I've been gone for a long time, yall....

I wanted to drop a line and let you know what's been going on...

FIRST, take a look at a digital preview for SOUTHSIDE NEFERTITI,
out NOW @ TYPE ILLY PRESS...

Go here:

[link]

and just SCROLL ON DOWN...

Next, hot off the TYPE ILLY PRESSES, an animated
promo for TYPE ILLY COMICS...

go here:

[link]

Last thing:

here's a sneak peek at the upcoming cover
for SOUTHSIDE NEFERTITI # 3

[link]

Holla!!!

yo, first, lemme give props to
my man P-ISM, okay?! Dude
is bringing that pure comic
heat that we like to showcase
at TYPE ILLY.

<-----------Over there
on the left, you can see
his style, live and in color!

If you feel what he's bringing,
check him out over on his
website:

[link]

or on his myspace page:

[link]

Second thing...ATLIENS, be on the lookout
for the TYPE ILLY street team, throwing up
flyers at tons of events this fall. They'll be
hitting football games, poetry spots, music
stores - the whole nine.

They'll be mostly promoting SOUTHSIDE
NEFERTITI, but if you still want it, you
might be able to get some leftover copies
of NEFERTITI JONES at MEDU BOOKS, in
Greenbriar Mall.

Questions? Comments?

Holla!

WHY WONDER WOMAN IS BOOTLEG

People sometimes ask me questions about NEFERTITI, the heroine of my new comic called SOUTHSIDE NEFERTITI. Invariably, people will remark on how she LOOKS. Not only about her style and attitude, either. They’ll say something about her physique. Because unlike the average comic female, NEFERTITI is big, powerful, courageous – and has curves.

When I first created her, I didn’t know what to expect. With a few exceptions, I’d never seen anybody like her in a comic. The thing that I’ve noticed, though, is that people of color – particularly women – LIKE how she looks. They are apparently happy to see a ‘super heroine’ that actually looks LIKE THEM. That makes sense, I suppose, because I’ve always thought that mainstream media and entertainment industries completely mis-represent AMERICAN FEMALE BEAUTY, and are hopelessly out of touch with what the AVERAGE AMERICAN WOMEN thinks is fly.

What continues to shock me, I guess, is how nobody else in the comics game seems to be up on it.

Example. Think about WONDER WOMAN. She’s an AMAZON. She kicks ass. She’s strong, she’s fierce, she’s a warrior, right? But all the representations of WONDER WOMAN are not really kick ass, athletic warrior types at all. They are pretty much the same representations of WOMEN you get on the mainstream modeling scene – size 0 OR 2’s who miraculously still manage to sling VOLKSWAGENS and TAP JAWS all over the place. That was cool when I was a kid, but as I got older, that rang false to me. When I think of AMAZON, they think SERENA WILLIAMS, not VANNA WHITE. (No diss to VANNA, I’m just sayin’.)

So when your boy put together HIS version of WONDER WOMAN, she looked a little different. Peep:



When I see WONDER WOMAN, I saw somebody with attitude, somebody raw dog, and more importantly – given the whole GREEK HISTORICAL SOURCE OF THE AMAZONIAN MYTH THAT GIVES BIRTH TO THE WONDER WOMAN COMIC – I wanted somebody who looked GREEK (or Italian or ethnic or SOMETHING). THIS Wonder Woman – all hips and thighs and ass and muscles and fierce, confrontational look – is what an AMAZON really looks like, in my urban, ethnic, old school hip hop mind.

The artistic inspiration for NEFERTITI came from that same place. When I think KICK ASS SUPER HERO GIRL, I don’t see BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. (And please, don’t get it twisted – that show was an incredible inspiration to me, and gave me hope that a story like SOUTHSIDE NEFERTITI could be taken seriously. Joss Whedon is the god, period point blank. Still, on some level something about that character rang false – BUFFY didn’t LOOK like somebody who fought and scrapped and confronted people on a routine basis. Ultimately, I realized that my dissatisfaction wasn’t with the show, though. Moreso, BUFFY just didn’t reflect my experience as a Black, hip hop cat who grew up in the “crazy eighties.” My heroine was not slim, petite, and blond. Mine was big, physical, had a presence and more importantly – HAD CURVES.




In mainstream comics, if females are given a BIG, STRONG presence, they suddenly become ‘like dudes.’ Its almost like folks can’t see them as STRONG and FEMININE at the same time. (See: SHE HULK, POWER GIRL, STARFIRE etc etc etc) I worked hard to present a character that had a big physical presence, but who also was still a woman, and who could still be feminine and I guess…sexy. Very soon, I think folks will decide whether or not I was able to pull it off.




Folks in the comics game– along with hollywood and everybody else that distributes visual content in America – will have to realize that curves are GOOD, that they represent what most American women look like, and they are not going anywhere.

The sooner they get up on it, the more successful they will be.



Holla

~~~~~ TYPE ILLY UPDATE ~~~~~
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WHY MAKE A SINGLE MOM A SUPERHERO?

I used to live in DC. I lived there for almost fifteen years, in fact. I spent a lot of time on public transportation, riding the 70 bus (GEORGIA AVENUE, HOLLA!) or catching the GREEN LINE (AKA THE BLACK LINE) to and from work. Or, I'd walk. I spent many days and nights trudging up and down Georgia Avenue or Rhode Island Avenue, watching the hood slowly roll by. And I can honestly say that one constant always stood out:

Single moms.

They were almost all black (this was CHOCOLATE CITY, after all) and all young, but at the same time they had an aged aura on them, too. Where the other girls at the bus stop would be playful, they'd be serious. While the other girls were carefree and silly, the single moms - no matter what else they were doing - always kept one eye cocked on the young'uns, always making sure they didn't get hurt.

When I was younger, it never fazed me much. My mind was on the next job, the next steak and cheese, or the next piece of game I could spit at a female. But when I got older, and started taking care of my own little nephews, the real impact of being a young, single mom in the big city really hit me. Here I was - college educated, cockstrong and on top of things - STRUGGLING to get my little two year old nephew quiet, or to feed him, or to make his ass STOP RUNNING AROUND ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! At the end of every babysitting episode, I couldn't wait to give his ass back to his parents, even though I loved him to death. And as soon as I got back on those DC streets, I'd see a single mom, and I'd wonder:

HOW IN THE HELL DOES SHE DO IT?

I still don't know. But I realized that a single mom who holds down her household, works multiple jobs or does whatever is necessary to take care of her kids? That' heroic. To me, these women - like my mom for a time - are heroes, who 'work miracles at Thanksgiving' to make their kids happy, even when the money is short, the bills are due, and the car is acting up and she has no idea how she'll keep it running.

SOUTHSIDE NEFERTITI is my way of wondering how a women with so much responsibility is still able to juggle it all by herself. Even though Nefertiti is fantasy, and her powers give her strength and abilities no real woman ever has, her struggle is still based on the struggles I witnessed almost every day in DC, the struggle of a woman trying to be everything to everybody, with limited funds, limited time, limied energy - LIMITED EVERYTHING. To be able to balance all that with one's morals intact - to me, superpowers or not, that's heroic.

So that's where Southside Nefertiti comes from. To all the ladies out there that share her struggle - GOD BLESS.

~ M

~~~~~ TYPE ILLY UPDATE ~~~~~
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YOU CAN FIND ME IN THE ‘A’! © ‘KAST

Okay…

As you guys know, I’ve always had TWO goals for TYPE ILLY. One is selling my comics and making TYPE ILLY an established brand in the comics game.

The other is building a retail network for comics done by people of color.

Well, on the second goal, I’ve dropped another link in the chain. Last week I finished a deal that would put WILDCHILD # 1 and NEFERTITI JONES # 1 in MEDU BOOKS in Atlanta. Medu is located in that WORLD RENOWNED INSTITUTION known in the A as GREENBRIAR MALL. (Soufwess Atlanta, holla!!)

There are pros and cons to the deal with MEDU. They took the largest shipment of TYPE ILLY comics so far, twice as many as Karibu. However, my deal with them is consignment, which means if my comics don’t sell, I don’t get paid. Therefore, I’m putting together a really hot promo poster to send down there to accompany my comics. Eventually (time permitting) I may even do a signing at some point.

Regardless, I am happy about this. I am slowly but surely establishing a presence up the east coast. And with my impending trip out to San Diego for the COMICON convention, I am confident that I can have roots planted on the West coast, too. (I’ve been working on The Bay area, but its slow going. I’ll keep y’all posted.)

So…here’s the current list of spots that sell TYPE ILLY COMICS:

KARIBU BOOKS
The Mall at Prince George's
3500 East-West Highway
Hyattsville, MD 20782

KARIBU BOOKS
Bowie Town Center
15624 Emerald Way
Bowie, MD 20716

COLUMBUS BOOK EXCHANGE
6440 W Hamilton Park Dr Ste B
Columbus, GA 31909

THE KNOW BOOKSTORE
2520 Fayetteville St.
Durham, NC 27707

MEDU BOOKS
Greenbriar Mall
2841 Greenbriar Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30331

STORES UNDER CONSIDERATION

MARCUS BOOKS
1712 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA 94115

BLACKNIFICENT BOOKS
2011 Poole Road,
Raleigh, NC 27610

I’d like to also include Philly, Houston and Los Angeles by the end of the summer, to take my total number up to 10 stores. I’ll keep you guys posted on how things work out.

I’m also hard at work banging out promotional material. I’m doing artwork for my appearance at the Richard B. Harrision library next month, as well as for my convention work. The convention art is especially crucial, because I’ll be dealing with mainstream comic folks, who are generally a lot tougher with their critiques of comic art.

I’m also two thirds of the way through WILDCHILD # 2. The latest preview will be up in a few days. I’d love to have that done in time for the convention, since it has some of the best art I’ve done so far. We’ll see how it goes.

That’s all for now…

To all my ATL peeps, spread the word.

Holla…

[link]

~~~~~ TYPE ILLY UPDATE ~~~~~
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