Ayize Jama-Everett

Sequential Tart – Opening the Box of Bones

Ayize — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 10:36:48 +0000

John Jennings and I were interviewed by Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart, a publication dedicated to providing exclusive interviews, in-depth articles, and news. Here’s a sneak peek.

Sequential Tart: How and when did you first become interested in creating comics?

Ayize Jama Everett: First grade. I was going to get left behind because they were saying I couldn’t read. But I could understand comics. I got a bunch and started writing my own “scripts”, which was just mounds and mounds of dialogue. Hopefully, I’ve gotten a bit better since then. 🙂

You can read the full interview here.

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Megascope: a Diverse Line of Graphic Novels by Curator John Jennings

Ayize — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 12:30:40 +0000

Oh what’s that? That’s just the logo of Megascope, a new line of graphic novels curated by none other than John Jennings. They’ll be publishing one of mine, a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo in comic book form. Their mission is to publish books that visualize new diverse narratives, and forthcoming titles include:

– Black Star by Eric Glover, illustrated by Arielle Jovellanos
– Blak Kube by Ytasha Womack, illustrated by Tanna Tucker
– The Count by Ayize Jama Everett, illustrated by Tristan Roach
– Dark Fear: Dedicated to Emmett Till by Christopher Benson, illustrated by Eric Battle
– Death’s Day by Daniel José Older and Baba Malik Duncan, illustrated by Chuck “Dragonblack” Collins
– The Eight-Fold Path by Steven Barnes and Charles Johnson, illustrated by Bryan Christopher Moss
– The Keeper by Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, illustrated by Marco Finnegan
– The Resurrectionists by Ho Che Anderson, illustrated by Jeremy Love

You can find the full announcement here. Stay tuned for more details.

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The Black Tribbles Show

Ayize — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 13:24:34 +0000

I was recently on the Black Tribbles Show. The team reveals untold stories of geek history, showcases new and upcoming projects, and engages in thought-provoking conversation and provides critical insight into a culture often devoid of a black influence, all with an irreverent tone that delights as it educates.

Listen and get some black horror in your soul. Happy Black History Month!

Available on Mixcloud, Apple Podcast, or watch the video on YouTube.

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Box of Bones 2 on Kickstarter

Ayize — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 12:58:47 +0000

You read that right. Box of Bones 2 is on Kickstarter.

Volume 1 contains art from John Jennings, Sole Rebel, Damian Duffy, Frances Olivia Liddell-Rodriguez, Tommy Nguyen, Jarmel and Jamal Williams, and Bryan Christopher Moss with covers by Stacey Robinson!

If you Pledge $100 or more to our campaign, you’ll get a paperback copy of Box of Bones Vol. 1 and an in-depth critique on the first 5 pages of your work in progress. A good deal, right?

Back this project on Kickstarter.

Thank you for the shoutout, and everyone who promotes our Kickstarter.

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The Process: John Jennings, Parable of the Sower Page 123 on Believer Mag

Ayize — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:48:31 +0000

Interview with the living legend John Jennings for The Believer Mag. Ch-Ch-Check it out!

THE BELIEVER:
One of the few criticisms that have been leveled at Octavia Butler is that she doesn’t do a lot of character description. How did you go about the character design of these characters?

JOHN JENNINGS:
I didn’t find her descriptions to obscure at all. Butler gives us enough cues for us to do a solid rendition of the characters. But there were a lot of characters, and it was hard to keep them straight. Also, it’s hard to design a character and then put them through the wringer, or even kill them. You become close to them once you’ve drawn them so much.

To read the full interview, click this link: The Process: John Jennings, Parable of the Sower Page 123.

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James Spooner Interview on Believer Mag

Ayize — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:31:25 +0000

Oh that? That’s just me interviewing Afropunk founder James Spooner in Believer Mag. Big up to Spooner for sitting through it and Niela Orr for some bombass edits! Here’s an excerpt:

BLVR:

I’ve heard people ask where’s the punk in Afropunk these days?

JS:

Objectively, you can say “Oh, we have this Afropunk name but we get these complaints about it not being punk enough so let’s get these bands, whatever…” It doesn’t amount to punk because punk is about community and corporate sponsorship doesn’t align itself with grassroots communities. When people complain to me about Afropunk I’m like, “Dude, it’s just an R&B concert. Go enjoy yourself or don’t go.”

I’ve asked people who know nothing of Afropunk’s history, “Did you leave the festival feeling like you’ve gained community?” So far no one has said yes. They’ve had a great time, they’ve taken awesome pictures, they might have seen some bands. But they didn’t make new friends. They didn’t come home with a second family. The thing is you can’t expect that from a once-a-year event. For a scene to exist it has to be happening on a regular.

To read the full interview, click this link: The Process: James Spooner, The Afropunk Festival.

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Attending Comic-Con, and remembering Rory Root

Ayize — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 11:43:00 +0000

Guh! Comic-Con! Last time I was there, Wesley Snipes was the only Blade there was! So dope to be at the 50th anniversary of SD Comic-Con as a new Blade, the incomparable Mahershala Ali was crowned. It’s changed. Far less comics than my last time, over 15 years ago. My last time there I was working for the sometimes infamous, always legendary Rory Root, owner of Comic Relief.

That comic book store was my gold standard from the first days I came to California before I even lived out here. More than Forbidden Planet in NYC, my childhood epic comic book shop, Comic Relief encapsulated what I loved about comics; the underground, DIY, epic fantasy and proletariat tales of crime, responsibility, power, and imagination. Plus, the store had a cat. Rest in peace Pia. Rory’s gone on to that big comic book store in the sky, but somehow he’s imprinted on me as the gatekeeper and agent provocateur of taking comics seriously.

Before Vertigo and Dark Horse became the big dogs that they were/are, it was Rory and his ilk, comic book shop owners who sold books to libraries, went to college classes to speak about the industry. They spoke as the organic intellectuals that books like Maus, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Paul Auster’s City of Glass produced.

Those days are gone now. It’s possible to get a Ph.D. in comic scholarship. There are full-blown academic courses in writing and creating comics, and every other minute there seems to be some supposed luminary coming out as a comic book “scholar.” I’ve been guilty of that appellation myself. Back in the day, it’s was just the heavy set dude with the cowboy hat, sweat stains everywhere with a big mug of coffee, and a cigarette dangling from his mouth named Rory Root and his friends.

That’s what Comic-Con will always be to me. Rory was no saint. He stiffed me out of more than one paycheck. And don’t ask how many times I saw him naked, seemed to be a rite of passage more than one Comic relief employee had to endure. But he also got me hooked on taking the funny books I love so much seriously. So for me, Comic-Con will always be Rory Root’s spot.

One of the highlights of my Comic-Con experience was hanging with @marinchef, which is always awesome.

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Celebration for a contract signing

Ayize — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 10:32:44 +0000

If you like hand-rolled ice cream, check out swirls creamery in San Gabriel. Celebration for a contract signing. See what I did there? It’s called a tease…

I’m looking forward to working on a comic book remake of a classic novel. Stay tuned for more updates. In the meantime, check out my other works. I also update through Twitter and Instagram regularly.

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I interviewed Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey

Ayize — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 12:18:53 +0000

I interviewed Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey at Cellar Door Books yesterday. We talked about their new book, Magic for Liars, a clever and fast-paced magical mystery that came out this month. Check that out.

Special thanks to them, Cellar Door Books, and everyone who came by. Here are some photos.

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The Real Men Read Program

Ayize — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 13:52:52 +0000

On Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting with young men at the Youth Treatment and Education Center in Riverside as part of the Real Men Read program.

Not only was it fun to talk to them about the power of reading and writing, they also helped me with some plot points for a pitch I’m working on. I love combining my two favorite things: youth work and writing.

Real Men Read is a young men’s literacy and mentorship program operated in every Riverside County juvenile lockdown facility. Since its inception in 2013, incarcerated youth have read more than 1.1 million pages of literature.

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