Be Your Creative Self Interview with Leroy of Lion Child Comix

(Wrath Lennox)

**** The following is an interview recap. Please see the full live interview on our YouTube Channel. ****

Leroy is a black comic book artist and a blerd. He initially started writing comics for fun, but he also does it to inspire the next generation. While being interviewed, Leroy talks about his coming up comic book called Afro Earth and how he stays connected to his creativity while working a 9-5. He expresses his love for writing and it being good for his soul. He has always been a lover of comic books and cartoons. As he came into an adulthood, he decided he wanted to make comics....

The next chapter of Afro Earth will be out late September. He plans for Afro Earth to be published by late November. 

He does not fail to call attention to how black people were stigmatized in the comic book, cartoon, and superhero world as he grew up in the 90's.  He honestly shares that he did not see a lot of characters that looked like him unless they were a sidekick, a goof character, or a big scary black guy. It was important to him to create characters that looked like him or the next black kid. He created Afro Earth for that very reason. It is a differentiation from Middle Earth, a European-based fantasy world wrote about in stories like Harry Potter and Dungeons and Dragons. 

Afro Earth is an African-based comic book with an African American based taste. It is going to be composed of three short stories. The first short story is called Umeme village. Umeme is a Swahili term that means electricity. In the story, the village that Jabari finds has been terrorized by an Impundulu, a giant electric bird from a real African Legend. 

Leroy's first ever comic is called The Rot, a horror-based comic inspired by one of Leroy's biggest inspirations, Junji Ito. Junji is a short story and horror writer, but doesn’t write “normal” horror. Leroy wanted to do a black horror story with something we haven't seen before. The Rot comes from all of Leroy's greatest fears. It is definitely a story to make you think and pull on your heart strings. 

Staying Creative while Working a 9-5

A big thing for Leroy is being disciplined to come home and write after a long, tiring day of work. He said that he would come home and watch tv or something else not related to his creativity but points out that in the long run this will only lead to depression. He said if you are not doing what you love, you are not going to be your best at anything. 

Leroy discusses his depression and anxiety being reasons behind his struggle of remaining true to his self and staying connected to his creativity. His advice to help someone be true to themselves is facing your fears, fighting for what you love, standing up to what tries to hold you back, push through, and hold on to hope.

What’s Next…

The next chapter and a Kickstarter of Afro Earth will be out within the next couple of months. Next, Leroy will be doing a short story for Numina with a new female character named Sapphire Lyte. Then, he will be finishing the first issue of Wrath Lennox. 

Checkout some work from Lion Child here.

Follow him @lionchildcomix

Stay tuned for Afro Earth!!!