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Dawud Anyabwile (@brothermancomix) Dawud joins us on the Black Superheroes MatterPodcast. Dawud is an Emmy Award Winning and two time Glyph Comics award winning Illustrator and comic artist from Philadelphia, PA who’s based in Atlanta, GA. He began his career as an artist in 1984 by airbrushing T-shirts at The Gallery Mall of Philadelphia and later went on to become a catalyst for the contemporary Black Comic book movement. Currently running his own company, Big City Entertainment, Dawud talks about taking ownership of your art and the strategies of distributing it while navigating the comic book industry as a Black artist.
Notable Time Stamps:
Creative License:
8:46-9:10 “Ever since I did Brotherman, the objective wasn’t to make a comic book, it was to create intellectual property that can become anything. Then, that becomes the pioneer to other stories and brands and then you move into another space of production and ownership and things to that nature. Making our own films etc.”
10:00-10:15 “We didn’t sign deals because that’s not what we’re trying to do or somebody’s trying to clown what we’re trying to do and it’s like I don’t care how much money I’m getting, if I can’t hold my head up when it’s created and be proud of this, I don’t want to do it.”
40:04- 40:19 “Brotherman I refer to it as dream state mythology so it feels like our world but it’s not. They’re not on our calendar, they’re not on our clock, they have different politics but it has the soul. Like you would be in there but it would just be an alternate type of presentation of you.(41:50) It’s basically like your soul in another dimension (41:55)”
Comic book distribution:
14:15-14:57 “What we did in terms of our distribution is we bypassed the comic book industry. We were hitting the Black Expos. We did 30,000 books in the first year and I think we were closing on 40,00 books. Nobody even knew who we were, we were just selling books”
15:21-16:05 “Let’s hit the Black bookstores basically places where our people go but there’s no comic books there. Barbershops, beauty salons etc. We got a lot of support from those places so we sell more books to a Black bookstore most of the time than a comic book store. So we would sell to comic book stores but they were always secondary.”
35:05-35:38 “A bookstore may say “can you send us 25 of each book” that’s not a lot compared to how much we’re selling to Black bookstores and individuals on the street who didn’t even have stores. They were just getting them in barbershops and selling them on the street and they’d say “yo I need a couple hundred more books” that’s how we were selling them, that’s how we got close to a million books independently.”
Words of Wisdom:
46:34- 46:47 “You are the master of your destiny, you know you have a god power within and that’s what this is. The Brotherman revelation story is about the manifestation of that god power within “
59:50- 100:00 “What I try to influence younger people is like, yo you have stories to tell, tell your stories, be you.”
101:26-101:41 “Art is one thing, confidence in yourself and knowing that value that’s in yourself like no matter what people say on the outside or what anybody feels about you, you have to know your wealth and your self worth.”
Drawing from the Soul:
57:30-57:47 “It’s a double entendre so it means drawing from the soul but it also means to pull from the soul. To draw, to step out on your own and be confident in who you are. You don’t have to apologize for who you are.”
58:17-58:26 “It’s not just about teaching kids how to draw a picture but teach them how to see themselves, see the power in themselves. That’s what Drawing from the Soul is.”
58:53-59:12 “It’s about feeding the mind because drawing is the end product. If I draw a character, that’s the end product of what’s in my mind but if my mind is not strong in terms of my character and my being, my end result is going to be an extension of what I believe.”
59:20-59:44 “And you have a sister or a cousin who has the character traits of heroism but you look past her because she doesn’t look like Wonder Woman when it’s like make your own family, make your own heroes put them in the forefront, draw from the soul, draw from you. We’ve already seen them, they’ve made their money, draw from you and show us your story.
Black Representation in the Comic Book Industry:
56:35- 56:45 “It’s important for us to learn from us. There’s something about just seeing somebody that looks like they could be your father or your brother or your sister or your mother or something like that and they’re also skilled and teaching you something.”
106:03-106:34 “Ownership versus representation like it’s one thing to say “hey we’re represented in this movie” and for years we’ve always been represented, you know we’re in something but we don’t own it and we want to get to the point where we own the industry. We own the products that we make, we own the intellectual properties so then we’re the decision makers on what happens on these products.”
Key Links:
Website: Brothermancomics.com | Bigcitymap.com
Instagram: @Brothermancomix
Youtube: Drawing from the Soul
Art Station: babadawud
Hey, this is Steve. I played football at Oregon State University and University of Hawaii. Now I doodle cartoons and blow stuff up on camera. I also make web comics too. Hopefully I can make this whole thing a full time gig so I can make the big bucks to pay for Medical School! (Fingers Crossed) If you would like more thought-provoking content or a quick laugh consider supporting me on Patreon, checking out my webseries Eyelnd Feevr, or checking out links to my other projects below:
Eyelnd Feevr Webseries | PDX Black Rose Podcast | Stuck E Podcast | Black Superheroes Matter | Artist Portfolio | DIY Arts Tutorials & Blog |