The first article the Leopard ever published was for a comic book fanzine called Amazing Heroes. Back in 1989, comics were still not mainstream - it was before the Spider-ma n movies, before the Summer blockbusters adapted from comics like The Avengers. It was still a world of kids and fanboys. We actually read the things and talked about the stories, the artists, the writers.
I was trying to break in to the comic business at the time as a cartoonist, and still read superhero stuff. I loved comics –especially as a child, but one thing that always bothered me was how they depicted minorities, particularly African Americans.
The portrayals were usually stereotypical and often offensive.
Superheroes almost by definition were were square-jawed, uber-muscled white men. There
was almost no portrayal of them as anything else, except the odd sidekick.
So I wrote an article about how I felt they were depicted in comics. I even drew the Editorial illustration.
It may have been among the first of its kind.
