The Best Magic Trick of ‘Mister Miracle: The Great Escape’ is its Heart

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape is a bit of enigma. Like the titular character himself, the book is an incredible romp of humor and excitement with a genuine heart at the center.

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Artist DRAGON 76 Teams Up with Paramount for Limited Edition ‘Snake Eyes’ Poster

With Paramount Pictures’ Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins introducing the world to the ninja behind the mask of the beloved G.I. Joe character, it made sense for Paramount Pictures to work with Asian artists to create one-of-a-kind works of arts to celebrate the film. New York-based, Japanese artist DRAGON 76 released a special limited edition Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins character poster for this week’s ComplexLand, which takes place virtually from June 16-18.

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Kickstart This: ‘Radical: The Savior Faire of French Hip-Hop’

First, I’m hoping that all you NOCers (and your loved ones) are as safe and as healthy as you can be. We are in some strange and uncharted territories, but hopefully this little slice of community can keep us connected.

I am fully aware that many of us are in dire financial straits. Many of us have lost jobs, lost other sources of income — many of us may find ourselves in new and unfamiliar caretaking roles. #LifeInTheTimeOfCOVID19

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Introducing Megascope: a Diverse Line of Graphic Novels Curated by John Jennings

There are some people who like comics. There are others who love them. Then, there are those who live and breathe comics. Not as a way to keep copyrights up-to-date for further cinematic use, but who see the comic form as important; as a worthy and necessary part of our collective artistic and cultural life. Professor, scholar, and creator, John Ira Jennings, embodies the latter.

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A Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘Hannah and the Dread Gazebo’

It’s not often we here at The Nerds of Color review theatre performances but once in a while, there comes a production so wonderful, magical, and full of heart that it must be told for all to know.  That production is Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, performing in Los Angeles at the Fountain Theatre (in association with East West Players) from now till September 29.

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Inside the ‘IT: Chapter Two’ Gallery 1988 Exhibit

Pennywise has missed you! And we know you’ve missed Derry! And so, the geniuses at Gallery 1988 invite you to come back, through their exclusive IT: Chapter Two Art Exhibit!

Located in the heart of Los Angeles on Melrose, you may recall IT featured a gorgeous exhibit at 1988 back in the fall of 2017. In the grand tradition of that film, the Gallery has decided to feature another exhibit, just in time for you to witness “The End of IT” when IT: Chapter Two hits theaters September 6, 2019.

Take a look at some of the gorgeous pieces below featured at the gallery. And feel free to check out the exhibit at Gallery 1988 (7308 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046) this week!

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SPX’s Black Art Matters Panel is Online

Back in September, we tried to get you all hyped for the 21st annual Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. One of the main reasons for that excitement was the (controversially named) “Black Art Matters” panel moderated by legendary cartoonist Keith Knight and featuring artists C. Spike Trotman, Whit Taylor, Ron Wimberly, and Darryl Ayo.

If you missed out on SPX this year, you can still see the panel in its entirety after the jump since the show organizers have just posted it online.

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Epic Props’ NY Comic-Con Schedule and Exclusives

by Jerry Ma | Originally posted at Epic Proportions

The countdown begins, and I’m super excited to announce the guests I’ll be having at my booth for New York Comic-Con this weekend!

It’s always a pleasure and honor for me getting friends to come do some signings, but this year just seems to have some more excitement for me.

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Are You Ready for This Year’s Small Press Expo?

In less than 24 hours, the world’s best cartoonists and indie comics makers bring their talents to the DMV (that would be the DC-Maryland-Virginia area of the country, and not, alas, where you get your drivers’ license renewed) at the 21st annual Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD.

In addition to hosting esteemed guests like Noelle Stevenson, Scott McCloud, and C. Spike Trotman (among many others), SPX is also home to the Ignatz Awards and a venue for fans of the medium to support some of the hardest working artists in all of comics. After the cut, we’re going to highlight a few of the things we’re most excited to see this weekend.

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Track Commentary: “Star-Lord (Remix)”

by Adam WarRock | Originally posted on tumblr

I’m doing track-by-track commentary on my new EP, Gifted Student. You should go grab the new EP at my bandcamp site.

Last day, last track. First of all, thanks to everyone who’s bought the album. I’m excited to perform about some of these songs live on tour, and by the shipping info, I am getting the CDs today, and will promptly start shipping them out this week.

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Track Commentary: “The Fire Burns Forever”

by Adam WarRock | Originally posted on tumblr

I’m doing track-by-track commentary on my new EP, Gifted Student. You should go grab the new EP at my bandcamp site.

My girlfriend has pointed out to me that these haven’t really been commentaries, more like “crazy ramblings that I just puke out of my brain.” So today, on what is undoubtedly my favorite song on the EP, I will give you my commentary.

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Photo: Nick Grazin

Tunde Adebimpe Talks New Projects, Comics, and TV on the Radio

Originally posted on Hi Wildflower

Calling TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe a vocalist is a good start. Turns out, he’s a bona fide polymath. Actor, director, artist behind some snazzy comics are a few of the things he does as unnervingly as he sings. His voice weaves in and out of lush, lovelorn tunes with a veracity rare among chanteurs in this age. We ran into each other in Williamsburg on a day too cold for words. He graced us with an interview and amazing drawings that reveal his radiant imagination.

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Wonder Woman: kNOCking heads

Wonder Woman polarizes the ongoing debate over live-action female superhero movies. Advocates for a Wonder Woman movie routinely pen supportive op-eds that offer suggestions to Warner Brothers and DC Comics, while detractors decry a live-action Wonder Woman movie as an obnoxious waste of movie funding better spent promoting other female minority superheroes.

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Warriors Behind Walls Continued

This is another installment of Warriors Behind Walls, a series of artwork done by Dominic Newsome. Here is a link to the first piece, which contains more information and background about Dominic.

Dominic is an incarcerated artist in Pennsylvania, who creates fantastical warriors of color, capable of continuing the daily battles he faces behind bars.

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Warriors Behind Walls

warrior woman 1 smallI have only met Dominic Newsome through letters. This is because Dominic is incarcerated in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, in the same institution political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal called “a bright shining hell.”

We became acquainted when I lived in Philadelphia and was working with the Human Rights Coalition, an organization of prisoners’ families. We received dozens of letters each week from people, mostly Black men, behind prison walls. They asked for legal referrals, told us of atrocities being committed by guards, of legal railroading. Some just wanted to connect with people on the outside — ours were the only letters they received.

It was in this that I got to know Dominic. I met him through his letters, but I came to know Dominic through his art. The first drawing he sent of me was Harriet Tubman. I pulled it from the manila envelope with his clear writing that grew like vines on the front. I could not believe the detail, the intricacy, the emotion he accomplished with what looked to me to be a pen and a regular sheet of paper.

I learned later it was not actually a pen — it was the inside of a pen, which is the only writing instrument prisoners in restricted housing are allowed (Mumia Abu-Jamal used that to write several books). Supposedly it is because the round casing of the pen could be used as a weapon. Given that prisoners in restricted housing are locked down 23 out of 24 hours a day, that they have no physical contact with anyone but armed guards, and that visits are conducted through thick plexiglass that distorts the faces of loved ones, it seems more an attempt to suffocate the creative fire of these overwhelming Black and Brown folks.

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Spock as Interplanetary Mixed-Race Muse

It seems that Spock and his mixed-species brethren and sistren haven’t served as multiracial muses only to me and fellow NOC Claire.  Even during the last year of its original television run, just a year after the landmark Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case legalized all interracial marriage across the United States, Vulcan/human hybrid Spock spoke so much to a biracial black/white teenager in Los Angeles that she wrote to him, via a teen magazine, for advice, so moving that actor Leonard Nimoy wrote her back with a message of self-acceptance.

With Star Trek Week on The Nerds of Color coming to an end after an amazing week of posts both celebratory, critical, and somewhere in between, I wanted to introduce you to two artists of multiracial heritage who use Spock as a way to explore mixed-race identity in their work.

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