‘Giant Comix’ depicts diverse, unique superheroes in comic stories

“The comic industry is like the new frontier, literally like the wild west,” says Kevin Lofton, the writer and illustrated of the first black female superhero universe called Giant Comix. His goal is to give voice to stories that aren’t often told, improve children’s self-esteem, and foster more appreciation and respect for women. In the next year he plans to release the first issue of many of his different comics as long as he has enough support and money.

The one issue about creating a whole different universe is that Marvel (Disney) and DC (Warner Bros) have a monopoly on comics with Diamond Distributors, which is the biggest and almost only comic book distributors. The issue with DC and Marvel though, is that these companies only play with the idea of having diverse heroes. They will make a white male hero (Such as Superman or Spiderman) and make the female or a different ethnicity for a few months. Then if the original heroes sold better they stop creating the new versions, which prevents diversity in comics. “Marvel and Dc can’t offer true diversity unless they actually create new iconic heroes… they can only offer your grandfathers superheroes. Giant Comix isn’t just an idea that can easily reversed with a low quarterly earnings report.  “To get his diverse universe out the American public, Lofton must create a new distribution network. This means distributing the comics without another business: giving them to gas stations, family owned businesses, and corner stores to make them more accessible.

Giant Comix itself has a wide variation of comics for all. On his website giantcomix.com, there are eight different issues and six different comic strips. Some of the notable ones are Neptune Queen (fantasy comic based of Lofton’s mother), The Pinkertons (group of five women martial artists and investigators), and Trump Elementary (Comic strip about putting government officials in elementary). Despite the variations in genre, all the comic books have the same message: Women of color are awesome superheroes, and awesome in general.

The idea of having an all-black superhero universe started when Lofton was 7 years old. He would try to draw black characters, but they always seemed harder and less accepted than white characters. Later, after going to college, dealing with the death of his mother, writing a novel, and learning from google and YouTube how to draw from imagination; he was ready to create black characters. Then after considering, he finally decided that it should women of color, and Giant Comix was created.

Now Giant Comix is working on growing and gathering a support group, “like the early stages of Facebook.” Right now, Lofton is working alone, but is looking to hire young artists from college or high school. He also has a support group called Giant Watch, which gives allows readers to receive the first issues of each comic as well as getting updates on the growing Giant Comix.

All in all, Lofton is combating gender and racial stereotypes set up by decades of white male superheroes by making his own superheroes- this time women of color.