{"id":2315,"date":"2023-01-28T20:25:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T20:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/news\/entertainment-2\/black-comix-renaissance\/"},"modified":"2023-01-28T20:25:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T20:25:11","slug":"black-comix-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/news\/entertainment-2\/black-comix-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Comix Renaissance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">CAAMCon celebrated the artistry, history, and power of Black comics, and featured a discussion with &ldquo;Black Panther&rdquo; director Ryan Coogler.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-blackowned-los-angeles-standard-newspaper\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Support_Standard_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"296\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The L.A. Standard Newspaper needs your support so that we can continue to create positive stories about Black communities. $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000. Any amount would be greatly appreciated. -Jason Douglas Lewis, Owner\/Publisher. Donations can be made through Cash App <a href=\"https:\/\/cash.app\/$LAStandard\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/cash.app\/$LAStandard<\/a>, Venmo <a href=\"https:\/\/venmo.com\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/venmo.com<\/a> @LA-Standard-Newspaper, PayPal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/lastandardnewspaper\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/lastandardnewspaper<\/a>, and GoFundMe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-blackowned-los-angeles-standard-newspaper\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-blackowned-los-angeles-standard-newspaper<\/a>. Checks can be mailed to 2415 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure>&nbsp;<\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-2312\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_5757-2_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_5757-2_web.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_5757-2_web-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption><em><strong>&ldquo;Black Panther&rdquo; director Ryan Coogler spoke in front of a packed audience. Photos by Jason Lewis<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G2HUSoRPdA0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<figure>&nbsp;<\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">By Jason Lewis<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Black comic book creators have been showcasing their artwork and story-telling abilities for several decades.&nbsp; But similarly with many areas of the entertainment industry, Black creators have been underrepresented in the mainstream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The California African American Museum (CAAM) recently held the CAAMCon Black Comics Festival, an Afrocentric, independent comic book convention.&nbsp; It gave &ldquo;marginalized creators a space to create work, to fellowship, and to empower themselves both culturally and economically,&rdquo; said the festival&rsquo;s cofounder John Jennings, a professor of media and cultural studies at UC Riverside, a New York Times bestselling author, and graphic a novelist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Jennings is an award-winning comic book creator, and he teaches classes on Afro-futurism, race, politics, comics in contemporary culture, and Black super heroes.&nbsp; He is currently creating a new character for Marvel called Ghost Light.&nbsp; He spoke about the first known foray of comics by and for Black people, which was All-Negro Comics by Black journalist Orrin Cromwell Evans in 1947.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-2302\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/John_Jennings_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/John_Jennings_web.jpg 350w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/John_Jennings_web-257x300.jpg 257w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><figcaption><em><strong>John Jennings<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure>&nbsp;<\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;Orrin C. Evans was kind of the godfather of that,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &ldquo;There was only one issue put out.&nbsp; History is kind of mirky about it, but he might have not been able to continue production because of some racist practices in the industry.&nbsp; And then for a long time you would only see Black comics in the independent Black-newspapers.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">There was a dearth of Black representation in the comic book industry until the underground comics movement in the 1960s and into the 1970s.&nbsp; That interest became more prominent in the 1990s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;In the &lsquo;90s with the interest in Black Sci-Fi, Black horror, and Afrocentric ideologies, you see an uptick in an interest in Black comic books,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &ldquo;With comics like Brotherman, L.A. Phoenix, Sistergirl, Milestone Media, and ANIA Comics; all of these things happened simultaneously in the &lsquo;90s.&nbsp; That kind of fuels some of the first Black comic book conventions.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-2313\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/CAAMCon_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/CAAMCon_web.jpg 900w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/CAAMCon_web-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/CAAMCon_web-768x574.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">CAAMCon and other yearly Black comic book conventions are attracting large crowds because the comic book industry is accessible to a wider range of people than it was in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;Currently I&rsquo;d say that there is a Renaissance of Black comic book creation,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &#8220;One of the major reasons is that you don&rsquo;t have to go through a huge publisher to publish your books anymore.&nbsp; When print-on-demand printing started, that opened up the doors and a lot of people started making their own comics.&nbsp; The web just changed everything.&nbsp; And you have the ubiquity of the tools now.&nbsp; Back in the day it would cost you an arm and a leg to buy Photoshop, or an affordable computer that could have the processing power.&nbsp; But now you can have a subscription to the (Adobe) Creative Suite, which is a very powerful creation tool.&nbsp; There are a lot of things that have leveled the playing field.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Innovation has grown now that the tools to learn how to create comics are easily accessible.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;The quality of the work is what has exploded,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &ldquo;There are some very talented creators out there who teach themselves by watching YouTube videos.&nbsp; The Information Age has helped push the spectrum of what&rsquo;s available.&nbsp; Today is the Golden Age of comics done by Black people.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">CAAMCon was a great experience for people in or looking to break into the comic book industry, for the comic book fans, and also for people who do not follow comics closely.&nbsp; For the people in the industry, this was a great networking opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;One of the things about comic book conventions; yes it&rsquo;s about fandom and showing support, but this is a business opportunity,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &ldquo;A lot of people are picked up for publishing.&nbsp; A lot of collaborations start happening in these spaces.&nbsp; So it&rsquo;s a networking event, and hopefully people can make some money.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For the comic book fan, this event was a celebration of the history of comics by Black people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;They were exposed to a lot of comics and characters that they haven&rsquo;t seen or heard before,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &ldquo;People who are reading mainstream comics are probably used to a lot of Black characters like The Falcon, War Machine, and John Stewart.&nbsp; These are really well done, and well thought out Black independent characters that are not seen in the mainstream.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s like a subculture of characters that you probably have never heard of.&nbsp; And it&rsquo;s a deep culture.&nbsp; I love it when people are introduced to these creators and they&rsquo;re like, &lsquo;Oh my God, there&rsquo;s so much out here.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-2314\" src=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/6S8R2596_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/6S8R2596_web.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/6S8R2596_web-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption><em><strong>The vendors area had several Black comic book creators, including 133 Arts.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure>&nbsp;<\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For people who may not be comic book fans but are fans of comic book movies such as &ldquo;Black Panther,&rdquo; this festival had a lot of Black culture to offer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;For people who don&rsquo;t read comics, this is great if you&rsquo;re interested in Black culture, Black creativity, or Black literacy, or anything dealing with representation,&rdquo; Jennings said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">There was a packed audience on hand to hear &ldquo;Black Panther&rdquo; director Ryan Coogler speak about his journey into the comic book world, and discuss the creation of &ldquo;Black Panther.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For Black children, they were able to see creators and characters who look like them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&ldquo;I think that it was eye-opening for them,&rdquo; Jennings said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I wish that I could have had an experience like this when I was a kid.&nbsp; To see people who look like me creating comics that are just for me. There&rsquo;s still a dearth of representation of Black kids and Black folks in these spaces.&nbsp; For this one day, the kids are the default.&nbsp; Everything is about them.&nbsp; Everything is about their future.&nbsp; Everything is about uplifting Black kids, Black families, and Black protagonists.&nbsp; That&rsquo;s empowering.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">CAAMCon celebrated the artistry, history, and power of Black comics, and featured a discussion with &ldquo;Black Panther&rdquo; director Ryan Coogler.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[2456,2462,2461,2451,2453,1207,2457,295,2423,296,2452,2430,2426,2458,2454,2460,2455,869,2425,2459],"class_list":["post-2315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-2","tag-133-arts","tag-adobe-creative","tag-ania-comics","tag-black-comics","tag-black-comix","tag-black-panther","tag-brotherman","tag-caam","tag-caamcon","tag-california-african-american-museum","tag-comics","tag-dc","tag-john-jennings","tag-l-a-phoenix","tag-mavel","tag-milestone-media","tag-orrin-c-evans","tag-photoshop","tag-ryan-coogler","tag-sistergirl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastandardnewspaper.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}