Comic book cwriter and Milestone Media partner Reggie Hudlin has announced the return of Milestone Media just in time for Black History Month and the twentieth anniversary of the company!
- “‘It’s been too long. We’ve got to restart the company’. So the three of us [Writer Reggie Hudlin and artists Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle] have been working for the past two years on sorting out all the business, and now we are the core of Milestone Media 2.0.”
“One thing I’ve always loved about the company [is] even the name, Milestone Media. It’s going to be a company that will not just be doing comic books. [We’re] going to be working on a lot of different mediums… [We] will be working with a wide array of companies — both different publishers as well as other media companies,” said Hudlin.
It’s not clear whether Milestone 2.0 will publish or license their properties again, but this comment may be on the “media” side of things. When you announced Milestone 2.0, one gets the impression they will, somehow, be publishing their own books directly or through another company.
- Denys Cowan adds, “There are all kinds of challenges that are facing people of color — that part hasn’t changed. What has changed is, there are a lot more characters of color in comics. What we feel is now, Milestone is necessary because of the types of characters that we do, and the viewpoint that we come from.”
“We’ve never just done black characters just to do black characters. It’s always come from a specific point of view, which is what made our books work. What we also didn’t do, which is the trend now, is [to] have characters that are, not blackface, but they’re the black versions of the already established white characters — as if it gives legitimacy to these black characters in some kind of way — [that] these characters are legitimate because now there’s a black Captain America,” noted Cowan.
Cowan continues, “Having been a creator of these characters and a consumer, I always looked at it like, ‘Well, geez, couldn’t you give me an original character?’ ” Cowan adds. “Black Panther worked because he was original. Static Shock worked because it was an original concept. It’s a good time to come back and reintroduce original characters, as well as some new ones.”
Derek Dingle closes it out by indicating that, “[This] also becomes an opportunity to mine some [new] talent. We’re going to find a new group of creators who are knowledgeable and grew up with digital [formats]. It is part of their DNA in terms of what connects them from a digital standpoint, from a social-media standpoint, and I think there are all these tools out there to get our stories told, and to promote our characters, that [are] going to make it a very exciting era for Milestone.”
More at the Washington Post.
I’m intrigued by this. Many Milestone characters are recognizable to a broader audience due to the Static Shock animated TV series, Static’s appearance in Young Justice Invasion as well as Icon joining the Justice League and Rocket joining Young Justice in the Young Justice Invasion animated TV series.
In addition, the Milestone characters have popped in DC Comics over the last several years.
Really excited to see what’s next as Milestone celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Also, as part of Black History Month, contribute to the #BlackSuperHeroes dialogue on twitter.
