The Oakland Comic Book Underground
By Lisa Nishimoto

Oakland has long been known for its vibrant rap and hip-hop culture, but now there is a new subculture brewing underground. A new group has found the city fertile ground for creativity: comic book artists.

They're young, they're talented and they showed up at the recent WonderCon comic book convention held in downtown Oakland to let the industry know that they had arrived.

“I like what's going on now,” said Jimmie Robinson, an Oakland-based comic book artist who exhibited his work at Wondercon. “It's the changing of the guard.”

Robinson should know. He runs a monthly meeting of Bay Area comic book publishers.

Robinson, who grew up in Oakland, began sketching out story ideas from television sitcoms when he was 7 and self-published his own comic book, “Cyberzone,” four years ago. Now, his comic books are published by Image, a young company whose star is rising in the industry as older companies, like Marvel and DC, struggle to stay afloat. Robinson's current projects are “Amanda and Gunn” — “It's like Northern Exposure meets Blade Runner” — and “Code Blue”, a futuristic emergency room drama.

"The Bay Area is pretty rich in comics publishing — mainly because of the diversity, from 'zine publishing to mainstream comics," Robinson said.

The newest East Bay comic book artists to show up at the convention were three young men who call themselves Arcane comics. Jaimel Hemphill, Stephen Donaldson, and Chris Williams tried to attract readers by distributing free photocopies of artwork from their upcoming projects.

“We're just trying to put some fun back in comics. There's too many guys running around with guns and girls with triple-D bra sizes,” said Hemphill, the fledgling company's 20-year-old editor-in-chief. Hemphill said that Arcane titles will also aim for ethnic diversity among characters. The company plans to produce four books by the end of the year — “The Shadow,” “The Chain,” “The Badlanders” and “The Blackjacks.”

For artist Jerry Williams, Oakland was the natural choice for the setting for his new comic book, “Joshua's Story.” “What I like to be able to do is go down after work and sit in front of the Tribune and draw the building,” he Williams, who said he learned to read by looking at comic books while growing up in Oakland's Redwood Heights neighborhood.

Williams said that he had thought about setting the story in New York City, but realized that he would rather deal with a familiar city.

“I would've had to go to the library to look up what New York looks like. You deal with situations you know so you're not making things up,” said Williams, 29. Williams' comic book tells the story of a young man who turns to a life of crime after his parents are killed and later struggles to extract himself from his self-imposed gang lifestyle.

Veteran local comic book publisher Cedric Shabazz said that local comic book artists contribute a unique voice to the industry. Shabazz is the founder of Oakland Comics Entertainment, which began publishing a comic book called “The Black Savior” in 1992. The book, created by artist Roger Bates, featured a hero who fought enemies that brought guns and drugs into his community.

Shabazz remembers selling comic books on Oakland street corners, and likens himself to early Oakland rap artist who sold homemade copies of their cassettes on the streets. His company now publishes 15 titles, many of which are targeted toward the audience for hip-hip music.