[In part 2, Alex talks about his success with Blackjack.]

RW: Alright, so let’s talk about Blackjack. How did Blackjack get started?

AS: I’ve always had a love for old movies. Even as a kid, I used to watch the older, black-and-white films, and adventure and mystery stories were my particular favorite. And I didn’t, as a young child, consciously recognize that none of us were there, except maybe if it was in Africa, [where] we were running. We had the funny loin cloth and grassy things on, and we were either taking orders or being chased and shot down, usually stuck with the Tarzan movies, which hey, I grew up watching too. But it used to bother me how the Africans seemed to be totally incapable of dealing with the animals. Tarzan and the Africans all lived in the same jungle, but in the movies, the African natives acted like they’d never seen half these creatures until Tarzan sent them after them. So there were these little discrepancies, but I don’t think I’d made this whole big conscious decision about anything, initially; I was enjoying them. And then when I hit my middle-to-late teens, I was involved in a club, people of different ages, who used to get together on Saturdays and watch the reels of the old serials. So I got to see a lot of those things way before they made them to videotape and DVD. And again, we weren’t anywhere in these things unless we were a porter on a train…

I got into my twenties and I was writing more, and I had a desire to create an action-adventure hero for the comics. Dick Giordano was vice-president and creative director up at DC. I sort of knew him; I knew some people at Marvel. I wanted to write comic books. I thought it was kinda cool; I’d always enjoyed reading them. So I was looking at what I wanted to create. Now, Indiana Jones had been out, the first movie had been out, and I remember thinking again – and that’s when it started to happen, slowly – where were we? I know we were back there, y’know, where were we? So how about a black adventurer, ‘cause then you can see the 30’s and 40’s from that perspective, and it would make the stories more interesting for me to write. And then the more I worked on the character of Aaron Day, the history and his origin and all of that, the more I would do some research to make sure I wasn’t going too far afield of reality. I mean, it was certainly going to be a fictional character, but what would support this?

By the time I finished the character, I’d discovered that there had been, for lack of a better word, an adventurer, known as a Black Sparrow. His real name was Eugene Bullard. As a matter of fact, it’s in the back of this. [Reaches for my copy of Blackjack: Blood & Honor and turns to the back.] I discovered him after I had created the character and I went, my god. So not only did I believe it was possible, but now I’m seeing that somebody had some adventures like this. He flew in World War One for the French, and he’s an American. He escaped from the United States because he got tired of the KKK visiting his house. And he was a young lad, not even 14 when he took off from Mississippi, and he worked his way to the coastline, he stowed away on a German freighter and he dropped in Europe. He worked his way across Europe, doing all kinds of odd jobs including boxing and things like that, until he wound up in France during the first World War, and got himself in the first Air Force. And it goes on from there, the different things he was involved in and the people he knew [like] Josephine Baker and a number of the people of that Renaissance period. But I thought, this is reality, and I did my fictional character, and now I feel even better about having created Aaron Day, because now I am gonna be able to bring people’s attention to folks that really did those things.

And as I began to write the second Blackjack story, the mission, if you will, became even bigger. As I said, I used to watch a lot of the old films. I grew up watching the old Charlie Chan movies. Charlie Chan’s Number One Son, Number One Daughter, were all played by Chinese actors. Charlie Chan was never played by a Chinese actor. Including the 70’s, when they did a film, he was played by Peter Ustinov. And in the early 70’s when they did a TV movie, he was played by Ross Martin. The character’s never been played by an actual Chinese character. And so part of my headset is, okay, that’s one stereotype; what else was stereotypical of that time period in terms of other people of color? And so that got me interested in how I portrayed Tim Cheng, the Chinese servant.

And to keep it in the high adventure realm, in Blood & Honor, when [Blackjack] goes to Japan, what were the attitudes at that point? Who was looking down on whom? And of course, there’s always this reality that blacks are always being put down, but of course, we’re like wonderful lambs and sheeps and angels; we love everybody. Bull; black people have their prejudices too. Looking back, I knew, especially with soldiers, in order to lock in that camaraderie with the people you’re fighting with, you take on an attitude about the people you’re fighting. And so Aaron’s father had prejudices. I mean, hell, they dumped on him; gimme a chance to dump on somebody else. So he disliked Asians. He didn’t trust them slant-eyes, that whole thing. So Aaron grew up with some of that garbage coming at him. And he had never really thought about, “Should I buy into it? The guy who taught me some of my martial arts was Japanese. I don’t remember disliking him, but do I really trust him?” So part of the reason he takes that assignment is to see where he stands with that, where his father ends and where he begins.

So all of these things percolating in my head as I worked on Second Bite of the Cobra and Blood & Honor, and even some of the stories that haven’t seen print yet, was [for] developing a black character that could grow, that would be flawed but noble, that would meet people who more represented how other cultures and nationalities really were at those times, yet keep that nostalgic high adventure, Indiana Jones kind of feel. So that’s pretty much what it is. Blackjack’s mission, if nothing else, is to open up, hopefully, a somewhat more accurate view of how people were at that time in terms of culture, race, and accomplishments. It’s not a negative view. There’s negativity there; there’s racism and things there – but how people overcame those things, what people did and accomplished other things that we aren’t even aware of. We need to be aware of that. We as a people, black people, need to be aware of that, we need to be aware of what other cultures have done.

We can’t live in a box. The more blinders they put on us, the more unlikely it is that we’re gonna get out of it and grow and expand. We need to have a worldview. We need to get off the victim mentality and start taking action. So for all the black people who have accomplished things despite intense racism and prejudices, we got nothing to cry about right now. We have only the road ahead of that, and to make the best of that. Because if somebody could be an inventor, a scientist, a surgeon, during a time when he couldn’t even go into most stores and buy his food without being kicked out the back door, then what have I got to complain about? I’ve got a mission; let’s do it. And there’s a support system out there for me that those folks never had. So that was sort of where Blackjack came from – the high adventure, the love of that sort of thing, but also a desire to open up eyes to how things might have been.

RW: That’s one of the things about Blackjack that I liked – the fact that it starts from the black perspective and expands to other cultures, to show the similarities and differences, not just in the black culture, but between other cultures as well.

AS: Thank you. I’m glad it worked for you.

RW: What would you say you’re most proud of regarding the Blackjack character?

AS: I’d say, easily, the appeal of the character to an unbelievably wide audience. I could not have projected that to that degree at all. I believe that when you write a good story, create a good character, people would find it, but I wasn’t expecting the reaction I got. A lot of publishers who turned it down – because I tried to get it published before I self-published it – kept saying it had a small niche: urban black. That would be it. And subsequently, as much as I thought them to be blind, and went ahead anyway, I didn’t anticipate that one day I’d receive e-mail from Copenhagen, Cairo, New Mexico, Poland, Holland. It was just mind-boggling in ways, and the different types of people.

I specifically did not have any cursing in Blackjack. I didn’t want that. I always see that as sensationalistic. I think there’s a place for it, but not in this series. I wanted this series to be more accessible. That’s another thing – especially in films, during the time period that I was creating this character, 99% of the black heroes cursed up a storm. So if you’re gonna take your kid to see a black hero, your kid better be used to the four-letter-words. Even beyond that – unless it was on television, and it was a family-oriented thing, nine times out of ten, in order to be “black,” we had to be “down,” in order for us to be considered “down,” we had to be cursing, or holding something, or jumping some girl. Because that’s what we’re about – power, anger, cursing, and sex. That’s the image. And if we can be cool while taking out the bad guys, that’s great. So I wanted this to be a character that was accessible to young people as well, so if they wanted to buy it, or if their parents wanted to read it to them, they didn’t have too much of a problem with that.

I was in the Motor City Comic Con after the first issue of Blackjack: Second Bite of the Cobra was out, so this was like ’97. I had the first issue out, and I had the second issue, which had just come off the printer, maybe a week or two before. And this was the first time I had done the Motor City Con. I had no idea what to expect, but remember, I said in my theater [work] I’d traveled, so my mind was “Here I am, let’s see what happens.” I didn’t have any concern or fear about going, any preconceptions about “Oh, well they won’t be interested.” That was not there.

So I was there, and at a certain point this blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy came up to the table, and he’s looking at the cover, and he’s checking the comics delicately, and I’m talking to him the same way I was talking to any of the potential customers who came to the table. And in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, gee, I hadn’t really thought about a twelve-year-old kid picking up the book. He talks to me for a little while, he listens to my spiel, and then he says, “I’m gonna look around a bit more and then I’ll come back.” And I said, “Fine, good talking to you.” And off he goes, [and I’m thinking], “He probably won’t come back; he’s gonna see Spider-Man or something like that.” About a half hour later, bing! – he’s back there, plunks down his money and buys the first two issues. I thought, okay. That’s cool. That opened my eyes a little bit. And he walked off very happily.

A little while later, this hulking, big biker type, with the cut-off-finger gloves, beard stubble, denim jacket on top of another jacket, both torn, sleeveless kind of look, muscled and chains – [he says to me], “YOU! YOU’RE HIM! YOU’RE THAT GUY!” And I’m thinking, I’m gonna die here! [laughs] I’m envisioning all this really bad stuff! And he’s coming towards me, and he gets to the table and looks down at the table and I’m going what? And he calls down the way to some chubby guy and [says], “Come here, come here!” And I’m like okay, I’m not gonna die. And this guy comes rolling up and [the biker guy] says, “This is it, man! This is the book that I was telling you about!” Holy smoke.

Turns out, first off, he’s not a member of the Hell’s Angels; he’s a chef in some small town not far from there. And the comic book store that he buys at happened to have had two copies of the first issue. He had bought a copy, but the owner never brought in any of the others, figuring that kind of stuff wouldn’t sell in his area. So he couldn’t get the second issue, and he’d been freaking out, thinking he’s never get to know what’s gonna happen next. So when he saw me, he was all excited and everything. I took the man’s address [and said] “I guarantee you the third issue personally!” [laughs] I did some sales that weekend, so it was all good, but I came away from that really being clear [that] this sucker speaks on levels I hadn’t even thought about!

And then another year or so goes by, and I’m at a convention in Oakland, WonderCon. And my friend Chris Ryan is there with me, and he’s handling the table, and I’m going to look around and meet some people. I come back and there’s a gentleman there in his 60’s or 70’s standing there, in a suit and tie. And Chris says, “This gentleman’s been waiting to see you.” “Oh, really?” So I shake his hand, and he says, “I just wanted to really compliment you. I’ve followed your work for years.” I’m thinking, oh you probably think I’m Al Simmons, the guy from Spawn or something like that, ‘cause that was happening a lot. And I’m shaking his hand and saying, “Well, thank you. So you’re enjoying Blackjack?” “Oh, yeah, I enjoyed Blackjack – and your play,” and-so-and-so, and I went, “Oh – you mean you really have been reading other things I’ve written?” “Yeah, your Sherlock Holmes play; I read it.” I’m thinking, holy smoke! This is cool!

And then he says to me – this is when Blood & Honor was out – “I was a child during World War Two. I remember the Japanese being rounded up in my neighborhood, taken to internment camps. I remember all of the feeling during that time. When the war was over, I went to college, I became a reporter, I was involved in the city council,” and blah blah blah. And he got real quiet for a moment, and I thought, okay, what are you gonna say, the book sucks? And I realized he was a little choked up. He said, “It never occurred to me that there might have been Japanese opposed to World War Two until I read that book.” [pause]

And then I didn’t know what to say. Because again, you want the knowledge to get out there, but I’m thinking – and I don’t believe I think inside the box – but I’m thinking younger people, people who don’t really look at history. But here was a man who was saying, “As educated as I am, as I was, the job I had as a reporter” – what is your job but to seek out information? – “With all of that, I had been so programmed. The propaganda had done its job so well, that it never occurred to me until that book.” So my proudest moment has to be the appeal of this series to the world at large. Not millions of sellers – yeah, it’d be nice financially if it were a million seller – but to understand that black and white and Asian and young and old have found something in this series that resonates for them and has meant something to them and that they embraced it. They didn’t embrace it because he’s black, and they didn’t embrace it in spite of him being black. They embraced Aaron Day. They embraced the stories, what they got out of it – and then all the other things came on top of it. And that is amazing to me. That is the kind of thing that you feel like okay, I guess I did my job. I can die now and be happy.

So that’s the proudest accomplishment of this series. Everything else falls in behind that – the wonderful people who worked on it with me, the people who helped make it possible, the dreams and hopes that I’ll continue to do more of these, despite whatever the challenges are, all of those things fall in behind.

[Next: Alex talks about the Kids Comic Con.]