Comics + Afrofuturism + Oscar Mack
I’ve made my case for the centrality of comics in Afrofuturism. I’m building on the early history of the term. Still, the impact of the imaginary in the context of a particular historical moment cannot be overlooked, especially as we wrestled with negative mythologies every day. July marks the 100th anniversary of the “lynching event” connected to Oscar Mack.
A county fair scene from upcoming Oscar Mack comic.
Given the historical moment, I wanted to do something to explore the story. True to my nature, I’ve hit upon an interesting way to explore the mack story, utilizing the broad contours of the historical moment to explore the implications of the black experience through a story that incorporates Afrofuturist elements. Yes, while I think there is much that we gained from learning about and exploring the original history, I also think the critical process of making in the context of that history is equally useful. To manage this, I turn to my friend Chuck Brown to create an “Afrofantastic” world inspired by Oscar Mack. Chuck and I have worked together before. I did the backmatter for On the Stump. We have talked about the complex racial history of the early 20th century at length and obviously, his work on Bitter Root used a supernatural framework to explore these issues. It pitched an idea and he developed a sample script. With script in hand, I found an artist named Devin Wright to bring it to life. You can see the early pencils from Devin above and you will see the short opening sequence for the story this fall in the pages of the Third Stone journal. Once again, growing from my work curating the Zora Neale Hurston Festival’s Afrofuturism cycle, I’m guest editing this journal with an eye toward exploring the vision of Afrofuturism. This approach, the creation of a comic story inspired by a forgotten lynching in 1922 is perhaps a stranger means to consider the implication of Afrofuturism as a “toolkit” of black speculative practice. Yet, the unorthodox nature of the project opens doors to complex ways of thinking. Listen to my conversation with Chuck about this project below.
