We caught up with the prolific comic book man David Walker right before a panel at New York Comic Con. Walker has worked on some the best runs in the game, and is currently writing Marvel’s Power Man and Iron Fist.
Here’s our talk about #BlackHeroesMatter, social media in comics, & creativity.
Blavity: Could you tell us about your involvement with the #BlackHeroesMatter movement?
DW: It really started out as trying to gather a group of creators and fans together at the San Diego Comic Con. [To have] a group of black folks just to have a show of force. And by force, I mean a show of numbers. I put out a call to small group of people, thinking maybe there’d be a dozen of us. And that number grew very rapidly. And then URAEUS (@JaycenWise), an artist out of Baltimore, he came up with the concept #BlackHeroesMatter.
Blavity: How has social media affected the way you connect with your fanbase?
DW: Before social media, things like Twitter and Facebook, you thought you were alone. You might be the only black kid at your school who read comic books, or you might live in a predominately white town in Iowa or something. The problem with the system is, the system is designed to dehumanize us and make us think that we’re crazy. Because social media allows us to connect and realize we have a lot in common, communities start to come together.
That’s what the Black Lives Matter movement has done, and that’s what the #BlackHeroesMatter movement is doing as well.
Blavity: Last question, you spoke about your anxiety the other night. As a creative person, what is a good way to create through your anxiety?
DW: The key for me is just to take it and try to spit it out. I spit out onto the page – taking the anxiety and taking the anger and turning into something else. Black folks as a people are the masters at creating something out of garbage, out of nothing. We are the discards, and we’ve often taken things that are discarded and made art out of it. So why shouldn’t our anger and our angst and anxiety be able to be turned into art?
