In a 2016 interview Jay Z explains how he warned people on his record label, “I’m telling you man, y’all gotta chance right now…just flood it…put out a lot of music because 50 cent is coming. Four months later ‘In the Club’ hit and it was over.”
This past week I walked out of my LCS (local comic shop) with three Black indie comics. Every book I read was Eisner-worthy. I couldn’t contain my joy. Immediately, I went to Instagram and Facebook and announced that the comic book industry was in a NEW ERA!
If I had Jay-Z’s foresight 12 months ago, I’d have warned all of my indie comics friends to, “flood the streets with content ‘cause Shobo Coker and Juni Ba are coming!”
I know comics shouldn’t be the blood sport that the Hip Hop industry is. However, attention is a finite resource. There’s only so much of it to go around. And the brothers and sisters who have made their way into the direct market are going to take up quite a bit of it this year.
Shout out to Stephanie Williams (Nubia and the Amazons), the aforementioned Shobo Coker (Buckhead) and Juni Ba (Monkey Meat) who recently made their comic shop debuts.
And let’s not forget the OGs Rodney Barnes (Nita Hawes Night Mare Blog), Chuck Brown (Black Manta) and Vita Ayala (Static) for being vanguards of this new era of Black Excellence in comics.
Maybe that’s what we’ll call it, “The Era of Black Excellence.” What y’all think?