About us

Alex Simmons, BlackJack’s creator said recently… 

“The 1930’s was a time when bigotry was not just accepted… it was the norm… I wrote BlackJack in that time period to shine a light on our history and our heroes so that we would never allow ourselves to go back to that level of hatred again and to show parallels of what our ancestors faced in the thirties and what we are still dealing with today.” continues Simmons “Without the help of modern technology or civil rights movements, Blackjack is a human target, a professional adventurer, a challenger of death… a black man alone.”

 Created by Alex Simmons, Blackjack first appeared in comics in 1996 under the banner of DAP (Dark Angel Productions) Comics. With more than a dozen BlackJack stories, this self-published graphic novel series has been met with both critical and commercial success around the globe.

 

Alex grew up watching movies from the 30s and 40s on TV. He knew the heroes, fictional and otherwise. He also knew — though men of color were conspicuously absent – that Black people were part of that era and not just as domestics and laborers. So he took what he knew about the world and from American history and then mixed it in with what he had imagined the world could be … and  from that Blackjack was born.”

 

Alex Simmons is a professional freelance writer, teaching artist, and a global public speaker.  Simmons has written professionally for over 30 years, bringing to dynamic life legendary heroes including Batman, Superman, Archie, Scooby Doo, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes, and creating his own projects (The Raven League, The Demon Chronicles). He has been published by Disney Books, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Books, DC Comics, Archie Comics, Hyperion Books for Kids, Ballantine Books, and Dark Angel Productions. 

 

Simmons is the recent winner of the Inkpot Award at COMIC CON. He is the founder / co-producer of KIDS’ COMIC CON as well as the co-founder and curator of the COLOR OF COMICS art exhibition representing the portrayal of people of color in comics. This event was chosen by the American Embassy Dakar to be part of the Fessman International Cultural Arts Festival in Senegal Africa. He’s also written 12 interactive mysteries (which received three educational awards); two educational documentaries; two additional stage plays; three movie novelizations for Disney, three biographies, including one on Denzel Washington and is a contributor to many national publications.”