Tag: Tananarive Due

Comics, Horror

‘Box of Bones,’ An Endorsement

Shawn Taylor

I am a new convert to horror. I was firmly in my comics, SF, SpecFic, fantasy bag for decades until I read Tananarive Due’s My Soul to Keep. After that, I was all in… on horror literature. However, so-called ‘horror comics’ weren’t scary to me. Not even a little. And as a comic fan, it was disappointing. That was then. Now, there are tons of wonderful horror books that speak to my cultural and aesthetic specificity. There’s Image’s Killadelphia and Bitter Root, which just had a huge announcement. And Vault Comics is doing it big.

Continue reading “‘Box of Bones,’ An Endorsement”
Comics, Literature, Scholarship2 Comments

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

Shawn Taylor

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.

Continue reading “Introducing Megascope: a Diverse Line of Graphic Novels Curated by John Jennings”

Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies1 Comment

The Sunken Place to Wakanda with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes

Hard NOC Media

With historic Oscar nominations for Get Out and record-breaking ticket pre-sales for Black Panther, 2018 is shaping up to be a watershed year for mainstream genre pictures that center Black characters. Acclaimed speculative fiction writers and educators Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, who currently offer an online course dedicated to Jordan Peele’s box office phenomenon, join Keith for a frank discussion of both films and their place in American popular culture.

Continue reading “The Sunken Place to Wakanda with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes”

Conventions, Hard N.O.C. Life

#AACC2017: #AAIronFist – Bringing an Asian American Hero to Life

The Nerds of Color

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future.

Marvel’s Iron Fist has generally been seen as a major disappointment — and it could’ve been so much more, if only Marvel and Netflix had embraced a not-so-radical rethinking of their martial artist hero as an Asian American. Some Asian American filmmakers actually brought their reimagined concepts for an Asian American Iron Fist to life, and they’ll share their short videos as part of a conversation with the creator of the #AAIRONFIST hashtag.

Continue reading “#AACC2017: #AAIronFist – Bringing an Asian American Hero to Life”

Conventions, Hard N.O.C. Life

#AACC2017: Can Pop Culture Save the World?

The Nerds of Color

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future.

Pop culture is literally the people’s culture. At a time when creative and diverse voices are both under attack, what can pop culture do to make social change?

Continue reading “#AACC2017: Can Pop Culture Save the World?”

Art, Conventions

#AACC2017 and Failing to Get a Photo with Lewis Tan

AJ Joven

To get to my failure, I should start with a childhood that took place in Los Angeles. Hawthorne, California is a small community situated in Southwest Los Angeles. With Inglewood to the north, Gardena to the east, Torrance to the south, and the glamorous beach communities to the west, it was basically the edge of working class/POC Los Angeles butting up against the elite.

Continue reading “#AACC2017 and Failing to Get a Photo with Lewis Tan”
Books, Fantasy, Literature

Lifewriting 101

Dennis R. Upkins

One of my New Years resolutions was dedicating this year to leveling up, specifically as an author and artist. Or rather as an auteur.  😉

Breaking personal records and churning out more pieces than ever, I’ve spent the better part of the year in nonstop writer mode which of course is the equivalent of Puppet Angel.

Continue reading “Lifewriting 101”

Books, Conventions

Congratulations Kid, You Have Arrived

Dennis R. Upkins

One cannot truly celebrate #BlackExcellence and look to the future without taking a moment to honor those who paved a way for us to journey forward.

Case in point, author, philosopher, life coach and fellow Wakandan, Steven Barnes, who is celebrating a birthday today.

Continue reading “Congratulations Kid, You Have Arrived”

Fantasy, Literature, Sci Fi4 Comments

We Need More Than More Diversity

David F. Walker

Originally posted at Super Justice Force

The recent death of celebrated author Walter Dean Myers has seemingly left a void in that corner of Young Adult literature that is aware of representation and diversity, and produces works of fiction populated with a rainbow coalition of characters. It seems like every week I’m reading something about the lack of diversity and representation in YA (as well as comics and films and whatever else you care to throw into the mix), much like this piece. And now that Myers is gone, he can join the list of authors frequently cited as those that did the most for those who are represented the least.

Unfortunately, while he was alive, a significant amount of what was written about the lack of diversity in YA failed to mention Myers and his work — which speaks to a problem almost as bad as the lack of diversity itself. That problem, of course, is the lack of dialog about those books and those writers who do put in the work to ensure diversity and representation.

Continue reading “We Need More Than More Diversity”