Comic books are full of epic tales to inspire us, peek behind the curtain and meet the real heroes that bring these beloved stories.

Toe life thistles.

Batman, This is Superman.

You know them because you love comics.

Well, this is Ghost World on eight ball on David.

Boring on their comics, too, and their creator is really important.

So pay attention because you're about to watch a really great story about one of the most influential people in the world of comics.

Oh, and is narrated by Woody Harrison.

Okay, this is the cover of the 2010 graphic novel Wilson.

I started the endearingly cantankerous main character when the story was adapted into a movie.

Wilson's authors, Daniel Clouds Dan, is many things His work would go on to change the trajectory of comics and popular culture as we know it.

Dan was born in Chicago on April 14th, 1961 coming of age in the 19 seventies.

Dance spent his formative years surrounded by his hippie classmates.

But while they were listening to the Grateful Dead in Jefferson Airplane and was dedicating himself to different pursuit to be into comics when I was in high school was like the lowest thing you could possibly be into.

I mean, I can't think of anything that would have been more pathetic.

He felt like an outsider like you truly laid claim to it in a way no one else did.

Drawing was his outlet.

Dan graduated from high school in 1979 and the camping to New York City to attend art school.

His very first published comic was arguably a disaster.

The sales got low enough where the publisher said, You know, I think we're just gonna We're gonna cancel this comment I felt like, Okay, I had my shot.

That's it.

It would be a second comic that would change dance career.

It was 1989.

Dan released eight ball collection of comics of varying genres, lengths and drawing styles.

Readers loved it.

No one had ever seen a comic told like this.

You know, I was doing the kind of comics I always wanted to read, and I thought, There's got to be other people like me, And it turned out that I wasn't such a strange person after e mhm.

That's me, Thora Birch.

And that's a clip from the movie adaptation of Ghost World.

As this tale of teenage doldrums made its way from comic to film, it became the work that brought Dan's name recognition to the level of occult celebrity.

E felt like I had sort of gone to a different level where people took me more seriously, you know, it was more than just the guy.

Address comics beyond what it did for Dan.

Ghost World helped to change the perception of graphic novels and comics as a whole.

Publishers were struggling, and all of a sudden people were doing graphic novels in the soil.

These were actually selling.

And so it just became this kind of weird boom time for graphic novel, Post Ghost World.

Things got busy.

His work has been translated into over 20 languages.

His writing would go on to be adapted into two more movies.

Art School Confidential and the aforementioned Wilson and what helped make all this possible?

And what made Dan so beloved among so many people are his characters.

Whenever I read somebody talk about all these characters air, sad losers, anything, really are they?

I've always felt that your goal when you're doing a story of real characters is that you have to find a way to love them, no matter who they are, with proper social attack forever eluding them.

They're endearing outsiders.

Justus Dan Once Waas I don't know what what's going on, What the future will hold it all.

I never think about that stuff.

I just hope I can, you know, keep scribbling away.

For a few more years till the Alzheimers kicks and three year was 1946 radio was king and the Adventures of Superman ruled the airwaves.

But with fascism vanquished, the man of steel set his sights on a different foe.

This is the story of how Superman busted the Ku Klux Klan.

Because unless we stop this fiery cross clan now, they'll get you no matter where you go.

The story starts with Stetson Kennedy Ah, journalist who infiltrated the clan for the Anti Defamation League.

He wanted to melt the cultural glue that held the clan together.

Thanks, Rick.

No problem.

That's Rick Bowers, B o.

W.

Wrote this book Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan.

But what does Stetson Kennedy have to do with Superman?

Remember the last son of Krypton needed a new enemy.

The producers of the radio show on a very bold gambit, decided Superman would take on real life.

Hate groups on the creators of The Adventures of Superman used Kennedy's research to produce a 16 part series called The Clan of the Fiery Cross, where a great secret society pledged to purify America.

The Superman producers went to the Anti Defamation League and said, Authenticate our script, provide us more information.

It was a way to get the message out that no one else could get out just by telling horror stories.

I'm the Grand Scorpion of the clan of the fiery cross Grand Rachael mean it exposed.

The Klan is hate mongers, but it also exposed the clan as a money driven organization.

I'm running a business rigs, and so are you.

We deal in one of the oldest and most profitable commodities on earth.

Hate.

It was a breakthrough in American broadcasting.

Not only have they done this great public service, but they elevated themselves to the number one radio show for kids on air.

Well, they're cowardly Gangsters who operate at night, hidden behind sheets and hoods.

Their minds are diseased with hate.

No one is safe from them.

E guess you could say that the white robe stood no chance against the man of steel.

Everybody knows Spiderman.

Everybody knows Superman.

Everybody doesn't know.

Harriet Tubman.

Demons, Layer.

I wanted our focus to be diverse titles.

We are actively working to make sure we have books that you just may not see another shops.

My name is Arial Johnson, and I'm the owner and operator, a k A.

Head nerd in charge of Amalgam comics and coffeehouse, a comic bookstore devoted to diversity.

When I was about 11 or so, I was introduced to the X Men.

I really connected with Storm because she looked like me white hair and white, either side.

It was out of my love of her character that I got into comic books.

Once I graduated, I did struggle with finding my place in the world.

It wasn't quite happy in my career, and after a conversation between my sister, my brother in law, they gave me that extra push that I needed to do the thing that I get excited about.

Fast forward and we're here.

And we've been here three years in building amalgam.

I wanted my comic book sort of focus on diversity because I know what it's like to not be represented.

We also take steps to make sure people know that they're welcome here.

From the books that we stock with Michelle's from the people that I have working here, everything about the space is diverse.

I know the creators have had stories about dealing with stores, and publisher is getting their work published or in a store.

And sometimes it is just very much like, Well, this is too different from what we normally sell, so we don't want to take a chance on it.

But Malcolm Well, Shauna Lien is an indie creator who has been a long time supporter of amalgam.

We have carried his books in the past, and currently we're carrying his line of T shirts with the name of my comic book is The Almighty Street Team is a collaborative urban superhero martial arts comic book.

Usually the comic books that I create stay close to the stuff I grew up loving, but she was like the urban street characters.

I did have some trouble placing the book in stores, but we found a home in Amalgam right away.

She got the idea, she got a vision and she connected with the book.

When I see the support to the indie comic book creators, it makes you feel like, Hey, yeah, I can continue to make a living doing this.

When I opened the shop, so many people said, This is what we've always needed I've always wanted Ah, place like this.

We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from our local community, the geek community beyond the blurred community.

Who your geek community people are excited that this space exists.

And if you have something that you want to see in your community, my challenge would be Thio do the work to see if it's something that you could dio.

I don't think that people should keep waiting to be saved by someone else.