Ever heard of a superhero from Colombia, who's female and can hack an electrical grid? You're about to get to know her thanks to a new novel-meets-comic-book series featuring multicultural superheroes.
Created by Jazmin Truesdale — a 28-year-old entrepreneur — in January, the novel is called The Keepers: Origins and is available in a digital format for $7. It focuses on five different female superheroes called The Keepers. Each has her own set of unique skills and attributes that will help her save the world in the Aza Universe.
The best part? Kala, Ixchel, Fenna, Adanna, and Amaya are all racially diverse. Their stories are meant to change the conversation in comic books. To do this, Truesdale is including "real struggles and real issues" into the comics. "I hope my heroes inspire people to stop being colorblind and start being colorful," she said in an email. "Right now, everyone seems to have an opinion about everyone's struggle and most of those opinions are based off ignorance and stereotypes."
Truesdale thought a novel with illustrated scenes would resonate better with people, and she created the book after polling women about what they liked and didn't like about comic books. "I hope my stories help people understand each other better," she added. "Everyone doesn't have to hold hands and sing kumbaya but we should at least be respectful to each other."
Take a look ahead at exclusive artwork of the characters. Each one has her description directly from Aza Entertainment's website. Hopefully, this isn't the last push into diversity we see, considering it's something that the comic world definitely needs.
