Taken from our 2021 Comic-Con@Home Panel, in this episode, I discuss the origins and practical application of Afrofuturism with five leaders in this space: Afrofuturist scholar and cultural critic, Ytasha Womack; critically acclaimed illustrator and author Tim Fielder; Award winning, best selling graphic novelist and scholar, John Jennings; and Loreen Williamson and Pamela Thomas, the co-founders and co-curators of The Museum Of UnCut Funk. Together, they explore how black history, particularly 1970s funk culture and black animation, inspires the movements of speculative fiction and art. They detail their individual projects, while also highlighting collaborative efforts to revive vintage comic strip characters, such as Neil Knight, into modern STEM-focused franchises. Overall, the discussion emphasizes Afrofuturism as both an artistic aesthetic and a cultural practice that uses imagination and technology to construct new narratives of liberation and future possibilities for people of African descent. Now, on to the conversation.

n this episode, we remember our historic discussion with Emmy Award-winning artist Dawud Anyabwile, and colorist Brian McGee, of the cult classic and record-breaking comic book "Brother Man”. The discussion centers on the history, philosophy, and resurgence of "Brother Man", a comic first introduced in 1990 that is celebrated for its commitment to diverse and conscious storytelling within the superhero genre. Anyabwile explains that the protagonist, Antonio Valor, possesses innate powers rather than superpowers, symbolizing the importance of community consciousness and effort. The creators discuss their motivations for creating a high-caliber cultural product that positively reflects the Black experience, aiming to "redefine the default" in popular culture away from white-centric heroism. They also touch upon the challenges and spiritual journey involved in bringing back the series with "Brother Man: Revelation," emphasizing excellence and the book's complex world-building.

In this episode, distinguished professor and comix scholar, Dr. Frederick Luis Aldama, introduces three distinguished scholars and creators: Dr. Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado, Dr. Deborah Whaley, and Dr. Fernanda Diaz Basteris, and together they discuss their personal and academic journeys into comic studies, frequently noting the lack of existing scholarship on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) narratives in sequential art, which initially motivated their research. They also address their challenges faced as women of color working in an academic field often dominated by white men, including issues of gatekeeping and justifying their focus on Latinx and Black comics. Ultimately, they affirm the importance of studying and teaching BIPOC comics as a crucial practice of equity, justice, and cultural preservation, celebrating the various genres and visual forms used to "ink our humanity."