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Yes, Black People Survive the Apocalypse

Television director Eric Dean Seaton continues to break stereotypes of African-Americans in science fiction and fantasy with his third book in the “Legend of the Mantamaji” graphic novel series.

When people think of superheroes and science fiction, they often imagine the strong chiseled features and extraordinary powers of white male characters. A two-time NAACP Image Award nominee, Seaton wants to remind comic book and sci-fi fans that Black people can be superheroes, too. With the launch of his third book in the “Legend of the Mantamaji” series Feb. 11, Seaton hopes positive representation of people of color in comics will go a long way to shatter stereotypes about Black involvement and interest in science fiction and fantasy.

“Science fiction and fantasy stories give people of all ages something to dream about. What does it say to children when the only heroes they read about are white?” said Seaton, whose television hits include Disney’s Austin & Ally, NBC’s Undateable and Nickelodeon’s Bella and the Bulldogs. “Black people do survive the zombie apocalypse, people of color exist in the future. They don’t have to be the first person the monster eats. And our interests go beyond civil rights and slavery. Our history is incredibly important, but so are our dreams and creative imaginings.”

The third book in the “Legend of the Mantamaji” series finds Elijah Alexander, the last of the mystical knights known as the Mantamaji, beaten and left for dead. Detective Sydney Spencer has just figured out who is behind the mysterious happenings of a new crime ring and that knowledge has cost her dearly. Time is running out to stop the sorcerer, Sirach, who is hell-bent on controlling space, time and reshaping the world in his image.

“One doesn’t have to wait for the ‘big two’ to offer crumbs of diversity when there are great new franchises like ‘Legend of the Mantamaji’ that often put them to shame,” Alex Widen, Brooklyn comic book expert for Examiner.com, said. “This third volume acts as a perfect bookend to this tale of ancient warriors and sorcerers, and one can only hope that there are more legends to come.”

Seaton’s successful series began with the first two volumes in the series being named among the “Top Graphic Novels of 2014” by Examiner.com and Atlanta Blackstar. With Book 3’s release, the early buzz points to Seaton showing no signs of stopping.

Terreece M. Clarke is a freelance writer/journalist for a variety of magazines, newspapers and websites and a rocking’ wife and mother of three. Follow her on Twitter: @terreece!

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7 Movies That Surprisingly Started Out as Comics

It’s easy to tell a movie is based on a comic book when people are flying around and wearing spandex, but comics aren’t all about superheroes. The art form encompasses many different genres, and many movies have been adapted that don’t advertise their comic roots. A perfect example is the new movie 2 Guns, which looks like your typical action movie until you read the fine print. Here are comic book movies you might not have known were comic book movies.

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30 Days of Night

Released in 2007, starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George and Danny Huston, this horror movie about an Alaskan town where vampires attack during a prolonged polar night started as an unproduced film script. It took a detour when it was adapted into a three-issue comic book miniseries in 2002. The comic was so successful that it led to the feature film.

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From Rapper to Superhero: Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels Launches Comic Book Line

From Beats to the Rhyme to beating up crime, Run-DMC rapper Darryl McDaniels is gearing up to take down bad guys in his new line of comics.

The new comic will hit stores Oct. 29 and will feature McDaniels himself as a crime-fighting superhero, complete with DMC brass knuckles, his classic Fedora and a pair of Adidas sneakers.

The new comic company, Darryl Makes Comics, hopes to create an entire ’80s universe of superheroes over time.

“It’s not going to be 2,000 issues of my boring ass,” McDaniels joked with the Daily News. “We wanted to build a foundation for a whole universe from [this first book.]”

He also explained that the comic will tackle some serious issues that don’t usually make debuts in the comic world.

“We’ll be introducing other superheroes and supervillains and deal with a lot of issues: racism, homophobia, AIDS – subjects other comics really don’t talk about,” he added.

One panel of the comic that’s already been released revealed that fans can also expect some clever Run-DMC references as well.

The panels show the masked superhero asking what durable material his suit is made out of.

When he asks if it’s leather, another man cleverly responds, “Nah man. Tougher than leather.”

Tougher Than Leather is the name of Run-DMC’s 1988 album.

It’s only natural that McDaniels would incorporate his hip-hop history in the comic considering his love of comics is part of what fueled many of his legendary lyrics.

“I was a shy kid, so when DJ Run (aka Joseph Simmons) was first putting me on these records, I went back to my comic books for confidence,” he told the Daily News. “I would hear a beat and go ‘OK, what would the Hulk do to this?’ It was all imagination to me.”

Another look at some of the hip-hop icon’s verses confirms that superheroes inspired many of his lyrics.

“That’s why, if you hear my delivery, ‘Crash through walls/Come through floors/ Bust through ceilings’ – all the dominant punching lines came from [channeling] the Hulk,” he added.

Now McDaniels can continue smashing through walls, floors and ceilings in the name of justice.

As he prepares to embark on a new business endeavor, McDaniels admitted that it will be challenging to really enter a market that is being dominated by DC and Marvel.

“We’ve been hitting the Comic Cons for a year and a half, and there are times when we’ve been swarmed by fans, and there are other times we’re sitting at a table and there are crickets,” said Darryl Makes Comics editor in chief Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez. “But one of the things we have that other small publications don’t have is that we’re literally walking around the floor with the actual superhero, the actual icon.”

DMC will make its official debut next month during the New York Comic Con.