Growing up and going to school in Northern Colorado, I know that the communities I live in and the culture I absorb tends to be, in gentle terms, as white as a pack of saltine crackers. With plenty of salt on the side. I could go in to how that homogeneity came about and the damage it causes, but I don’t want that to be my focus for today. Instead, I want to be a part of a solution to that problem, at least for myself. I want to change that implicit expectation that I have that ‘white’ equates to ’normal.’ So, this is the first of what I hope will be an ongoing series on this blog, where I’ll be seeking out and sharing as many underserved artists and thinkers as I can and giving them a spotlight on this one, small stage that I have.
For this first installment, I’d like to talk about R. Alan Brooks, who’s far closer to my home than I ever realized. Frankly, I’m disappointed I never knew Brooks existed up until this year, because he crams a whole lot of badass under one fedora (and doesn’t even look pretentious while he’s doing it).
Brooks is a writer, teacher and musician based in Denver who’s not afraid to address messy, complicated subjects in his work, from racism in pop culture and to white supremacy. Born in Ithaca, N.Y., and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Brooks came to Denver in 2003 and has worn many hats before turning to writing and visual mediums. After working on a career in music as the artist Soul Daddy for 15 years, he spent a stint of time running his own insurance company before taking a reflective trip to Europe, which reawakened a love of comics that Brooks had fostered since childhood. Since then, Brooks has been tireless and independent in his literary pursuits, Kickstarting his first graphic novel with $14,455 from 168 backers, propelling him into events such as the Denver Pop Culture Con.
Brooks was in the process of producing his second graphic novel when March of 2020 rolled around. Following the lockdown, Denver’s The Know magazine interviewed Brooks about four to five months into the pandemic, and to his eternal credit, he revealed that a little global shutdown was not enough to put the brakes on his work. Brook’s is still toiling away on his second graphic novel, Anguish Garden, which he funded through Kickstarter as well, and will be an allegory for leaving white supremacist movements. His first graphic novel, The Burning Metronome, which the book’s website describes as a “sort of a cross between The Twilight Zone and The Usual Suspects,” is also available (for free) on Tumblr.
When he’s not working on his own projects, Brooks also teaches at Regis University, where he’s the school’s first professor for graphic narrative. Which is, you know, super dope. Plus, though you’d think the graphic novels would give it away, who’d have thought Brooks would also be a grade-A superhero nerd? So much so, that he hosts the podcast Motherfucker in a Cape, which takes a deep dive on geek culture by way of marginalized voices in the community. And he writes for the Colorado Sun, producing the comic “What’d I Miss?” which also shines a light on the difficult problems embedded in American culture.
I hope, once we’re allowed to go to events again, that Brooks will be at Denver Pop Culture Con so I can meet him and give him all my money in person. In the meantime, everyone’s got a plethora of diversions on which to spend their time, but I hope you’ll give any of Brooks’ amazing work a look.
