Oscar Winner John Ridley, Screen Writer of 12 Years a Slave, Used to Write Comics.

For real.  Last night, the dude won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, but he used to write for DC’s Wildstorm imprint.  In 2004, Ridley wrote The Authority: Human On The Inside, with artist Ben Oliver, and Razor’s Edge: Warblade with Simon Bisley.  He then wrote his own creator owned series The American Way in 2006, with Georges Jeanty, about a superhero team in the 60’s who find out that one of their masked members is an African American.  If that is not cool enough, get this, he wrote an episode of Static Shock and even worked with Dwayne McDuffie on the awesome Justice League animated movie Starcrossed.

This award-winning superstar can geek out with the best of us. He spoke with Newsarama about what he loves about superheroes:

“What’s appealing is of course that aspect of wish fulfillment. I mean, you start out reading them as a kid, and a couple things jump out at you – there are heroes out there, and you wish you could run into a phone booth and change your life, or be like Peter Parker and put on a mask and become a hero.

But there are other things – that promise of a better world, that concept that there are individuals out there who are shining light. With Superman, the phraseology is always one of his fathers, Jor-El or Pa Kent, saying, “You can show the way. You can lead the way.”

And who doesn’t want to either feel that way sometimes – that they can lead the way to a better place, or who is not inspired by those who want to do better?”

When discussing the lack of representation in comics and the recent casting of Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch, Ridley said:

“I’d like to start with the defense first. If you change Wonder Woman’s costume, the blog sites blow up. There are some individuals who look at graphic novels as “canon,” and they cannot change in any way, shape or form, and that’s what makes them in some ways good fans.”

He then discussed how heroes have changed over the years, including Batman and Superman who have changed with the times. He said:

“My Batman is not the Batman I understood when I was a kid.

They change. Their stories change. And if they can change to the reality that they do change, why can’t they make that change (of race) as well? You know, there are people who are against people of color getting involved in politics, or there was a time when people were against their getting involved with sports.

The real world has changed and moved on. If we can make that change in the real world, we can make it in this fanciful world that exists beyond us.

And if people don’t like it – we’re not waiting for permission any longer to make these changes in real life, and we’re certainly not going to wait for them in storytelling. I never asked for permission.

So for those who are against it – I get it to a degree, but as a society, we’re moving on, and we’re not asking for permission.”

And he talked about how important Milestone Comics was to him:

“When I was a younger man, what it did for me to see characters like Hardware and Icon and Rocket! Those are comics that I still have to this day, because they really, really spoke to me. Sometimes the stories weren’t “black”-specific, but seeing those characters and knowing they were created by people of color behind the scenes, really did a lot for me and made me say, “Hey, maybe one day I could do this.”

I don’t think I’d be here today if it wasn’t for guys like Denys Cowan and Dwayne who blazed a trail way back in the day. So if we’re not opening the doors now…it’s 2014. There’s no reason why people who are capable, enthusiastic, well-versed in the lore and just happen to be of color shouldn’t have an equal chance to go in for these kinds of jobs and whatnot. It’s time, and the talent is there. And talent will out, I really believe that.”

How cool is that?

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Jay Deitcher, LMSW(@mrdeitcher) is an educator on comic history and runs successful Free Comic Book Day events yearly. He is the information superhighway. You can see a listing of his incredible articles at JayDeitcher.com.