The last month has been a frenzied and funky whirlwind, as I’ve been largely on the road presenting more of our “Hip-Hop & Comics: Cultures Combining” panels around the country. At Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon on March 28th, I was joined by creators Jim Mahfood and Matthew Rosenberg, editor and journalist David Brothers, and artist/activists Hops and 179 (from the Few & Far collective) for a conversation that touched on all manner of issues, from creative influences to political activism.
A couple weeks later, I assembled a panel consisting of comic creators Kenny Keil and Ted Lange IV, comic and graphic artist James Reitano, painters Erin Yoshi and Glow (of Few & Far), and the esteemed DJ Nu-Mark (of Jurassic 5 fame) at WonderCon in Anaheim, California. The conversation was lively from the very first moment, and twisted off into dozens of fascinating tangents over the better part of an hour: Lange and Keil discussed the music that drew them into the world of Hip-Hop, Nu-Mark spoke of his early attempts at graffiti writing, Glow and Yoshi told tales of developing their own visual styles, Reitano recounted tales of discovering records and comics in the 80s, and the entire group talked about how they draw from these cultures in creating their own work.
There were many other highlights from the two programs, but I guess there’s not much point in me going into detail when you can listen for yourself!