"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are."

H.L. Mencken

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Dwayne McDuffie(Milestone) has stated on the A.S.H. message board what we've been saying here for months. THE DIRECT MARKET IS DEAD. Go ahead and stick a fork in it cuz it's done. Let's think "outside the box" for a moment and begin by looking at two related but seperate industries....comics and the gaming. THE GAMING INDUSTRY In 1995, games were considered kid's toys at best, and a third rate hobby for geeks at worst. But today, games are looked at as near- mainstream entertainment. Many are predicting that in the next 5 years, interactive entertainment is going to be the top entertainment industry. Bigger than movies, bigger than music, bigger than anything. It's just inevitable and we're only just starting to see what games can and will be.

HOW DID THE GAMING INDUSTRY CHANGE THE PUBLIC'S PERCEPTION?

Compelling content and agressive marketing in a wide range of media to showcase their product not only to the hardcore gamers but to mass audiences to lure in new consumers.

THE COMIC INDUSTRY

Here you have an industry who's perception has changed very little in the past 10-15 years! Number one...growth is stifled by a monopolized distribution system that limits the reachable audience of the product, discourages the introduction of new companies into the industry by stacking the deck against independent publishers. Yet the gaming industry was founded by independents! Mothafuckas sitting in they room writin code and freely distributing their product to the public. Anybody remember DOOM?! If you dug the free levels they provided, you ordered the rest of the software from the company. There was no huge corporate entity to regulate this infant industry. No monopoly distribution system in place to tell them that their product wasnt even good enough to be distributed in the first place. them dudes(I.D.) took they shit to the streets and got it in the hands of the people.

BY ANY MEANS NECCESARY

Look at how the gaming industry treats it's creators.....LIKE GODS! Now take a look at Marvel and DC. Marvel doesnt publish ANY creator owned properties. NONE. NADA. ZILCH. In comics you have an industry that squeezes it's lifeblood(the creators) dry and once they have served their purpose (to make the corporation richer), they are discarded to the wayside like garbage. Look at these mothafuckas that created BATMAN and SUPERMAN, look at Jack Kirby, etc. All these cats dying poor wit no money, their families trying to sue Marvel and DC. All that fucking money they generated for these companies. These cats creations made those companies what they are and these cats died broke! Now before everybody starts comin with, "yeah, but they didnt have creator owned contracts in those days, and they signed away their rights, yada, yada, yada..." I'm pointing out this fact to you to say, these cats who created the biggest names at the companies, the icons.... The corporations dont give a shit about these mothafuckas man! I'm talking simple decency here....they make BILLIONS from these guys creations! And people actually think that they can change the course of the token Negro heroes these corporations provide for us. WAKE DA FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PERCEPTION - COMICS ARE FOR WHITE GEEKY ADOLESCENT MALES AND BLACK GEEKY WANNABE-WHTE ADOLESCENT MALES.

That perception still stands to the majority of the American public, and obviously to Marvel and DC as well. Look at the shit they keep puttin out. Number one, we, as black consumers of comics have traditionally not had a voice. This is beginning to change. Number two, comics is still damn near a plantation industry where blacks are only hired in the lowest positions and the glass ceiling obviously doesnt rise past assistant editor. Number three it's pretty much a faceless industry, but that has been changing but not so much for the black creators. What you have inside the industry amongst a lot of the black creators is the "crab in a barrel mentality". everybody jocking to keep they position by whatever means neccessary, no matter who ass they gotta kiss or who they have to step on... And most of these cats aint speakin up on or will openly acknowledge racism within the industry or the racist stereotype portrayal of black characters at the company THEY WORK FOR!

Now Paul mentioned that we need to support the projects that black creators work on while in the employ of the Major companies hereafter to be referred to as THE BLOODSUCKERS. If i know a cat AND i dig the product, then i'll check for it. I'm not going to buy some shit just cause they got a black inker and 6 months from now, THE BLOODSUCKERS move him to another book. Any book that you purchase from THE BLOODSUCKERS benefits the most, not the creator but THE BLOODSUCKERS. Remember, the creators in the employ of THE BLOODSUCKERS are an expendable commodity and the creators themselves realize this....however I will try to purchase as much Independent work as I can because I know that this benefits the creator directly. This is the only arena where I will "buy blind" so to speak.

OUR VOICES

What we traditionally have not had is a collective voice within this industry...amongst creators or fans. The web is changing this. Right now there are 46 members of this group and i expect to see those numbers rise into the hundreds in the months to come. Here we have a forum to unite, educate, inform, and expand awareness of our existence in the industry to each other. THE FREE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS!!! Everyone's views may be shared without censorship. This is where change begins and there is strength in numbers. With this strength we can change perceptions as well.

Why is it that the entire world has no problem sitting in a theatre and seeing black men save the day, the universe or overcome impossible odds. INDEPENCE DAY, THE MEN IN BLACK, PITCH BLACK, etc. But when you come to comics it's like stepping into a fucking time zone!!! Why is the comics industry so behind the times?! And then think, why does'nt the NAACP jump in like they do in other industries and make a big stink about the situation? It goes back to PERCEPTION and lack of a COLLECTIVE VOICE. The perception being "WHITE GEEK INDUSTRY" and the lack of a COLLECTIVE VOICE.

ENTER PARADIGM SHIFT

The Worldwide Web. Let's look at the typical scenario of printing a independent comic in the direct market. The only way to get in comic stores is to be accepted by the distribution monopoly DIAMOND. That's right i said accepted. These muthafuckas can look at your shit and tell you "the art's not good enough, we wont carry this" and you gotta go off and come again if you want in. If you do get accepted, then you get listed in their telephone book sized catalog that goes out monthly to the retailers to order from. No pictures and ad space is incredibly expensive and the best spots are ALWAY taken by THE BLOODSUCKERS. You see the deck is stacked against the independent publisher. If your book comes out and doesnt do a certain amount in sales, they will stop carrying you as well. How can this industry grow?!!! Somebody fuckin tell me cause this shit is ridiculous! The North American retailers have been drastically shrinking in numbers over the past few years. Over 1000 stores folded in the past five years. Right now there's a little over 4000 major stores going. So in a shrinking industry, you have a monopolized distribution system that refuses to reform. Makes a lot of fuckin sense to me. The web is leveling the playing field people. The web is revolutionizing our lives. We're seeing this shit happen right in front of us. The same way that e-books and digital ondemand printing is revolutionizing the publishing industry, the comics industry will see changes as well. Look at what Stephen King just did. He published his novel as an e-book and put it up for sale on AMAZON for $2.50. That shit is breaking every book sale record known.

Neo - "Why do my eyes hurt..."

Morpheus - "Because you've never used them before..."

McDuffie also stated on the A.S.H. board that everyone is looking at the web, but havent found a way to make money off of it yet. See, the web is was primarily created for the free exchange of ideas and information. THE BLOODSUCKERS wont readily jump on it if they can't see an immediate profit, so they play the wait and see game. Milestone's universe and DISTRIBUTION is directly tied to a BLOODSUCER, so they must tread on eggshells while the biggest fuckin billboard to the WORLD exists for their products. THE BLOODSUCKERS wish to maintain the status quo so of course they are going to be slow in embracing the web. Times are changing. It is up to us, especially us independent creators to forge ahead in this bold new era, and initiate the changes we would like to see and create the heroes that are our own. I love seein these industry bigwigs scratchin they fuckin head tryin to figure out why sales are at an all time low. I'm lovin this shit wit root beer thoughts.lol

i'm out

Hope you enjoy the latest offering. Got some exciting news but i can't say shit about it right now. Sleepy as hell...till next time.

I know it's been awhile since my last update, right? Well, I've been working on TRIBAL SCIENCE nonetheless....just different aspects of it. Right now I'm working on an anthology book with some local guys to come out this summer. We each get 8 pages in this thing. Working on that got me to thinking about the deadwood (paper) edition of TRIBAL SCIENCE. One thing led to another and I'm knocking out pages for that as well. Here's a link to some of the images. I'll get the new online pages up as soon as possible. I also started an email list at egroups for the discussion of blacks in comics. Click one of the links above for more info or to join. Basically it's email list for creators and fans alike as well as those who would like to learn learn about what's "out there" as far as black comics are concerned. I hope to have a new update this week to the online comic as i've jumped some major hurdles in the 3d art realm.