Greetings Dieselfunkateers!

I’ve been doing our year end reviews for a second.  Each year as eventful as the last.  2018 has turned out to not only be a continuation of this trend, but also a transitional year for things to come.  Black Panther opened to world wide acclaim and massive box office.  Most importantly, the movie ushered in what is clearly the Age of Afrofuturism.  Being a lifelong Visual Afrofuturist myself, I can say it still is very much an out of body experience.  Sometimes the world does indeed catch up.  The media attention allowed Dieselfunk to become much more prominent in the media landscape.  I became a part time journalist for Bleeding Cool with The Dieselfunk Dispatch.  Matty’s Rocket: Book One, which came out last year, continued its in-house manufacturing/production and proceeded with vigor.  Very happy to report the book has been a very positive critical success.  To such an extent that we showcased the work at this years Book Expo, and Brooklyn Book Festival.  A tremendous honor no doubt.  We pushed very hard to sell it in a guerrilla style which had a bit of success.  However, as the year wore on we have had to retool to accommodate ongoing changes in circumstances.  Times require flexibility and change.  More on that in the coming weeks and months.

As before we had fantastic experiences at The Schomburg Black Comic Book Day, SOL-Con/CXC, Women In Comics, and Kidscomicon Festivals.  We also attended the  new kid on the block, The Black Comics Collective.  There are more venues available to comic creators of color than ever before.   My work has gathered audiences overseas as demonstrated with The Black Speculative Arts Movement.  As an artist, individually, I have have begun production on what I feel is my greatest work yet, INFINITUM.  Further, I have done more book covers in the effort to diversify my output.  Most importantly, BLACK METROPOLIS, my one man career retrospective show, revived for a run at the Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta, GA.  The show was successful enough that it will travel out west for the new year.  More on that as details are finalized.  2018 has been great.

Finally, the year has brought on many personal changes.  I now find myself the head of an empty nest as my children are now grown and in college.  The wife and I are no longer newlyweds.  My parents are growing gracefully as they get older, and I cherish the time I have with them like never before.  I shall give them their flowers while they are here.  And then we lose our elders as well, like my wonderful Aunt and the arrival of a young nephew with tons of energy.

As the Religion in Octavia Butler’s ‘Parables’ series describes, the only constant is change.  We can be certain that GREAT change is both coming and expected.

I enthusiastically embrace it.

Happy New Year.  On to 2019

Tim Fielder
Founder, Dieselfunk Studios