What’s it rated? Not rated
When? 2022
Where’s it showing? HBO Max
Former Arroyo Grande resident Justice A. Whitaker directs this documentary about Milestone Comics, which in 1993 through DC Comics brought severely underrepresented Black comic characters into the mainstream with the Static Shock series, created by African American writers and artists Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle.
Through interviews with those involved, interspersed with the amazing artwork and storylines invented by the Milestone creative team, the film chronicles the birth of Milestone and its groundbreaking work. It’s set against the backdrop of a changing culture informed by rap and hip-hop music. Justice’s brother Josh Whitaker, also formerly of Arroyo Grande and known as Bicaso, a rapper with the Oakland group Living Legends, supplied the film’s soundtrack in collaboration with musician Michael Louis Aaberg.
There’s a short clip in the film of SLO Town taken during the local BLM protests, and the last part of the film is about Milestone Comics, which eventually disappeared, being rebooted by surviving co-founders Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle. If you’re interested in comics and/or Black history (akaāAmerican history), check out this slickly directed documentary by a former local. (99 min.) Ī
This article appears in Aug 18-28, 2022.