Tell me a little bit about yourself and your brand?
What made you decide to get into your field?
The comics field spoke to me from Spiderman 14 on. Steve Ditko’s art and story wowed me beyond ‘Hot Stuff’ (the little devil and my personal favorite up to that time) and the ‘kiddie’ comic books prior to that. Spiderman 14 woke me up to what was possible in the comic field and that book led me to the powerful art of Jack Kirby, who single handedly made the comics industry what it is today. On the graphic art/graphic services side of the line, I was always working in corporate settings doing print and design work for companies like Casio Watch North America, Modern Publishing, New Horizon Press, American Printastic Inc, Porta-Print Publishing, Towman Magazine, El Diario Newspaper, Touche-Ross Accounting and Mount Carmen Guild to name a few. Early on I knew I wanted what I did to look good when printed so I did a lot of work with print companies to understand how they worked and learned how to maximize my utilization of their equipment and got to do some really cool things with and for them, as well as for myself.
What is the vision of your field? What do you hope to achieve?
What is the vision of your field? What do you hope to achieve?
I’ve been concerned with the lack of Black creators creating products that can compete with what’s already out there. Most of the young Black creators have a mis-understanding of the rigors of being a comic content producer and treat what they do more like a hobby than a profession. The teaching I’ve been doing through galleries and schools addresses that and the ScriptGraphics side of what my team and I do in producing our print products line in 2016 will set the standard for what local kids will have to be able to do to be successful in comics. We’re working on a series of ‘hands on' work seminars to give them a better understanding of just what’s needed from them to do this work and in a series of historical lectures they’ll get to know the rich history of Black creators that paved the path before them. In addition of creating Americas first sustainable line of Black characters being done by Black creators, our goal is to do this for at least ten years on a consistent basis. We’re still working out the form and logistics for it but should be up and running by 2016 with an open outreach for other creators by 2017. We’re not doing this happenstance, hoping to hit it lucky but with a determined and systemic plan with benchmarks to hit. The comic book field has also long been hampered by a lack of vision by owners unwilling to share the wealth with their creators. My vision is to change all that as best as I’m able.
What is your favorite design? Why?
I’ve never had a favorite design, so to speak, outside of one that wows the client and serves their purpose powerfully, eloquently, or both. If the client is happy with what I or my team do for them, that's what works for me. If they’re ecstatic about it, that’s even better.
What do you hope to achieve by bringing your work to Newark Comic Con?
Three things come to mind here: 1. Make Black people aware of what contributions the Black race has made in the field of comics. My lecture at the event will cover that. 2. Making the case for diversity in comics; not just from the stand point of having Black characters but that there must be Black creators responsible for creating those stories. No one will do a better job about us than us, for us. 3. Sell some products there. This gives people an opportunity to be at the ground floor as we ramp up for what we’ll be bringing in the upcoming years. (Anyone with a copy of Action Comics #1 featuring the first appearance of Superman, in decent condition, basically have two million dollars in their possession. Who knows what our books will be worth ten or fifteen years from now.) We’ll also have some posters of our work and some of ‘their’ characters too. The industry is so ‘owned’ by Disney/Marvel (DiVel) and DC that sometimes convention goers miss the gems in the independent market. That ends at the Newark Comic Con, and even though we'll service what they know already, with out stuff we’re bringing the heat.
Tell us more about your work? What do you have coming out soon?
The work will be good, solid and competitive. That’s all we need to be without all the hype. After
working in the comics field from the small and fan press up through the independents and for a couple of the ‘big dogs,’ for twenty years of so I’m more than ready to do my own thing and tell the kind of stories only I can tell. I’m not alone in that thinking so I’m allying myself with creators of like mind. I’ll have posters, original art and books I’ve done with other companies and for other companies. One of the artists who does work for and with us will be there with me showing off his brand of outrageous and stylish goodness.
Some of the books we’ll have at the Newark ComicCon are: Few Survive the Mission #1 & #2. (both sold out nationally but we have some copies from our private stash), Shwank Brothers #1 (superhero public relations experts that don't necessarily think of their superhero clients), Kulprit - the graphic novel (a noir crime tour de force rated as worthy of being a movie by reviewers), Bountyhunter #7 (a book we did for an outfit in Chicago that wanted to ‘up’ their creative game), The Artifyce Connection/Lady Spiritfist flip book (where we collect the first couple of months of the online strips in print!), ScriptGraphics Preview/Enigma (done in collaboration with the City Without Walls Art Gallery in Newark. NJ as part of their mentorship program) and a couple of assorted products we’ve done over the years and still have some left that we’re willing to part with.
Our upcoming line of books: The Professionals (what if superheroes actually existed in real life and how would they be different than what’s being portrayed in popular comics and movies), American Business Suit (what if America’s armored might was stylish), Tales of the African (Black Americans NEED to re-connect to our homeland and stop believing all the lies about where we came from), The Destiny Squad (a series I did in the 1980’s that have repercussions today and are now in color for the first time!) and a couple of others still in development heaven. I can’t really speak about them until the contracts are signed but they’re coming.
We’re also crafting a comics course very similar to what we’ve done through some galleries and schools to run in an actual comics shop. There will be more on this in the future. So see our webpage elsewhere in this interview and leave your email address so we can give you updates as they happen.
What is your website? Contact information?
To see some of the visuals for what we’re doing outside of this interview: http://ScriptGraphics.weebly.com Everything you want to know will be there. Creators interested in getting involved with us can leave a message at the ScriptGraphics weebly site.
Additional Comments?
The world of comic content production is a hard one and not to be taken lightly. It’s a fun one too if your work ethic isn’t compromised by all the things the world puts in your path to distract you. If you want to see where you live with your comic creating work, we’ve created a short five page script to be done in five days. It’s designed to show you where you are and how far you have to go to become the artist you want to be. Read the script: http://adapt-it.weebly.com/blog-adapttradeed/sample-script try to do it and leave a reply at the bottom of it and if you do a good job and get it done by the show, I may have something special for you. Get to work and have some fun!
Thank you to Goza Creative/ScriptGraphics. We look forward to seeing more from you and your company. Goza Creative/ScriptGraphics will be at Newark Comic Con on September 12th, 2015. Please take a moment and check out the website at www.newarkcomiccon.org. Buy a ticket and we will see you there.
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