INSPIRE Magazine #28

2 | INSPIRE Magazine

EXECUTIVE EDITORBlackIce Bell

SEnIOR EDITORAsif Lakhani

ASSOCIATE EDITORDominique Cannon

GRAphIC DESIGn/LAYOUTSRex Smith

BlackIce Bell

phOTOGRAphY COnTRIbUTORSBlackIce Bell, James D. Williams, Jeremy Bennett

FROnT COVERPhotographer - BlackIce Bell

Model - Ivana NobleStylist/Ski mask Design - Rio Sirah

bACK COVERPhotographer - BlackIce Bell

Model - Shay Cummings, Jayana BentleyMUA - Sherri Brown

CREDITS

http://inspiremagatl.com | 3

2015 has been a crazy year. Every time I log onto social media or read the

news, it saddens me to see another person of color unfairly mistreated or gunned down. It’s scary. It’s scary because I know it could’ve easily been me in those situations. Everywhere we look, we are reminded of the atrocities that’s going on in this country and across the world and I don’t want to add on to that. In general, we are already well aware of what’s going on. I rather use this platform to encourage you and inspire you to keep pushing forward. Kendrick Lamar’s song Alright perfectly personifies the times we’re living in. Despite the dangers and the injustice, we gonna be alright. We just gotta keep pursuing our purpose without fear. I quietly spent my summer fearlessly moving forward. Over the past two months, I have opened INSPIRE Studios, a commercial/multi-purpose studio space in Stone Mountain, GA. I relaunched the INSPIRE Magazine Podcast

with a set of new hosts and a refined format. And of course...created another beautiful issue of INSPIRE Magazine. I have been shooting more frequently since I opened the studio and excited that I’m finally able to share what my team and I been creating over the past two months.

Over the summer, I also had to the opportunity to meet the team behind the original cyberpunk webcomic series, Kamikaze. It’s been years since I seriously read a comic book. But when I came across Kamikaze, I was instantly hooked. The comic is beautiful filled with colorful characters and a great story. It was great to have an opportunity to pick the brains behind the series.

Keep your heads up. Stay strong. Keep pursuing your purpose. Stay inspired.

-BlackIce

“We gon’ be alright!!!” -Kendrick Lamar


Photographer: Jeremy BennettModel: Erykah ChanelRetoucher: Studio ZuzzaBoston, MA




Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownModel: SoSoINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: BlackIce BellStylist: Rio Sirah Model: Ivana NobleINSPIRE Studios



Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownModel: Myers SingletonINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownModel: Shay CummingsINSPIRE Studios




Survival

BlackIce Bell sits down with the team behind the scifi webcomic series Kamikaze.

of theFittest


Kamikaze is an original sci-fi webcomic set in a desolate future of 2235. The story follows a young courier, Markesha Nin, as she maneuvers

through a world of crime and corruption. This is definitely a series intended for a mature audience.

I had the pleasure of picking the brains of the creative team behind this awesome series; Alan Tupper, Carrie Tupper, and Havana Nguyen.

Black:I read the comic from the beginning and I really enjoyed Markesha and who she is. For someone that hasn’t read the comic, how would you describe her personality or the world from her self?

Carrie:The world from her own view is not a very kind world. It’s not something she’s been able to enjoy. After she comes into Kamikaze, she gets to wear that mask. She gets to do and experience things she’s never did before. And by doing that, it opens her up to interesting experiences and her world view. She goes from one area of “screw everybody, I just need myself and my dad to stay alive” to “wait a second, there’s more to that.”

Havana: I think Markesha likes staying out of trouble. She doesn’t look for it. She’s the type to run away when things get rough. But as Kamikaze, she takes on this role as an agent and I think it’s interesting to see how it challenges her expand out of her comfort zone.

Black:What inspires the ongoing storyline every week?

Carrie:The story itself is kind of like the idea of what happens when everything goes to crap. As far as inspiration goes, we took a lot of inspiration from Avatar: The Last

Airbender, we read a lot of books on world history, and wonder what technology would be like in the future. We also were inspired by Batman Beyond, Blade Runner and Mad Max. We draw a variety of inspiration from various sources.

Alan:The core premise… I was thinking what would happen if the first superhero would show up after the world has already ended? That was a guiding principle. We all pretty solid on the philosophy that even though this is a story of science fiction set in the future, this is still a story about imperfect people in imperfect situations. And just trying to be true to how people act and how the world the operates even if there’s flying robots in the sky. It’s about how people react in tough situations.

Black:The foundation of the story seems to revolve around the rich and the powerful controlling the last of the natural resources. Do you feel like that’s something that is happening now or could happen in the future?

Alan:I think that it is something that’s happening in the modern world, but definitely not in the same extreme that is in the story. But it is a concern that we trying to speak on.

Black:I love the wardrobe and settings in the comic. Where did you pull inspiration as far as forming the world of Trinity?

Havana:In sci-fi in general, especially when people envision the future, it’s like a mashup of different cultures. You tend to have a more diverse cast of characters in sci-fi than in other genres. We wanted the inner city to be a melting pot of different cultures and different styles. For example, the corporate houses within the walls, there are three big houses: Heritage, Cornerstone, and Pierce. Heritage is a mixture of Japanese fashion and African motifs. Cornerstone is a mix between Celtic and Russian. Pierce is a mix of 1920s and a bit of Indian fashion. I think each one is inherent to the characteristics of the houses themselves. Visually, we wanted to remake some of the fashions a little bit, which has been an interesting process in itself.

Black:What advice would you share with someone that’s trying

“The story itself is kind of like the idea of what happens when everything goes to crap.”


to create a comic or animated series but don’t know where to begin?

Carrie:I think the first thing I would suggest that it is okay to fail. This is something I had to learn for myself. We haven’t always made the right decision every single time. We definitely had our setbacks. It’s okay to mess up. But I guess for me, it’s the idea that you give yourself room to fail and then after that point, keep moving forward.

Havana:I would like to also add to that. Be open to failing, but also take constructive feedback and do something with it. Don’t be discouraged. Experiment with different ideas. The story and the world of Kamikaze is so rich, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So don’t be married to the first idea, but be open to feedback when it comes.

Alan:Don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from other sources. By all means create your own mix, but everything draws inspiration from something else. Sometimes as creatives, we have this idea in our heads that we absolutely have to create something original. And many times, you’ll end up working


ourselves to exhaustion trying to pull off something completely new. And that’s a lot of wasted energy. To be completely honest, everything draws influences from something else. So, do research, find your inspirations, and find a way to combine them to be creative and unique. Also recognize the fact you don’t have to create everything from scratch.

Read the new comic page every Wednesday athttp://kamikazeanimated.com

And Follow on social medias! https://www.facebook.com/KamikazeAnimatedhttp://kamikazeanimated.tumblr.com


Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownModel: Shay CummingsINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownModel: Jayana BentleyINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: BlackIce BellModel: Najee TateElite Images StudioJackson, MS


Photographer: BlackIce BellModel: Najee TateElite Images StudioJackson, MS


Photographer: James D. WilliamsModel: Stephanie CambaMUA: Diamond MoncureINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: James D. WilliamsModel: Stephanie CambaMUA: Diamond MoncureINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownHair: TawanaModel: AnayaINSPIRE Studios


Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownHair: TawanaModel: CereyINSPIRE Studios



Photographer: Jeremy BennettModel: Erykah ChanelRetoucher: Studio ZuzzaBoston, MA


Photographer: BlackIce BellMUA: Sherri BrownHair: TawanaModel: AnayaINSPIRE Studios


INSPIRE Magazine #28

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