WELCOME to the amazing virtual free-range Black Age of Comics Convention that is fabulously rebranded,
"BLACK SANKOFA 2.0"!
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A picture is still worth a thousand words!
NOTE: February 2022 will be our second annual virtual, free-range, educational, inter-global convention. The almighty rebranded "Black Sankofa 2.0"!
We will organically upload resources each week during this month.
Our ever-cool and totally hip partner in Sankofa this year, Punx of Rage, will be doing vivid interviews with selected intelligent Black Age Greats each Friday of this month at 8:00PM Central-Standard Time via Blog Talk Radio. com / Punx of Rage.
Feel free to visit them to learn from their trove of past unique cataloged interviews.
And yes....you do not have to be Black to participate. However, it helps to be cool, awesome, intelligent or positive.
BTW! Keep buying their fantastic books and other powerful products as they cannot do this amazing work without your type of real-world participation! Store Link
We overwhelmed this industry back in 1993 when we launched our first convention to expand it forever. We are inching up on three decades of offering the best of the Black Age of Comics!
"How much Diversity, Color, or Alternative were in this industry before we launched our Bold Black Age Bomb in 1993?"
That mission has transformed this industry forever!
We welcome you to our current journey as we look both ways into the collective past foundations & our promising dynamic future.
From the random past and
into the exciting future.
Last year we went virtual in our annual convention to great success!
Thanks Y'all!
This indie Black Age of Comics Chicago comic-con was started as a full service and totally welcoming mini-comic-con in Chicago in 1993.
Our Graphiti Logo Tab was created by the talented team of Jennifer Witt and Alanni.
It was the very first event of its kind on planet Earth! But not the last.
Bold enuff to call itself BLACK!
Yet open enuff to reach out to all positive folks, be they Fluid, Blue, Red, Straight, Disabled, POC, Hippies, Normal, Black, FLKs, White, Asian, LatinX, Green, Yellow, Bronze, Odd, Gifted, or Martian.
Killa support was given at that time by the ever-awesome Milestone Media, and Herbert Nipson, The Executive Editor of The Johnson Publishing Company. Produced by ONLI STUDIOS LLC. Hosted in the Bronzeville District of Chicago at the historic National Treasure certified South Side Community Art Center.
Truth be Told!
Last year "Black Age XXVI" was rebranded to"BLACK SANKOFA!".
Focusing on practical reflection, education, exposure, enrichment and creative production.
Still universally open as only Black can be. Open to all positive folks from Mars, back yonder, both sides of the tracks, down under, around the way and out back! Moving forward in our virtual platform & program during the month of February each year! Still pushing the glory and story of all things indie in this hybrid nexus of narrative art, literature, creativity, culture, & commerce!
We appreciate all of the generous donations from those of you who generously gave to our killa mission of positive Creativity, Culture, & Commerce!
We could not do it without your luv!
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2021 featured the original, 1981 "NOG: The Protector of the Pyramides", 1981 and the 1982 'zine, "Future-Funk". Both published by ONLI STUDIOS, opening the door to the Black Age of Comics genre & movement.
In 1992 Onli, with a article published by the Comics Buyers Guide, coined the term, "The Black Age of Comics" to launch an open genre that celebrates concepts, content, characters and creators derived from the Black, Urban, African, Alternative or Indie experience.
That article was actually published in Feb. 1993, the same month of the Milestone Media launch and in sync with the first Black Age of Comics Convention in Chicago.
Check out this dynamic Summer 2021 group exhibition called "Chicago Comics: 1960 until Now!"Curated by Dan Nadel
Be safe & be smart!
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Buy, Collect & Gift Indie Art
Books & Products!
Launched way back in the 20th Century at the SSCAC in the historic Bronzeville district of Chicago! Now impacting the entire industry derived from comic books or graphic novels.
The Black Age of Comics is a growing open innovative genre that celebrates creators, concepts, styles, treatments and products in this amazing industry that are derived from the Black, Urban, African, Alternative or Indie experience.
It was launched in 1993 by ONLI STUDIOS in Chicago with the help of a lot of creative folks and resources.
Prof. Onli often asks the simple question: "How diverse were the Graphics Novels & Animation industries before 1993 when we exploded with the indie Black Age Bomb? How much "Color" was in these industries?"
"How open was this game back then?"
The answers are proof that the indie Black Age is winning. Is kickin', its raw....and is all about you! The most independent force in comix ever!
This is a competition for minds and markets. Its the Mainstream: Old huge and orthodox. Versus Our Dream: Small, funky, new, agile, innovative and open!!!
One does not have to be Black to participate.....just like you do not have to be Chinese or Mexican to explore their cuisine. We welcome you and yours to sample and share our unique flavors!
More, More…MORE!!!
Breaking in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit, The Caribbean, and more…
For mobile downloads and more please visit our Store, Gallery and Hype & Reviews pages before you leave.
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"Living' In Da Black Age"
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"Future Funk was first published in 1982. Pre-Afrofuturism. It was an innovative 'zine to promote and present the Arts, innovative illustrations, articles and cartoons, along with a path to the future for all that is visual Funk. It was inspired by my time in Paris working as an illustrator. I was working for MODE Avant Garde and the Paris Metro there in the late '70s and really putting my best hustle on gigging with Metal Hurlant. Moebius was the head at Metal Hurlant, which we knew in the USA as Heavy Metal. He hit me up with a few questions to which the answer was if I wanted it to happen, I would have to publish it!
Future Funk was rebooted in 2009..... thanks to serious design work from my fave "Bad-Ash".....Ashley A. Woods. Now it is reconstructed in focused format with a bomb cover treatment by Eric Battle. In 2021 Future Funk was included in a major group exhibition, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago called "Chicago Comics: 1960 until Now' Curated by Dan Nadel. What a way to re-open some museum moments in our post Covid re-emergence."
The BLACK AGE of COMICS is the expansive future of this industry. Why be loyal to characters created in the 1940s and 1960s? Your music and food choices are not that lame. Often limited to characters that your grandparents grew up on? Rebooted? Remixed? Alternative-Casting? Really?
"Why is your music collection Blacker than your Graphic Novels or Comix collection?". This was a question Onli posed in an interview with GQ Magazine a while back. The writer had no answer.
Indie publishers like ONLI STUDIOS , Punx Of Rage, Kiss Me Comix, BIG CITY, Rosarium, Kamite Comics, Black Sands & Urban Style........ with kindred support and advanced production values from the likes of Milestone Media have forged a complex path to expansion, excellence, enlightenment, education and entertainment with concepts, styles and characters that go where the mainstream does not!
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