Street roots., April 24, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • April 24-May 1, 2015
News
Page 7
Walker's his name.
blaxploitation-era
Shaft’s his game.
films, Portland
author resurrects
the 1970s icon
BY SARAH HANSELL
S T A F F W R IT E R
ortland comic writer and author David
F. Walker wanted to make comics
since he was a little kid watching
movie trailers featuring blaxploitation-era
heroes. With the end of the blaxploitation
era, comics and film have seen a gaping hole
where black representation used to be - a
hole that Walker wants to help fill. And after
over 20 years of working to break into the
mainstream comic scene, he is bringing the
iconic character of 7 0 s black fighter,
Vietnam vet and hero Shaft back to life. His
reincarnation of "Shaft” has been released
by Dynamite Comics, with thesixth and
final installment slated for next month. He
has also finished a “Shaft” novel, “Shaft’s
Revenge,” the first in 40 years»
Walker has gained distinction for his
publication “BadAzz MoFo,” which focuses
on black films of the 1970s, and his work as
In an effort to increase black representation in comic books, Portland writer David F. Walker
journalist, author, filmmaker and educator.
(top) has recreated the 1970s character Shaft in a series released by Dynamite Comics.
He is also working on reviving Cyborg for a
project with DC Comics, and pitting Howard
the Duck against Blade the Vampire Slayer
gray area. And that’s a more interesting
necessarily the same immediacy, but tfien it
for Marvel — continuing to bring black
story when that gray àrea is the difference
becomes
more
of
a
metaphor.s
characters into the realm of visibility in
between law enforcement and criminals,
There are a lot of issues — again, one
comics.
example is issues surrounding veterans now, which at the end of the day, there’s not
always that big of à difference between the
returning Gulf War veterans. And those
Sarah Hansell: What inspired you to
two. It takes a special kind of person to pick
issues
aren’t
that
different
than
what
reincarnate John Shaft in comic book form?
up a gun and go, “I’m going t o ... do
Vietnam vets were facing, and Shaft was a
whatever with this gun.” Whether they think
Vietnam
vet.
And
so
that
was
part
of
what
David F. Walker: It was a character .that
it’s taking care of themselves by robbing
made the character appealing, was just to
I’ve been fascinated with since I was a kid,
other people or taking care of the
sort
of
talk
about
these
things,
reconciling
which was a long, long time ago. The movies
community by shooting someone, some
police
corruption
and
the
impact
of
were based on books, and I started reading
unarmed civilian.
commercial
development
in
poor
the books when I was probably in my mid-
So, Shaft to me just represents that moral
communities.
What
happens
when
a
poor
20s, and that was when I was like, “Oh,
gray area so many of us live in, that
community is targeted for urban.renewal?
man, I’ve got to do something with this
circumstantial gray area that could shift at
What happens to its residents? All that sort
character.” It only took 20 years for it to
any moment. And a lot of people don’t
of
stuff.
And
I
mean,
I’m
not
trying
to
be
happen. I think everybody has these ideas in
navigate it very well. We get really
ham-fisted
about
i
t
If
readers
don’t
get
it,
the back of their head, like, “Oh, if I could
comfortable, and then the thought of change
that’s
fine.
But
that’s
a
lot
of
what
the
make my own ‘Star Wars’ movie,” Or if they
».. change scares so many people that they
underlying
message
is.
could write their own character they love ...
will fight sometimes to the death just to
Batman, Popeye the Sailor Man. It doesn’t
maintain their status quo.
S.H.: You also talked about John Shaft
matter; everybody’s got those things they
being a character in the middle — a couple of
love. For me it was John Shaft. And I just
S.H.: What first attracted you to the
decided to be proactive about it, go after the steps away from being a police officer, a couple
blaxploitation era in the first place?
of steps dway from being a criminal. Can you
rights, or figure out who owned the rights,
speak to that?
and go from there. .
D.F.W.: I grew up around it, but I was too
young to fully appreciate it. And it just sort
D.F.W.: I think that in real life, especially
S.H .:You’ve talked in at least one of your
of fascinated me because it was these larger-
in this day and age - the way the economy
interviews about how Shaft was a good
than-life characters. I would see the
is, the money people make, the money they
character for you to tackle the issues that you
commercials on TV for the movies, older
pay
for
houses,
everybody’s
one
step
away
wanted to tackle. Can you talk a little bit
cousins were going to see the movies, or I’d
about what those issues are and why Shaft was from being in a set of circumstances that
see the cover of Ebony magazine or Jet
they never imagined being in. Whether it’s
a good character to share them?
magazine. It fascinated me as a kid, and
losing their home and becoming homeless,
then as I got older, it was like, that era
whether
it’s
being
in
a
car
accident
and
D.F.W.: Well, you know, in the books, in
presented these larger-than-life heroes. And
facing medical bills they can’t afford.
Ernest Tidyman’s books, he’s a Vietnam vet,
then, as I got even older, those heroes
Everybody’s
one
step
away
from
having
and he had a juvenile record, and he sort of
didn’t exist anymore in pop culture.
their worst nightmares come true, and then
represented the constraints of what poverty
By the time I was out of high school and
everybody’s also one step away - o n e or two
and oppression can do to inner-city youth.
in college in the ’80s, all of these figures
steps away — from everything just being
You can tell a story like th at in a
that I’d seen as kids were gone. And so I
great for them. You win the lottery or
contemporary setting, but it sometimes
was like, what happened to them? And the
something like that. Or, suddenly you get a
becomes difficult, not as palatable for
handful of movies that I’d seen as a kid had
promotion at work and your income bracket
audiences. Put it in a pair of bell-bottoms
stuck in my memory so much that that sort
changes.
with a wide lapel, set it in the ’60s or 70s,
But most of us live our lives in this sort of of caused me to research and to learn more.
and suddenly, you know. It doesn’t have
■
Inspired by
You know I saw “Black Belt Jones” when I
was a kid, with Jim Kelly, and I was like,
“Whatever happened to him?” And that’s
what led me down that somewhat scholarly,
if you want to call it scholarly, path.
S.H.: What do you think are some of
people’s biggest misconceptions about
blaxploitation art?
D.F.W.: I think the biggest misconception
— there’s so many of them — but right now,
it’s that they’re something to be made fun
of, that they’re comedic, that the movies are
all bad, or all negative. And so, you look at
something like “Black Dynamite,” which is a
movie and an animated show, and I love the
show, but it treats that whole era like it’s a
comedy, and it’s not. Like, there’s some
great movies within that era. There’s some
terrible movies too. But 30 years from now,
we’ll be talking about the summer of 2015,
and there’ll be terrible movies that we’re
talking about then, just like there’ll
hopefully be some great movies, but maybe
not. And so it’s that people, as with
everything^ they rush to judgment on it
based on thefew things they know, or not
knowing anything.
S.H.: What do you see as far as black
representation and diversity in comics now? It
seems to me that it’s fewer and further between
than the blaxploitation era.
D.F.W.: There was more quantity ,
definitely in the 70s. We can argue about
the quality all we want. But now there’s
neither quantity nor, for the most part,
quality. Or, the stuff that’s out there, you
have to dig around to find it. It’s hot in the
upper strata, upper tier of pop culture. Part
of what I’ve been trying to do is bring some
of that stuff more to the forefront and talk
about it. Because my belief is that in terms
of representation, lack of representation in
and of itself becomes a form of oppression.
It’s oppression through omission. And I
don’t care who you are, if you’re not part of
the mainstream - heterosexual white men,
that’s mainstream — everybody else is a
minority, And if you’re not part of that
mainstream, then you’re not getting what
you need, and it’s not allowing you to
activate your dreams.
I was talking to this young woman who
wants to be a screenwriter recently, and
every idea she had was for a story about a
white man as the hero. And I was like, “Why
are you...?” And she was like, “WeU, I
couldn’t tell the story with a woman.” And I
was like, “Sure you could.” It’s frustrating to
me because we’re all brainwashed that way.
I’m brainwashed that way. When I’m writing
a story, I always have trouble finding a role
for women in it because that’s me. I’m so
brainwashed into that concept that men are
the heroes. We all need to sort of change
our thinking.