In the early ‘90s, Reginald Hudlin first encountered Denys Cowan, by then a celebrated artist off his work on projects ranging from DEATHLOK to THE QUESTION. Riding high off his own success of writing and directing the 1990 hit House Party, the future President of Black Entertainment Television recalls this first meeting:
“It had to be around the founding of Milestone [Media],” says Hudlin, referring to the landmark comic imprint that Cowan helped found alongside Dwayne McDuffie, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle. “I was a fan of the work of each of the creators, and loved that they were teaming up to start a company. They actually asked if I wanted to join them, but I had just made House Party and thought I should solidify my movie career before I started branching off into new fields. I remember sitting on the desks of their offices, hearing great stories, like the time when Clarence Thomas called their offices as a fan. And talking about creators who were hating on them for being successful. I told them don’t worry about the haters, time will tell the story. And it did.”
The idea of working in comics stuck with Hudlin, and the prospect of collaborating on something Cowan could help bring to life remained a long term goal of both men. In 2005, Reggie made his debut as a writer on BLACK PANTHER, and after an influential three-year run on the book, the writer wanted to make sure he wrapped his stint by scripting something for his friend.
“Denys is an amazing artist, so having him is just a good look, period,” reflects Reggie. “And he always does something unexpected. I remember one of his character explorations [for Black Panther] where he drew the collar on the cap really tall, sort of Doctor Strange style. It was brilliant. Made the character mysterious, kind of reinvented but not going too far.”
Working with his editor Axel Alonso, Hudlin conceived the concept that would become CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHER, a flashback tale set during World War II that saw Steve Rogers and the Howling Commandos visit Wakanda for the first time and encounter our Panther’s predecessor in the form of T’Challa’sgrandfather.
“It was a lot of fun to do,” says Cowan of the project, in which he drew the standout title characters as well as Nick Furyand his crew, plus the villainous Red Skull. Paired with the potent inks of fellow industry legend Klaus Janson as well as vibrant colors from Pete Pantazis, the visuals Denys provided would resonate in terms of both action and pathos.
Hudlin considered CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER an important story to tell and a suitable sendoff to his time in Wakanda: “Both characters represent the ideals of their nation. Captain America stands for the best of the United States, and Black Panther symbolizes the greatness of all of Africa. More than their physical prowess, their moral compass is what makes them natural leaders.”
“Seeing each of them through the eyes of Gabe Jones, an African American soldier serving with Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, felt like a natural story that needed to be told. And folks are still reading it!”
CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (2010) #1
Clarence Avant was a fascinating enigma from the beginning. I mean right from the jump. I first heard about him through Andre Harrell back when I did music videos for Uptown Records. And the way everyone — Andre, Russell Simmons, all those guys — talked about Clarence, he wasn’t just an executive; he was somewhere on Mount Olympus! He was this celestial figure with incredible power and wisdom. They all deferred to him. They all respected him. They all got advice from him. Then I met the man, and I finally understood.
The first time I met him was at the airport. From there he took me off to his house. I remember sitting there, looking around, and he had the most amazing collection of art I had ever seen in a private home: paintings, sculptures, everything. I saw an Andy Warhol. I said, Whoa, seriously? An Andy Warhol? This black person owns an Andy Warhol! I was floored. I’ve been in celebrity homes, and their walls are bare. They don’t collect art, and the art they do have isn’t very impressive, to be honest. Clarence was the opposite. His walls were just brimming with beautiful artwork that spoke to a real peacefulness. Here’s this guy with this gruff demeanor and an incredible, tasteful aesthetic and completely unpretentious manner. At that point, I just went, I need to know everything I can about this man. And the more I learned about the man, the more I thought that the world needed to know about him. And in the process, I learned some unforgettable lessons.
Reginald Hudlin (left) with “The Black Godfather” Clarence Avant (right)
Talking with Clarence confirmed the need to trust my gut. I knew that already, but he confirmed it. For my first Hollywood deal, I got hired to write a script. It was the most money I’d ever made in my life. You go, Wow, this is a lot of money. What are you going to spend it on? I could buy a car or buy a computer — back then they cost about the same. I decided I was going to buy that computer because if I had a computer, I could write another script and make that same amount of money again, maybe more. That was just me investing in myself and going with my gut feeling. It was the right decision.
This is a Clarence trait, too. He picked an eclectic range of artists, from Bill Withers to Cherrelle to all these different white rock acts he signed. Clarence did what he thought was right. That’s always been my belief: If you trust your gut, it’ll work out. The only times I have failed have been the times I did what someone “smart” said I should do instead of what I believed in. Not that I’m above selling out; it just never works out for me, so that gives me clarity that I’m just going to do what I believe in. Let the chips fall where they may.
Streaming has not only changed the way we produce and consume TV, but, to hear our Meet the Experts: Documentary panelists tell it, the entire documentary field in general. In the past decade, as more platforms emerged, more documentaries have been made, becoming addictive viewing for fans (see: “Tiger King”) and legitimizing the genre as a form of entertainment.
“I’ve seen a huge change. I’ve been making documentaries for 25 years [and] it was a struggle. There were very few outlets and it wasn’t because there wasn’t an audience — it was just a question of how to reach that audience,” “Hillary’s” Nanette Burstein told Gold Derby (watch above). “So streaming was the answer. And it was the unexpected answer and it really changed the marketplace. I think there is, as we’ve seen, a hunger from audiences to see real stories, amazing stories and amazing filmmakers out there that can bring it to them. It’s changed the game. People see it now as a real way — it’s a real commerce. And you can have an idea and not think, ‘Oh my God, how do I actually get this made or financed or sold and seen?’ I didn’t actually expect that to happen in my lifetime, but it has, so it’s wonderful.”
Reginald Hudlin, who helmed Netflix’s “The Black Godfather,” agrees, pointing to his kids who don’t see a difference between documentaries and narrative films. “I think streaming has revolutionized the relationship of the documentaries with the audience,” he said. “My kids don’t put documentaries in that medicine box. They are seen as now a legitimate part of entertainment, like, ‘What do you want to watch?’ ‘I heard about this good documentary.’ ‘Oh, tell me about it!’ ‘Oh!’ It’s great.”
What’s also changed is the documentary series format, as more and more networks are willing to commit more runway to a project versus just a film. “I know with myself and ‘McMillions,’ in the past, that would’ve been a 90-minute film,” James Hernandez stated. “It would’ve been great, but to be able to dive into the motivations behind why people do things, it just would not have been able to been shown on a broader scale. It would’ve been far more, almost sensationalized, where with this or any of our projects, you start to look at the depth of why people are doing the things they do, which inherently are some of the reasons why TV shows have been popular in the first place.”
More importantly, no matter the length, audiences are clearly showing up for documentaries and keeping the conversation going for what could be weeks. “I made a show called ‘The Keepers’ for Netflix in 2017 and I think it was my fifth or sixth documentary that I had made, but it was my first series, and the popularity of that show compared to some of the films that I had made before, which were for great distributors and by documentary standards had done well, blew it out of the water,” “Visible: Out on Television’s” Ryan Whiteshared. “And I think we’re seeing that every year. There’s a handful of series that take the country by storm, and it’s proving that audiences are willing to sit down for five, six, seven hours of documentary content.”
Click on each name below to be taken to individual chats with the documentarians:
We spotlight the legendary artist’s legacy in comics and entertainment. Read a handful of Cowan’s stories for free today.
For the past four decades, Denys Cowan has been a celebrated voice in comic books as a skilled artist, a force of innovation, and a tireless advocate for creatively pushing the envelope. This month on marvel.com, we celebrate the career of Denys Cowan with spotlights on some of his seminal Marvel work with a look back at his unparalleled journey!
It’s December of 1980 and in the front half of PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #49, writer Roger Stern and artist Jim Mooney pit the Wall-Crawler against the fearsome Smuggler. However, for our purposes today, we focus on the back-up story in this issue, also written by Stern, featuring the original White Tiger, Hector Ayala, and drawn by a relative rookie named Denys Cowan.
“It was nerve-racking,” exclaims Cowan of his initial effort at the House of Ideas, an assignment he got only months into his fledgling run as a professional comic book artist. “I sweated out the whole thing.”
Cowan would work sporadically for Marvel throughout the ‘80s, most notably drawing several issues of POWER MAN AND IRON FIST (1978) as well as providing art for the 1988 BLACK PANTHER limited series written by Peter B. Gillis. Luke Cage and T’Challa would be the first prominent Black characters the illustrator helped to shape, but not the last.
“From almost the beginning of my career I sought out and was given characters of color to draw,” Cowan shares. “This has always been important to me.”
After his contributions on the 1990 DEATHLOK revival acquainted Cowan with writer Dwayne McDuffie, the duo, along with Dingle and Michael Davis, founded Milestone Media, a comics imprint run by Black creators devoted to creating characters across a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. During this period, Denys met Reginald Hudlin who he would work on CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS with in 2010.
“I remember sitting on the desks of [the Milestone offices], hearing great stories, like the time when Clarence Thomas was a fan,” recalls Hudlin, at the time already a successful screenwriter, director, and producer. “And talking about [how] rival creators, none of which are in the business now, were hating on them for being successful. I told them don’t worry about the haters, time will tell the story. And it did.”
Later, Cowan joined Hudlin, then the President of Entertainment for BET—Black Entertainment Television—as the Senior Vice President of Animation for the channel. In this role, he created a full slate of animated projects, most prominently the critically-acclaimed and much-beloved series The Boondocks. In recent years Denys has remained active in animation as well as comics.
“Denys was always a pleasure to work with both as a writer and a colorist for me,” praises Gregory Wright of his time working with Cowan on DEATHLOK (1991). “[He] has a powerful sense of story and his characters have deep presence. The body language, the facial expressions and the compositions of Denys’ work help tell the story better than words can.”
An example of Denys’ powerful composition from DEATHLOK (1991) #1.
With a catalogue of peerless work built up over 40 years and, undoubtedly, exciting initiatives still ahead of him, Cowan remains passionate for his mission to diversify the mediums to which he contributes.
“The entertainment industry as a whole has made some strides, comic books included,” he reflects. “However there’s so much more that has to be done. There has to be representation, not just creatively but also in editorial, marketing, sales, and at executive levels.”
Stay tuned to marvel.com for upcoming spotlights and deeper dives on Denys Cowan’s work, with the inside stories of how DEATHLOK (1991) and CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER came to life!
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