Professionally, writing World of Wakanda is an opportunity to try something new and challenging.
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What does writing this series mean for you, personally and professionally? It was intelligent, moving, painful, and a necessary look at black manhood in this day and age.īlack Panther: World of Wakanda will feature queer black women, an underrepresented group in comics and elsewhere.
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Writing comics is very different, much more collaborative than writing fiction or essays, so I’m learning a lot about how to play well with others.
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It has been wonderful working with Ta-Nehisi and the guys at Marvel. What has it been like working with him, and what do you think of his book Between the World and Me? Ta-Nehisi Coates emailed me and told me he had a crazy idea and, well, he had a crazy idea.Ĭoates also wrote Marvel’s latest Black Panther series, which has been a success with critics and comics fans alike. How did you react when you first heard about the opportunity to join the world of comics? We caught up with Gay before the school year starts to chat about her new gig. And Gay is collaborating on Wakanda with 2015 National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates, who heard her read a zombie story at a writer’s conference and recommended her to Marvel. Earlier this year at Butler, the in-demand speaker waxed poetic about the Sweet Valley High series of young adult novels, and told the packed auditorium about her love for the UPS man. As her 131,000 Twitter followers can attest, Gay’s material also explores the popular and the everyday.
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The writer and cultural critic seeks more visibility on the page for black, queer women-her magazine articles and newspaper columns often tackle issues of race, gender, politics, and inequality. In Wakanda (the name of a fictional African country), Gay will challenge traditional scripts with a storyline that follows two female lovers. Though the Purdue University professor is in the middle of multiple projects, including putting the finishing touches on her highly-anticipated memoir Hunger, the Marvel gig was too good to pass up. The opportunity to write Black women and queer Black women into the Marvel universe, there’s no saying no to that.As if a celebrated novel ( An Untamed State) and New York Times bestselling essay collection ( Bad Feminist) weren’t enough, Roxane Gay has been writing a comic book. … It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done, and I mean that in the best possible way. It media interviews, Gay has said, “I love being able to focus on women who are fierce enough to fight but still tender enough to love. Gay and Harvey were both personally sought out by Coates to bring a female perspective to these two characters, and to deeply explore the lives of Black women and queer Black women. The goal of this series is to go deeper into the stories of the women of the “Black Panther” universe. The fantasy world is getting juicy characters with compelling story lines in the “World of Wakanda,” which will primarily focus on Ayo and Aneka, the two lovers who are former members of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panther’s female security force.
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It’s sad to report that in 2016 we are excited that the pairing of Gay and Harvey “will make history by becoming the first Black female writers in the Marvel comic universe,” but the truth is the truth, and because comic book series can make creators wealthy, it’s great news to share.Ĭreative illustrators should mark this news with a smilie icon because, as Gay stated, “Black women are also doing the cover art.” Roxane Gay is the first Black woman to write for Marvel Comics and will be joining forces with Ta-Nehisi Coates and poet Yona Harvey to add her magic to the new Marvel comic series titled “Black Panther: World of Wakanda.”