with heart-pounding action and
superheroes fighting for justice
comic books are full of epic tales to
inspire us
peek behind the curtain and meet the
real heroes that bring
these beloved stories to life
this is batman this is superman you know
them because you
love comics well this is ghost world and
eight ball and david boring
and their comics too and their creator
is really important
so pay attention because you're about to
watch a really great story about one of
the most influential people in the world
of comics
oh and it's narrated by woody harrison
okay
this is the cover of the 2010 graphic
novel wilson
i start as the endearingly cancankerous
main character when the story was
adapted into a movie
wilson's author is daniel claus dan is
many things
his work would go on to change the
trajectory of comics and popular culture
as we know it
dan was born in chicago on april 14
1961.
coming of age in the 1970s dan spent his
formative years surrounded by his hippie
classmates
but while they were listening to the
grateful dead in jefferson airplane
dan was dedicating himself to different
pursuits
to be into comics when i was in high
school was like the lowest
thing you could possibly be into i mean
i can't even think of anything that
would have been more
pathetic he felt like an outsider
like you truly laid claim to it in a way
no one else did
drawing was his outlet
dan graduated from high school in 1979
into camping to new york city to attend
art school
his very first published comic was
arguably
a disaster the sales got
low enough where the publisher said you
know i think we're just gonna
we're gonna cancel this comment i felt
like okay i had my shot
that's it it would be his second comic
that would change
dan's career it was 1989
dan released eight ball a collection of
comics of varying genres
lengths and drawing styles readers loved
it
no one had ever seen a comic told like
this
you know i was doing the kind of comics
i always wanted to read and i thought
there's got to be other people like me
and it turned out that i wasn't such a
you know strange person after all
that's me thor burch and that's a clip
from the movie adaptation of ghost world
as this tale of teenage doldrums made
its way from comic to film it became the
work that brought dan's name recognition
to the level of occult celebrity
i felt like i had sort of gone to a
different
level where people took me more
seriously you know it was more
than just the guy who draws comics
beyond what it did for dan
ghostworld helped to change the
perception of graphic novels and comics
as a whole
publishers were struggling and all of a
sudden
people were doing graphic novels and
they said oh these are actually selling
and so it just became this kind of weird
boom time for graphic novels
[Music]
post ghost world things got busy his
work has been translated into over 20
languages
his writing would go on to be adapted
into two more movies
art school confidential and the
aforementioned
wilson and what helped make all this
possible
and what made dan so beloved among so
many people
are his characters whenever i read
somebody talk about
all his characters are sad losers and
really are they you know
i've always felt that the your goal when
you're doing
a story with real characters is that you
have to find a way to love them
no matter who they are with proper
social tact forever eluding them
they are endearing outsiders just as dan
once was
i don't know what uh you know what's
gonna what the future will hold at all i
never
think about that stuff i just hope i can
you know keep
uh you know scribbling away for a few
more years until the alzheimer's kicks
[Music]
in
the year was 1946 radio was king and the
adventures of superman ruled the
airwaves
but with fascism vanquished the man of
steel set his sights on a different foe
this is the story of how superman busted
the ku klux klan
because unless we stop this fiery cross
clan now they'll get you no matter where
you go
the story starts with stetson kennedy a
journalist who infiltrated the clan for
the anti-defamation league
he wanted to melt the cultural glue that
held the clan together thanks rick
no problem that's rick bowers b-o-w he
wrote this book
superman versus the ku klux klan but
what does stetson kennedy have to do
with superman
remember the last son of krypton needed
a new enemy
the producers of the radio show on a
very bold
gambit decided superman would take on
real-life hate groups
the creators of the adventures of
superman used kennedy's research to
produce a 16-part series called
the clan of the fiery cross where a
great secret society pledged to purify
america
the superman producers went to the
anti-defamation league and said
authenticate our script provide us more
information
it was a way to get the message out that
no one else could get out just by
telling horror stories i'm the grand
scorpion of the clan of the fiery cross
a grand rat you mean
it exposed the clan as hate mongers
but it also exposed the clan
as a money-driven organization
i'm running up business rigs and so are
you we deal in one of the oldest and
most profitable commodities on earth
hate it was a breakthrough
in american broadcasting not only had
they done this great public service
but they elevated themselves to the
number one radio show for kids on air
well they're cowardly gangsters who
operate at night hidden behind sheets
and hoods
their minds are diseased with hate no
one is safe from them
i guess you could say that the white
robes stood no chance against the man of
steel
[Music]
everybody knows spider-man everybody
knows superman everybody doesn't know
harriet tubman demon's lair
i wanted our focus to be diverse titles
we are actively working to make sure we
have books that you just may not see in
other shops
my name is arielle johnson and i'm the
owner and operator
aka head nerd in charge of amalgam
comics and coffee house a comic book
store devoted to diversity
when i was about 11 or so i was
introduced to the x-men
i really connected with storm because
she
looked like me white hair and white eyes
aside it was out of my love of her
character that i got into comic books
once i graduated i did struggle with
finding my place
in the world i wasn't quite happy in my
career and after a conversation between
my sister my brother-in-law they gave me
that extra push that i needed to do the
thing that
i get excited about fast forward and
we're here and we've been here
three years
[Music]
in building amalgam i wanted my comic
book store to focus on diversity because
i know what it's like to not be
represented
we also take steps to make sure people
know that they're welcome here from the
books that we stock on the shelves from
the people that i have working here
everything about the space is diverse
i know creators have had stories about
dealing with stores and publishers
getting their work published or in a
store and sometimes it is just very much
like well this is too different
from what we normally sell so we don't
want to take a chance on it but
amalgam will
[Music]
shawn elaine is an indie creator who has
been a longtime supporter of amalgam
we have carried his books in the past
and currently we're carrying his line of
t-shirts
the name of my comic book is the
almighty street team it's a
collaborative
urban superhero martial arts comic book
usually the comic books that i create
stay close to
the stuff i grew up loving which was
like the urban
street characters i did have some
trouble placing the book
in stores but we found a home in amalgam
right away she got the idea she got the
vision and she connected with the book
when i see the support to the indie
comic book creators
it makes me feel like hey yeah i can
continue to make a living doing this
when i opened the shop so many people
said this is what we've always needed
i've always wanted
a place like this we have had an
overwhelmingly positive response
from our local community the geek
community beyond the blurred community
clear geek community
people are excited that this space
exists and
if you have something that you want to
see in your community my challenge would
be to
do the work to see if it's something
that you can do i don't think that
people should
keep waiting to be saved by someone else
you can be your own superhero
you