From Prison to Publishing with Jamal Anansi
Out of all the people we've talked to, Jamal has on of the most inspiring stories. Learning how to master writing in prison, he's now a comic book writer and publisher! Learn his method of mastering any skill when the going gets truly tough!
Transcript
This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:The Film Center, my name's Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And today we're joined by a comic book writer.
Speaker:We're joined by Jamal Anansi.
Speaker:Jamal, how you doing?
Speaker:Oh man, I'm doing great, man.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:How about y'all?
Speaker:How y'all feeling?
Speaker:Feeling pretty good.
Speaker:Yeah, it's it's Wednesday.
Speaker:It's a hump day.
Speaker:Hump day!
Speaker:Hump day!
Speaker:As you guys know, we do take the show on the road and currently, where,
Speaker:which part of Los Angeles is this?
Speaker:I don't even remember.
Speaker:We're in Santa Monica.
Speaker:We're in Santa Monica.
Speaker:We're in Santa Monica.
Speaker:Joel, why don't you tell us a little bit about so you're a comic book writer.
Speaker:We'll.
Speaker:We'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker:We want to know about Jamal.
Speaker:We want to know how Jamal got to be Jamal.
Speaker:Give us the secrets.
Speaker:Were you always like a writer?
Speaker:Was there some inspirations you had when you were young?
Speaker:Were you always a writer?
Speaker:Yeah, man my mother, she was a special ed teacher.
Speaker:The same, techniques and tools she used to teach those kids, she used on me.
Speaker:And it worked so well to where I was reading and writing my
Speaker:name by the age of reading and writing, period by the age of two.
Speaker:So I was able to Oh, so you're just a genius, actually.
Speaker:No, I wasn't a genius.
Speaker:It was just The A on your head is A plus student.
Speaker:Yeah, it worked for, I was just above average, and I didn't
Speaker:really, know about it at the time.
Speaker:It was just like Fifth grade I was able to read at, 11th, 12th grade level.
Speaker:I was able to read and comprehend and write, pretty good.
Speaker:And for example, when I would go to the, elementary school library, all
Speaker:the books were elementary school books.
Speaker:They were thin and simple, and I didn't like those.
Speaker:So what I gravited to gravitated towards was those thick books in the back, the
Speaker:largest who were, were you more into to fantasy or what books back there would.
Speaker:Man, what got me was, man, Greek and Roman mythology Sinbad the Sailor
Speaker:Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, like those, and those were thick books.
Speaker:I'd pull them out and they were like, and I was, reading comic
Speaker:books and, watching TV and cartoons.
Speaker:When I would get a thick book like that and had to blow the dust off of it, it was
Speaker:like, oh man, I'm finna enter this world.
Speaker:I'm finna go on this great adventure.
Speaker:And that's exactly what happened, reading those stories.
Speaker:The Iliad and, the Odyssey and things like that, I was
Speaker:reading that at, very young age.
Speaker:I did not really understand.
Speaker:All that, but still engrossed in the stories, so I fell in love with not
Speaker:just stories, but epics, epic tales, epic quests, the hero's journey.
Speaker:And so that kind of, triggered my imagination from a very early age.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of, we've had a lot of people on the show,
Speaker:a lot of people on the show.
Speaker:And there's always something that's quite interesting.
Speaker:People say what their profession is.
Speaker:And then that's also why I would like to then instantly go into.
Speaker:What they did when they were young, because there's always those
Speaker:little breadcrumbs of who you are now in history that they never
Speaker:thought that who they would be.
Speaker:Did you ever read The Boxcar Children?
Speaker:The Boxcar Children?
Speaker:No, I did not.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Nah, I was like, when I was a kid, it was, man, it was Like I said, comic
Speaker:books and mostly it was cartoons, man.
Speaker:Power Rangers and X Men and Spider Man.
Speaker:Early 90s stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, when it was, that was a golden age of everything, man.
Speaker:You get, cartoons every day and on a weekend, it's Saturday and Sunday, man.
Speaker:That was good money right there.
Speaker:So you're from Compton, right?
Speaker:Compton, by, my whole family's from Watts, Jordan Down Projects, but,
Speaker:moved around a lot until we moved to Compton, and that's where I was raised
Speaker:for the majority of the time, yeah.
Speaker:So there's a whole bunch of culture that comes out of Compton.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And would you say that that environment really instilled a
Speaker:part of you to be expressive?
Speaker:Yeah, man.
Speaker:For better or for worse man, because not just to be expressive, but to, find
Speaker:some type of way to find individuality.
Speaker:And in doing that, you I lost my individualism and, was immersed
Speaker:in, the gang culture and the gang lifestyle, and I was I regret that,
Speaker:that whole choice, to this day.
Speaker:Because, I was living that life.
Speaker:I became, I'm an ex game member now.
Speaker:I'm no longer a game member.
Speaker:No live, no longer lived that terrible life.
Speaker:But I became a game member when I was 14 years old.
Speaker:And can you talk about what led you to, the LA culture, la gang culture, it's
Speaker:like it's, it is celebrated, to a certain degree, especially back then, you see
Speaker:it in movies and TV shows and music.
Speaker:NWA was really big.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Not just MWA, you had Snoop Dogg and the East Side as man, you had,
Speaker:dads and Corrupt versus Tupac.
Speaker:Yeah, the whole West coast thing, like gang life was like, if you weren't
Speaker:a gang member or trying to be, some type of thug or a gangster in that
Speaker:way, then you were a square and that was, that was the worst thing.
Speaker:You can be like a nobody.
Speaker:And I got immersed in that, especially a kid who moved around a lot, who wanted to
Speaker:fit in, do nothing more than to fit in.
Speaker:Who's moving around a bunch.
Speaker:So you don't really, cause when you are stationary, you have those people
Speaker:who are like, Oh man, I've known him since I was two, three, four, five.
Speaker:And now it's year 15.
Speaker:So I've known someone for 10 years.
Speaker:You can be more connected to that person.
Speaker:When you are moving around a bunch, it's I've only known this
Speaker:person for a couple of years.
Speaker:I had no real identity.
Speaker:I had who I thought I was and who I knew I was, but me trying
Speaker:to fit in and just make friends.
Speaker:I moved around every year.
Speaker:Every year it was a new neighborhood, a new apartment, new house, new
Speaker:school, new neighborhood, new friends.
Speaker:Was that stressful?
Speaker:Hell yeah.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:What was the reason for moving around so much?
Speaker:When you poor in L.
Speaker:A., man, you gotta, make a way.
Speaker:And even though we're moving in progressively, better
Speaker:situations, but still it was like, I didn't see it like that.
Speaker:It was, just me being a kid and just trying to figure out, okay,
Speaker:how I'm gonna make friends.
Speaker:You know for a kid then to have no friends.
Speaker:Yeah, so my whole goal was how can I make friends quickly as possible?
Speaker:So whatever they're doing, that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And that's what eventually led me into the gang lifestyle You know when I moved to my
Speaker:last neighborhood when I was in Compton, I was about 13 14 years old, you know
Speaker:Just so happens, you know the kids around the neighborhood, you know around the
Speaker:corner was gang members So they asked me.
Speaker:Hey, you want to be from the hood?
Speaker:You want to be a game?
Speaker:I was like, yeah for sure No problem.
Speaker:Because you're trying to fit in.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not really knowing or comprehending what the true
Speaker:consequence of my choice would be.
Speaker:All I knew about being a gamer was what I saw on TV and what I saw
Speaker:in the movies and music videos.
Speaker:It looked glamorous.
Speaker:It looked great.
Speaker:The cars, the money, the jewelry, the girls.
Speaker:Why not?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What kid would not want to be a gang member when it looked that good?
Speaker:When it looks fun.
Speaker:When it looks like it's just fantasized.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Not knowing the true consequences, man.
Speaker:Like I said there's nothing glorious about being a gang member.
Speaker:There's nothing, magnificent or great about destroying my community.
Speaker:Destroying the people that live there, whether it's through drugs or
Speaker:through violence, and not just doing that, but terrorizing my community.
Speaker:And then, causing the police to come and terrorize my community as well
Speaker:because they're looking for people like me, but they're picking on.
Speaker:Everybody, people who are innocent, who have nothing to
Speaker:do with perpetuating the thing.
Speaker:We don't like the most, that the profiling.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:The fear of the black man, cause I was every negative stereotype.
Speaker:You could say about a black man in America.
Speaker:And I did that by choice.
Speaker:And because I made that horrible choice, I became a slave by choice.
Speaker:By eventually going to prison.
Speaker:I got locked up for my for 19 years old, man.
Speaker:Man that's.
Speaker:It's just so heavy and it's crazy because some people think oh,
Speaker:they're just doing it just to do it.
Speaker:But a lot of times, it's for that identity.
Speaker:They want some sort of social connection and unfortunately, like I say, you need
Speaker:two people going to raise you, your parents or the streets, and so then what
Speaker:happened where you fell in love with writing and you were like, I think I want
Speaker:to, I think I am going to take this path.
Speaker:I was in prison I was doing my 11th year.
Speaker:When I first, eventually got, found guilty, I had life.
Speaker:So I was, but while living, in prison and being a gang
Speaker:member, I had no satisfaction.
Speaker:I was miserable.
Speaker:Everybody's miserable.
Speaker:Prison is literally like being in hell and being a ghost at the same time.
Speaker:So your whole life is on pause.
Speaker:You're invisible to the outside world, but the world is still moving forward.
Speaker:So I was A miserable person and I just got disillusioned with being a gay member and
Speaker:I was looking for some type of some way to do something different like an outlet
Speaker:exactly and thankfully the law changed SB 261 was basically was a law that you
Speaker:know, stipulated that because all People, kids who, committed a crime at 23 years of
Speaker:age, they were, granted, we were granted a chance basically to go to parole board
Speaker:because, they say, science says that, our frontal, lobe is not fully developed.
Speaker:That's our decision making, center.
Speaker:So they should not be fully in control of all your acts.
Speaker:In fact, exactly.
Speaker:There's a lot of.
Speaker:And, there's a lot of people, when you talk to them, they have
Speaker:two points of consciousness.
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of jokes on the internet, where you're like, Oh, you're
Speaker:like five, you're like playing with your friends, and they're like, Oh, what?
Speaker:What?
Speaker:Where am I?
Speaker:What's going on?
Speaker:It's these kinds of drops.
Speaker:And then, there's a second drop that happens, where If you're in your mid to
Speaker:late twenties, You think about yourself when you were young, and you're like, I
Speaker:was thinking, but was I really thinking?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So how did comics and writing, how did that come to you?
Speaker:Was that a form of escapism?
Speaker:And then how did that come to you in prison?
Speaker:Yes it was.
Speaker:Because you were already a fan of cartoons before you got there.
Speaker:Yeah, when you live the life, you forget all about that.
Speaker:And you just, just get immersed in, just trying to survive.
Speaker:But like I said, I, I was in there, I was being miserable.
Speaker:And one of my old cellies, he had comic books and one of the comic books
Speaker:he had was Miles Morales, Spider Man.
Speaker:And yeah, and it was written by, Brian Michael Bendis.
Speaker:And I was just, even though he teamed up with Sarah Pacelli.
Speaker:At that time I was, it was Marques.
Speaker:I forget his first name, but Marques was the illustrator.
Speaker:So I'm saying, I'm like, man, this is dope.
Speaker:What is he, black?
Speaker:Yeah, man, read it.
Speaker:It's a black Spiderman, yeah.
Speaker:So I'm like, let me check this out.
Speaker:And I hadn't read comics for about 10, 15 years at the time or something like that.
Speaker:So I'm reading it, I'm like, man, these are dope.
Speaker:These are amazing.
Speaker:And I I was just immersed.
Speaker:I'm like, okay, this is fun.
Speaker:But, I was still living that life.
Speaker:And like I said, the law changed and I went to the shoe, which is, you get in
Speaker:trouble for, doing stuff up in there.
Speaker:And I got out, man.
Speaker:I had a conversation with a friend of mine, man.
Speaker:His name is Monster Kim, man.
Speaker:He from out of LA and he said we was having conversations, I was
Speaker:moving away from the life man, just trying to get my mind trying
Speaker:to do something positive for once.
Speaker:And he was like, we was talking about what we going to do
Speaker:when we potentially get out.
Speaker:And I was like, man, I said, I don't know, I want to go to trade
Speaker:school, something like that.
Speaker:He said, okay, think about it like this.
Speaker:What's the one talent you have?
Speaker:The one thing that you're naturally gifted at that you wouldn't mind doing for free.
Speaker:That's what you should make your job.
Speaker:That's what you should make your career.
Speaker:That's what you should get paid for.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:And the idea popped in my mind, but I was too afraid to say it
Speaker:because it sounded, strange.
Speaker:But the idea that popped into my mind is I want to write comic books.
Speaker:So the second time we had the conversation, I was afraid to say it,
Speaker:the second time we had the conversation.
Speaker:Especially when you're African American male.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not really something that like, that's propagated for you to do.
Speaker:Nah.
Speaker:As a black writer myself, it's crazy.
Speaker:I learned how to actually read with comic books.
Speaker:I actually was, didn't I actually had trouble reading when I was young.
Speaker:Didn't really like it.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:My pops is in the military.
Speaker:And my mom, when she was off she was off, teaching and stuff like that.
Speaker:Getting those comic books actually, how I learned how to read that way.
Speaker:Cause they are engaging.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's comics are amazing because for one, it's you can have a short
Speaker:attention span and still enjoy a comic.
Speaker:How many times have you read a book and been like, man, I
Speaker:wish I can see what's going on.
Speaker:That's what a comic is.
Speaker:What's the easiest way to.
Speaker:to grab a child's attention, pictures, exactly pictures with colors, pictures
Speaker:that show people in action and fighting.
Speaker:And it'd be that much better if I can write those comics and actually teach
Speaker:because when you write a story that's a holy endeavor, man, because you're not
Speaker:just, writing a story for entertainment.
Speaker:You can potentially.
Speaker:Put thoughts and ideas in a person's brain potentially when your audience
Speaker:is a, your audience is a child.
Speaker:So I thought, later on, through my thinking, but as I started,
Speaker:continuing to write comments, I'm like, man, I have to write responsibly.
Speaker:Teach about honor, self respect, what it means to have courage,
Speaker:integrity, and instill these things.
Speaker:What the experiences that I came from.
Speaker:But put 'em in stories that, kids can relate to.
Speaker:And a lot of times when people think of, oh, a black rider from
Speaker:the hood, he's gonna write something like an urban, nah, I don't write.
Speaker:Urban, novels or urban comic books.
Speaker:Not that, that's bad or anything, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:You don't want to pigeonhole yourself.
Speaker:Like, why?
Speaker:Man I, like I said, I was a child of cartoons.
Speaker:Like I love watching Game of reading Lorde, watch it there and read Lord
Speaker:of the Rings and Game of Thrones and Walking Dead and all these things like
Speaker:this big, huge world, especially when I was, in the shoe, reading Game of
Speaker:Thrones, and I was like, had that vision.
Speaker:Just for clarification for our audience when you say in
Speaker:the shoe, what do you mean?
Speaker:segregated housing unit.
Speaker:That's where you go.
Speaker:It's like in prison.
Speaker:We call that when you're in prison is like when you're in prison for so long,
Speaker:we like being on the main line, which is basically where everybody is at.
Speaker:It's basically okay, that's essentially like freedom.
Speaker:But when you go to the shoot, that's like being in jail inside of jail.
Speaker:And in the shoe is basically you can probably Google it, but it's
Speaker:probably like a 10 by 12 cell.
Speaker:Some of them are that big.
Speaker:Some of them are smaller where you're, segregated.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:For you're in, you're inside there for 23 hours a day.
Speaker:Maybe you get a TV, maybe not.
Speaker:Maybe you get pillows and a cover, maybe not depending on, the officers in there
Speaker:and how they feel in that particular time.
Speaker:It's real slavery, man.
Speaker:And it's a jacked up experience, but in there you, you're lucky
Speaker:enough, I was lucky enough to, be, have be able to get books in there.
Speaker:You sign a little slip, you add requests for books, you want, they give you books.
Speaker:And I got into Game of Thrones like that.
Speaker:So when did you know, so you're in this situation, right?
Speaker:And you're like, okay I think I'm gonna be a writer.
Speaker:I think that's what I want to do.
Speaker:So then, how did You know, go from, Oh, I'm in this situation until I'm
Speaker:literally going to write myself out of it, because just like it's, I tell a
Speaker:lot of people, there's writing is like almost magic when you truly study it,
Speaker:because it's okay, if I can make it, If I understand how to make my characters
Speaker:better, maybe I can reflect that myself.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How did you say, okay, you know what, when you made that decision okay,
Speaker:I'm going to be a writer, this is what I want to do, how did you start
Speaker:to practice or develop that skill?
Speaker:Man, it was a guy that had a lot to do with it, man, and
Speaker:also a brother named Hashima.
Speaker:Hashima Nabdu.
Speaker:Now Hashima Genocide, man he's a brother, man.
Speaker:He's been in prison for about 30 years now, and his his celly, his brother
Speaker:brother Abdu has been in prison for about 40 years, 40 years and
Speaker:some change or something like that.
Speaker:And they, Shima, he was in a shoe for about 20 years and got out.
Speaker:And Abdul, he was in a shoe for about 32 years and he got
Speaker:out, through a whole program.
Speaker:They had to, go on hunger strikes and everything.
Speaker:Cause they was in a shoe, man.
Speaker:That's cruel and unusual punishment.
Speaker:Remember how I described you like that 23 hour lockdowns in that
Speaker:box, literal, no human contact.
Speaker:You can't talk to your folks, nothing like that.
Speaker:All you have is your mind.
Speaker:Your mind has to be exceptionally strong to deal with that for 32 years,
Speaker:for 20 years, for any amount of time.
Speaker:I don't know if I could do it for a couple of weeks.
Speaker:Brothers were in there for the real political prison.
Speaker:by the way.
Speaker:They was, they was out really, fighting a good fight for us.
Speaker:What brothers Fred Hampton were doing, they was just, they were on TV, but
Speaker:these brothers were really down in the trenches, man, doing a good work, for
Speaker:us, for the people, not just for black folk, but for everybody who needed that.
Speaker:For equality.
Speaker:Exactly, for equality, period.
Speaker:And they, when I made the decision to write, I didn't
Speaker:really know how to go about it.
Speaker:Like the brother I told you about when you had the conversation, he was
Speaker:like, man, just try to figure out what you gotta do in order to pursue that.
Speaker:So I got transferred, from that prison to another one probably
Speaker:five or six months later.
Speaker:And I had, I was collecting comic books at the time.
Speaker:I had a whole bunch of comic books on my shelf.
Speaker:So some of your favorite comic books to read, just in general?
Speaker:Oh, man.
Speaker:Boy, this author is really Jason Aaron, man.
Speaker:When I read that Thor, man.
Speaker:That God Butcher, man.
Speaker:That was amazing, homie.
Speaker:And I feel bad for him what they did to that movie, man.
Speaker:Cause it's like, why'd they do that?
Speaker:But Brown Michael Bendis, of course.
Speaker:He the one that got me inspired.
Speaker:Jeff Johns, if you can make freakin Aquaman look amazing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You pretty like special.
Speaker:Yeah, Jeff Johns and Blackest Night.
Speaker:And then I read that Watchmen, the Doomsday Clock.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Homie, that was a masterpiece, reading like that and studying Mark Wade,
Speaker:sitting there and studying Grant Morrison, the whole like infinity
Speaker:crisis X Men versus Avengers.
Speaker:Come on, man.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:And my gosh, the first time I read the sand, man, I was like, and these.
Speaker:Exactly, because it is, and that's how, when I read the Suiciders, man, by
Speaker:Liebermejo and Brian Azarillo, the freak, Azarillo, I forget his name, but, that's
Speaker:when I saw what comics can really do.
Speaker:That's when I saw you don't have to just write superhero stories, you
Speaker:can really write Real human dramas, that's action, that's visceral,
Speaker:that's gritty that, that's shocking.
Speaker:Not just shocking just for shock value, but shocking as, wow this is possible.
Speaker:This is, that's when you can elevate it to not just entertainment, but art form.
Speaker:That's, and that's, that's one of the things, okay, when I met, let
Speaker:me rewind, because I'm going a little ahead of myself, but when
Speaker:I met brother, Hashim and all like that, he really encouraged me, man.
Speaker:He saw them books on my shelf.
Speaker:He's man, you like comics?
Speaker:I'm like, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, man, I'm a writer.
Speaker:I ain't wrote nothing, but that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker:I had that aspiration.
Speaker:I had that goal.
Speaker:He's man, speak it though.
Speaker:Sometimes exactly.
Speaker:I speak into existence all the time, man.
Speaker:And so he's man, that's dope, man.
Speaker:Write me something.
Speaker:, okay, cool.
Speaker:Now at that time I was reading drizzle series by R.
Speaker:A.
Speaker:Salvatore and all like that.
Speaker:And by the dark elves and all like that, I'm like, okay, why the dark
Speaker:elves, people with black skin and white hair, why are they evil?
Speaker:Why is it made sure our society?
Speaker:Why is that evil?
Speaker:Why is that looked down upon?
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:I can flip this on my head.
Speaker:Cause I always have my imagination going.
Speaker:So I will.
Speaker:And gave him what was essentially the first four issues of, my, my comic
Speaker:book series, The Godless, I gave him that and I wrote that in one night.
Speaker:What's the name of your comic book series again?
Speaker:The Godless.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I gave it to him.
Speaker:He was like, man, this is, wow, I wasn't expecting this.
Speaker:This is really good.
Speaker:This is pretty amazing.
Speaker:Write some more.
Speaker:And that's what got me going, man.
Speaker:And through his persistent encouragement, that's what's amazing, man.
Speaker:And when you have a brother, man, that has any type of potential, and then you
Speaker:have somebody else to come and pat you on the back and say, man, I couldn't.
Speaker:Good job, man.
Speaker:Keep going, man.
Speaker:You doing good work, especially when it's something positive and it wasn't something
Speaker:negative like I was doing before, like when I was a gang member and I was doing,
Speaker:God knows what, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Destroying my community.
Speaker:I have people to pat me on the back for that, cause that's what it was.
Speaker:It's a great positive influence in a right way.
Speaker:So then, when you when you got out of that situation, when you got out of prison.
Speaker:And you still had this real big passion for writing.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Right now you have a comic book.
Speaker:A comic book series.
Speaker:I'm working on it right now.
Speaker:Yeah, that you're working on?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Was this what you had designed back then?
Speaker:Or you're like, oh, okay, this is something new, fresh,
Speaker:as soon as you get out.
Speaker:Nah, this is, man, I was writing, this happened, me and this conversation
Speaker:with him and all like that happened about in 2015, 16, no, 2017 about.
Speaker:I started writing, started working on my craft, that was just initial
Speaker:and I read the early stuff.
Speaker:It was like painful, but I see the potential story that the story, the
Speaker:potential of the story I was writing.
Speaker:And so I would, it also shows growth, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:You look at your previous stuff.
Speaker:You're like, Oh, this isn't as good as I thought it was because you've grown.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I made that progress, man.
Speaker:And not just that, because I had to study.
Speaker:I only had so many comics I can get because I only had what people were,
Speaker:had said to me or what other people in prison had themselves as far as comics.
Speaker:So I would sit.
Speaker:over and I would read comics the same, probably like 30 comics I had over and
Speaker:over again from the authors I mentioned before, Bendis, Grant Morrison, Mark
Speaker:Wade Jason Aaron, and I will study their techniques and I would, really try to
Speaker:hone my craft and, getting inspiration from them and not only from them,
Speaker:but also I would, watch real dramas.
Speaker:Like I said, on masterpiece theater, they had, episodes like shows like
Speaker:Downton Abbey and pole dark and all types of, that, that helped,
Speaker:show me how it was possible.
Speaker:develop an interesting drama to where, how is this, to show this engaging and
Speaker:this interesting and this good, but there's no action, there's no nobody
Speaker:fighting and something like that.
Speaker:How can it just, how can that blood being drawn?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:In Poldark a little bit, but it's mostly but it's not about that.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But it's that's technique.
Speaker:And I have to really sit down and study those techniques and
Speaker:develop my craft and go from there.
Speaker:Even reading Tom King and appreciating his work and how his pacing, the pacing
Speaker:of, and to get what you wanted out of your characters, which weren't out of story.
Speaker:So when the action actually does happen, then the reader can appreciate it.
Speaker:See, this is something I have to learn over time and learn what the patience and
Speaker:the ultimate gratitude and appreciation I have from the people who were.
Speaker:patient enough to read my my, read my work.
Speaker:And these are, not scholars.
Speaker:These are prisoners who have a whole bunch of other stuff better to do, but at the
Speaker:same time, nothing better to do at all.
Speaker:They just wanted something.
Speaker:They were, they were homies of mine, friends of mine that they seen, I was
Speaker:doing something positive since I was doing something different because I
Speaker:was living a horrible life being up in there and doing what it, you watch the
Speaker:movies and all like that traditional game memory, I was doing all that.
Speaker:But they saw me who's as respected, I guess you can quote unquote
Speaker:say how it was, but they, I was doing something different.
Speaker:So they're like, why are you changing your mind?
Speaker:What are you doing?
Speaker:Where was the catalyst?
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Let me ask you this since, so now, you're you're a professionist writing.
Speaker:What do you think about, there's a big movement right now about people
Speaker:who are moving away from television?
Speaker:We'll start from films in general and to more television because of the quality
Speaker:of writing and now people believe the quality of writing is also going down.
Speaker:So I'm going back to, to, to films and there's just been like, dare
Speaker:I say this, even before the A.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:takeover a few years ago, there's been this flood of, and I can
Speaker:tell you as someone who works in a business and I'm sure the flood
Speaker:of bad scripts, bad writing, it's like people don't care anymore.
Speaker:Why do you think that is money?
Speaker:Because they trying to push out, especially, when they see how much
Speaker:money was initially made from the Marvel movies, and the Marvel movies were
Speaker:early on, they were made with tact, with a plan, with real, they were not.
Speaker:Funny.
Speaker:You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker:They had funny moments, but they weren't made specifically
Speaker:with, it wasn't a comedy.
Speaker:It wasn't a comedy.
Speaker:What made them change was Guardians of the Galaxy.
Speaker:When they said, Oh, it's funny.
Speaker:And it's made a whole bunch of money.
Speaker:Guardians of the Galaxy made a whole bunch of money because
Speaker:of the movies that came before.
Speaker:And this one just happened to be funny, but don't change your whole
Speaker:mold and but regardless of all that's a whole different conversation.
Speaker:But I'm saying all to say this when you're trying to expedite, movies for
Speaker:the sake of money, instead of actually taking your time and crafting great art.
Speaker:That's why I took off.
Speaker:One of the reasons I took my time because I was in prison,
Speaker:you can't just say oh, okay.
Speaker:I'm finna I'm finna create a movie But you ain't wrote you
Speaker:just started writing a year ago.
Speaker:No sit down and work on your craft thinking critiques It's like going to
Speaker:school You wouldn't be go to the NBA straight out of high school unless you was
Speaker:that dude Right and nine times out of ten out of all the people that go into college
Speaker:and all he are that dude don't even do it.
Speaker:Michael Jordan didn't to the n NBA high school.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:He did what, four years.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:He worked.
Speaker:That worked on, on And he's considered to he's to be the best.
Speaker:Greatest.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And look, and that's what I did, man.
Speaker:I didn't just work on my craft as far as just me sitting down and studying
Speaker:all these books and these TV shows.
Speaker:But I actually went to actual school in prison.
Speaker:I went to Bakersfield College and got my associate's degree, but I paid special
Speaker:attention to my Indian class and my writing class I paid special attention to.
Speaker:They were talking about tropes and archetypes and
Speaker:literary tools that I can use.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:Like different things that I can use in order to write better stories.
Speaker:So what was your studying process?
Speaker:I usually don't talk a whole bunch about, we have a lot of people come in
Speaker:here and talk about their process when they're writing, but we actually don't
Speaker:talk a lot about studying process.
Speaker:Me personally, when I study writing, I actually do, I actually bust out an Excel
Speaker:sheet and I literally will write down the scenes, who's in the scene, what.
Speaker:their motivation in each scene, stuff to like how many pages and
Speaker:how many words this person has.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:How many times do you see the person, what their fears are, what they're trying to
Speaker:get from somebody else who's connected.
Speaker:Like in one scene I can have and now I'm not just saying seen as in scripts, but
Speaker:seen as in books and whatever, you're going to be like a big Excel sheet.
Speaker:That's what I do.
Speaker:To study.
Speaker:What would you do to study?
Speaker:I do depend on what I read.
Speaker:After I read it I want the feeling, what feeling did I get?
Speaker:Do I like it?
Speaker:Do I not like such or emotions?
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Because that's what you're really going for.
Speaker:I won't, you want to write a story that after the reader or the watcher is done,
Speaker:you want them that you want that story to hold with them after they leave days,
Speaker:months after I'm going to stick with them.
Speaker:And so the stories I read that I had that effect on me, I studied them
Speaker:as far as what was the story yards?
Speaker:How did they get to that point?
Speaker:As far as, let me give you an example.
Speaker:I can do Miles Morales Spider Man.
Speaker:To get from a kid who was, scared, I don't want the powers, to, okay, I'm
Speaker:dope these powers are amazing, I'm really doing good, to, oh, this is heavy, man,
Speaker:I got too much responsibility, man, this is, things happening to my, oh,
Speaker:my mom dies, what the heck, I'm cool on this, it's the whole arc, and it's that
Speaker:made me, and not just, and it wasn't no, and it's a white dude that wrote
Speaker:it, mind you, Brian Michael Bendis.
Speaker:Yeah, it's funny, cause he actually, he wrote it inspired by I almost said
Speaker:Childish Gambino, but he's Donald Glover.
Speaker:Donald Glover.
Speaker:Donald Glover yeah.
Speaker:So he was inspired by Donald Glover on Community when he
Speaker:said Spider Man should be black.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it takes that, but it's more than that, because that's the initial idea.
Speaker:That's the spark.
Speaker:The initial spark, but it still takes real skill to develop a
Speaker:character and write him like that, to make him as likable as he is.
Speaker:Especially in a time period when people are talking about Washing, race washing.
Speaker:Exactly, it's not even about, it's past that because when you
Speaker:write in its purest form, it's not about race washing or whatever.
Speaker:That's a new term.
Speaker:It's just a character.
Speaker:Exactly, it's just a character.
Speaker:It's like a joke.
Speaker:If it, if you think it's a joke, it's offensive.
Speaker:It's only offensive if it's not funny.
Speaker:But the joke is funny.
Speaker:And that's, exactly.
Speaker:So if the story is good, period.
Speaker:That's what matters.
Speaker:You're not even going to care about the races.
Speaker:Who gives a crap?
Speaker:It's a good story.
Speaker:I was in it.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That's what it's about.
Speaker:That's the effect I wanted to have.
Speaker:And that's what I studied.
Speaker:Not just studying that, as far as character arcs and story development.
Speaker:The things that happen between the action.
Speaker:Because it's a comic book.
Speaker:What are we here for?
Speaker:We're here to see the action.
Speaker:The boom, pam, pow.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Beyond that, what else I studied was, the page count, the panel counts.
Speaker:When there were action happening in a comic, how many panels
Speaker:did they typically use?
Speaker:Two, three, four.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:How was flash pages used?
Speaker:And there's all these strategies I had to, all these things I had to learn by just,
Speaker:counting the pages, looking at the masses.
Speaker:Exactly, and not even just that, but my brother, Shima, my idol, my
Speaker:mentor, he gave me a book, Words for Pictures, by Brian Michael Bendis.
Speaker:Which is like serendipitous, man, and coincidence, got it working.
Speaker:Because that was the actual author.
Speaker:Do you want to say the the name again?
Speaker:Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis.
Speaker:It's about the art it's about the the art of writing and how
Speaker:to get in the industry basically.
Speaker:Yeah, and that, he gave me that book.
Speaker:After I wrote that initial story and gave it to Ashima to write
Speaker:and he said it was amazing, he came back with that exact book.
Speaker:And it was crazy how God works, man, because that book by Brian
Speaker:Michael Bendis, It's what got me in the comics when I read Spider Man
Speaker:in that my home old homie's cell.
Speaker:And I read Spider Man and Miles Morales.
Speaker:I'm like, man, this is crazy.
Speaker:This was, I think this is what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker:That's when I had the first initial idea.
Speaker:I think this is what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker:I'm supposed to write comics.
Speaker:And also with your experience, you actually also put yourself
Speaker:on, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You and I mean that in a way in which it's like, you Didn't wait for someone
Speaker:to give you some sort of handout.
Speaker:You were like, oh, I'm gonna start writing comics.
Speaker:I'm gonna do it Yeah, I mean I had look man.
Speaker:I just you know, prison is a miracle, miserable existence,
Speaker:man Everything is great.
Speaker:The clothes are great.
Speaker:The walls are great.
Speaker:The police are Buttholes, it is life or death in there because you gotta
Speaker:you know It's a guy that got survived and so I was looking for outlet and all
Speaker:the pain and turmoil and the trauma I was going through I needed some type
Speaker:of positive outlet for it because the outlet I have for that was violence And
Speaker:getting into trouble and hurting people.
Speaker:I didn't want to do that anymore because that got, that didn't really
Speaker:just hurt them, it hurt me as well.
Speaker:I got tired of hurting people.
Speaker:I wanted to better myself.
Speaker:And so having that outlet of sitting down and writing, those stories, I was able
Speaker:to put all my thoughts and my emotions.
Speaker:I was able to make that my therapy.
Speaker:And all, a lot of, majority of my life experience I had, I put them in my books.
Speaker:And I put them in my stories.
Speaker:How did you, what do you think about the the modern stigma of,
Speaker:basically, because I'm a, I do, I write fantasy and sci fi myself.
Speaker:And, as an African American writer, especially working in entertainment,
Speaker:you get all this Oh, we want you to write about this hood story.
Speaker:We want the only like hood and slave stories.
Speaker:It seems right?
Speaker:So when Black Panther won when a best picture, I was like, this is,
Speaker:it really means something to me.
Speaker:What do you think about that current stigma that, they really push.
Speaker:They really only green light.
Speaker:Oh, slaves movies.
Speaker:Oh, gangster movies and stuff like that.
Speaker:You got to be the change.
Speaker:Man, you gotta be the change you wanna see.
Speaker:Forget what they doin what you wanna do.
Speaker:And then make it good.
Speaker:You know what I'm sayin Like, forget Make it undeniable.
Speaker:Exactly, make it undeniable.
Speaker:Talent is talent, homie.
Speaker:A good story is a good story.
Speaker:Regardless of who it's made by or what it's about.
Speaker:If you makin a good hood movie, then make it good.
Speaker:But make it different.
Speaker:You know what I'm sayin Regardless of what you Don't let nobody
Speaker:put you in a hole, put you in a corner tell you what you can do.
Speaker:If you want to create, who knows what, sci fi fantasy, then do
Speaker:it, but make it a good story.
Speaker:Because if it's a good story and sit down and look and they
Speaker:like, wow, that was amazing.
Speaker:That's how you change the game.
Speaker:That's how Jordan was it?
Speaker:Can you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Jordan Peele.
Speaker:He changed it.
Speaker:Oh, black would get out, man.
Speaker:Mind you, it was a good, great black horror movie called Candyman way back
Speaker:in the day that was revolutionary.
Speaker:You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker:But it was a one off.
Speaker:They like, okay, that was, Diamond and Ruff.
Speaker:That was a one in a million.
Speaker:They can't do that again.
Speaker:Now you got this artist, who created masterpieces.
Speaker:And now you got a whole slew of people coming after that
Speaker:trying to, recreate that magic.
Speaker:You understand what I'm saying?
Speaker:Forget what anybody say, like how they say, oh, the comic book industry is down.
Speaker:It's not selling anymore.
Speaker:So what?
Speaker:So what?
Speaker:What they got to do with me?
Speaker:What they got to do with you?
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I'm not doing it for the money.
Speaker:I do it because I have to.
Speaker:I got, I do, I write comics, I write stories because I have a need to.
Speaker:I want to teach these kids how, how to lead better lives.
Speaker:I want to teach these kids the only way to make it out the hood is not through
Speaker:selling dope, through game banging, through sports, or through rapping.
Speaker:They can make it through creating art.
Speaker:You don't have to rap.
Speaker:Be a poet.
Speaker:You want to be an artist?
Speaker:Then draw.
Speaker:You don't have to tag on walls.
Speaker:Create a comic book.
Speaker:They get paid millions for that, man.
Speaker:I often hear the real difference between an artist and a criminal is when they
Speaker:do their outlet and if they can sell it.
Speaker:Because, let's keep it real.
Speaker:If someone tags the side of a wall and they don't have permission
Speaker:to do it, then it's illegal.
Speaker:But if it's the same beautiful, if it's the same picture and
Speaker:they tag it with someone's permission Then it's worth money.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But thing, yes, in a way, but see, that's, that's the niche thing because
Speaker:it's sometimes it's the, it's, that's our tool as far as when you do, we're not
Speaker:supposed to do it because it's the act, it's this, it's the revolutionary act
Speaker:of doing something I'm supposed to do.
Speaker:But yet what I created is beautiful.
Speaker:Yeah, you know I'm saying like this is that's how artists that's why art
Speaker:is so Dynamic and so wonderful to so many people because anything literally
Speaker:anything can be art but when you create art and it means something to so many
Speaker:people including yourself and people can appreciate it regardless if it was done
Speaker:illegally or not That's what's beautiful.
Speaker:That's what's amazing.
Speaker:And you did it for free.
Speaker:Mind you, you tagged on that wall, not getting paid.
Speaker:You just want to make a statement about yourself and what you was going through.
Speaker:You can decide I need it's better than going out and robbing somebody.
Speaker:It's better than shooting somebody.
Speaker:I decided to put my emotions and my thoughts and my trauma,
Speaker:my frustrations on a wall.
Speaker:How cool.
Speaker:And then how do people start to get beautiful?
Speaker:How come, People who are younger, so most people who listen to the show,
Speaker:they're people in the industry, right?
Speaker:But there's also people who want to break into the industry, break
Speaker:into comics, break into a whole bunch of different types of art.
Speaker:How can someone get started to, possibly do what you do, or maybe
Speaker:have, do you have some advice for someone who wants to do what you do?
Speaker:Start.
Speaker:Yeah, start.
Speaker:Put one foot in front of the other.
Speaker:And with me, what I did, I just, I had somebody to challenge me.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Like my brother Ashima, he came to my cell.
Speaker:Oh, you like comics?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm a writer.
Speaker:I hadn't wrote nothing yet.
Speaker:I wrote things before, like little, personal existence.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But I said, I'm already said, okay, we'll write something.
Speaker:I said, Oh crap.
Speaker:I better write something now.
Speaker:Cause I'm a man of my word.
Speaker:I got integrity.
Speaker:Unfortunately, I grew up in prison and growing up in prison
Speaker:and teach you certain values, bad values too, but also good values.
Speaker:One of them, the main one is being a man of your word.
Speaker:You say you're going to do something and do it.
Speaker:And he challenged me to write.
Speaker:And I said, okay, I'm gonna write something.
Speaker:And I created, the catalyst for what changed the rest of my life.
Speaker:And not only that, not just, my advice would be not just to start, but also find
Speaker:things that encourage your, your passion.
Speaker:I've found not just people, but books as well.
Speaker:Works of pictures writers on writing comics, everything that
Speaker:can fortify your own understanding.
Speaker:And then study your craft.
Speaker:If you're passionate, find time to do a little bit every day.
Speaker:You ain't gotta write a whole novel in a day, but just do a little bit.
Speaker:Find some type of way to contribute to your passion.
Speaker:It's been really great having you on the show.
Speaker:Is there anything that you could tell us about what you're working on right now?
Speaker:Oh, right now I'm working on it's a story called The God Blade.
Speaker:It's basically like a spin off of my main story, The Godless and the Dark Ones.
Speaker:Now, The God Blade is about a princess named Princess Kali, and
Speaker:basically, she's, it's essentially Game of Thrones, but in Africa.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And she, she's a princess.
Speaker:She's the youngest, out of her whole family.
Speaker:Being a princess, her whole life has basically dictated her, what
Speaker:she's going to do, who she's going to marry, things like that.
Speaker:And her grandmother, who's the queen, the midnight queen, she
Speaker:basically says, she asked her grandmother, why is my life like this?
Speaker:Why I can't, decide anything for myself?
Speaker:Her grandmother told her that the only way you can decide things
Speaker:for yourself is if you're a queen.
Speaker:And she took that to heart.
Speaker:She heard that message.
Speaker:So now she's on the road to become a queen.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not just on the road to become a queen, but she has the blood of an
Speaker:elder god running through her veins.
Speaker:And so she took, not, she not only has that blood, but she took, a mythical
Speaker:sword, who was made by the god of death.
Speaker:And, she's taking that sword and a couple of her friends, and she's decided,
Speaker:basically, I'm going to take this sword.
Speaker:Now, what better way to make myself a queen than on the bones of this goblin
Speaker:king who's been terrorizing our land?
Speaker:So where can everyone follow you?
Speaker:Follow me on Instagram at Jamal underscore Anansi J A M A L underscore A N S I.
Speaker:Jamal Anansi.
Speaker:And also on TikTok, too.
Speaker:All right dope.
Speaker:It's been great having you on the show.
Speaker:Thank you, And if you guys are listening, it can really come
Speaker:from anywhere as long as you have the will and the determination.
Speaker:Man.
Speaker:And, yo it's been great having you on.
Speaker:My name's Derrick Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Kill.
Speaker:And I'm Jamal Anazi.
Speaker:And we'll see you next time.
Speaker:See you.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic-Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes@comicconradio.com.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major social media platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been film Center.
Speaker:Hey, do you like anime and manga?
Speaker:Nick and I are big fans of the genre.
Speaker:Yeah, we recently discovered a manga named Tamashii.
Speaker:It's written and created by Ryan McCarthy, and it recently just
Speaker:came out with its 10th volume.
Speaker:Now, Tamashii is an isekai about a girl who gets transported to another
Speaker:world called the ancient lands.
Speaker:She gains mysterious powers and must fight demons and monsters to find her way home.
Speaker:Check it out on Amazon, Blurp, and get a physical copy at ryanmccarthyproductions.
Speaker:com.
