Over the course of a year I’ve been in and out of comic book creator spaces, mostly black ones, to gain knowledge on how to format and create my own comic book series and where to market them. As I lurked and communicated with others, I sensed a ton of senseless arguing about “other comic book influences” and “your characters aren’t black enough” from others that I thought I highly respected as peers in this industry. As it reigned on, I began to see more black manga artists show up on TikTok, posting their works and their connections. I had to ask because I could not understand:

“How can you create in a space that portrays us so negative?”