Black girl magic has just been further actualized with the new Marvel superhero Lunella Lafayette, who goes by Moon Girl. Lafayette is a new take on a 1978 Marvel comic Devil Dinosaur that involved the adventures of a red Tyrannosaurus Rex and a young caveman-like boy known as Moon Boy. Today, Lafayatte may take over the Moon-child role but there’s nothing cave-ish about her. The new Moon Girl is an African American pre-teen genius.
Entertainment Weekly reports Moon Girl will be similar to an inspector gadget, but even more clever due to her “unpredictable alien DNA.”
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur were brought to life when Marvel’s team of creatives realized they did not have many books and characters that appealed to all age groups. The unlikely duo of dinosaur and girl genius will seek adventures across the concrete jungle of New York City.
“Generally, we’re skewing a little bit older with a lot of our titles and we wanted to create something that adults and kids could really love, like a Pixar feel. That’s where the tone jumped off for us,” said Emily Shaw, Marvel’s assistant editor.
However, it isn’t the age group we’re thrilled about – it’s the representation of a black girl superhero that has excitement over the new comic growing. Nancy Bustos, the artist behind the new superhero, spoke on her excitement of seeing the representation come to life.
“It’s great to be a part of the creation of something which can mean something special to so many people,” said Bustos who is Afro-Brazilian, Chilean, and Spanish.
Bustos can relate to growing up with a lack of characters that looked like her, “I myself have come up against this dilemma of finding few or no cultural references, especially in Spain,” she noted.
Posts tagged as “comic books”
Every rapper takes pride in his ability to paint pictures with words. So it’s fitting that one of the world’s most famous MC’s has decided to take that ability to heart. Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, one third of the legendary group Run-DMC has decided that after years of being a fan of comic books that now is the time to start his very own publishing company, the aptly named Darryl Makes Comics.
“I’m just the bait,” DMC says to the watching crowd during his press conference at Midtown Comics. “This ain’t about a rapper starting a comic book, this is about a life-long fan!” To underline his sincerity DMC points out that in the 1985 classic “King of Rock” he proudly rhymed way back then that “I’m DMC, I can draw.”
Taking his role as publisher seriously, McDaniels has teamed up with a who’s who in the world of comic books and entertainment to guarantee a top-notch product.
Golden Globe-winning actor Don Cheadle is ready for his close-up. The popular House of Lies star is getting his own Marvel poster for the highly-anticipated sure-to-be summer blockbuster Iron Man 3.
Reprising his role as Capt. James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine (which he took over from Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2) , it looks like Cheadle will be playing a prominent role in the action again in this sequel, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the titular hero and Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce in the villainous roles. Both Iron Man (2008) and its 2010 sequel grossed over $300 million domestically at the box office. Iron Man 3 hits theaters on May 3.
article via thegrio.com
5 Webcomics Created by African Americans
by anjuan
July 29, 2010The opening of the massive Comic-con convention last week provided days of comic book related news coverage. However, few of the images from that event were of African Americans. The dearth of African American perspectives in mainstream comic books inspired many black artists to create webcomics. Webcomics are online sites that present a story in comic book form. The success of Boondocks and the current global recession were motivators for many of these artists to try their hand at starting an online webcomic business. These five webcomics present a sample of African American entrepreneurs who are presenting a different perspective on the web.
A Pug Named Fender
Created by Houston based artist Fave, A Pug Named Fender chronicles the adventures of a pug as he enjoys the thrills of barbecue, music, technology, and other essentials that make life worth living. This recently launched webcomic has already featured guest appearances by soul music artists like Questlove. New episodes of A Pug Named Fender are posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
JOE!
Michelle Billingsly created JOE! to capture the life the title character, a rambunctious 10 year old. This webcomic doesn’t just focus on Joe and has created a cast with well developed characters. There is no regular update schedule, but new strips come out about twice a month.
Addanac City
George Ford publishes Addanac City which depicts the shenanigans of Hank Addanac. It’s an interesting mix of Calvin and Hobbes and Phineas and Ferb. Ford keeps a rigorous schedule of publishing seven comics a week that goes back to August 2008. The cast is very diverse and both the writing and art show a high degree of quality.
Redux Deluxe
Charles Arrington’s Redux Deluxe covers the adventures of three boys named CJ, Chris, and Rob as they try to retrieve a lost basketball from a neighborhood girl named Angela. Containing many references to comic book and video game culture, new episodes of Redux Deluxe come out twice a week.
Company Man
Phoenix artist Frank Jordan publishes a new Company Man strip five days a week. I offers a humorous look at the lives of a diverse cast of characters. The content of the humor make it a webcomic for mature readers. The artists behind these five webcomics are using new media to present the diverse perspectives of African Americans through the comic art form. Both the comic book and webcomic industries tend to be representative of white culture, and these webcomics offer a refreshing dose of color commentary.
via blackweb20.com