Lucius Hammer jumps off at Wizard Comicon 09!!!

It's been a long time coming. For years I have literally bitched and moaned. Ranted and raved. My disgust with the scarcity of black superheroes and the quality of the existing ones is an old, jagged, broken record. My family, my friends, my comic shop owner all know my misery and can repeat verbatim why I have such a beef with mainstream comics and their lack of ingenuity when it comes to characters of color. The proverbial shit hit the fan when I was subjected to Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin's suck fest called Blade. I will actually post the letter that I sent to Marvel at a later date that captures my true anger at how this Black Marvel icon was treated, but for now I will just say...it moved me to do something. I began furiously scribbling notes down ala Rain Man juxtaposed with Good Will Hunting...there was some enlightened equation buried in the depths of my imagination that was pushing forth...waiting to be birthed and that elusive theorem that had been sought after by many but discovered and then used only sparingly by a few was...how to write an entertaining comic book about a black superhero. How hard can it really be? For years, I have suffered. I have walked through popular retail bookstores and out of the way comic book shops looking for products that feature black superheroes and these products simply don't exist. What is it that prevents Marvel and DC from taking their best talent and breathing life into their black superhero properties? Why is it that the Images and Dark Horses...The IDW's and The BOOM's (who don't have any trouble printing any number of other mundane half thought out ideas) have not yet done the ultimate thing that would christen them a true competitor to the big guns... create a commercially viable black superhero!!! It boggles the mind. There are dozens of threads out there about why black superheroes don't sell, are they bankable? is anyone interested and so on...to me these conversations are pointless. Of course a black superhero will sell!!! Look at Michael Jordan. Look at Blade. Look at Afro Samurai. Look at Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Look at friggin Lil Wayne!!! This country has a love/hate relationship with black men. Those of you who aren't black are probably glad you're not from a class and economic standpoint...but there sure are a lot of young folks out there who like to fantasize about being black. This need to vicariously be black through gateway products such as hip hop, video games, and fashion to me makes it apparent that comic books can be the same way. But...just as we jump on stage and swagger past the tv cameras with our Jesus pieces on and our caps turned to the back...we need to do the same thing with comics. No offense to any writers of any color out there or artists...but when hip hop first entered into the public domain...it was raw, undistilled...brilliant. Now it's a multi-million dollar industry that has everyone and there granmama thinkin they can rock white-t's and free style. There were detractors and naysayers aplenty but that's what happens when you have the stones to step outside the box. But I digress...the true intent of this blog is to discuss primarily the creation of black comics. Whether that be black writers and black artists creating comics about black superheroes; white writers and white artists creating comics about black superheroes or any permutation of the examples I have just given you including writers and artists of other nationalities. I would also make a plea to see heroes of different colors besides black but I gotta fight one battle at a time...so I have thrown down the gauntlet and I'm ready to get in this. I have created a black superhero called Lucius Hammer. I introduced him at the Wizard Chicago Comic-Con 2009. And now...there's no turning back. Tune in next week...same black time....same black channel.