Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 252. What is going on in the comic book industry?!

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Ep. 252. What is going on in the comic book industry?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

0:10
Hello to all the comic fans, Marvel geeks, and all the nerds
0:12
in between. Welcome to another episode of
0:13
Vigilante Vibes podcast where we talk all things Marvel and other
0:16
parts of nerd culture like comics and movies without the
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toxicity that's taken up way too much space in each and every
0:22
fandom. I'm your host, Megan Nicole, and
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today I am so very pleased to introduce a very special guest.
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Today I'm joined by someone who is masterfully shedding a light
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on the lack of Black representation in DC Comics,
0:33
James Porter or Jay Penumbra. Welcome to the show.
0:36
Thank. You I appreciate you having.
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Me, of course. So Jay Penumbra started the
0:43
hashtag DC So White movement to bring attention to the fact that
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DC is purposely leaving out their black characters, their
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black stories, which is a disservice to the black
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audience. As of today, when this episode
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has being recorded, it's been 1177 days since DC published an
1:00
ongoing comic book for a black character in their main
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continuity. So we have a lot to unpack here.
1:08
Yeah, it's, it's crazy because like I was doing the research
1:12
recently when it comes to the idea of figuring out like how
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many ongoings had DC had in their mainline continuity over
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the years. And there's only been 10,
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There's only been 10 in like 50 years coming in January with
1:26
black lightning. So it's like, how is this
1:29
possible? It blows my mind that we're even
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like at this point. And the fact that it hasn't been
1:34
brought up either because when you bring out the statistics,
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I've been to the website I've read, I've stopped your threads
1:41
account every time something new is shared.
1:45
It is so mind blowing because this is the first a lot of
1:49
people have heard about it. And the comments are dude, they
1:53
don't pass the vibe check, which is.
1:56
Yeah, especially Twitter earlier because like some somebody
1:59
posted it like they asked on Twitter earlier, someone was
2:01
like, hey, can you give me a reading guide for Vixen?
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And I'm like, I would if it existed.
2:09
So it's just like, it's one of those things where it's like
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there's never been an ongoing for a black woman in DC.
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Like there's like this idea that the for some reason, black
2:18
doesn't sell. And someone was even like, like,
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like what? What makes Vixen worthy of it?
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And I list all the reasons that she could be the Tyra Banks of
2:26
the DC Universe. She could have this great status
2:29
and like make a statement in the universe that you could elevate
2:32
her in the same way that Aquaman's been done with the
2:35
blue. You could do with the red, like
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there's so many ideas that people could throw out there and
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do for her, but DC is not considering that they're under
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this delusion that black doesn't sell, even though I have listed
2:47
every reason as to why that's not true.
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And yet for some reason people will still say no, that doesn't
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sell, sorry or whatever. And it's just like I I don't
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understand what your logic is. It's crazy the amount of excuses
3:00
people are making for DC. Like DC can see them kind of
3:04
sucking them off in the comments.
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They say black comics don't sell.
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People don't care what color their comic characters are.
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You're being picky because absolute Green Lantern happened,
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even though that's in the absolute universe, not in the
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main timeline. And it's just crazy to me how
3:22
hard they're willing to go just to prove you wrong, but you're
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giving them nothing but facts and.
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And it's like, and, and that's what what's so crazy about it is
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like I, I have, I've done my best to be as critical as I can
3:34
be without being toxic. And that's what I like,
3:37
appreciate like I, I've like found a very like, like pleasing
3:41
the fact that like DC is a block B Snyder has a block me like,
3:44
it's very much being like everything that I'm saying can
3:47
be backed up. Everything that is stated.
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I can pull Comic Con numbers. I can pull like information that
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I've done from behind the scenes as well as on the record.
3:55
Like everything shows that this is the information on display
3:59
and they and it's like, prove me wrong.
4:01
I dare you. And it's like I'm doing in the
4:03
most respectful way possible because there are a lot of
4:05
people that have been trying to like go off the movement and say
4:08
DC is racist or things of that nature.
4:11
And no, it's not. But like the term that I heard
4:13
from behind the scenes that I've been given permission to look,
4:16
to say without like saying who it was, it's like DC is risk
4:20
averse right now. So when I make the joke on
4:24
stream or in videos where I say, oh, you want a vixen book?
4:27
How about five more Batman books?
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It's, it's, it's, it's like meant to be hyperbolic.
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But in reality, it's the true nature of DC right now where
4:36
they're thinking we need to make sure we're staying afloat.
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We cannot take a risk on what's currently the issue at hand and
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that's what's so scary about it. And what's crazy to me, no
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disrespect to any of the comic writers, I don't mean this
4:53
rudely, I don't. But you guys won't put out a
4:56
black ongoing. But you'll give us DCKO.
5:02
It's it's crazy too. And event fatigue is a real
5:06
thing. Like I have been saying event
5:08
fatigue has been existing in comic books since 2017 where we
5:12
had like civil War 2, secret empire.
5:15
There was an Infinity event to tie into the movie.
5:18
Like the marvel like was draining us for a while.
5:21
And then DC was like, here's rebirth and then Suicide Squad
5:24
versus the Justice League. And then there were more things.
5:27
And it's just like, when are y'all going to like give
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everybody a like a two year break without salute listening
5:32
anything, let alone publishing anything.
5:35
Like I would kill for DC and Marvel boat just to like give us
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two years of just stable, consistent status quos, No
5:43
drama. Like the fact that I woke up in
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the day and they were like X-Men event coming.
5:48
And I'm like, didn't we just have an X-Men event?
5:51
Like, yes, yes, they did. They did.
5:54
And that was the one I was going to bring up because it's every
5:56
few months now and it's like the X-Men are already exciting.
6:00
What are you doing? Why do we need this?
6:02
It feels cheap. It feels like you're trying to
6:06
catch lightning in a bottle over and over, and it doesn't work.
6:08
Instead of focusing on the actual characters and their
6:11
stories, you're just giving them this huge event where you don't
6:15
have to put really any thought into any particular character.
6:20
Yeah, and it's like I I even said the longest time that like
6:24
Marvel could have just let Hickman keep cooking with the
6:26
Krakoa era. And like I've been saying for
6:30
the longest time, all you needed to do was just have Destiny walk
6:32
into a room with a gun and take Moira out and let it keep
6:36
publishing. Because y'all even got Krakoa
6:38
still featured in Marvel Rivals. Like you have that going on
6:42
where you could have good plot lines involved in that.
6:44
You can let Storm be on the the Mars and whatnot and let that
6:48
all flow into the continuity, but y'all wasted it.
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And it's like you've alienated fans who are willing to get I'm
6:54
on board with Hickman again. And now it's like you do the
6:57
same thing with the Ultimate Universe where you botched
7:00
Hickman's work again. And it's like, how many times is
7:03
Hickman going to keep walking into a rake before Hickman just
7:06
gets tired of y'all never comes back?
7:07
Like this idea that like he's almost a Geoff Johns of the
7:12
Marvel Universe where he keeps coming back in and fixing your
7:14
nonsense and then you kick him out once you think you don't
7:17
need them anymore. And it's like that's going to
7:19
end up biting them in the rear end at some point, especially
7:21
like or the right now with the Armageddon event.
7:24
So Harski kind of already let it slip that Armageddon's not going
7:27
to lead to a reboot. So no one's really invested
7:30
because they're they're waiting for the refresh.
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They're doing a lot of very questionable things, especially
7:36
with that or Age of Revelation where they started, it was
7:40
saying, oh, it's in the future, so there's no stakes, No stakes
7:43
at all. And then they interrupted every
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single X title for this godforsaken event.
7:51
And then it led to where we're at with Storm Earth's Mightiest
7:55
Mutant. And it's like you guys did it to
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yourselves and you're hurting all the comic creators on the
8:00
way. And they they don't seem to
8:02
care. It's crazy and it's like I'll
8:05
even give Dan slot this Dan slot tried to like tell everybody the
8:08
krabby petty secret formula, which of how like sales work in
8:11
every publisher or you try to explain how pre-orders work.
8:14
And then everyone assumed that like oh, he's begging for marvel
8:17
and it's like no, he's trying to save y'all a lot of hassle
8:21
because it's like if y'all actually supported the way we
8:23
were supposed to, Marvel would stop with this nonsense.
8:26
But y'all keep letting Marvel play in your face with, with
8:29
these relaunches and these gimmicks.
8:30
Like I remember back when Marvel Legacy first kicked off where
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they were like, all right, cool, we're going to stop with the
8:35
relaunches for like 5 seconds and give you legacy numbering.
8:39
But then six months later they said, OK, cool, we're going to
8:41
relaunch, but we're going to give you legacy numbering in the
8:44
little bottom of the number of the of the brackets.
8:46
That way y'all can still do it that way.
8:47
And it was like, what was the point of the legacy numbering
8:50
then? Like it just, it's insane to
8:53
where like there's no hope for just carrying on numbers and
8:59
like the the fans kind of fall for it, if we're being honest
9:02
with ourselves, because they fall for the cover gimmicks,
9:04
they fall for that, the number one push and then in 2345,
9:08
etcetera, they just don't care anymore.
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And I feel like until we change the culture, we're not going to
9:13
change Marvel in DC, which kind of sucks.
9:16
Honestly, changing the culture is the main goal at the end of
9:19
the day. But with both of them, I don't
9:22
think there's going to be an actual big change until someone
9:25
that works at these companies comes out and speaks like
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Stephanie Phillips would never. But if she did come back, came
9:32
out and said this is what they did to Planet She Hulk, I had
9:35
this plan, but they decided to cut it short.
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Or if Maria came out and said this is what they did to Storm,
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this was my plan, this is how we're being treated.
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It won't happen, but that would be the thing to start all of
9:49
this on the right track. And it's crazy because like, I
9:52
interviewed David F Walker a while back and he was kind of
9:54
candid to a certain extent about how both publishers are, but
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it's like he still does a little bit with Marvel.
10:00
So we couldn't speak totally about things, but it's like the
10:03
stories we would have if people actually could speak on things
10:06
would be insane because it's just like they take advantage of
10:09
things. I think about Len Ween when it
10:12
comes to the fact of how he didn't get the respect he
10:15
deserved when it came to Wolverine where it's like he
10:18
doesn't make sense the way people speak on things.
10:23
It's like I like where he did. I don't even think when we got a
10:28
ticket to the last Wolverine premiere where it's like dude
10:32
was a Co creator. Respect that.
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Respect the love that goes into these things.
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Or like how I remember back when comics gate first kicked off and
10:41
Marvel didn't stand on business for all the women who used to
10:44
work at Marvel and now they're not there.
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Like I think of Heather Antos where she's over at valley and
10:48
now like the the ability where you could have stood on business
10:51
and had progression happen in the best of ways.
10:54
Like Captain Marvel has not recovered since the onslaught of
10:57
hate that she got where they were labeling her as Carl
11:00
Manvers and insulting her and all this.
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Then the third, it's like you could have stood on business and
11:05
cared about these creators and your property, but instead you
11:08
wasted it and now Margaret Stoll wants nothing to do with y'all
11:10
like Kelly Thompson with the DC, like you've lost all these
11:13
opportunities because y'all couldn't stand on business.
11:16
Exactly like I want as much as I do agree about Lynn Wien and he
11:20
should have had that respect paid to him.
11:23
The same thing happened to Rob Liefeld.
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And it's like, that's fine. Man, there's going to come a day
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when I like like there's a couple a day where I sit down
11:34
and I finally unload the clip on life, though it's just not.
11:37
It's just not worth it. Because like, where does it get
11:40
you? Yeah, And it's like if you go
11:42
too hard on him, he's just going to like vanity search it and go
11:45
off. And it's like, like it could
11:46
burn bridges. But in reality, he like he's
11:48
burning bridges for himself. He's been real good at that over
11:51
the years. And like I even got into a spat
11:53
with Eric Larson this past week and it was that was that was
11:55
fun. But it.
11:56
Was very. It was very much like tell, like
12:00
tell me where I'm wrong about anything that I'm said.
12:03
And then he was just silent. So it's very much like I even
12:07
when I bring things to the table, other people like, like
12:11
other people will say different things about these creators, but
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I'm just going to like say evidence.
12:15
I'm going to say exactly what's been proven, exactly what the
12:18
receipts are. And if you can like, like
12:21
conflate them, go for it. I would love for you to try, but
12:24
this is what's true. And if you can tell me I'm
12:26
wrong, go for it. And that's what I've always
12:28
appreciated, how you've really taken this whole DC so white
12:33
thing off. I mean, by storm really, because
12:38
you've always presented facts. You've never said they're
12:40
racist. They're this, they're probably
12:43
this, they're probably Klansmen. You know how some people like
12:46
to, it's not that they make it ignorant they, but they make it
12:50
almost a fairy tale villain kind of where you're like, OK, well,
12:54
that's very much based out of emotion and assumptions.
12:58
But you come at them with every fact, everything that can be
13:02
checked, and somehow you still get argued with and it's like,
13:06
what are we doing? I it's crazy too, because like,
13:09
I had a fan who's follows me on Twitter.
13:13
They got blocked by Scott Snyder this past week.
13:16
And they were, like, super sad about it.
13:17
They weren't like, like, they asked me like, what did I do
13:19
wrong? And it's like, I told you what
13:21
you did wrong. Like weeks ago.
13:22
I told you to be respectful, not go off the cuff.
13:25
Like, like, And it was like they very much were like, I should
13:28
have just like, not let my feelings get overwhelmed and,
13:31
like, let my anger rule me. It's like, yeah, like you let it
13:34
like get that way. And I think the biggest problem
13:37
that we have when it comes to certain things is that people
13:40
let these these funny page books, like control everything
13:45
about them. They let these things like
13:47
control every essence that they are.
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And to be fair, like I have them on my wall.
13:51
Like, I care about these stories.
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Like I like, I was traumatized as a young age.
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My first book ever was Batman the Colt.
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Like I like I've been involved in this since I was 6.
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I understand how important these stories can be, but to reference
14:05
what happened with magic during Age of Revelation and people
14:09
wanted to scalp Tim Seeley, I'm like, look, dude's crazy and
14:13
needs to take a reality check. But like saying you're going to
14:16
scalp somebody on the Internet is wild.
14:18
Like it's it's the idea that we put too much of ourselves and
14:22
too much of our emotions into these products.
14:24
But it's like it's just paper. Like there's this great video
14:28
during a documentary of the founder of of Dark Horse Comics
14:32
where he just sat there with a stack of single issues and went,
14:35
it's just paper. He started tearing up.
14:36
He started just tearing it apart and being like, it's just paper.
14:39
And don't get me wrong, the paper matters.
14:41
The representation matters. We could have those
14:43
conversations, but if DC just came out tomorrow and said we're
14:46
never publishing a black on going again, I'm like, alright,
14:48
cool. I'm going to my money elsewhere.
14:49
I'm going to support concrete support all these different
14:52
career. Summit Comics just came out with
14:53
with their 5th Kickstarter and that's been successful.
14:55
I want to make sure that diversity is in the forefront of
14:57
things. But like until DC like changes
15:01
what they're doing, what they say, they're not going to do
15:03
something. I'm going to stand on business
15:05
and report on it and I'm going to make sure that people know
15:08
what's up. But I'm never going to be
15:10
horrible about it. And someone tried to like that
15:11
same person was like, do you think Scott Snyder's racist?
15:14
I'm like, no, that made us tired.
15:16
That made us tired. You can see to his face, I
15:18
remember meeting him back in 2016 at Cincinnati Comic Expo.
15:21
And even there he was tired. That was like right when Metal
15:24
was kicking off. That made us exhausted.
15:26
And he's never had a nap since. So it's like the idea that
15:29
people could say certain things about creators, it just shows a
15:32
lack of knowledge. It shows a lack of information.
15:35
And it. And like in I was even talking
15:37
with someone before the show where I was like, there is a
15:40
barrier between creators and fans that the publishers have
15:45
created. And it's lessened over the
15:48
years. Like, there's less stones in the
15:50
wall because social media has created avenues to talk about
15:54
things, but there's still a lack of information through so many
15:58
people that they think these people are horrible.
16:00
And it's like, not really. Like when you really talk to
16:04
them. Like, there's bad people, sure.
16:05
But like the majority of them are really not who you think
16:08
they are. I think a lot of people, I think
16:11
that's very true and I think a lot of people do get lost in
16:13
that where they're blaming the creators, they're blaming.
16:16
I've seen artists blame too. It's, it's crazy to me because
16:19
at the end of the day, this is all about money.
16:22
You know, maybe these people who are saying no to every single
16:26
black thing is not racist. I, I don't know, I don't know
16:29
them, but I do know they care more about money than they do
16:32
about their black fans. And that tells you something
16:36
there. Yeah, and it's like like you
16:39
like you like there was people for a while that were saying,
16:41
oh, like DC is homophobic and I'm like, they may not.
16:46
They're not homophobic because Poison Ivy's on the shelf.
16:49
Like they're not like horrible against queer individuals
16:52
because they let certain books be published.
16:53
They wouldn't have a pride book every year.
16:55
Like they they're more money focused and granted, Extraneous
16:59
never had a book, but he's getting a Funko Pop.
17:00
But it's like at least they're doing some things.
17:03
Like they've like Dan de Dio, famously, before he was kicked
17:06
out of DC, wrote in the Love is Love anthology that he wanted to
17:10
apologize for Extranio, even though he didn't create
17:13
Extranio. He apologized for the idea that
17:15
he was bitten by an AIDS vampire.
17:17
So it's like there's certain things that are have been said
17:21
in honor or in on the behalf of DC that tells me, no, they're
17:26
not like bigoted. They're just money focused.
17:28
They may have bigoted people working for them at times.
17:30
They may have sexist people that work there at certain times.
17:33
We know the stories of people like that, but it's like they
17:36
just care about money. They want to know what's the
17:37
bottom line and how things are done.
17:39
But I think to myself, how much more money you actually could
17:43
have if you actually cared about the people who are reading your
17:46
stories. Because there's something to be
17:48
said about the sis head white fan who was considered a whale
17:53
in terms of money when it comes to finances who come in every
17:56
week. They're the Wednesday warrior.
17:58
They have certain books that they buy every time they come
18:01
out. But how much more money could
18:03
you get if you actually said, hey black fans or hey, queer
18:06
fans, hey women fans, I'm going to give you more of what is
18:10
valued by you. That way you could get more
18:12
content. And it would be phenomenal if
18:15
they actually did that. But it seems like they don't
18:17
value that type of dollar for some reason.
18:20
I've thought about that myself because, you know, for every
18:23
white fan, that could very well be two black fans.
18:26
So it's like why is that not mentioned in these meetings
18:29
where they shoot down every idea for a black character?
18:34
Also to go back to your point on where you would take your money,
18:37
you guys should check out Midnight Comics because they're
18:40
amazing and shout out to. My she's amazing.
18:43
She is incredible so definitely check them out.
18:47
So it's just like they could do so much more with that where
18:50
it's just like, I don't understand the thought process.
18:53
And like I've been trying to stack up every logical reason
18:57
beyond the three that I gave in the article.
18:59
Where it's like there's the fact that comic shops are not as
19:03
welcoming to people of color or women like you.
19:05
You could probably have like a handful of stories of the things
19:08
that you've dealt with in comic shops where it's like they act
19:10
as if y'all don't know what you're talking about, that you
19:12
don't, that you don't, you shouldn't be there.
19:14
You should go play with dolls or something that's like that.
19:16
Where it's like y'all have to fight for your place at the
19:19
table. So it's like these ideas that
19:21
people have about certain people or fans.
19:24
It's like we, we've been here since the beginning, like we've
19:27
been here since like the like the fundamental like, like
19:29
people would like people wouldn't have half the stuff in
19:32
DC even work for Jeanette Khan. So it's like when people say
19:34
certain things and still trying to act as if they know things.
19:37
It's like y'all have these weird preconceived notions that people
19:41
have told you but in reality no you you know nothing about this
19:45
industry. I completely agree.
19:48
And some of those women are writing some absolute bangers.
19:52
I mean, you have GAIL Simone, Stephanie Williams, Stephanie
19:55
Phillips, you have all these amazing writers that aren't
19:59
getting the attention they they deserve and they have to go and
20:03
put out like they have to hype themselves out on social media.
20:06
We all remember when Stephanie Williams was allegedly doing a
20:10
good job. Shout out to Bleeding Cool, who
20:13
said she was allegedly. That the Dakota incident was
20:18
allegedly going for a second printing.
20:20
So I'm just saying that wouldn't happen to someone else, a male
20:26
white comic creator. That just wouldn't happen.
20:30
So you do have to keep your eyes open for all these things
20:32
because it they put it right in your face, it's right there.
20:35
And now comic creators are speaking out about it, which
20:38
they absolutely should, because it's shedding light on a huge
20:41
problem that there's only one demographic that a bunch of
20:45
comic fans, comic creators, and publishers want to focus on.
20:49
Yeah, it's wild too. I remember Chris Durant, who
20:52
used to be the editor of News Rama, which we saw happen to
20:55
News Rama, but like, he's not the editor chief of Pop Verse.
20:59
He had an idea like back in 2018 where there should have been a
21:04
Comic Creators Union like decades ago, but it it goes back
21:09
to how DC and Marvel were founded where they were
21:12
employing Jewish men. And because that was the only
21:14
jobs they could get back in the day, they would just find
21:17
another way to employ writers, whether it be under scab names
21:21
or like people who just wouldn't work for the money.
21:23
And the quality of the content would be lesser, but it would
21:27
still be taking advantage of people because they don't want
21:30
to actually work within the confines of unions that they
21:32
don't have to. Like I have heard the horror
21:35
stories of artists who said they can't afford healthcare because
21:38
of the stuff that goes on in the industry.
21:40
So it's just like people act as if they know how these creators
21:44
operate. But it's like I remember hearing
21:46
the stories of certain creators who like saw their work beats
21:49
harnessed by DC and Marvel and ended up like, like taking their
21:52
own lives. Like I think of Steve Gerber a
21:55
lot of the time about how how he all he wanted to do was do right
21:58
by Howard the Duck and Marvel wouldn't let him because that
22:01
the corporate fat cats didn't want to do right by Howard.
22:03
So it's just like people think they know certain things, but
22:07
these publishers don't really care as much as they say they
22:10
do. They care about the finance part
22:12
of it at the end of the day. I mean how every other week you
22:16
see someone who was an iconic comic creator, iconic artist
22:21
that are fighting for their lives of cancer or something and
22:24
they can't afford any of it. Meanwhile, their character that
22:29
they created is getting a movie made about him.
22:32
Yeah, it's crazy. I remember when like one of the
22:35
comments Gators tried to sue Mark Wade and Mark Wade had to
22:38
start a like a go fund me for it.
22:39
And then like dude, dude ended up losing the case.
22:42
It's just like these ID like, and granted there's certain like
22:45
programs like there's the comic creative legal defense Fund and
22:48
there's things like that, but those are like like charity
22:51
things. Those are like found like
22:52
foundations. They're not like things that are
22:55
being done on behalf of the publishers.
22:57
And it's crazy to me how like people act as if they understand
23:01
certain things about the industry.
23:02
When I started to be like the little girl from House of MI
23:06
started to be Leila Miller and be like, hey, that's not how
23:09
sales work. That's not how sales work.
23:11
pre-orders matter. People were blown away.
23:13
Like I do like Wednesday Warrior, like major content
23:17
creators of the space who make new comic book day videos or
23:20
like that's how that works. And I'm like, bro, you don't
23:23
even know how this industry works and you're buying books,
23:25
like hundreds of dollars of books, although although on the
23:28
monthly and you don't know how this industry works.
23:30
Like that's insane to me. And it's just people try to act
23:33
as if they that they're like well respected opinions about
23:36
things. They try to say certain things.
23:38
So the idea that someone could say I'm like a publisher is
23:40
racist doesn't make any sense to me at the end of the day.
23:45
Yeah, I've seen a lot of people who are very unaware of the
23:48
whole pre-order thing and how that works in the same breath as
23:52
saying, oh, well, that's because DC is racist.
23:54
That's because marvelous sexist. And it's like, well, wait, well,
23:58
let's calm down. There's so much more that goes
24:00
into it, and you don't know a lot of it.
24:03
So I do think education is key in making a change.
24:08
And that's clearly what you've you're doing as well with DC so
24:12
white. So where do you want to see DC
24:16
so White go? Well, stage 2 happens on May
24:21
28th. I'll say that much about stage
24:23
2, but in terms of the goal, what the entire like pushes,
24:29
it's very much focused on trying to create equity.
24:32
It's the idea of if people say black books don't sell, all
24:37
right, fine, let's put one to three books up.
24:40
Let's properly promote them. Let's not have a Dakota a code
24:44
incident situation again where you have creators themselves
24:48
paying out of pocket to make trailers for them and you not
24:53
caring about them. Let's not have that incident
24:55
again. Let's you actually learn how to
24:57
be a social media platform and actually promote the content
25:01
because for some reason it seems like DC social media.
25:04
It doesn't know what the heck they're doing half the time you
25:06
actually tell people how the books work, you stop living in
25:10
this idea of a plausible deniability and stop just
25:13
relying on comic shops to explain things.
25:16
And obviously the the idea of of of digital can't really be
25:20
addressed right now. We just saw the last person from
25:23
Comixology just like get fired. But it's like in the like, at
25:26
the very least promote them well, explain how the sales work
25:31
to a certain extent and give them a fair shot and leave them
25:35
on the table for like 1824 months.
25:37
Give it solid 2 years, if not a year and a half because you're
25:41
going to have individuals that want to pick this up and trade
25:45
you and I both know parents all the time will be like this $20
25:50
book has six issues of a comic book in it.
25:53
This one issue is $5. What's the better value for my
25:58
child or what's the better value for me as a parent who's still a
26:02
fan This like let's actually think about this before we just
26:05
throw away the idea of a trade and actually count the trade
26:09
pre-orders in the trade sales over the course of a year.
26:12
That way people actually can look at that because a perfect
26:15
example is when Mr. Terrific Year One was coming out, people
26:19
didn't know there was a book for Mr. Terrific.
26:22
By the time the Superman movie came out, for some reason DC was
26:25
like, we're going to drop the first two issues before the
26:27
movie comes out. And comic stores were like, oh,
26:29
well, no one's going to buy this black book.
26:31
So we're not going to pre-order, we're not going to buy copies of
26:33
it. And now there's hardly any
26:35
copies of the issue one out in the ether.
26:37
So it's like this idea where you actually have to give people the
26:41
attempt to try. And you and I both know that
26:44
publishers have meetings and talk with the, the, the comic
26:47
shops that like, like great of those are optional.
26:49
Not a comic shop speaks to the the publishers, but the
26:53
publishers can easily go to comics pro or go to these
26:56
different events and be like, Hey, we're going to do this
26:59
push. We want you to believe in this.
27:02
We want to promote these, try to buy them for a little bit, give
27:06
it a shot. Don't just throw them over.
27:08
We're putting a list talent on the book.
27:10
That way it has a high chance of success.
27:13
We want to actually believe in what we are being told from from
27:17
the fans that black books can sell.
27:20
Because the idea of you saying black books doesn't sell doesn't
27:23
work if you have false, if you have like falsified or even
27:26
incomplete data. Because if if like if you look
27:30
at a book like Black Lightning from last year, the PR was
27:35
horrible. You didn't tell anybody like
27:37
what was going on. They don't know how the system
27:39
works. And it had a horrible sales or
27:42
power company recharge. Power company recharge was
27:45
supposed to be the idea of you launching basically the crew for
27:49
DC be a whole team of black superheroes.
27:51
But hardly anybody knew about it, even though you had the
27:55
creative team on on social media trying to tell people, not
27:58
everybody follows the social media, like like those people on
28:00
social media. So the idea of actually telling
28:03
people how the books work and actually promoting them, right,
28:07
maybe even, I don't know, go out of the comic sphere of
28:11
influence. When you finally do announce a
28:13
Static book, maybe go out there and tell people, hey, you know
28:18
how you're watching Static on Toby because we gave the license
28:22
to Static to Toby. Maybe you could go pick up that
28:25
Static book at your local comic book shop.
28:27
Maybe you could go pre-order it because that's how sales work
28:30
and we're not just going to trust the comic shop to tell you
28:32
that. You could go pick this up at
28:34
your local comic shop or add it to your pull list at your local
28:37
comic book shop. And that way you can tell DC, us
28:40
at DC you want more Static content because we constantly
28:44
hear y'all say y'all want a Static movie.
28:45
How about you go read some Static content?
28:48
That one we can see if you actually would want a static
28:50
movie. You said a lot, and I agree with
28:54
a lot of it. The part about Static is the one
28:57
that got me because I've had such a beef with Batman.
29:01
Static Beyond, right? I was like this is my first.
29:04
YouTube video next week. I'm excited about that.
29:06
I'm very excited to see what you say because I have so many
29:09
thoughts on it. It's like, I was hyped because,
29:12
like, I think Static really raised a lot of us.
29:15
You know, we all, like, went through that.
29:18
And I was like, Oh my God, they're going to combine Terry
29:22
and Static and everything's great.
29:24
And then I read it and tell me why Static is nothing more than
29:28
an assistant in that miniseries. And I know that DC looks at it
29:36
and says, see, they don't want black characters.
29:38
They don't sell but OK. I want to know how many people
29:41
bought the first a shoe and then slowly tapered off because they
29:46
people were hyped when it first came out and then now it's kind
29:49
of like The Walking Dead thing where you're like, so when did
29:51
you stop reading it? And it's crazy too.
29:56
And it's like I, I, I, I made this, I, I talked about this on
30:00
a, on a show this past week where I said if they would have
30:04
actually promoted that book, more people would have been
30:07
excited about it. Like a perfect example of that,
30:10
I reached out to Evan Narcis and Nicholas Draper Ivy for an
30:14
interview about that book. DC didn't reach out to me and
30:18
say, hey, do you want to interview these people?
30:19
Like they didn't they didn't reach out to comic Pop or comics
30:24
explained and say, hey, do you want to interview these creators
30:27
because you're 2 of the largest book like comic platforms in the
30:29
space. Like they're not going out of
30:31
their way to trust the fact that that social media has evolved.
30:35
Like I had, I was on someone's podcast a few months ago and
30:38
they were like, I didn't know Static had a book back during
30:41
2021. And it's like, how did you not
30:44
know that? It's this idea that people
30:46
aren't being reached outside of the basic comics to like the
30:49
comic book news platform press release, because you've seen the
30:53
press releases, I've seen them. The idea that it's one e-mail
30:56
that's all you get. It's one like e-mail.
30:58
Everybody shoves it out because almost like most like comic web
31:02
news websites regurgitate the same press release and then they
31:04
keep it pushing. It's like, that's not a knock on
31:07
what we do. It's not like as journalists,
31:09
it's not a knock on what we do. It's just what is protocol?
31:12
And we'll have op eds and things that expand on things, but
31:15
that's just part of the culture. And so much of that is
31:18
dismissed, so much as that is thrown out without the pasture.
31:22
And it's like in 5 minutes, no one's going to be thinking about
31:25
that. But why are you actually trying
31:27
to reach fans? Because you can't say, oh, fans
31:30
didn't buy it if fans don't know about it.
31:32
It's like that, that metaphor people say when it comes to
31:35
absolute Batman as of late, where they're like, oh, well,
31:38
the these sales are helping everybody else's sales.
31:40
That means that's good, right? Like all tides, like the rising
31:44
tide lifts all ships. And I'm like, you can't have a
31:47
rising tide lift all ships if the ships aren't in the water.
31:52
Yeah, like that's what I've been kind of like telling people if
31:54
if there's no ship in the water to lift, how is it going to
31:57
lift? And it's it's very true.
32:01
There has been a huge thing going on when they're like, oh,
32:06
well, DC is doing fine. Absolute Universe is doing
32:08
great. And it's like, OK, but like
32:11
Absolute Universe might not be here forever and it hasn't been
32:13
here forever. There's other characters that DC
32:17
has built on that they've given nothing.
32:20
A lot of their comics have given us nothing.
32:23
And but then. But hey, the absolute's doing
32:25
great. And see, there's been a lot of
32:29
like black fans or regular fans who have been like, I want an
32:32
absolute static book, absolute black, black Lightning book or
32:36
absolute Mr. Terrific book and A no B.
32:42
The idea of that is like, like it spits in the face of the idea
32:47
of the fact that we need mainline content.
32:50
We need like, like, like to be able to say that we have stories
32:53
because I did I, I literally did the math of the day.
32:56
There's never been a omnibus for a black character at DC.
33:00
So it's like we need content, we need good content to be able to
33:05
publish and put into stuff that way people can put on their
33:07
shelves. Like there's whole TikTok
33:09
accounts and YouTube accounts devoted to omnibuses and things
33:12
of that nature. So it's like you need people to
33:15
actually be able to like collect things and have in their hands.
33:18
But also, and here's the tough lesson that that no one's going
33:21
to really understand. While we jokingly say that Al
33:25
Ewing is the Greg Rucker of black people, where we we like
33:28
let him do his thing because he does what he does well for Black
33:30
folks. Absolutely.
33:33
Lantern not only is an ensemble story, but it focuses more on
33:38
the military as well as the queer experience rather than the
33:43
black experience. And here, like the lesson that
33:46
people need to understand is an absolute black book wouldn't be
33:51
what you think it would be. DC is not going to let a writer
33:53
go in and actually give you the black experience.
33:56
In fact, I would even argue that the closest you would ever get
33:59
to an absolute static book is the original static run by
34:03
Dwayne Mcduffie because it actually gives you the black
34:06
experience. It talks about racism, it talks
34:08
about homophobia, it talks about gang violence.
34:11
It actually gives you a real perspective on things.
34:14
It doesn't sugarcoat anything and that that's what we love
34:18
about the absolute universe because it gives us a new
34:21
perspective. It gives us new, new fun things,
34:23
but it it's it's even harsher on reality in some cases, like we
34:27
saw with the annual for absolute Batman, It doesn't sugar could a
34:30
lot of things and actually tries to give you targeted messaging
34:32
in a lot of cases. So I, I really want to
34:36
challenge, I'm probably going to make a video about this like the
34:38
I want to challenge fans to understand that an absolute
34:42
black book would be volatile and and not around for a long time.
34:47
But also it wouldn't be what you think it is because DC can't
34:52
even give you the black experience and mainline.
34:54
How are they going to give you the black experience in the
34:56
absolute universe? All they're doing is setting up
34:59
for the future, for when they say it didn't feel like the
35:02
absolute universe, it didn't feel like it should.
35:05
They should have done this. And it's like, but what you're
35:08
saying is right, Like there's no winning there whatsoever.
35:13
It's just ridiculous. But I mean, I love what you said
35:18
about the Mr. Terrific series because that was the point I was
35:21
going to touch on as well. That year one was what, a six
35:26
issue miniseries, right? And that's that's all they've
35:30
gotten. And then, you know, there's
35:32
Batman and Static beyond, but like that's not main continuity.
35:38
And there's just so many different instances, like how
35:40
Miles Morales was left out of Superman and Spider Man.
35:43
It's there's so many little things that you don't realize
35:47
until someone else points it out.
35:49
So I think it's very important to point these things out.
35:52
Yeah. And it's like to even like flow
35:55
back the idea of someone saying that, like Scott Snyder is
35:57
racist. I don't think like that, that
35:59
that's the perspective I want people to have.
36:02
I want people to question the idea that how if you're in
36:06
charge of a whole publishing initiative and someone pitch in
36:09
like in like he even said in an interview or on social media
36:12
that all the books that are being published were just what
36:14
was pitched and what was selected.
36:16
But I'm sitting here going, if you look at a whole list of
36:21
books that are being published and all you see is a sea of
36:25
white, why doesn't that bother you?
36:28
Why doesn't that bother you? The idea that there is no black
36:32
story, There is no Spanish story, There is no, like, LGBT
36:36
story beyond the one you're giving them in June.
36:38
Like, yeah, Harley and Ivy are queer, but like, that's barely a
36:42
footnote in the story unless it's being done by somebody with
36:44
intent. Like, yeah, G Willow Wilson is
36:46
by putting, like, a, like, hand to fist and is trying to
36:49
actually give you some queer content.
36:50
But that wasn't even part of Next Level.
36:52
That was something that was being done and is being kept
36:55
alive by Poison Ivy fans because they're they've been happy to
36:58
get something. But it's like the idea of
37:01
where's a Midnight or an Apollo book?
37:03
That woman's getting a shot, but only because her creator is
37:06
being a part of the initiative. Like if like I, I, I, I question
37:11
if we would have gotten a Batwoman book if some random new
37:14
like queer writer came in and wanted to pitch it like that.
37:17
That's the concern, is that are you actually hearing pitches or
37:22
are you hearing pitches from the same handful of people?
37:24
Because Jeff Lemire, I love them.
37:26
I love Jeff me to death. I own the By the Library
37:29
editions of Black Hammer. I say that Black Hammer is a
37:31
better watchman than watchman, but you couldn't.
37:34
You can't tell me Jeff Lemire would have listened to the
37:37
critique. Hey, can we have Jason in there
37:40
instead of Ronnie for for Firestorm?
37:42
Like you can't tell me that some of your other writers wouldn't
37:45
have been open to writing something else if you would have
37:48
had the conversation with them. It's just, it's, it's
37:53
unconscious thought when you're so used to a certain status quo
37:58
of, oh, my whole life is white people.
38:01
So obviously this is okay, right?
38:03
Like it's the idea of it's just your ordinary life.
38:06
So you're not thinking, Hey, when have we done this last?
38:11
When have we done an ongoing for a black character?
38:13
But then when you put the data in front of them, they go, oh,
38:16
that's really bad. It's like they like you, the
38:20
idea of actually seeing the actual data and thinking about
38:24
it where it's like, why wasn't this on your mind to begin with?
38:28
Why wasn't there any thought to the fact that the same few
38:31
characters are getting opportunities or like the whole,
38:35
the whole point of DC next level was to bring up minor
38:38
characters. But then when I saw the slide
38:40
from New York Comic Con, I was like shadow of the bat.
38:45
Where have I heard that before? Bad, bad, like I've heard bad a
38:49
lot as of late. That doesn't sound like a minor
38:52
character book like that bothers me where it's like we there's
38:57
plenty of bat content. Half the line if not, but the
39:00
majority of the DC line is bat or bat adjacent.
39:04
So it's like when are you going to stop leaning on did your cash
39:08
cow and try to have some more animals in the farm?
39:11
Like you have to start thinking about that a little bit when it
39:13
comes to the rest of your your publishing line.
39:17
I completely agree. And it the fact is like they do
39:20
look at these pictures and they do they don't it's it's like, I
39:23
don't want to say they don't see color because I don't know them,
39:26
but I do know they see dollar signs.
39:28
They know what'll sell and they're like, you know what?
39:29
Another Bat one another Bat family centric comic will just
39:34
do the trick. And I just want to say, some of
39:37
us are really tired of Batman. See, I, I said something
39:42
recently where I was like, Batman is like the aura Boros of
39:46
comic books where he, he, he is the thing that is keeping it
39:52
afloat, but it's also the parasite of comic books where
39:56
it's sucking away the potential of any new ideas while single
40:01
handedly keeping certain things afloat.
40:05
And it's like, it's kind of how for 20 years, well 20 plus
40:09
years, give or take, Diamond was the thing that kept comic books
40:13
afloat for so many deck like So what so long of time to where
40:17
I'll even say it. I've said, I said it on social
40:19
media 2 days ago, whatever opposed to Jimmy Poliani made, I
40:22
was like, I kind of missed the days where we had a monopoly
40:25
because then we had transparent sales data.
40:28
So it's like, I, I missed that time period because Diamond
40:32
every month would be like, here's the monthly sales charts.
40:34
Here's what all your books made. Have a good day.
40:37
And it's like, I kind of missed that because that was a time
40:40
period where you actually could like have transparency and
40:43
everyone was beholden to that. But at the same time, it took
40:46
literal bankruptcy for a monopoly to end.
40:50
And I'm kind of sitting here like, when is the bat trade
40:53
going to finally fall off the rails for the industry to
40:55
finally realize that one billionaire needs to not be the
40:59
focal point of our university board?
41:03
And even when he's not the focal point, he's always there, just
41:06
like in everything. And it's look at, look at DCKO.
41:10
He he they had to eject him from the whole event.
41:13
That way he wouldn't be the focal point.
41:15
And then he still was a focal point.
41:17
Like I won't lie, Batman Knight fight was phenomenal.
41:21
I loved that little mini series. But at the same time, it's like
41:26
he could have took taken the squat somewhere.
41:28
He could have just sat somewhere.
41:29
We didn't need it. It's whatever DCKO happened,
41:33
we've we all have to come to terms with it.
41:36
But it makes me sad too because like Tim Drake is my favorite
41:39
Robin. Like Tim Drake is what got me
41:40
into comics. When I first started collecting
41:42
comic books, I was collecting Geoff Johns teen Titans and like
41:45
I still say like top five Tim Drakes were my favorite
41:47
characters of all time. But I'm also just like I'm so
41:51
tired of Batman. It's exhausting.
41:56
It's. There was a weird feeling of
41:59
guilt when they announced A Batwoman comic coming.
42:03
And I was like, I mean, that's cool.
42:06
But at the same time, you know, he's just always there
42:10
somewhere. So something I do appreciate
42:17
that I feel like is everyone's all the trolls go to to say to
42:21
you when you talk about DC so white, they're like, all right,
42:23
what about the Latinos? What about the Asians?
42:27
And I really appreciate how you put it where you say you don't
42:32
realize that of changing this changes it for everyone.
42:37
So what are your thoughts on that?
42:39
I want to pull up something that really made me happy.
42:43
Artist Mike Choi replied to my repost about this.
42:47
Because I've had it happen a couple times and I've kind of
42:49
ignored it. I wasn't going to mention it.
42:51
Other people have defended me in the comments when people say
42:53
that. But I finally got to a point
42:55
where I said something like last week and I was like, there's
42:58
been a number of folks who have done this trying to question why
43:01
we ain't writing for like, oh, all marginalized groups.
43:05
But here's the secret. We are writing for all
43:08
marginalized groups because we talk about the pre-order system,
43:10
we talk about digital not being considered.
43:12
We talk about trades not being considered.
43:14
This is for everybody. The heck, I'll even keep it a
43:18
bean. This is for green Arrow too,
43:21
because green arrow got fucked over by the the fact that
43:23
they're the sales are tracked right, Because I I've known a
43:26
fans in other countries who said they were reading green arrow
43:28
when it got canceled. So it's like this is for
43:31
everybody. But I loved what artist Mike
43:34
Choi said in my in my comments where he said this in all caps.
43:38
He said this as an Asian person, Please don't use me in your all
43:42
lives matter ING. It's this idea where it kind of
43:46
goes back to like Black lives Matter, where it's like Black
43:49
folks brought up this issue, but then people would say, no, Black
43:55
lives don't matter, all lives matter.
43:57
And it's like that's not the point of the the conversation.
44:02
It's the it's the idea that black folks are being disparaged
44:06
in this category as well. Y'all could say something if you
44:11
want to. We're not going to have a
44:12
problem with you Co opting the movement and standing alongside
44:15
us. You're just choosing not to.
44:17
And we've even got some pushback in the past few weeks when it
44:20
comes to building up for stage 2 where some people have been
44:24
like, what about LGBT characters?
44:27
And I'm sitting here like, hey, there's a brand new LGBT
44:32
anthology coming out from Tidy Onion, from Dark Horse, all
44:36
about like, like slowly like, like queer monsters and monster
44:39
relationships that looks phenomenal.
44:42
Has tidied, has a Jatsia who's also working on the DC Pride
44:47
book, has Vidala looks phenomenal.
44:51
Why don't you go spend your money on that?
44:52
Well, why, why, why are you so worried about DC Pride when you
44:57
can go read that? Why are you?
44:59
Why? Why is that like why are you
45:01
looking to DC for your like what, one month a year fix when
45:05
there's other publishers that are giving you queer content re
45:08
year round? Like image is very well like
45:12
versed to give you queer constant all like like very
45:15
annually. Vault Comics has like queer
45:18
content, but Vault Comics is one of the most like adult queer
45:22
books I've seen in a long time called Money Shot.
45:25
Like, and that doesn't tell you what the title of that book
45:27
does. I don't know what it will.
45:28
So it's like when people say certain things or like hell,
45:31
Titan. Titan is very well known for
45:33
having queerness put in the main forefront of his books, whether
45:36
it be department of Truth, whether it be like a sick tick,
45:39
whether it be freaking exquisite corpses, like there's something
45:43
there's a little bit of gay in all one of them and y'all are
45:46
supporting those. Why?
45:48
So it's just what people will try to be performative and what
45:51
what like go to Bat like you were saying earlier for like a
45:54
like $1,000,000 company. I'm just going to sit here like
45:58
those crumbs taste real good, don't it?
46:00
Like that's all I got for them. It's just like y'all be really
46:02
hungry for them crumbs. But in reality, you going to be
46:04
eating a whole feast or at least a happy meal and not be doing so
46:08
dirty to yourself. So it's just I want people to
46:11
aspire to more. There was something that Kofi
46:14
Kingston the wrestlers have this past week when it came when it
46:17
when there was the conversation being brought up about like him
46:22
like him and Xavier Woods being like parting ways to the WWE
46:26
where he said don't let let somebody I'm paraphrasing, but
46:31
he said don't like let somebody like give you less than what
46:35
you're worth. And if you're telling me that
46:39
that that DC is allowed to say that Black people are worth 10
46:44
ongoings in less than like in less than 50 years, in 50 years
46:49
in January, I have a problem with that.
46:52
Like if you're telling me that DC can say that Black people are
46:56
only allowed one book to ever cross 50 issues, and that's
47:00
steel, I have a problem with that.
47:04
That makes sense. No, it makes total sense.
47:06
There's I think this whole issue has brought out a lot of
47:11
intrusive thoughts that people meant to keep quiet and they did
47:14
not. For what it's worth to anyone
47:17
listening who will comment somewhere saying it is all lives
47:21
matter. All lives matter can't doesn't
47:24
work if black lives don't matter.
47:26
It's just simple math. So make you know, take that with
47:30
you, keep it in your pocket and pull it out when you feel
47:33
confused. But yeah, it is 100% shown.
47:38
So many ignorant thoughts. So many people who are like, I
47:42
leave my white comics alone. We leave my white characters
47:45
alone and no one's attacking them, no one's doing anything.
47:48
You're just asking for more representation, which is your
47:51
right to as someone who spends money on the comic book
47:53
industry, someone who's a fan of these characters, and someone
47:56
that is heavily involved in the comic book industry.
47:59
And it's like the conversation when it comes to pre-orders,
48:02
digital sales and things of that nature.
48:04
It affects the entire industry because when you really think
48:07
about it, how many more indie publishers would benefit from
48:10
the idea that digital is actually considered more where
48:13
or trades are considered more or if the pre-order system is
48:16
understood. Like we, we know so many comic
48:19
shops that have like big DC sections, big Marvel sections
48:22
and then indie books are confined to your pull list
48:25
because they don't see value in indie titles.
48:27
How many indie titles? Like I, I challenged a bunch of
48:30
content creators a while back where I was like, look, I just
48:33
interviewed a comic book store owner where he says our new
48:37
Comic Book Day videos are having such an adverse effect where all
48:40
they see is the absolute Batmans, the DCKO, The Amazing
48:44
Spiderman or Ultimate Spiderman. They're not seeing hardly any
48:47
pickups of indie titles. What if y'all pick up one or two
48:51
indie titles per new Comic Book Day video and try new things?
48:54
And it had an effect where you see some creators making like
48:57
whole dedicated Fridays or Saturdays to promoting indie
49:00
comic books. And you're seeing people like
49:02
Ignition Press and Vault Comics be able to or like Tiny Onions
49:06
been giving opportunities to content creators to like, pimp
49:09
out their books. So it's just when people look
49:12
outside of the sphere of influence that has been the big
49:15
two for so many years, you'll find some of your favorite
49:17
stories of all time. I say books like Wasted Space
49:20
from Vault Comics or Bitterroot or Philadelphia are some of my
49:24
favorite books of all time over the big two because they have
49:28
given me some of the best refreshing stories of all time.
49:32
Some of the things that have impacted me the most by just not
49:35
being there, they've been elsewhere.
49:37
I told Ted Sikora one time, the writer of Wasted Space, that his
49:40
story saved my life when I was in one of the darkest periods of
49:43
my life. And it's like be to be able to
49:46
like because it was the idea of one guy being able to say I'm
49:50
going to refuse my destiny and go like take the truth to the
49:54
world. And I was put in a book that
49:58
hardly anybody knows about to this day.
50:00
And it's like y'all could be read these amazing story and
50:04
like what's funny enough, the guy who's doing the artwork for
50:06
absolute Wonder Woman did the art for that book.
50:09
So it's like y'all could have amazing stories at the your
50:12
fingertips right now if you just put the Cape shit down and go
50:16
look elsewhere for 5 minutes. It's very true, and if you've
50:20
ever taken a dive into the indie comic book community, you'll see
50:24
that a lot of these comics are so much more relatable.
50:28
You'll find something that can just sing to your soul in a way
50:31
that Marvel and DC just can't. They're all superheroes all the
50:35
time. Indies are not saying that
50:38
Marvel and DC aren't created with passion, but Indies are
50:40
created with a different kind of passion that you can't really
50:44
find anywhere. These are people who put
50:47
everything into making this, not knowing if it would be
50:50
successful, if it be, if they would even be approved.
50:54
And here they are killing it and you guys are going for another
50:57
Batman title. And it's crazy too, I can only
51:00
say that I have a tattoo of 1 comic book and that's this like
51:08
I got this tattoo of the Aquaman.
51:10
Tried it because of the movie, because Jason Momoa made a
51:14
really good speech about being biracial that wasn't about the
51:17
comic book. Because they hard, they hardly
51:18
ever focus on his biracial side. They like they focus on being
51:23
outside every time the time, but they you they don't speak to it
51:26
at the level that the movie did. But I can say that I have a
51:30
tattoo because of James height of the forest work on House of
51:33
Slaughter along with Tabe Brumble.
51:34
I can't say that about DC as a whole because they're not
51:38
challenging norms. They're not challenging ideas.
51:41
They left that to James Ward, the writer of the movie of
51:44
Aquaman to make that stand versus with Arthur Curry in the
51:48
comic books. I ain't really seen him stand on
51:50
business in a long time. And I was I'm more attached to
51:55
Jackson Hyde that I am Arthur Curry.
51:57
So it's like these ideas of people trying to say that comics
52:02
aren't great. No, like you and I were talking
52:04
before the show, some people take like passion for comic
52:07
books too far. But there is ways to be
52:10
passionate about comic books and not be toxic.
52:13
There's ways of being passionate about this medium and a
52:16
mattering and I would say indie comic books have given me some
52:19
of the most passion I've ever had about the medium ever.
52:22
And I like like literally I told James to do his face last month.
52:26
I was like, you have made me some of the happiest I've ever
52:30
been in comic books to the point I got a tattoo.
52:33
So take that with pride. There has been times where I've
52:36
read an indie comic that just. It does change you in a strange,
52:42
strange way that that can't be touched by the bigger, more, I
52:47
don't know, commercial comics. If we if like the power fantasy,
52:54
if no one's read it, it's by Karen Gillan and it Gillan.
52:57
Karen Gillan. I've never said his name out
52:59
loud, Jeff. Kiff, whatever, it's fine.
53:01
Yeah, yeah. But that is some of the most
53:03
complex storytelling I've seen in quite some time about a
53:07
superhero, about superheroes that's starting from the
53:10
absolute beginning. And that's an indie comic.
53:13
You guys should absolutely check, check that out.
53:15
There's so many hidden gems in the indie industry that just
53:19
aren't getting the credit it deserves.
53:22
Or like out like I'm like I've even told people to this day,
53:25
like whenever I have like a female fan come to me and want
53:28
me to get them a book recommendation.
53:29
I'm like, look, you can read Wonder Woman.
53:31
You can read like Captain Marvel.
53:33
You can read any like superheroes, she Hulk, whoever.
53:36
I'm a hand you bitch planet by Kelly Suter Connick first,
53:39
because that way you read some indie shit, you know about the
53:42
industry, but you're empowered while you do it because bitch
53:45
planet puts that like that that that that the kick to your ass
53:48
and be like, don't put no with no bullshit up.
53:50
That's going to be the book that like put like gives you a little
53:52
bit of drive and puts a little bit of fire in you because you
53:55
deserve to read this industry. You deserve to have a place
53:58
here, because I hate the idea that anyone would tell you have
54:01
to have a place in this industry.
54:03
So like I would hand someone an indie book or like with black
54:06
folks, I hand people kill Adelphia all the time and be
54:09
like, get to the end of that first issue and tell me if you
54:12
don't hear your dad at the end of that issue because that that
54:14
last line and then the first issue, you will hear your black
54:17
father by the end of that first issue.
54:19
And if you don't, I question you a little bit.
54:22
I have to check out Bitch Planet.
54:24
I haven't actually read it. Bitch.
54:26
Planet, I'm going to check it out just for you.
54:29
That sounds amazing because everything, I feel like everyone
54:32
needs that, that thing that kicks them in the ass, that
54:34
keeps them going, you know? It was the book that got her to
54:37
go do the Captain Marvel refresh for Marvel, where it was like,
54:40
that was the book she did an image that like got her that
54:43
that that fame. So it's like I always try to
54:45
tell people if you want something real quick, if you're
54:47
cool with a mature story, bitch planets where you need to go.
54:51
That is 100% what I'm going to be checking out because now I'm
54:53
actually really excited. So as we wrap up, would you mind
54:57
telling my listeners where they can find you, how they can
54:59
support DC, so white, anything that they need to know?
55:03
So you can always find me on social media and J Panama on
55:06
every platform. Like then, like I have my my
55:09
live show and then I post the show on Tuesdays.
55:11
Well, actually late today, I need to make sure I post it
55:13
tonight. Comics unmasked.
55:15
You can find it on YouTube on Sundays and then on every
55:17
podcast platform every other day of the week.
55:19
And then I am just going to be writing more for comics, be that
55:22
like hopefully with nerd initiative as well.
55:24
The idea of having like these two bylines, these two abilities
55:27
to speak more about the industry, the way people are
55:29
informed. Because if we're not informed,
55:31
how the hell are we going to support the industry?
55:33
And then with DC so white, like post respectfully to DC to Scott
55:39
Snyder, to Jim Lee, like say we want a black ongoing in the
55:43
mainline continuity hashtag DC so white.
55:46
And then if you have the confidence, if you have the
55:48
belief that you want to go all in with the initiative and want
55:52
to hold DC accountable, get ready for May 28th.
55:55
Get ready for Stage 2. Because Stage 2 is going to be a
55:58
big ask of a lot of comic fans. And it will definitely test some
56:03
people's resolve. And we'll show.
56:05
And it's, it's our big chance to show DC that we're serious.
56:10
So look out for that. Well, that all sounds amazing.
56:14
So my dear listener, if you'd like to find out where you can
56:18
find James or DC so White, just look in the comments, not the
56:21
comments, but the part under the episode.
56:23
You know where all the great notes are.
56:25
You'll love it. It's great.
56:26
So thank you for listening to this episode of Vigilante Vibes.
56:29
Wherever you're listening to this episode, click that
56:31
subscribe button so you don't miss any of my amazing guests
56:33
like James or any other future episode.
56:35
Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed it.
56:37
Have a marvelous night.