Interview with Arigon Starr on creation of Super Indian comic

1st: What made you decide to turn it into a web comic?

Arigon: After the initial success of the show, Native Voices at the Autry commissioned additional radio scripts. The six episodes were done as a staged reading but never produced.

When I first suggested this idea, I was on a train to a beautiful beach in Australia with other Native American theater artists. We laughed about the absurdity of super heroes, but it was always my intention to have something Native audiences could relate to and be proud of. When I was growing up, I had always wanted to see a Native super hero who had not only strength, but humor. A lot of the non-Indian world has no idea the laughter that goes on in our families and community. Some call it “survival humor,” but it sure makes all the baloney we have to put up with as Native people a bit easier to take.

With the “Super Indian” radio scripts collecting dust on the shelf, I decided to find out first hand what it took to be a ‘real’ comic book artist. I picked up lots of ‘how-to’ books and started drawing. (Huge props to Brian & Kristy Miller of Hi-Fi Color and digital artists Freddie E. Williams and Brian Haberlin for sharing their knowledge with the world!)

However, it was the connections I made at Comic book conventions that really helped me focus my drive and talent.

One conversation I had with J.G. Roshell of Comicraft at the APE Convention in San Francisco was key. He told me, “Know your audience!” and suggested that I delay publishing a full graphic novel until I established a following. “Do a webcomic,” he said. I also had a great discussion with Mike Dawson (“Freddie & Me”) who told me I should go forward and create the entire novel before trying to find a publisher. I heard it again and again at various panels in San Diego and San Francisco – “No one is going to take you seriously unless you publish your own book first.”

Armed with all of this information, I started publishing “Super Indian” as a webcomic one half-page at a time in April 2011. There has always been fresh content on the site every Monday since then.

In May 2012, I published “Super Indian Volume One,” and I’m currently working to finish Volume Two!