THAT'S MAMBA - by Brian Hawkins
If you are a regular reader of this newsletter then you have probably read my post almost a year ago on January 26, 2023 about Kobe Bryant. I have a deep and profound affinity for him, even before his death, actually before he became the Black Mamba and prolific basketball player and superstar that we know him as… It only grew as time went on, as our ages and lives matured side-by-side, contemporaries that did not know each other personally, but at least on my end, I’ve always felt intimately connected to the person and man for some inexplicable reason that I’ve just accepted and known. In hindsight, besides my love for basketball and his love for writing that connected inversely our interests, I would come to appreciate his approach to life, his verve for the journey and process, and his commitment to being the best version of himself each and every day. I am firm believer in the quest of self knowledge and every tenet of Kobe’s dogma tracks with what I can only compare to a religious belief for me, again, self knowledge.
I do not mean to wax on about him or his death in this post, but just needed to give you all some context for the title of this post and what I’m writing about in this post: My commitment to excellence, my dedication to being the best version of myself in all facets — health, wealth, family, passion, business, spiritually — and no other phrase captures this better than…
It’s good to have goals because it is those milestones and achievements that we work hard towards to reach. But much like Kobe, I realized that it is not the goal that matters most but the journey to the goal. It is there that I will discover what I am made of, uncover my identity in depth by peeling back layers that maybe I didn’t know existed, cultivate the meaning and purposes by which I define myself and ultimately, what leads me into action which takes me down the path of life itself.
My path encompasses many things, one of which is an intense focus on creativity and my own process of creating. I have been fortunate to work with a lot of different publishers as a writer and editor, and I’ve had the opportunity to flesh out and expound on a variety of characters, concepts, and stories. That journey has been one of the most rewarding experiences yet, and I take every bit of that into what I am attempting to build now as a creative.
BlaX Trauma Productions is my horror publishing and entertainment company and our focus will be on telling stories that are driven by BIPOC characters. The vision for the company involves looking at the pain (trauma) that exists as part of the human condition and the journey one takes to overcome that trauma… Horror as genre lends itself very well to this and that is what we are going to explore as storytellers.
This new venture officially launched in November with our first horror title, KARCIS #1, a paranormal investigative story set in the snowy Alaskan town of Thompson Pass.
KARCIS #1 is created by myself and Nathan Kelly, who is also the artist with colors done by Don Mathias and letters by Francisco Zamora. We are actually at the end of production and are setting up to fulfill the Kickstarter that was successfully funded in December.
While we did a soft launch of our horror comics publishing house at the end of last year (2023), 2024 will be credited as our first year where several titles will be launched independently through Kickstarter. One of which is an ode to my love of the slasher subgenre.
STAT #1 is coming to Kickstarter this month (January) from my BlaX Trauma Productions in collaboration with BEEZZZ Studio on art. Here’s what it’s about:
A medical emergency reality series goes horribly wrong when a killer begins to stalk the hallways of the hospital that’s the setting for the series. No one — doctors, nurses, patients, the show’s crew — is safe and everyone is a suspect.
And THAT’S MAMBA for me. This is me applying Kobe’s ideology to what I do — write and create. I want to be the best version of myself in all regards, including my creative work, and I want to do so relentlessly, leaving it all on the proverbial court.
Thanks so much for taking the time to interact with me and this post, and I hope that not only will you all join me and the BlaX Trauma Productions team on this journey, but that you will also be inspired by the journey, the same way that I am forever inspired by Kobe Bryant’s.
Talk soon —
B
ncG1vNJzZmiaop6ur7TAsKKipqOsv6rAxKxlrK2SqMGir8pnmqilX6V8tbTArapmpZGir6KL1K2kmKufqr%2BksZxeaX%2BaoqTEtLGEa32cp52esLRy1K2kmKWVmba2uZyrnJqclad%2F