Real characters
Special to the Times | J. Morgan Edwards Photography Navajo brothers Curt and Nicholas Tom took top honors in the Cosplay Contest at the Indigenous Comic Con in Albuquerque.
Super Indian, John Redcorn, Star Wars featured at Indigenous Comic Con
By Jason Morgan Edwards
Special to the Times
ALBUQUERQUE
Special to the Times | J. Morgan Edwards Photography
Navajo brothers Curt and Nicholas Tom took top honors in the Cosplay Contest at the Indigenous Comic Con in Albuquerque.
The inaugural Indigenous Comic Con brought a flurry of activity, and activities, to the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque last weekend. The weekend was filled with educational forums, artists, comedy, and music.
Oh, by the way, there was plenty of nerding, too, as attendees competed in the cosplay contest or just strolled around. Among the featured artists were Arigon Starr (Kickapoo of Oklahoma), creator of Super Indian; actor Jonathan Joss (Apache/Comanche), voice of John Redcorn from the animated series, “King of the Hill”; and Diné painter Ryan Singer.
Super Indian is a product of Native Voices at the Autry. Starr created the character for a radio broadcast in 2007. “They really liked the idea of Native super hero,” she said. “We produced a ten-episode radio program, like an audio theater. I wrote more scripts that didn’t get produced. So, I took what I wrote to do a comic. I’ve always had artistic skills, and I’ve always wanted to see a Native superhero in the comics.”
Hubert Logan (a.k.a. Super Indian) was an ordinary reservation boy who ate tainted commodity cheese and gained superpowers. Starr describes, “It’s built on a lot of humor. Just like Spiderman and Batman, he’ll have a super villain come in that he has to defeat. But it’s all set on a reservation. There’s the aunties, the uncles. The sidekick is a big frybread-eating Indian named General Bear (a.k.a. Mega Bear). Super Indian has a talking dog, Diogi. He ate the cheese, he’s got his own powers.”
Starr’s father was in the U.S. Navy, so her family moved from station to station while she growing up. She stayed connected to her heritage through visits to her kinfolk in Oklahoma during summers and holiday breaks. “What I do with Super Indian is to honor that,” she said. “My humor comes from my mom and dad, my aunts and uncles, my cousins. Those were funny people. They’re still funny people.”
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