through the City of Philadelphia, and traditional loans.  
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 What are your future plans for Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse?
 
We will start holding events in our space starting in February, and we are all really excited about that, but other than that we are just focused on getting settled. 
We’ve only been open for a month, and getting to this point was a really long road.  I just want to take a minute to enjoy the accomplishment before we start thinking about what comes next.  
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What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
 
I think anything worth doing is going to be hard.  You are going to hit bumps and obstacles along the road to whatever you are trying to build. 
Those things are to be expected, but they are still tough to deal with when you have to go through them.  So, the best advice I can give is to surround yourself with people who love and support you and your dream. 
Having my family and friends around me, people who could speak an encouraging word when I had a tough day, was the thing that kept me going even when I didn’t feel like it.  It’s such a small thing, but it makes such a huge difference.
-Tony Oluwatoyin Lawson aka @thebusyafrican