Stealing from Melrose: hip hop and comics

Courtesy of Kevin Melrose (and, really, how hard is it to include that?), here's a Boston Globe article on hip hop and comics.

Some bits:

Marc Davis (Blokhedz): But those dabbling in this style should do so carefully, those in the industry say. After all, this is hip-hop, a culture obsessed with keepin' it real. "Hip-hop has never been just about music," Davis says. "It's more about an energy, more of a subculture. You can translate it to anything. That's why it works. But it has to be done right. You can't fake it."

I've mentioned before that I love Blokhedz, right?

Davis talks about the Newsarama interview and thread where I first heard of Blokhedz:

"Blokhedz" was an equally hard sell in the comic-book industry. From his parents' living room couch, Mark Davis explains why it took so long for the industry, which suffers stagnant sales as manga flourishes, to embrace hip-hop comics. He talks about an interview the brothers did with the comic-book news website Newsarama two years ago; the publicity generated about 40 responses from comic fans.

"But 20 were, like, they were so disgusting," Davis says. "They said, 'Black people don't read; they watch BET.' 'This is never going to work.' It was just straight ignorance. A lot of the diehard comic-book fans, traditionally they like their white hero and they think that [a black superhero] poses a threat to them. What made me feel better was a lot of my peers, a lot of artists I know from just seeing their work and stuff, they replied [to the critics], 'You guys are ignorant.' 'It's time to make this industry change; that's why it's not making any money.'"

The article also mentions @Large, which I didn't like, and Tokyo Tribes, which I haven't checked out yet.