The Four Color Media Monitor

Saporta Report tells of an indie adventure titled Tuskagee Heirs, which is futuristic but inspired on the famous air brigade of African-American pilots from WW2:

Comic book creators Greg Burnham and Marcus Williams co-authored Tuskegee Heirs: Flames of Destiny based on the iconic Tuskegee Airmen fighters.

Inspired by the segregated Army air program which escorted bombers across fascist Italy and Northern Africa during World War II, Burnham and Williams conceived a five-person team — Slip, Genesis, Ayanna, Omar and Able — who train on the legendary Moton Field and use the same strategies and skills as their namesakes to overcome their enemies and save the world.

Calling them “the original top guns,” fictional character Col. Mars tells his newest recruit, Able, “I’m talking squads so tough, that the very people who hated them requested them as escorts on missions.”

“They don’t have any super abilities or powers,” said Brunham, “they’re just really capable, [and] intelligent, just like the Tuskegee Airmen and the people that worked with them.”

Well that's exactly why, with the right talent involved, the book can work far better than today's average corporate-owned superhero comic can. I may have made the argument before, and will again, that the future of sci-fi adventure can't rely only upon superhero fare alone. It has to also rely upon many other themes and ideas, not the least being heroes who don't wear costumes as the corporate-owned superheroes do, regardless of whether they have physical fantasy powers. So I'll wish the authors of this comic good luck in marketing it around, and proving the ability, most importantly, to sell a story on merit. That's the only way the medium will survive today.

Labels: Africa, Europe and Asia, history, indie publishers