While this will be too far away for me, I wanted to give a signal boost to the first Black Comix Arts Festival, being held in San Francisco this weekend over, very appropriately, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, on January 18th and 19th.
I'd like to thank Zainab of the excellent Comics and Cola site for putting this one on my radar by posting about it last month. It's always great to be able to discover and promote smaller shows. Nothing against the bigger ones, but sometimes the best shows are those where you don't have a Superstar sucking the air out of the room. With the additional need to ensure that people of color, especially young people of color, see that there are people just like them making comics, a show such as Black Comix Arts Festival is extremely important.
I'll quote and co-sign Zainab's comment: "These are the kind of events and creators that support should be thrown behind, if you're truly interested in seeing comics from artists of colour, rather than vague, superficial attempts at 'diversity.'"
So if you are in the San Francisco area and are thinking of going, what will you find?
Well, some of the creators include:
- Erika Alexander, of Dark Horse's Concrete Park
- Andrew Ayin (Rep. John Lewis's Aid) and co-writer of the March series from Top Shelf/IDW
- Robert Love of Dark Horse's Never Ending and other projects
- Jeremy Love of Bayou from DC Comics
- Afua Richardson of Genius from Image
- David Waler of Shaft from Dynamite and other projects
There'll also be panels, such as:
- How to create and self-pub your comics
- Comics within an African American context
- A roundtable of African American creators discussing various topics
And because this is an inclusive, welcoming place, they're encouraging folks to come out and cosplay, with a contest and judging included in the show.
It sounds like a great time, and I really hope it does well. Please attend if you can!
