PHOTO | TROY HULL

Joey Carlucci (right) convinced his wife Elizabeth and their son John to join him as Catwoman, TheRiddler, and Two Face at last week's Heroes Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center.

The Black comic experience has come a long way.

Black creators were first recognized in the world of comics in 1947 with the single-issue “All Negro Comics,” the first comic book written and illustrated by African Americans only.

Despite that breakthrough, Black creators and characters struggled for decades to become mainstream and fully accepted in the comic community. Black graphic novel fans became a rarity as much of the white-created stories were unrelatable or conveyed misrepresentations of African Americans.

Times have changed, though and there are more well-known Black comic creators with Black followers. At last week’s Heroes Convention in Charlotte, creatives and their fans came together for three days of fun and emphasized the importance of teaching the Black experience through the panel. It is especially important today amid controversy surrounding critical race theory.

Conservative legislators all over the country have opposed teaching about the United States’ racist past in schools — going as far as writing laws banning CRT.

Should children be denied the opportunity to learn the Black American experience, writers at the Heroes Convention are making sure they learn it through comics.

“(Education) is the most important thing,” award-winning writer David F. Walker said. “Non-fiction, semi educational books is where it’s going. And the sad part is because there’s so much pushback against critical race theory and all that, it’s up to us as entertainers and creators. Like we have to do it now. It’s all being shut out of the schools.
“So how do we educate people? Well, we put it in a graphic novel.”

Walker is considered one of the top creators for educational comics with his renowned history books “The Life of Frederick Douglass” and “The Black Panther Party.” The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a major historical figure in the civil rights movement, even contributed to the genre when he wrote the March series and “Run: Book One” alongside writer Andrew Aydin.

Aydin, a member of Lewis’ staff, also made an appearance at the Heroes Convention and said educational graphic novels are an important medium in telling the country’s turbulent history.

“There’s a tremendous historic pedigree for using comics to inspire social change,” he said. “This generation grew up on the internet. Their literacy is a visual literacy. Sequential narrative is the same language as a meme or a tweet or anything that you see with words and pictures working together. And so, if we’re going to reach this generation, going to reach the most … people with these important lessons (and) this important history, we have to do it in the language of this generation.”

Education through comics seems to be working as Walker described kids telling him that his Frederick Douglass book is their favorite over the likes of Batman and Spider-Man.

“Who would’ve thought?” Walker said.

As expected, these socially aware comic books have gotten pushback for their content. Convention participant and award-winning graphic novel writer and Regis University professor R. Alan Brooks may have had the most extreme reaction to his work. His book, “Anguish Garden,” is an allegory for leaving white supremacist movements and white supremacists sent death threats in response.

Outside of teaching the Black American experience through comics, Black creators and fans at the convention shared their experiences in the comic and fantasy space where faces like theirs are not always prevalent.

For some creators, being a part of the comic scene created a positive impact considering what it used to be like for Black people in those places.

“I remember a time when there was no other Black creators, when there was no other Black fans,” Walker said. “We sort of begun to stake out a claim for ourselves in this world, which is what I’ve been trying to do for not only my entire professional career, but my entire life.

“When I was a kid growing up, all the representation of Black folks, especially in comics was pretty negative. And I didn’t want that. So that’s part of the reason I got into this industry — to change so that other kids wouldn’t have to go through what I went through.”

For others, it’s rewarding to connect with fans.

“I’m able to connect with people in a real cool way,” Brooks said. “Especially after they buy something, go away and read it, (then) come back and be like, ‘Man I need more,’ which is really just dope. That’s something I wrote on my couch that resonates with somebody’s life in a dope way.”

In response to the notion that Black people don’t consume such art, fans felt strongly that the stereotype was not true, citing the right of individuals to just be individuals.

“It’s kind of an old way of thinking,” said Torrance Sawyer, who attended the convention. “Everybody likes everything these days. It’s hard to pigeonhole someone just because of the way they look or about what they like. People can enjoy whatever they want.”

Said attendee Tajai Liles: “I like to read comics, I like to collect action figures, so I don’t see it as anything weird. It’s just something I like to do.”

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