As an aspiring artist, attending the Boston Comics in Color Festival was a pretty important experience for me because I plan on becoming a writer like the creators who were there showing their work. Walking into the building I noticed it had a pretty interesting vibe to it. It was pretty colorful in general, no pun intended. I saw a good amount of cosplayers, all of varying ages, ethnicity, and genders. I decided I had enough looking and wanted to talk to a creator.
Before I even went up to a stand, I noticed a particular sold-out book at the entrance. It turns out that it was “Harriet Tubman Demon Slayer.” The concept was quite hilarious but it caught my attention. To start I went up to the first bunch of artists I saw. Their book was related to African characters and so I was pretty attracted to it. I even got a book from them called “Snakebite.” I read the book and it was pretty enjoyable. It follows the story of a boy named Malik Onini who has access to snake powers and beats up bad guys along the way and at the end of the book, he scores an awesome love interest. What surprised me is how high quality the book is, the artwork, the pacing, and the dialogue are all excellent for a one-shot. As someone who wants to be a novelist, this amazed me; it made me glad that I bought the book. After I left that stand, I began to wander around the festival in search of something else to look for. For a good while I didn’t find anything that piqued my interest. Perhaps it’s because I’m picky when it comes to picking out books, but the other stuff didn’t give me that same spark as “Snakebite.” However, I saw some splendid artwork around the convention that piqued my interest from “Smash Bros,” animes, American cartoons, abstract art, and much more. Seeing all these different displays of talent from different ethnic, gender, and ages truly made me happy.
After all this, I met up with my group of colleagues, Albin and Elvis, who also came to this event. It turns out that Albin bought the last copy of the Harriet Tuban book even before I could! But more importantly, Elvis guided me to another artist who might grab my attention. His name is Klay McKenzie, the author of “R.I.F.T.”. Klay and his comic has this really interesting vibe to it, that I haven’t felt with the many other authors. He seemed so happy about his work, that I just get proud looking at his comics. While he described his universe and why he was doing it. I could almost see myself in him; spreading all your ideas without any care in the world. We wrapped up our conversation, shook hands, and said our farewells, then I ventured off.
Sometimes it passed and I decided to go upstairs. Surprisingly, a representative from Artward Bound was up there. It was so fun asking her questions about the program and what it means to be an artist. Her positive and bubbly attitude made it fun to be around. Soon after, I swiftly departed and decided to go back home. This experience was way more packed than I had in mind. Before this, I never spoke face-to-face with an aspiring novelist. But I interacted with multiple creative thinkers who motivated me to become the best writer I can be. The best thing is all these creators looked like me! So many men and women of color collaborating to show off their passion. The big names who came to the event were just icing on the cake. Through this event, I’ve learned how to respect my own passions and what defines me as a person.
