Tales of superheroes, good versus evil and finding one’s purpose took over the World Beat Center in Balboa Park on Saturday as comic lovers from near and far gathered to celebrate the work of Black comic book artists.
Black Comix Day is held during Black History Month and recognizes the importance of Black representation in comics — from the artists themselves to the characters they create.
“It’s an opportunity for… our communities to see Black creatives in this space where you can not just hear about them, but actually meet them and see them and patronize them,” said Keithan Jones, the event’s founder.
Now in its seventh year, the two-day event featured more than 30 creators and vendors from across the country, each with a booth featuring their work and life-size replicas of some characters. The event also offered two panel discussions: one on how to make a comic and another on how artists can push past negativity to achieve their dreams.
Jones started Black Comix Day in 2017. The event was first hosted at the Malcolm X Library in Emerald Hills before eventually moving to the World Beat Center. There weren’t many outlets for Black artists to share their work with the public, Jones said, and he saw this as an opportunity to make that happen.
Jones’ own love of comics started as a kid, when his stepfather would pass down books to Jones after he read them. But Jones says he didn’t see Black characters in those stories, which he said in turn impacted how he saw himself.
“You already kind of relegated yourself as a sidekick or just a background character,” he said.
David Phillips, a Los Angeles-based comic book creator who had a booth at the event, echoed Jones’ sentiment. For years, he said, it didn’t even occur to him to draw Black characters because he had never seen them represented in the books he read.
Phillips has been drawing most of his life — since he was 9 years old — but began creating comics in 1984 when he was 24 years old.
His comic that came out that year, titled “Agents of Soul,” “rose from the ashes of the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. It mixed a historical retelling of the Black community’s struggle to secure equal rights along with some fiction near the end.
For him, comic books are an ideal medium to “entertain and subliminally educate at the same time.”
Phillips went on to create a series of books under the same name, which he described as “Undercover Brother meets Star Trek,” with the protagonists fighting superpowered-villains with science and technology.
Cosplayers brought a few of his characters to life on Saturday: Franceska the Wild, portrayed by Los Angeles residents Shelia Lewis-Perito and Klarissa Curtis, and the Shadow Queen, portrayed by Michelle Falsetta, who traveled in from New York for the event.
Some artists, like Phillips, have participated in Black Comix Day for several years. Others, such as Jocelyn Short, were there for the first or second time.
Short flew in from Maryland to showcase her work, including “Bearers,” a book about spiritual couriers who escort souls of people who died alone to their final resting place. It was inspired by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, which honors soldiers whose remains have not been identified.
Along with sharing their work with the public, Short and other artists said they appreciate that the event gives creators an opportunity to connect with longstanding members in the community and meet new faces, too.
“There’s so much community engagement. A lot of people tend to come out,” she said, adding that “I like that all the creators want to come back.”
Black Comix Day continues on Sunday at the World Beat Center from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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