Some time ago, people started talking about Milestone Media on a consistent basis. Usually when it has to do with someone trying to do a concept that was either video game related or something to do with a comic with the way that certain comic company handled their characters of cultural descent the arrow will point to the bullseye in the middle of the target….Milestone. When people learned that DC was actually thinking about killing off Green Lantern John Stewart, an outrage began followed by an” I wish Milestone was publishing books again, because the Milestone gang would care about Stewart if they had him” type of sentiment. And then I realized. Even though Milestone had stopped publishing and finally absorbed, if it weren’t for Milestone, no one would have a standard in which to care. Or some safe place to put that thought of that kind of concept. Milestone owning the rights of John Stewart?

Imagine that.

Well, Milestone Media who was comprised of DWAYNE MCDUFFIE, CHRISTOPHER PRIEST, DENYS COWAN, MICHAEL DAVIS, and DEREK DINGLE was making history creating a haven and a niche that should have always been a part of the history of comics were out performing all who would try to ride the coat-tails of those trying to do the same thing but were amateurs with misguided concepts, to say the least, they were also giving people like myself a venue to sharpen our craft and hold up to the well-established publications that were already on the highway. The great thing is that what we were doing was so needed that people were scrambling to jump in on the action knowing somehow that, in its own way, was the Ponce de Leon of comics publication. And there were those who did whatever it took to keep it from being bigger.
Regardless, we did our job. We told the stories, we created the characters, we made the noise…we carved our names in the rock. And now, people are studying from that rock to get what exactly we did to create that indelible mark.
And now those fans of comics that actually were around to see what a Milestone Media had to offer… The LUCKY ones… Are in a fit knowing that there are those who attempt the same magic with the same characters and seem to come short. Mostly because they keep trying to do those characters the way comics are done, but not the way Milestone set the tone.
We get to talk about all of that this weekend at ECBACC. We and the people in the flyers below are going to talk about their experiences working wi a group of people that had the greats in comics and in Hollywood coming down to see what the hubbub was all about. And walking away with smiles on their faces with Milestone comics in their hands.

In Philadelphia, we’re going to be reminding everyone why Milestone is and was so special 20 years later and why, more than anything else, we need to keep that miracle and its practices going in our own way with our new ventures.

I think the brothers we lost in the journey will be smiling themselves.

Dwayne McDuffie, Robert Washington III, Maddie Blaustein….

This is for you. 🙂