Dawud Anyabwile is an Emmy Award-winning contemporary graphic artist whose style is rooted in a combination of urban and traditional American comic form. Dawud is the creator of the critically acclaimed book Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline. He is renowned for his work on MTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, TNT and NBA TV.
Dawud’s work is currently catalogued at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta, Georgia. Dawud is featured prominently in the 2010 publication Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture. He is also a featured subject in the upcoming documentary Black Masculinity in Comic Books, produced by Dr. Jonathan Gayles, professor of African American studies at Georgia State University. Additionally, Dawud was a panelist discussing the topic of Reading in the Digital Age, a forum sponsored by the Harlem Book Fair which aired on C-Span.
His book. Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline is widely recognized as the catalyst for the Black comic explosion of the 1990s. As people are looking for an alternative to the slew of cookie-cutter heroes, Brotherman offers, within the realm of action and adventure, uplifting and hope-filled stories that resonate with the cultural sensibilities of today’s generation.Brotherman creates this broad appeal through stories and characterizations that honestly reflect the depth of the Black community.
Currently Dawud is illustrating the all new graphic novel entitled, BROTHERMAN: REVELATION! |
Writing is such a powerful medium. It not
only brings voice to ideas, it also has the ability
to misshape them. Born from solitude, it
delivers expressions to the world, to the few
and to the one.- GAS
Guy has authored two of the earliest publication
on the subject of Kwanzaa. The
first was “The Kwanzaa Handbook” (1981)
and the second, “The Kwanzaa Kids Learn
the Seven Principles” (1984). An avid
poet and writer of short fiction, Guy has
completed a collection of new American
Tall Tales, Rife Powers and Other Too Tall
Tales, has a screenplay currently under
solicitation, and will complete his first novel,
Livin’ Just A Little this fall.
Like most creative spirits, it is hard to pinpoint when he wanted to add writing to his life
experiences but his earliest inspiration was the audio version of Richard Wright’s Black
Boy, shared with him by his father. “After hearing that record, I thought I wanted to tell
stories like that. I immediately read as much of Wright’s work as possible.” With time
came more writers and genres to explore: Shakespeare, Baldwin, Benet, McKay, Vonnegut,
and Walker (to name a very few). Some of his contemporary influences and motivators
are the late Bebe Moore Campbell, E. Lynn Harris, and Walter Moseley. “When
I think about what influenced me with the Brotherman series, I am drawn to the works
of the two Chesters…Chester Himes and Chester Gould. Their stylizing of characterizations,
settings, and tight stories continue to impress. |
