With a Kickstarter campaign closing on Friday, July 19th, the brand-new AFROFUTURES anthology zine gets unpacked in conversation between the title's curatorial mastermind Troy-Jeffrey Allen and Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin.
COMIC BOOK YETI: Troy, it’s great to have you stop by the Yeti Cave today. I saw you announcing AFROFUTURES in the CKRS facebook page, and from the moment you posted illustrations, I was keen on learning more. It looks like the ongoing Kickstarter campaign has been successful thus far, so congratulations! How are you feeling about things so far?
TROY-JEFFREY ALLEN: Encouraged. The reaction has been positive, but also with a side of, “yo, WHAT IS THIS?” People are genuinely curious and excited about this ‘zine. Particularly, people love the art and the concepts: they love the Blaxploitation vibes of “All-Negro Squad,” the reimagining of Josephine Baker as a Nazi-hunter, the cyberpunk energy of “Lucy & Percival,” and the surrealism of our J Dilla comic. And that’s JUST the stuff that has been announced!
CBY: Yeah, it's hard for me to express how incredibly excited I am to see everything going into this first zine publication. In the press release for AFROFUTURES, you mentioned representation of Black voices over the last few years - when did the idea for this project initially arise, and how has it grown and changed since it began?
TJA: AFROFUTURES’s origin is the culmination of a lot of things. It’s partially just me growing up reading stuff like Right On Magazine as a kid. It’s me sneaking into my Aunt’s bedroom as a pre-teen to play her Prince and Heavy D cassettes. It’s me being very much part of the MTV Generation – watching Liquid TV and Yo! MTV Raps. It’s not all about me, but as the editor/publisher it had to resonate with that kid.
As for when the idea struck, I guess it was a bit of a pandemic baby, but it was also because of all the stuff we were arguing about before the pandemic too. “Inclusivity” and “diversity” had really started to feel like corporate buzzwords to sell stuff. I’d grown increasingly uncomfortable with those terms because the way people were talking about it felt like zombified marketing. That felt gross to me. I kept thinking where is “culture” in all this? Culture is everything. Without culture, in the hands of corporations, “diversity” is just window dressing – which then just devolves into altruistic racism. That’s not progress.
Then there was this documentary I worked on for The Smithsonian Channel. I sat in a room with Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Nona Hendryx of Labelle, and George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic for several hours while filming commenced. I just listened to them muse about Black futures.
Then the pandemic hit! And it’s really interesting what happens when you realize the world can actually stop. It made it free online. I landed a Public Enemy comic after that. It clicked in my head, finally. Right On, progress, MTV, Afrofuturism, hip hop, and culture! Fuck it! Let’s do that!
CBY: Yeah, diversity without different positional values being brought into the mix leads to superficial change, at best. It sounds like this was brewing for a while, and it's cool to hear of the iconic perspectives informing its inception. As an anthology, you mentioned the publication is meant to function like a visual concept album around the theme of Black mythology, examined from the end of time by a robotic Master of Ceremonies named 808. The only reference that readily came to mind upon hearing the numeric name was the Roland TR-808 drum machine. But before I make any specious associations, what was the rationale behind the name and using the character as an intermediary host between stories?
TJA: You nailed it.
Okay. Let’s talk about drums: the TR-808 is a drum machine that has a mythic history in the music world. Drums are also the backbone of every song. They are also tools of communication – war drums, clapping in church, drum circles, etc. The “beat” is everything. So, a character named “808” should probably be the heartbeat of AFROFUTURES.
Beyond that, I really wanted a “Crypt Keeper” or Alfred E. Neuman for this production. She’s the AFROFUTURES Master of Ceremony. But I wanted something that felt of the culture but also something futuristic.
CBY: So between 808’s MC duties, you’ve got nine tales to tell in this first installment.
You mention over 20 creators involved on the Kickstarter page. This includes the
following team members; Chief Mayiahey Starrchild, Erika Hardison, Nelson Blake II,
Justin Fennel, Chris Scott, Jeff Toliver, Tam, JT Wilkins, Colleen Douglas, Johnathan
Edwards, B. John Holmes, Jiba Molei Anderson, Jason Pierre, Jennifer Dudley, Mervyn McKoym, Lexus Pearson, DJ CandiKrush, Nicole McKoy, Lee Strawberry, David Williams, Christian Detres, and Christopher Marlon. It’s a huge group to coordinate - what has the process of keeping everyone’s contributions and collaborative efforts on track for completion of this project looked like?
TJA: You gotta Bruce Lee that shit. Feel it out. Be like water. Trust your instincts.
My job with Diamond has also put me directly across a lot of industry veterans. I’ve interviewed everyone about comic books – from manga artists to Gene Simmons. You really start to hear patterns in their stories. Stories about bad editors, good editors, scripting, working with artists…you’re getting all this professional history. It really helped me understand the role I should play in the creative process.
CBY: Glad I was on-target! Having a bridging environment and host to serve as intermediary between the stories is definitely a useful narrative device. You’ve noted your outreach to the Black-owned business community and efforts toward fostering market solidarity to get the needed support for this title. What sort of responses have you been most pleased with from your activities to raise awareness and get buy-in on this project?
TJA: The best responses are, “This is dope.” Which came directly from my barbershop. You can’t ask for a better test audience.
CBY: On that note of collaborating with supportive businesses, can you tell us a bit about RexCo comics and the role Cosmic Lion Productions is playing in the publication of AFROFUTURES? How did the publishing arrangements come together for this project?
TJA: RexCo Comics is the studio I run with Nick Allen (Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew, Fight of the Century). We were basically funny book mercenaries for the last decade. We just took assignments and hustled across the convention floors to establish our creative credentials. In 2016, we created RexCo as a destination for our work – freelance or self-financed.
As for publishing arrangements…that’s all the CKRS connect. Back in 2019, I was desperate to find an online community that engaged with comics more directly. Not superhero movies. Not industry drama. Just comics. The CKRS Facebook group really provided that at one point in time. Eli Schwab at Cosmic Lion is an admin of that group. I really wasn’t interested in “experimenting” with personality types when it came to the distribution of AFROFUTURES. So I went to Eli because he had done fulfillment before. We also share a similar enthusiasm for this format.
CBY: I've definitely met some awesome creators and discovered fantastic comics in that group, so I'm glad to see it resulting in projects like AFROFUTURES. Now, part of getting this into publication means filling all the backer rewards - you’ve got some absolutely fantastic covers on offer, and a virtual block party for certain tiers. What should supporters look forward to they may not see out of other comic campaigns when they back AFROFUTURES?
TJA: Everything is built around the zine. I feel like a lot of Kickstarter campaigns distract from the main item by shoving in all the extras. Everything in this set is meant to bring you back to the AFROFUTURES mega-zine. The stickers are character-focused, the prints are high-quality versions of the covers… the virtual block party is going to serve as the soundtrack to the book.
The virtual block party is something we’re discussing right now. DJ CandiKrush and I are talking about the flow of stories inside AFROFUTURES – the heartbeat. So, the party is really going to be an audio reinterpretation of the book.
CBY: Part of why I was so keen to catch you for an interview, Troy, is the combination of my longstanding fondness for the genre, including ongoing doctoral work on island-focused (nissological) futurism. I have Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower within arm’s reach right now alongside various collections of indigenous futures I’ve been collecting in my research on ecocriticism and solarpunk literature. I was wondering, do you have any examples of the genre that have been fundamental to shaping the depiction of AFROFUTURES, and what do you make of the distinction between Afrofuturism and Nnedi Okorafor’s Africanfuturism, and what sort of range of approaches to the genre(s) are represented within the collected stories?
TJA: What I learned working on that documentary, is that afrofuturism is an umbrella. Underneath that umbrella is any genre you want. The only real rule is that it has to be forward-thinking. It has to progress beyond existing attitudes. So that’s how we’re carrying this.
CBY: I look forward to seeing how expansive it becomes. Beyond literary foundations for Afrofuturism, what sort of music, movies, and other inspirations have been formative for you as you’ve built your aesthetic value structure and creative approach? What common threads may have come up in conversation with the rest of the collaborators around the shared tone and image you’ve sought to deliver in curating this publication?
TJA: To the first question: Right On Magazine + MF DOOM + Aliens + Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon + Death (the band) + Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora + The Ballad of John Henry + Samurai Champloo + Josephine Baker + Christine + Akira + J. Dilla + Heavy Metal Magazine + Little Brother + Cowboy Bebop + Childish Gambino + All-Negro Comics + MAD + Yo! MTV Raps + Liquid TV + Toonami + a book called Black Punk Now + Love, Death, & Robots = AFROFUTURES!
CBY: That is both a broad and fantastic selection of influences. So the creators have all been paid for their work, and the campaign goals exceeded thus far. It looks like you’ve got a success on your hands - what does the process for putting together a second volume and building upon the work done in volume #1 look like? What planning for #2 has taken place, and do you have an idea of the ideal format, page count, and release schedule you’d like to see AFROFUTURES achieve as it continues to come together and the audience builds?
TJA: It would be nice to do a second issue of this. I would love to make this annually, actually. But the ends have to justify the means. The Kickstarter has done really well, but there are a lot more factors that have to play out to justify the means. Regardless, I’m dedicated to making this one issue something special. So even if we can’t duplicate it, we’ve done this unique one-off. Truthfully, I look at this less as something you stick in a longbox and more something you leave out and thumb through sporadically. It’s coffee table-friendly.
CBY: That's good for readers to keep in mind. I also know there are tons of folks involved in this project, and it sounds like many are creatives who have inspired you. To close, I always offer guests an opportunity to share with our readers those comics and other creations (art, film, music, literature, etc.) unrelated to the comic they’re promoting which provide them with inspiration. What should everyone make sure they check out once they give AFROFUTURES their attention?
TJA: Aw man. I’m sure I’ll forget someone if I do this…
How about you just make sure you’re following all the creators involved? When I tell you that Marvel and DC’s loss is AFROFUTURES’s gain…I mean it! Everyone is so talented and enthusiastic and you can see it in the words and images within. So when you go to the Kickstarter, be sure to click each and every single creators’ linked name. And then…follow them! That’s the first step.
CBY: That's great advice for our audience to take when approaching this title. Troy, thanks for making the time to stop by the Yeti Cave today. I know we’ve mentioned the campaign, but if you’ve got other portfolio, publication, and social media links to share, this is the time and place.
TJA: You can find me at @TJAComics on Instagram, Facebook, and Xitter (a.k.a. “X” or “Twitter.” Most importantly, though… go to Kickstarter and type, “AFROFUTURES.”