African American Superhero Anthology on Kickstarter

[BrianT]

There's a Kickstarter campaign for The African American Superhero Anthology. It's a 48 page color one-shot featuring 4 stories of superheroes of color. It features some work by BOMB QUEEN creator Jimmie Robinson. After less than a week, the campaign has received almost half of its pledge goal.

A pledge of $5 or more receives a copy of the book with a variant cover and signatures from the creators. Other rewards are available too.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...tholo?ref=live

I just pledged.

[BrianT]

Only 21 hours remain in the campaign, which has already earned over $5,000! Get your pledges in because you will get the reward now that it has surpassed its goal.

[Genki Sudo]

Glad I could contribute

[BrianT]

Me too. Should be a fun book.

[Trallis]

I was too late.. I would have liked to contribute to it simply out of love for the creative process and the value of a signed piece of artwork. Still, I don't think people of color are really underrepresented in the comic books/super hero universe.. I'll point out that I'm talking mostly about Marvel when I say comic books/super hero universe. I can't really comment on most other publishers, because I've only recently started picking them up, but I was in the Comic shop and I believe "Invincible" had a black guy on the cover, and I think Spawn is black. Marvel tells stories primarily about super heroes in America. In 2010, America was 72.4% white, 12.6% black, 16.3% hispanic, and 4.8% asian. It kind of makes sense to me that in an America where obtaining a super power is something that happens by random chance, the race percentage would reflect that. I'm not an expert, but when I think black comic book characters, I'm not at a loss. Ultimate Nick Fury, Ultimate Spider-Man, Black Panther, Blade, Power Man, Storm, Luke Cage, Darwin, White Tiger.. those are all popular characters who I could tell you a little about. What I don't really see in American comics is very many Asian super heroes, or gay ones for that matter, and surveys have shown that at least 8% of Americans identify as gay.

I'm not saying the collection is a bad idea, because I strongly believe all people should take pride in their heritage, as well as go out of their way to learn about other peoples' heritages. A book about black super heroes can only help make that happen, as well as provide more role models for more kids. I'm just saying that if the American super hero universe isn't appropriately diverse, it's not because African Americans are misrepresented.

[BrianT]

Invincible, Spawn and White Tiger are not black. The issue isn't simply whether black superheroes exist, but how many books actually star black characters. Not many.