“…Blaxploitation is a very specific genre with clearly defined roles, and it mirrors superhero comics almost exactly in that it’s predominately a macho power fantasy… A hero struggles against long odds to overcome a wrong. As I started watching blaxploitation movies, it occurred to me that we could use all their symbols and cliches to examine the superhero genre in a new way… Many of the filmmakers were getting their first shot at making movies. In a lot of cases, they lacked experience and training but made up for it with dreams and enthusiasm, and as a viewer, I respond to that. It’s very DIY, punk rock, inspirational. It’s a tremendous achievement. It’s entertaining. At the time, it was a new point of view, so the stories felt different from everything else. And the filmmakers were breaking rules and making things up as they went along. A lot of those movies feel like anything might happen, and for viewers, there’s nothing more exciting!”

Afrodisiac