If Ariell Johnson is looking for a superhero, she doesn’t have to go very far. As a comic book shop owner, she could turn to any number of the books that line her shelves, including the one that she appears on the cover of. Or, as the only black woman to own such a shop on the East Coast, she could just look in the mirror.
Johnson opened Amalgam at the end of 2015 after some hard conversations and an aha moment sparked by her mother’s death. The shop is many things – comics retailer, coffee house, café, safe space for geeks and gamers, community gathering spot. An amalgamation.
A little over a year later, she has just been awarded a prestigious Knight Foundation Grant, which will enable her to expand her space a little more and beef up programming and educational offerings.
We talked to Johnson about comics, using her platform for good, and drinking away the pain of Prodigy’s passing.
How did you get into comics?
I got into comics through my interest in Storm. I started watching X-Men and I really fell in love with Storm’s character. I had never seen a black woman superhero before so when I saw her I was like, “Who is this white haired black woman flying around throwing lightning at people?!” That was the moment I became interested in Storm and it was my love of that character that pulled me into comic books.
Were you the only girl buying comics back then or did you have a crew?
No, it was just me. None of my friends are into the culture the same way I am so it was very much me by myself kind of being brave enough to go into my first comic book store.
Those shops have been traditionally a white nerdy boys’ space. What was it like the first time you went into a comic book shop?
It took me a couple months to be brave enough to actually walk in and look around. Because you know, nerd culture has a reputation of being elitist and especially being someone that looks like me, being black, being a woman in this white male space, I just didn’t want to have a negative experience. What if they judge the things I’m buying? What if I ask a question and they think I’m dumb or they think she’s just a newbie or she’s just getting into comics so she can attract guys? People say crazy things. And I’m like, “Yeah, I’m spending $50 of my money every week so that I can maybe meet some random dude. Yes that makes sense.” So I was facing all of that negativity before I even set foot in one. There are some horrible shops out there but the shop that I went into was a good shop and I had a very positive experience and quickly became a regular to the point where when I wasn’t there I’d get the, “Hey, where you been?”
Courtesy of Ariell Johnson
Has the world of comics gotten more diverse since then?
I think it is changing. Non-traditional creators have always been creating but now we’re getting to a place where we’re acknowledging them more and showcasing them more so our core works really hard to have works created by people of color, from the LGBT community, people of different faiths, because that’s what people want to see. I think now because of the Internet we’re realizing just how diverse the geek community is. The bigger publishers are responding to that which is cool but I’m very much about supporting the people who were doing it all along. We try to have books that other people may not know about.
What was your journey to opening the store?
I got the idea for it when I was in college. I had a routine of buying my books and I would go from the comic book store to the coffee shop across the street and I would just chill out and read everything I purchased. It was just this really dope place. The woman who owned it had really taken the time to create it – everything from the music that she played to the furniture; there were these awesome murals in the bathroom. It became my home away from home. So that’s what gave me the idea. That was back in 2003. I was still in college at the time and not in a place where I could actually make it happen. It wouldn’t be until like 10 years later.
I was really unhappy in my professional life. My mom had a long illness and passed away. I had a life-changing conversation with my sister and brother-in-law. Do I want to, for the time I’m here, spend that time crying on my way to work? So the accumulation of those things are what made me say, “You might as well try.” Amalgam, as it exists today, is my attempt to try.
You’re on the cover of an Iron Man comic book. How did that happen?
I’m on the cover of our in-store variant of Invincible Iron Man #1. It’s the same story inside but a different cover. And it’s a more rare cover. There are only a thousand of these in existence. It’s the story of the new Iron Man or, her actual name is Iron Heart, and she’s Tony’s protégé. She’s a young black girl. The cover is she and myself in Amalgam having a cup of coffee. It’s like a really big deal and I didn’t realize how people would respond to it but the response to it has been overwhelmingly positive. The significance of a young black girl taking up the mantle originally held by a white guy or a really well-established person in the Marvel Universe, and me as a the first black woman to own a comic book store on the East Coast, and one of only five black own comic book stores in the country, and not only are we on the cover but we’re in Amalgam.
What are your plans for your Knight Foundation grant?
We’re going to be using it to completely renovate on the space. We’ll be opening up a portion of the back room to serve as a multi-purpose space. We already hold workshops and speaking events and things like that in the space but it’s pretty much happening on the sales floor so this will give us a multi-purpose room where we can have other things going on. In addition we want to build programming to develop up-and-coming comic book talent, to help them with the tools that they need to be successful in the industry as a whole whether they choose to self-publish or if they want to pitch to a major publisher. Classes on writing, art, storyboarding; professional development classes on how to pitch, what your portfolio and resume should look like to get noticed and things like that. To kind of help level the playing field for people who maybe didn’t have the same opportunities as other groups to kind of get these skills and compete in the larger market.
You’re having a “Drink Away the Pain” event to honor Prodigy. Talk a little about the connection between hip-hop and comics.
Mobb Deep was everything to me. In the ’90s, growing up, I wasn’t listening to R&B. I was listening to hip hop and Mobb Deep was a big part of that for me. That’s the fun of owning your own space. I can do whatever. I felt like I wanted to do it to honor him because his passing is a big deal for me. I literally just met him in January because he was here in Philly. But if you think about like Wu-Tang, Method Man also goes by Johnny Blaze, which is Ghost Rider. And Ghostface goes by Tony Starks, which is Iron Man. So there are connections. Like MF Doom, I feel like that is very Victor Von Doom inspired. Doctor Doom from Fantastic Four. So there’s definitely overlap between the comic book genre and hip-hop music.
Drink Away The Pain event to honor Prodigy
When the Black Panther trailer came out recently everybody pretty much lost their mind. Why do you think it was so powerful?
Well, I don’t know if you saw Luke Cage but Luke Cage was like one of the blackest things I’ve ever seen and then Black Panther came out. It’s just like this idea of A) that it took us so long to get a Black Panther movie, and B) that it is a major comic book movie, that the villain, the hero, and the side characters are all overwhelmingly black. Normally, movies like that kind of get shoved off to the side like, “Oh, that’s a black movie.” Like black people’s stories aren’t universal. But this is one that is like, it is a black movie but it’s not going to be just black people going to see it. I think probably more black people will come out to watch this comic book movie than maybe any other comic book movie before, but there are other groups of people who are not black that are going to see this and that’s a big deal. Again, speaking to this Hollywood idea that black stories are not universal or black stories can’t be blockbusters, Black Panther is going to smash all of that and we all know it. So just like Wonder Woman, this idea of, “Can a woman carry a superhero movie?” and it’s like a resounding yes! So now we can’t fall back to that excuse like, why aren’t these movies being made? “Well, they don’t do well.” Well, that’s not true. We have evidence.
You’re very active in doing a lot of community events. Why is it important to you to give back?
I think the world that we all live in is still very skewed—who gets the resources, who gets the opportunities. I’m very much still a small business and far from rolling in the dough but I do have a platform so I want to use that opportunity well. So if me having the store and having the public eye in that way enables me to draw attention to the issues that are still plaguing us as a people in this country, I’m going to do that.
The Black & Missing thing I wanted to do—because if you remember a few months ago there was a rash of missing black and brown girls in DC that weren’t getting coverage. Again, it’s this idea that we are disposable. If that would have been a rash of missing little white girls we would all know their names. We’re still talking about Jon Benet Ramsey and she went missing when I was a little girl. We’re asking for equal opportunity. If you’re not talking about us and nobody knows that we’re missing then chances are we’re not going to be found.
Black & Missing event at Amalgam
We almost have to prove our humanity every day. That is the world that I live in. That’s the world that my family lives in, the world my nieces my nephews, my cousins, my uncles, that’s the world that we live in. So I can’t exist in this world and not take every opportunity to fight and combat things like that especially when I have the platform and people are listening. I’m going to say what needs to be said.
What is your overall mission?
We promote inclusivity in comics and beyond. As human beings, we need to get to a place where we respect other human beings no matter how they are different from us. We can still connect on our basic humanity. Comics are a small thing but I feel like stories help to humanize. If we are making it a point to have stories from different points of view on the shelves then somebody who maybe would have never had interaction with somebody who was a person of color and queer, but they read the story and it just kind of starts to change the way you think about people and you start to see people as people as opposed to this other thing, or this alien or somebody who’s taking my job. So it will kind of start to change perspectives. That’s my belief because I know it’s true for me. You read stories and start maybe thinking differently about things that you thought you knew. I think that’s the first step in kind of changing the bigger conversation as it pertains to race relations and gender relations, sexual orientation, all that. It’s the first step in doing that. Listening to each other’s stories.
What is your favorite thing about being a part of the comics community?
Being in the store and seeing the things that I hoped would happen, happen. Coming in the store and seeing little girls in the shop with their parents looking through books and asking questions and little kids when they find out, especially little brown kids, when they find out that I own the store, the look on their face. Life and energy comes into their eyes, and I know they’re not just thinking, “Oh man, she owns the store. That’s cool.” They’re thinking, “I can own a store because she looks like me.” So it’s opening up their mind to their own opportunities. I hope I’m helping for people to not let other people dictate to them what they can achieve or can’t achieve. No, it’s like you can do whatever you want to do and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t.
Is there anything else that you want people to know?
We are still very much a small business and we need your support as far as showing up to events, putting your dollars behind the store, so we can keep doing what we’re doing. I think because we’ve gotten so much attention there’s a misconception is that we are bigger or more financially stable than we are. So hey, if you like the store we still need your support because we’re still building.
Johnson opened Amalgam at the end of 2015 after some hard conversations and an aha moment sparked by her mother’s death. The shop is many things – comics retailer, coffee house, café, safe space for geeks and gamers, community gathering spot. An amalgamation.
A little over a year later, she has just been awarded a prestigious Knight Foundation Grant, which will enable her to expand her space a little more and beef up programming and educational offerings.
We talked to Johnson about comics, using her platform for good, and drinking away the pain of Prodigy’s passing.
How did you get into comics?
I got into comics through my interest in Storm. I started watching X-Men and I really fell in love with Storm’s character. I had never seen a black woman superhero before so when I saw her I was like, “Who is this white haired black woman flying around throwing lightning at people?!” That was the moment I became interested in Storm and it was my love of that character that pulled me into comic books.
Were you the only girl buying comics back then or did you have a crew?
No, it was just me. None of my friends are into the culture the same way I am so it was very much me by myself kind of being brave enough to go into my first comic book store.
Those shops have been traditionally a white nerdy boys’ space. What was it like the first time you went into a comic book shop?
It took me a couple months to be brave enough to actually walk in and look around. Because you know, nerd culture has a reputation of being elitist and especially being someone that looks like me, being black, being a woman in this white male space, I just didn’t want to have a negative experience. What if they judge the things I’m buying? What if I ask a question and they think I’m dumb or they think she’s just a newbie or she’s just getting into comics so she can attract guys? People say crazy things. And I’m like, “Yeah, I’m spending $50 of my money every week so that I can maybe meet some random dude. Yes that makes sense.” So I was facing all of that negativity before I even set foot in one. There are some horrible shops out there but the shop that I went into was a good shop and I had a very positive experience and quickly became a regular to the point where when I wasn’t there I’d get the, “Hey, where you been?”
Courtesy of Ariell Johnson
Has the world of comics gotten more diverse since then?
I think it is changing. Non-traditional creators have always been creating but now we’re getting to a place where we’re acknowledging them more and showcasing them more so our core works really hard to have works created by people of color, from the LGBT community, people of different faiths, because that’s what people want to see. I think now because of the Internet we’re realizing just how diverse the geek community is. The bigger publishers are responding to that which is cool but I’m very much about supporting the people who were doing it all along. We try to have books that other people may not know about.
What was your journey to opening the store?
I got the idea for it when I was in college. I had a routine of buying my books and I would go from the comic book store to the coffee shop across the street and I would just chill out and read everything I purchased. It was just this really dope place. The woman who owned it had really taken the time to create it – everything from the music that she played to the furniture; there were these awesome murals in the bathroom. It became my home away from home. So that’s what gave me the idea. That was back in 2003. I was still in college at the time and not in a place where I could actually make it happen. It wouldn’t be until like 10 years later.
I was really unhappy in my professional life. My mom had a long illness and passed away. I had a life-changing conversation with my sister and brother-in-law. Do I want to, for the time I’m here, spend that time crying on my way to work? So the accumulation of those things are what made me say, “You might as well try.” Amalgam, as it exists today, is my attempt to try.
You’re on the cover of an Iron Man comic book. How did that happen?
I’m on the cover of our in-store variant of Invincible Iron Man #1. It’s the same story inside but a different cover. And it’s a more rare cover. There are only a thousand of these in existence. It’s the story of the new Iron Man or, her actual name is Iron Heart, and she’s Tony’s protégé. She’s a young black girl. The cover is she and myself in Amalgam having a cup of coffee. It’s like a really big deal and I didn’t realize how people would respond to it but the response to it has been overwhelmingly positive. The significance of a young black girl taking up the mantle originally held by a white guy or a really well-established person in the Marvel Universe, and me as a the first black woman to own a comic book store on the East Coast, and one of only five black own comic book stores in the country, and not only are we on the cover but we’re in Amalgam.
What are your plans for your Knight Foundation grant?
We’re going to be using it to completely renovate on the space. We’ll be opening up a portion of the back room to serve as a multi-purpose space. We already hold workshops and speaking events and things like that in the space but it’s pretty much happening on the sales floor so this will give us a multi-purpose room where we can have other things going on. In addition we want to build programming to develop up-and-coming comic book talent, to help them with the tools that they need to be successful in the industry as a whole whether they choose to self-publish or if they want to pitch to a major publisher. Classes on writing, art, storyboarding; professional development classes on how to pitch, what your portfolio and resume should look like to get noticed and things like that. To kind of help level the playing field for people who maybe didn’t have the same opportunities as other groups to kind of get these skills and compete in the larger market.
You’re having a “Drink Away the Pain” event to honor Prodigy. Talk a little about the connection between hip-hop and comics.
Mobb Deep was everything to me. In the ’90s, growing up, I wasn’t listening to R&B. I was listening to hip hop and Mobb Deep was a big part of that for me. That’s the fun of owning your own space. I can do whatever. I felt like I wanted to do it to honor him because his passing is a big deal for me. I literally just met him in January because he was here in Philly. But if you think about like Wu-Tang, Method Man also goes by Johnny Blaze, which is Ghost Rider. And Ghostface goes by Tony Starks, which is Iron Man. So there are connections. Like MF Doom, I feel like that is very Victor Von Doom inspired. Doctor Doom from Fantastic Four. So there’s definitely overlap between the comic book genre and hip-hop music.
Drink Away The Pain event to honor Prodigy
When the Black Panther trailer came out recently everybody pretty much lost their mind. Why do you think it was so powerful?
Well, I don’t know if you saw Luke Cage but Luke Cage was like one of the blackest things I’ve ever seen and then Black Panther came out. It’s just like this idea of A) that it took us so long to get a Black Panther movie, and B) that it is a major comic book movie, that the villain, the hero, and the side characters are all overwhelmingly black. Normally, movies like that kind of get shoved off to the side like, “Oh, that’s a black movie.” Like black people’s stories aren’t universal. But this is one that is like, it is a black movie but it’s not going to be just black people going to see it. I think probably more black people will come out to watch this comic book movie than maybe any other comic book movie before, but there are other groups of people who are not black that are going to see this and that’s a big deal. Again, speaking to this Hollywood idea that black stories are not universal or black stories can’t be blockbusters, Black Panther is going to smash all of that and we all know it. So just like Wonder Woman, this idea of, “Can a woman carry a superhero movie?” and it’s like a resounding yes! So now we can’t fall back to that excuse like, why aren’t these movies being made? “Well, they don’t do well.” Well, that’s not true. We have evidence.
You’re very active in doing a lot of community events. Why is it important to you to give back?
I think the world that we all live in is still very skewed—who gets the resources, who gets the opportunities. I’m very much still a small business and far from rolling in the dough but I do have a platform so I want to use that opportunity well. So if me having the store and having the public eye in that way enables me to draw attention to the issues that are still plaguing us as a people in this country, I’m going to do that.
The Black & Missing thing I wanted to do—because if you remember a few months ago there was a rash of missing black and brown girls in DC that weren’t getting coverage. Again, it’s this idea that we are disposable. If that would have been a rash of missing little white girls we would all know their names. We’re still talking about Jon Benet Ramsey and she went missing when I was a little girl. We’re asking for equal opportunity. If you’re not talking about us and nobody knows that we’re missing then chances are we’re not going to be found.
Black & Missing event at Amalgam
We almost have to prove our humanity every day. That is the world that I live in. That’s the world that my family lives in, the world my nieces my nephews, my cousins, my uncles, that’s the world that we live in. So I can’t exist in this world and not take every opportunity to fight and combat things like that especially when I have the platform and people are listening. I’m going to say what needs to be said.
What is your overall mission?
We promote inclusivity in comics and beyond. As human beings, we need to get to a place where we respect other human beings no matter how they are different from us. We can still connect on our basic humanity. Comics are a small thing but I feel like stories help to humanize. If we are making it a point to have stories from different points of view on the shelves then somebody who maybe would have never had interaction with somebody who was a person of color and queer, but they read the story and it just kind of starts to change the way you think about people and you start to see people as people as opposed to this other thing, or this alien or somebody who’s taking my job. So it will kind of start to change perspectives. That’s my belief because I know it’s true for me. You read stories and start maybe thinking differently about things that you thought you knew. I think that’s the first step in kind of changing the bigger conversation as it pertains to race relations and gender relations, sexual orientation, all that. It’s the first step in doing that. Listening to each other’s stories.
What is your favorite thing about being a part of the comics community?
Being in the store and seeing the things that I hoped would happen, happen. Coming in the store and seeing little girls in the shop with their parents looking through books and asking questions and little kids when they find out, especially little brown kids, when they find out that I own the store, the look on their face. Life and energy comes into their eyes, and I know they’re not just thinking, “Oh man, she owns the store. That’s cool.” They’re thinking, “I can own a store because she looks like me.” So it’s opening up their mind to their own opportunities. I hope I’m helping for people to not let other people dictate to them what they can achieve or can’t achieve. No, it’s like you can do whatever you want to do and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t.
Is there anything else that you want people to know?
We are still very much a small business and we need your support as far as showing up to events, putting your dollars behind the store, so we can keep doing what we’re doing. I think because we’ve gotten so much attention there’s a misconception is that we are bigger or more financially stable than we are. So hey, if you like the store we still need your support because we’re still building.
