The Four Color Media Monitor

I'd once spoken about Lashawn Colvin, a specialty store manager in Alabama who created a variation on Sailor Moon called Beautiful Soldiers. Now, the Montgomery Advertiser reports she sadly died at just 37:

Her brand and brainchild is "Beautiful Soldiers," but the words "beautiful soul" capture the life and mission of Montgomery comic book artist, writer and editor Lashawn Colvin.

Services for Colvin, who died Monday at age 37, will be held on Friday at 2 p.m. at Alabama Heritage Cemetery. Memories and expression of sympathy can be shared at www.AlabamaHeritageFH.com. A cause of death has not been released.

A native of Fort Hood, Texas, Colvin was part of a military family. She lived in Montgomery since kindergarten. At a young age, she'd traveled the world with parents Timothy and Denita, and her siblings. She graduated from Jefferson Davis High School, and went on to higher education for comic book art and writing skills. Along with creating and editing comics for the RedBand line-up at Short Fuse Media Group, she hosted a podcast and owned the comic book and gaming shop Comics & Geeks in Montgomery for a while. [...]

"I've always been really big on female empowerment and girl power, and sisterhood," Colvin told the Advertiser in 2020. That year, she made national headlines as a Black woman opening her own comic shop in the South, on Perry Hill Road in Montgomery. Getting it open by Halloween wasn't easy, especially while still dealing with the death of her mother in April.

“I know the struggles of trying to get seen,” Colvin told the Advertiser in 2020. “It’s very important for my store to represent the community, where we try to help each other get ourselves out there.”

With all the PC going about lately, it'll be harder than ever to do that. Some might notice that "female empowerment" and "girl power" could be a lot less noticeable as phrases now, in an era where women are being slighted by far-left propaganda.

On the comic book side of things, life was really blooming for Colvin. She'd recently landed a publishing deal for "Beautiful Soldiers" with Scott Comics. Along with being a comic author, artist and editor, she was working with dozens of independent creators. She also served on the board of directors for this year's Urban Nerd Con, a first-of-its-kind convention in Montgomery that focused on Black characters, creators, actors and more. Colvin was proud to speak at the con on a panel about women in comics.

"My experience has been good in comics," Colvin told the Advertiser in June. "Everyone has been supportive and wanted me to succeed."

I sure hope it'll be a fruitful publication deal, because comics like hers are decidedly something everyone should see. But the PC crowd most likely won't go for it, if we can read their minds correctly. It's very sad somebody with a promising viewpoint suddenly had her life cut short, much too young. Let's hope her comics work continues to be seen for many years from now.

Labels: good artists, indie publishers, sales