Time to Wear Tights (month 2)

Come November, I’ll be responsible for a four-color title in your local comics shop. That’s right: yours truly is bum rushing the world of superheroes for a brief stint as a comic-book writer. (And in the 2010s, said comic will probably follow the path of Sin City, Ghost World, Fritz the Cat and a host of others to Hollywood-movie adaptation. But one thing at a time.) Details? Thought you’d never ask.

The concept so far centers around a twentysomething black dude who’s a spiritual Master. Somethin like Jesus Christ, Siddharta Gautama, the Dalai Lama or Erykah Badu. Having achieved spiritual mastery doesn’t allow him to walk on water or ressurrect himself from the dead; maybe he can really kick ass instead. Throw in low-level telepathy. He tours the world giving seminars about the New Spirituality, like the Conversations With God guy, only hiphop and sexy. Touring, he meets others who’ve also reached that same spiritual level: a black/Korean rock chick; a hiphop knowitall whiteboy; one or two others. And the badguys are probably politicians. Somebody going around trying to raise consciousness is never in their interest, so that’s not too hard. And there’s gotta be an arch nemesis, a guy who thinks he’s the devil to this guy’s savior until he eventually realizes they’re essentially the same person. (Lucifer was a fallen angel, right? This is nothing new.)

I’m blogging here about my progress every month. Since October, I found out Bronx Biannual contributor Jerry A. Rodriguez has an agent who’s signing up comic deals for his writers. I’ve already got an agent of course, but she doesn’t deal in comics; no conflict of interest. And an old Vibe associate who transitioned to the long-johns and capes advised me not to deal with the majors – Marvel and DC – if I wanna keep the rights to my creations. In fact, Frank Miller (300, The Dark Knight Returns) complained to me long ago about getting fucked by Marvel. Miller invented Elektra and never gets any credit, not to mention any royalties from, like, the movie. So, duly noted. Though if DC lets me get anywhere near Doctor Fate, all bets are off.

And shoutout to my brother Kyle for season 1 of Heroes… good lookin!