Keeping It Unreal

Darieck Scott is Professor of African American studies at the University of California-Berkeley. He is the author of the novels Hex and Traitor to the Race, and the editor of Best Black Gay Erotica.

Scott reflects on the importance of fantasy in comic books in this brisk and insightful meditation ... this analysis is rich and rewarding. (Publishers Weekly) This fabulously written reconsideration of fantasy goes beyond readings of Black queer comicsto reveal the value of becoming fantastical—of living in a 'habitable imaginary' where dreamsare substantiated. I came looking for insights about Luke Cage and Black Panther . . . only tofind liberation and Black queer life.(Jennifer Brody, Stanford University) A primer in counter-intuition and bold imagination that dares to embrace the radical possibilityof black happiness. Writing with razor-sharp wit and blistering erudition, Scott rewrites themeaning of fantasy to reveal its power as an intellectual and political tool for reimaginingblackness beyond an antiblack world. His captivating excavations of black fantasy in the comicgenre provide not only a space of pleasure and possibility, but a tool for living a different kind ofblack futurity.(Tina Campt, Brown University) Scott does an amazing job in the conclusion of providing some context as well as personal revelation, that allows the reader to feel like they too are part of this conversation and creation…Overall, Scott's Keeping it Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics is a well-constructed engagement of various scholarly sources in the understanding and construction of ourselves, of others, and of life through the use of fantasy. (Ethnic and Racial Studies) In Keeping It Unreal, Scott doubles down on his belief that even in a whitewashed landscape, Black comic book heroes and their influence warp the foundation of how the industry operates, whether seen in superheroes or in porn. Ultimately, as a powerful reflection of the Black body's identity, he argues that within these fantasy-acts lies a deep-rooted recognition of Black humanity that cannot be erased or denied. (Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society)