I do know in the 1960s comics, Martian Manhunter took on the form of a black man - that could have been influenced by the political climate back then.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I really wanted Michael Jackson to be in the first Men in Black, but he didn't want to be considered as an alien!
I believe black characters in fiction are still revolutionary, given our long history of erasure.
There's all kinds of depictions of black men. You have the Denzel Washingtons and the Will Smiths; that's wonderful, but that doesn't represent everyone. There's a Russell Crowe... well, you know, there's a black Russell Crowe.
I imagine it was much different in the 1970s. That was the Renaissance for black actors, albeit in blaxploitation movies. There was a much greater preponderance of work then than there is now.
The Black Panthers was what we would call today a criminal gang that was formed by Huey Newton. Now, interestingly enough, I knew Huey Newton before he formed the Black Panthers. He was a student of mine when I was a teacher, instructor at Oakland City College back in the very early 1960s.
The masculine energy was about survival. The male was the hunter who risked his life and had to be in the fight-flight mode.
At the end of the '60s, I was trying to enter the world of comics.
His name is 'Mr. Spock.' And the first view of him can be almost frightening - a face so heavy-lidded and satanic you might almost expect him to have a forked tail. Probably half Martian, he has a slightly reddish complexion and semi-pointed ears.
The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them.
In Men in Black, it was a very small character, no pun intended.