Excellence

No, I'm not trying to make a broad statement or start this post with something like, "Webster's dictionary defines excellence as...". I wanted to briefly talk about this new Image series, "Excellence".

Now for me to write a post about a comic shortly after reading it must tell you something. Permit me to get on my soap box for a moment for this special episode.

A short description of this book is basically, a futuristic world where a young man, Spencer, is born into a world of magic. His father is a member of a secret society of black magicians who are charged with making the world a better place by unseen masters. There is a lot to unpack in that statement, but let's just let that sit there. This isn't the reason I'm writing this.

I just read issue #2 and while I thought it was...well, excellent, it's the letter from the artist Khary Randolph at the back that made me want to post. My hope is that it will entice you all to pick up this book as well.

In the letter, Randolph lays out what they are intending with the story in this book and gives some of this thoughts on what went into making it. Let me pull the snippet of what he said that inspired me to post:

"Being black is about understanding that what you do, it's not just about you. It's about what you represent. You have a responsibility to not just represent yourself, but your block. Your borough. Your community. Your race. It's not right, and it's not fair, but it is what it is. We all learn about responsibility early on. "They will always think that you are less than. Good isn't good enough. You must be great." "We didn't work this hard to get you here for you to throw it all away." "You made it out. You better represent." Being black, the world is on your shoulders and every days is shoulder day."

This is an amazing quote because like me, if you're black, that statement probably spoke right to you. Also, you've already heard this before. This is nothing new.

So under the guise of a sci-fi/fantasy, this book will attempt to tackle these kind of things. Randolph goes on to say he wishes this is a book he had as a 13 year old boy. With all the push towards more diversity in movies and comics, specifically in super heroes, I always feel the same way. All I can think is this is great for the younger generation to grow up with this. It also gives me something to share with any of my future kids, because I know I will have to have the same talk with them. The world has not changed enough for me not to. At least I can show them characters that look like them. Books like this become even more important.

Other than these themes, the art in this book is full of kinetic energy. Each page so far in the first two issues has been dynamic and it has done a good job of world building. This is some of the best work I've seen from Randolph and I do proudly have a piece of art of his that I bought at Heroes Con a few years ago. Adding to the feel of authenticity is that the writer, Brandon Thomas is also black. Every bit of dialogue comes off as authentic. This is the beginning of a story, so not much has been revealed just yet.

Also at the heart of this story is the relationship between Spencer and his father. I don't want to say too much to give it away, but I feel like this is something we also deal with.

If you've come to my blog, you are already a comic book fan. I would highly recommend going to your local comic book shop and picking up the first two issues of this book. I'm also glad that is now becoming more normal to see black creators making comic books for the more mainstream companies. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do. I don't want to oversell this and say it's an important book, but the way more comics like this get made is if we support them. I'm glad I took a chance and I hope you do too.