We recently connected with Muhammad Rasheed and have shared our conversation below.

Muhammad, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

After I completed my two graphic novel series (Monsters 101 and Tales of Sinanju: The Destroyer) I didn’t want my skills to lag while in between projects, so I decided to take on a daily editorial cartoon project primarily to stay sharp. At the same time, I was going down the rabbit hole of anti-racism and political advocacy for the American Descendants of Slavery—my own ethnic group. After making several a year’s worth of more generic, quasi-woke toons (even managing to win a Best Web Comic award along the way) I decided to dedicate my art’s focus to a narrowed activism effort to promote the ADOS Movement for Black American Reparations and a Black Political Agenda. This decision changed my life and taught me the importance of removing art from the risky and often hypocritical tether of the profit motive that is so important for have a true voice that speaks Truth-to-Power is the purist way possible.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Muhammad Rasheed, the cartoonist behind the award-winning graphic novel series Monsters 101, the adventures of Pugroff & Mort. I also partnered with the estate of the late Warren Murphy to produce the graphic novel series Tales of Sinanju: The Destroyer, based on the long-running men’s adventure novel series. I’m also the creator of the award-wining editorial daily comic Weapon of the People: DECODED.

I grew up making my own comic books, had made up to 200 other them carefully drawn in ball point pen ink and colored pencils. In college, I got my BFA in book illustration and would later attend The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Inc. where I learned the tools and techniques for producing a comic book properly. After school, and a stint of careful study of successful independent cartoonists like Jeff Smith, Walt Holcomb and the late Richard Sala, I decided the self-publishing route would be my path and I started along that road with Monsters 101. This long-form story would ultimately be my magnum opus, a cross-genre tale described by one prominent reviewer as “a lot like if William Golding wrote a sequel to the Lord of the Files where the surviving kids all formed a team of adventurers, using the skills that they learned on the island to fight crime.”

With my editorial cartoon, I use it to promote the only serious pro-Black American Reparations movement (joinADOS.com) to do my part in getting my ethnic group the long overdue Reparatory Justice and economic inclusion we are owed from our ever-complicit government for centuries of accrued discrimination.

My tools of choice are the classic dip pen & brush w/waterproof ink, with Adobe Photoshop for color. I use Ingram’s LightningSource print-on-demand imprint for my printing and online distribution partner.

Along the way of my creative journey, I surprised myself a couple of years ago by writing a 50,000-word novel—using the badge reward tools found in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) website to keep me motivated and focused, which worked like a charm to my delight. at some point, The novel is the story of an mystic art activist who is targeted by secret agents to keep from using his powers from helping a potent grassroots antiracism organization. I hope to break away from my day job to write the sequels for a trilogy.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I believe strongly in the concept of true art representing honest self expression. If an artist isn’t free to honestly express themselves—using from being tethered to the profit motive, due to the quasi-evil limitation of those who pay the bills have undue influence—then the end product cannot rightfully be called “art.” I’ve trained myself to be as free as possible in my own art expression, which necessitated the heartbreaking conclusion of not caring if my work was commercially viable or not, truth came first. This is very important to me as a Black American, whose people’s civil rights movement was brutally stopped in its tracks by assassinations, infiltration, sabotage and political disenfranchisement.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

There needs to be a robust government program that pays & houses true artists dedicated to artistic honest self expression. Removing the shackles of the profit motive is the best thing for any true artist, for as long as they remain producing in that head space.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mrasheed.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SSGuniverse
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-rasheed-27a9957/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@weaponofthepeopleword-of-g7567

Image Credits

Muhammad Rasheed