"When I was child there were only two comic strips that had Black leading characters. When we got together to form our company, there were still only two --20 years later."
Happy Free Comic Book Day 2025, everybody. Today is dedicated to the life of comic book visionary Dwayne Glenn McDuffie; a titan of the industry who left us far too soon. Born in 1962 Detroit, as a child McDuffie attended the Roeper school, a school for gifted children (no, not a secret school for Mutants) and showed signs of being a devout comic book nerd early on --at the age of eleven he got his hands on a Black Panther comic and was immediately struck by the depiction of a Black superhero main character who was neither an unintelligent sidekick nor was he shoehorned into the plot for humorous effect.
McDuffie graduated from the University of Michigan in 1983 (a B.A. in English and then a Master's in physics), and then following a short enrollment at film school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, embarked on what he thought would be a career as a copy editor, but a chance interview with Marvel editor Bob Budiansky changed that trajectory, and in 1987 McDuffie found himself as an assistant editor, literally writing for "Spider-Man." During this era he also dreamt up a new title, "Damage Control," a series about the behind-the-scenes work of an agency dedicated to cleaning up/covering up property damage caused by all the epic battles between superheroes and super-villains. Also while at Marvel, McDuffie made the famous tongue-in-cheek series proposal for Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers, which took on urban legend status... and definitely made a point!
In 1992 McDuffie co-founded Milestone Media, which would later become an imprint of DC Comics ("Distinguished Competition," as Marvel affectionately puts it). Milestone saw the introduction of Black hero characters like Static and Icon and Rocket, Asian characters like Xombi, and the multi-ethnic Blood Syndicate. Static was later adapted into an animated series, "Static Shock," for which McDuffie wrote 11 of the episodes. A long and impressive career in television writing and editing followed, with Dwayne's name regularly appearing in the credits for TV shows such as "What's New, Scooby-Doo?," "Teen Titans," "Ben 10: Alien Force," "Ben 10: Ultimate Alien," and "Justice League," the latter of which transitioned into "Justice League Unlimited." Perhaps most significantly this led into writing full-length DC feature films, including the adaptation of All-Star Superman, and Justice League: Doom.
In 2011 McDuffie died one day after his 49th birthday (and one day before the release of aforementioned All-Star Superman), of complications arising from emergency heart surgery. In 2015 the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics was created at Long Beach Comic Expo, and is awarded annually to comic book writers and creators, for exceptional depictions of diversity and inclusion in their storylines.
"I try to put superheroes in situations where being strong, or being able to fly or fight aren't the answers. We've dealt with teen pregnancy, abortion, racism and anti-Semitism. Being able to hit somebody harder doesn't help you deal with that."
Happy Free Comic Book Day 2025, everybody. Today is dedicated to the life of comic book visionary Dwayne Glenn McDuffie; a titan of the industry who left us far too soon. Born in 1962 Detroit, as a child McDuffie attended the Roeper school, a school for gifted children (no, not a secret school for Mutants) and showed signs of being a devout comic book nerd early on --at the age of eleven he got his hands on a Black Panther comic and was immediately struck by the depiction of a Black superhero main character who was neither an unintelligent sidekick nor was he shoehorned into the plot for humorous effect.