Photo: Kyle Bray/ WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — What started as a handful of Black comic book fans meeting for fun has evolved into an annual festival that draws hundreds of comic book fans from all backgrounds.
The 6th Annual Boston Comics In Color Festival drew comic creators of all ages to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston this weekend. Cagan Luse, the co-creator of the festival, said in a time when there is a lot of pushback against diversity at the federal level, events like this bring people together.
"There's just so much color and so much creativity of people telling their stories," Luse said. "These are stories by us for us right so young folks at any age can come and see themselves represented in stories as superheroes and as stories about their neighborhood. It's just a beautiful thing."
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The event drew some legendary artists and writers, like David F. Walker, who has worked on many Marvel and DC comics. He is also the author of a graphic novel history of the Black Panther Party. He said it was important to him to tell the Panthers' story visually.
"They were very cognizant of how they looked and how they presented themselves publicly," Walker said. "Every book that's written about them left so much of that out. I wanted to try to capture that dynamic, iconic quality that they brought forth."
Joel Christian Gill, a comic book artist and the chair of the Department of Visual Narrative at Boston University's College of Fine Arts, said he sees comics as an empathy medium, but that it is also important for Black media to center around joy.
"I think coming to a show like this shows some of these comics have nothing to do with race, only that there's a Black person on the cover," Gill said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kyle Bray (@KyleBrayWBZ) reports.