The Superhero Cartoon My Daughter and Your Kids Deserve

I’m a Black comic book geek who wanted to make something cool for his kid.

By DAMION GONZALES

I shouldn’t be here. I mean I shouldn’t have been the one to do this. There are people much more qualified, more “plugged in,” more scholarly.

Heck, a whole bunch of famous people should have done this before I ever got the chance to. People with last names you would recognize. People who can count me as a longtime fan of their body of work.

I’m just a regular guy. I’m not Milestone Comics (original flavor or 2.0). I’m no Denys Cowan, Michael Davis (hi, MOTU), Christopher Priest, Derek Dingle, or Dwayne McDuffie. I’m no Reggie Hudlin or Kevin Grevioux. I’m just a guy who wanted to make something cool for my kid.

Okay, maybe that’s over simplifying. Or maybe I’m hopping around. So let’s try to find a good jumping in place here.

I’m Damion, and I’m a Black Comic Book Geek — or Nerd, or whatever we are these days.

Part of the challenge — did I say challenge? I meant burden — of being a comic book fan who’s any other color but White is that you don’t reeeeeally get to see a whole lot of yourself in those four color pages.

The struggle’s been real ever since comics have been with us. I mean for decades the faces of comics had been so White — so White you can go ahead and insert your own how White were they? joke — that no one would have a reason to bat an eyelid or raise an objecting finger.

Yeah. That White.

Black Lightning. Image: Comic Vine.

Of course, over the years we’ve gotten some guys and gals up in lights, right? You’ve got your Black Lightning, your Storm, your Falcon, your Black Panther, your Luke Cage.

Then, Milestone came around in the 1990s and BLEW THE DOOR OFF THE HINGES with incredible storytelling and diverse characters — a world of every hue, every viewpoint, and orientation.

Milestone featured comics with characters of color like Hardware, Icon, and Static, the latter of whom would go on to animated-series stardom as Static Shock (2000–04). The good news is that Static Shock is probably showing somewhere in the world as you read this. It was just. that. good. But sadly, it was too good to last…

Milestone went away. It was the ‘90s, and the whole comics industry almost died. And it’s a long story, but Milestone went away. This meant all us Black Comic Book Geeks were back on the strip again.

Milestone Comics. Image: Comic Vine.

Here’s where the story gets personal.

My wife and I brought a kid into this world. A girl. A girl who gets it in her head she’ll like some of the things Daddy likes.

She starts showing interest in cartoons and Daddy’s comics, and then Daddy has that thought: she’s going to enter that same old cycle. That cycle where she’ll be a fan of something that doesn’t reflect her — because it doesn’t see her.

In most popular or mainstream media, the stories where the Black character is the Hero or the Star are few and far between. Sidekicks? Yup. Magical Negroes with mystical wisdom and cryptic answers for the White protagonist? All day, everyday. Hero? Pfffftttttt!!!!

Think about how scary that is as a Black parent.

So I did something. If my daughter was going to join me in comic nerd-dom, then there had to be a change.

I dove head first into the Indie Black Comics community. YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT EXISTED RIGHT?! IT DOES! And these people are cranking out some great books!! Use Google for something!

But as great as that was, it wasn’t enough. A light went on. I was going to write and produce a comic. I figured we’re in a new millennium, so I should take it to the next level. So what did I do?

Look closely in the trailer, and you’ll see the character I made for my daughter. Here she is! Her name is Glitch.

I got my friends together, got some artists together, found a studio, and made a cartoon. A superhero, action-adventure cartoon that harkens back to those Saturday mornings you spent with your siblings and a bowl of cereal.

A cartoon that’s all of that with a cast as diverse as the population of this good planet we live on. Superheroes for everyone.

It’s called T.A.S.K., and it’s a superhero cartoon you’ve always wanted and deserved. It’s a superhero cartoon my daughter and your kids deserve.

I hope you enjoy it and share it with others. When you’re done, you can always find T.A.S.K. Universe on Facebook. Here’s our trailer.

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