Jerry Craft Got Issues
Jerry Craft Has Issues! Black Comic Strips Do, Too
Black Panther, Luke Cage, Falcon, Black Lightning and Black Goliath are in studio at a talk show taping. Though seated, sweaty faces, fidgeting fingers and shaky knees betray their nervousness. Why? Because they’re appearing on a segment called ‘Confronting the Black Superheroes of My Youth,’ and cartoonist Jerry Craft is cutting them no slack.
He slams them on wack origins (ex-convict), pathetic abilities (faster than a jungle cat!), corny outfits (a helmet with an afro wig on top? really?) and excessive chest exposure, then sums up his real beef: They didn’t have any real powers, so young black kids wouldn’t think, even through their comic books, that they could grow up to wield any power either.
As the flash animation on www.mamasboyz.com says, Jerry Craft has got issues, but he’s working them out with a pen and a pad.
Craft is more well-known for Mama’s Boyz, a family-oriented comic strip that follows the lives of single mom Pauline Porter and her two sons, Yusuf and Tyrell.
In a graphic novel world of compromised heroes and fiends, Mama’s Boyz can look deceptively soft. Characters have semi-colon eyes, sport high-top fades, and the humor is never as caustic or biting as, say, Boondocks.

Jerry Craft says that’s all according to plan. The gentle-voiced 46-year-old, who has two young sons of his own, believes it takes more balls to try to help kids do the right thing than shock jaded Gen Xers.
“Of all of the black strips, Boondocks is definitely more political and hard-hitting and more, uhm, you know, there’s a lot of cursing, and that tends to sell because it’s what’s expected of us,” Craft explained. “Whereas the family-type style of what I do would really take someone bold enough to say let’s see if we can break some ground and have something with a moral connection catch on.”
But the Porters aren’t the Cosbys: sometimes money is tight and Pauline worries about male role models for her sons. Craft is portraying a family that wasn’t dealt perfect cards, but is functional and successful anyway, and he feels that’s more important than reflecting his own two-parent background.
“When I was coming up, most of my friends were being raised by a mother or grandmother. I was one of the few of my friends who had both parents living at home,” said the native New Yorker. “Pretty much, the dads were nonexistent, so I wanted to do a comic strip that paid homage to these strong moms who were raising these kids, as bad as me and some of my friends were.”
Jerry’s first book, Mama’s Boyz: As American as Sweet Potato Pie, came out in ‘97. He tried to follow the Fat Albert school of comedy, where there’s a lesson in the humor without beating kids over the head with it.
Craft spoofs Where’s Waldo on the book’s back cover, with Yusuf asking readers, “Can you tell how many people are watching me and my brother Tyrell as we try to shop?” The sketch is filled with undercover officers peeking over counters and around doors. The title? Where’s Security. It’s indicative of Craft’s work: a seven-year-old would just count the number of guards and laugh, but a 12-year-old might start making connections between their own profiling encounters.

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bar, but can he limit it to two drinks since you’re gunning for that promotion? It’s okay to coach him, but you want to make your partner feel as though he’s your teammate, not your inferior. 
old friend Shan B (who himself is a music artist) for a suggestion, but before I had the chance he unknowingly handed me the perfect song – “Gon Get It.”


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there are hundreds of Young Jeezy hopefuls urging me to buy crudely produced CDs with titles like “Bullets and Butt Cheeks,” with an ambition that would make those zombies look lazy.
the footage of the man in concert shows a performer that obviously took time AND practice to give people the best possible show. What’s my point?
Now check the list one mo’gin and guess who had the best show. Nope. Ya picked wrong. Tech N9Ne. What? Well depending how old you are and where you live you’re either like Hell YEAH! Tech N9Ne! OR (like me a few weeks ago) Tech Who? Now I had seen the brother’s name before, but had never checked out the music. Still because of a hot performance me and my skeptical friends actually had to pay attention, and might pick up a single or at LEAST take a listen to an album. HE had a show. A few dance moves, great transitions from one song to the next, and rapport with the crowd. He was so filled with energy it was contagious.

