We've all been chomping at the bit waiting on Dynamite's new
SHAFT series by indie phenom
David F. Walker (
BadAzzMofo, Super Justice Force, Number 13) for a minute, so I'm fired up to show you this preview, which includes a gang of variant covers and sweet as folk interior art by Bilquis Evely, who I'm sure will be a household name before you know it...
Here's the sales pitch:
MATURE READERS Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine with all the chicks? Shaft! Created by author Ernest Tidyman, and made famous in a series of novels and films, iconic hero Shaft makes his comic book debut in an all-new adventure. He’s gone toe-to-toe with organized crime bosses, stood up to the cops, squared off against kidnappers, and foiled assassination attempts. But who was John Shaft before he became the hardboiled investigator with a reputation as big as New York City itselfI'm not sure what caused the entertainment industry to finally figure out that black people's money is just as green as everyone else's, but I'm happy to let the mother-effing good times roll. Sure, there is a lot of ham-fisted pandering and empty calories by the big guys, but the general consensus that making content about black people doesn't automatically doom a project to failure is good for everyone, and this new
SHAFT series looks like it's gonna be a prime example of that.
And before anyone starts complaining about not liking the blaxploitation genre, I invite you to listen to Walker's Publisher's Weekly podcast interview. He connects with the source material on an emotional and intellectual level, and from what he said in the interview,
SHAFT creator Ernest Tidyman's estate and folks at Dynamite
are committed to Walker's vision for the character. It's always good to hear a writer speak passionately about comics in a literary sense, and Walker is looking to execute on a high level. There's more to John Shaft than has been seen in the movies, and I'm expecting to see it in this series.
I've been crowing about David Walker's writing in comics and prose for years, and this looks like a project he was born for. And in case you need me to say this, the art I've seen so far by emerging Brazilian comic book drawing machine Bilquis Evely is on point. In addition to being a fine storyteller, Evely knows how to draw a panel full of black folks that do not look related. That's gonna be a hot commodity if this whole "diversity in comics" thing lasts.
So anyways, I could obviously do this all day.
Just make sure you cop SHAFT #1 which comes out December 3rd, ya dig?Peace,-samax Samax Amen draws people, places and things for fun and profit. He is the artist of many great comics you never heard of like Herman Heed, Champion of Children, The Brother and The World As You Know It. He even writes and draws his own comics, like Dare: The Adventures of Darius Davidson, Spontaneous, and Manchild when he gets around to it. Because making comics is hard and stuff, he started GhettoManga as a blog in 2006 and as a print magazine in 2008. GhettoManga.com comics. hiphop. news. art. culture
Samax Amen draws people, places and things for fun and profit. He is the artist of many great comics you never heard of like Herman Heed, Champion of Children, The Brother and The World As You Know It. He even writes and draws his own comics, like Dare: The Adventures of Darius Davidson, Spontaneous, and Manchild when he gets around to it. Because making comics is hard and stuff, he started GhettoManga as a blog in 2006 and as a print magazine in 2008. 