I asked The Black Panel 2008 panelists if they though the NAACP, Urban League and other pro-black business and social activists groups were doing enough to promote black or minority comic books to black youths as a viable career option? Jamal Igle, who was the head illustrator of Supergirl, was an impromptu panelist. But Jamal and other black comic book illustrators are not featured at the BET Awards or on TV One. Or you’re not gonna find Jamal’s face or others on The Black Panel regularly featured in Ebony, Essence or Jet. We have black leaders who are always talking about the lack of diversity in Hollywood and Madison Avenue. But in my opinion those leaders are completely clueless to the lack of diversity in the Comic Book, Gaming and Web 2.0 Tech worlds and industries. So my question was at first aimed at Method Man, whom I had interviewed before about whether the NAACP was doing enough to help inner-city youth. But my question was broad enough that a few of the panelists chimed in to give their thoughts. And anyone can see the Youtube and Dailymotion.com links to see that whole exchange at The Black Panel.

And after the first Black Panel 2008 we covered The Black Panel #2. which was about BET Animation and Marvel and BET’s new Hannibal and Black Panther animated series. We filmed that too and I had to chase down Reggie Hudlin afterwards to get a quick quote, a photo together and hand him a copy of our groundbreaking Hip-Hop documentary The Good, The Bad and The Bling to show him a sample of our work as journalists. To this day I have no idea why Black Panther or Hannibal never got launched on BET. I would hope that even after BET fired Reggie they would still put those high quality animated series on their network.

When The Black Panel #2 finished, myself and my trusting cameraman Auggie Cavanagh with Leaky Garage Productions interviewed Method Man after his signing for his new comic book called Method Man. I have to give props to Meth’s manager Shauna Garr for hooking us up with the interview. Meth’s book is quite unique because his comic book character named Peerless is a direct descendant of the Bible’s Cain and uses his spiritual originated super powers to vanquish demons and biblical evil spirits. I wish I had read Meth’s comic book first before I interviewed him because I would have asked him more details about his personal spiritual and religious beliefs and how they shaped the development of his first comic book.