“Imagine telling Black people to make their own stories and characters and then getting offended when they actually go and do that,“ one Twitter user wrote last week. The tweet was one of over 100,000 reactions to Nigerian-born manga artist and author Whyt Manga’s announcement that “Shonen manga’s first Black female protagonist is here…”
From Whyt Manga’s one tweet, a conversation began that continued for days in a single thread. The overarching sentiments in the replies fell into two categories: first, support and excitement to see a Black female protagonist in the popular manga category, and second, blatant racism. Unfortunately, this is nothing new or surprising for Black authors, artists, and creatives.
“We’ve been getting comments like these for years,” says Saturday AM Publisher Frederick L. Jones, “But even though the negativity is disheartening, it’s important to remember that this is just a minority of the otherwise largely ecstatic (and sometimes emotional) response of fans who’ve been waiting a long time to see a series like this.”
Saturday AM is a digital publishing brand focused on Manga and comics. Jones is not just the founder of the company, but also the author of Clock Striker, the announced book whose Black female protagonist started the divisive Twitterstorm last week.
In the late 2000’s Jones noticed the emergence of global artists making manga-inspired comics, much as he had done himself as an African American teenager some 20 years earlier. As a result, Saturday AM was created in 2013 with the goal to expand on the legacy of Manga by widening inclusivity and diversity within the genre.
Starting first with digital manga and comics, Saturday AM is now partnering with The Quarto Group to launch their manga-inspired graphic novels into print. Showcasing creators from Hungary to Senegal to New Zealand who regularly center BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters in their work, this new style of Manga elevates voices who rarely appear in traditional Japanese Manga narratives and worlds.
“Manga is a powerful medium influencing the globe in animation, artistic styles, and culture. The graphic novels created by Saturday AM speak to a contemporary and diverse audience.” says Quarto SVP and Publisher Winnie Danenbarger. “Manga is now becoming an international language, and the globalization of it will only continue to expand in the future as an infinitely adaptable art form around the world.”
This year, Saturday AM and Quarto are publishing ten titles from seven series, with additional titles coming in 2023 and 2024. The first four books published on July 19th along with Saturday AM Presents How to Draw Diverse Manga, the first how-to book with an inclusive take on the popular artform. Clock Striker, the book that caused the stir on Twitter, is coming in February 2023.
Most of Saturday AM’s series are shonen Manga, meaning they are action-adventure for ages 12+. The series all exist together in a multi-verse, where the stories connect for an epic storytelling experience—an experience where people of all backgrounds can see themselves in the stories.
