By Sam Harden

“Hey Brittany…so…what’s the one cartoon I’ve been trying to get you to watch since 2010?” With this easy and playful inquiry, Eric Eddings, host of The Nod podcast, launches into a twenty-minute segment on the glories and triumphs of Avatar: the Last Airbender. But why on this podcast dedicated to examining Black life and culture, is half an episode taken to analyze a children’s cartoon? What about animation as a medium resonates so thoroughly with the millennial generation to the point of becoming not only a prominent part of our social sphere, but a passionate part of the workforce to boot?

Here’s the thing; a quick Google of “millennials in comic book industry” won’t actually get you that many results. A piece droning on about the millennial proclivity to Peter Pan Syndrome here, another on the rise in popularity of comics there, and one on the decline of the industry two clicks below; but it is nearly impossible to find cold, hard statistics you can print off to placate your parents as their eyebrows disappear when you tell them you want to work in this industry of imagination. But go a bit further into this mysterious world, which at first might seem to be printed in black and white, and there’s a thriving colorful universe, filled to the brim with young, passionate, innovative minds.

Speaking of color, if you haven’t seen Into the Spider-verse at least twice by now, you really aren’t living your best life. If you’ve seen it at least once, however, you might recall the scene where a troubled Miles, overwhelmed by his newfound powers, pulls out his cell trying to decide who he could possibly unburden himself to. He scrolls through the names, but before settling on the contact for his uncle Aaron, he lingers slightly over the name Sara Pichelli. A Miles Morales newbie with a keen nose for sniffing out Easter eggs, I made a quick note of the name, and a short while later discovered that she was a young, bright, Italian artist who was none other than the first illustrator for the Miles books. She began her career as a storyboard artist and animator, but as she tells through warm smiles, laughter, and apologies for her (nearly perfect) English, in a 2011 interview at New York Comic Con, she quickly fell in love with comics because, “I can tell stories, and do character design, all at the same time? Okay, this is for me.” She counts working with Marvel as luck, even though she was the winner of a talent-scouting contest, and relates her dissatisfied reaction upon seeing her work in print for the first time. When asked the final question of the interview, if she is happy with her work now she laughs, “Happy is a big word okay. I’m pretty satisfied, but not happy ⎯ not happy yet.”

Crossover between the world of comics and cartoons is hardly a rarity. Recently the twenty-seven year-old author of Eisner-winning comics Nimona and Lumberjanes earned the role as showrunner of the new Netflix reboot She-Ra and the Princess of Power. Stevenson’s story of rapid rise to success is enthralling and frankly, a little startling. Her resume is definitely one that might cause one to do a double take. She began writing Nimona in college and published it as a webcomic on Tumblr. Shortly after she was signed by a literary agent, and Nimona was published as a graphic novel. Her specialty is making characters that make others feel seen; their unique looks, personalities, and struggles, though a novelty in the comic world, feel familiar to so many readers (and now viewers). She relates here in an interview with NPR, “ …I want to figure out why…a male character could be celebrated for negative traits while a [female character] is crucified for those same traits, and how that reflects back on real women living their lives in the world today.” She accomplishes this with all of her characters, heavily resisting the flawless, likeable female characters ever present in male-dominated works, reflecting the different people she herself has been throughout her life. “…It’s very difficult to do work about what happens in my life…because I don’t like telling other people’s stories for them…Because nobody’s perception of the world is exactly the way it is and that’s what ends up getting very sticky for me. It’s easier with fiction because every character is a part of you.” However, there are times even she is surprised by the new life a character can be given from the new ideas arising from the talent on the show. As showrunner for She-Ra she gets a large say in hiring illustrators onto the show, in turn making more space for young, unique voices like artist Mickey Quinn who changed the look of a classically femme fatale type character; “…That was something I never considered…what happens if she’s not [a femme fatale]? What if she’s just this sort of scrawny scrapper? That changes things, and it’s more interesting.”

Stevenson knows her success story isn’t necessarily a pattern for those to come after her to follow, but her advice for aspiring creators and showrunners is wise, and slightly unconventional: “Question why the rules are the rules in the first place…Question everything, don’t try to emulate someone else’s path, look at what you have, the tools you have, the place you’re in, know the rules, and break them…Do you want to swim in a shark infested pool and spend every waking hour of your life battling sharks, or do you want to open your own pool where there are no sharks at all?”

Another talent whose claim to fame comes from Netflix is BoJack Horseman creator and showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg. An enormous capacity and desire to continuously learn from those around him, especially those whose voices are not as easily heard as his own, sets Bob-Waksberg apart from many of his peers in comedy and television alike. The idea for the biting comedy came to him after seeing the gorgeous, surreal art of friend and wonderful talent Lisa Hanawalt. The two struck up collaboration and pitched the show to Netflix. Now Hanawalt functions as the production designer of the show alongside Bob-Waksberg. Perhaps the fact that the root of the show stems from Hanawalt’s art contributes to the open, adaptable attitude Bob-Waksberg has when it comes to constructive criticism of his work. In a recent Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross, he gives some insight into his thought process when it comes to navigating the nuances of what makes a joke funny versus cheap or insulting.:

“I think it is a challenge to challenge your own preconceived notions of what is OK or what is funny or, who you are making your comedy for. And I think if you are a comedian who doesn’t care about that, then fine. Make the comedy for the people that will not be offended, and that will be your audience…I want to make comedy that people who are perhaps disenfranchised or marginalized can enjoy. I don’t want my comedy to exclude them…I don’t want to get to the place where…I feel like I don’t have to hear [criticism], because I think it makes me a better, more sensitive and more interesting writer.”

His championship of unheard voices is part of what makes the show so widely loved despite its frequent dark turns, and is a paragon of the wonderful quality comedy can have when it does not purposefully and specifically isolate underrepresented parts of its audience.

Taneka Stotts, editor of Elements: Fire — A Comic Anthology by Creators of Color, which won an Eisner just this past year, knows the plight of the unheard voice intimately. She curated the anthology fueled by the passion to debunk the myth that a desert exists in the space where comic creators of color ought to be. She does not walk away from the bitter truth of the fact that, more often than not, companies just aren’t looking ⎯ for characters, for creators, for new perspectives. And when they are, it’s not without an underlying desire for the notoriety certain names might bring to the table (did you think Roxane Gay was the first Black woman to write for Marvel Comics? It was actually Nilah Magruder). Stotts plants her feet as she staunchly states that she will not give them the excuse of ignorance anymore. “We are here, we have always been here, and we will do as you’ve always told us. We will make it ourselves.” Stotts isn’t simply an editor however. Much of her passion comes from working as a comic creator herself. Her preferred medium is the webcomic, her most notable works being Full Circle, Love Circuits, and another Eisner-nominee Déjà Brew. Looking across her work and her interviews, one thing is apparent; she’s self-assured, but not cocky. As she matter-of-factly states in one interview, “Feedback is not important to me.” What is so clearly important to her though, is something that resonates to my bones; “Elements wasn’t made to be an award winner…[it] was made to exist…I wanted to make sure these stories existed for my nieces and nephews…So I made them exist.” What might seem like a simple statement holds so much weight for the people of color, women, LGBT+, and countless other marginalized people who grow up in a world that does not grant them the courtesy of existing.

There are so many more strong, brilliant voices in this vast nebulous sphere of creative energy. From Magdalene Visaggio (her graphic novel Eternity Girl made the A.V. Club’s top ten in anticipated comics in 2018 list) who creates teen characters that are “Always saving themselves,” to Sam Maggs, who in addition to writing for comics such as Star Trek and Jem and the Holograms, continues to put out amazing books to inspire young girls, Girl Squads, Wonder Women, and The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy, among a few. Ashley Eckstein of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and other millennial favorites such as That’s So Raven (Muffy, anyone?), now owns her own line of comic and geek inspired female fashion called Her Universe, and is the founder of the annual Her Universe Fashion Show at San Diego Comic Con. The Internet is a wealth of different mediums of fan curated content, from zines, to podcasts, to the world of YouTube with well established fan creators such as NerdSync, Jenny Nicholson, Andre “Black Nerd”, Geekerella, Stewdippin, and Readus, who make brilliant, humorous, and informative videos about the world of comics, and are always handy for a recommendation or two. At first glance the statistics might not seem to be there, but look again and the reason is clear; they’re irrelevant.

We’re there. We’re everywhere. And we’re only getting started.