When my cousin John, who later became a visual artist, was in elementary school, he spent most of his spare time writing and illustrating his own comic books. He was obsessed with superheroes and their adventures. One afternoon, when I was still an infant, my dad asked John why he never drew any Black superheroes. And John said, “Because there aren’t any.” My dad heard John’s observation as an invitation and was determined in that moment to prove John wrong—to prove that there were superheroes in the world who looked like us. This was one of those moments where my dad’s magic was undeniable.
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