Having debuted in 1944’s Bomber Comics #1, “Kismet, Man of Fate” never had his own fate revealed despite being comic books’ first Muslim superhero. Over seventy years passed between his last adventure fighting Nazis behind the front lines in war-time Germany and just last year when he returned as part of The Broken Frontier Anthology, a successful Kickstarter campaign from publisher A Wave Blue World (AWBW). Now, the same Eisner Award-nominated team that brought back the character is continuing his modern-day adventures in the weekly Kismet, Man of Fate online feature as part of the AWBW’s Under Current imprint.
Writer A. David Lewis (The Lone and Level Sands) and artist Noel Tuazon (Tumor) are joined by colorist Rob Croonenborghs and Ghost Glyph Studios in bringing Kismet to the current day. Beginning May 2nd and running two pages per week for the next year, the storyline will pit Kismet against the climate of the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign and its ensuing fallout in Boston and beyond. Additionally, the issues of LGBTQ rights, experimental science, and immigrant communities will feature prominently in the year-long storyline.
Lewis, who separately serves as the President of Comics for Youth Refugees Incorporated Collective (CYRIC), has no intention to fall into superhero conventions nor shy away from challenging, real-world conflicts. “Kismet was created at a moment where fascism was a real and present danger,” he explains. “With the political climate being what it is right now – with Islamophobia, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and hate crimes all on the rise – there seems no better time to reengage the character.”
AWBW’s Editor-in-Chief Tyler Chin-Tanner says, “As a Golden Age superhero, Kismet’s history is comic books’ history. Namely, fighting against fascism and standing up for the oppressed. Unfortunately, we still need heroes like this, now more than ever, in both comics and real life.”
Founded in 2005 by Tyler & Wendy Chin-Tanner, A Wave Blue World is an independent publisher of quality graphic novels and comic books with a focus on originality and cultural relevance. AWBW projects range from in-house titles such as the New York Times recommended American Terrorist, collaborations with creators to realize their visions, such as Marguerite Bennett’s short story collection Ghastly Tales, high-end art books like Punkrock Jazz: The Art of Toby Cypress, or original collections like The Broken Frontier Anthology which raised nearly $60,000 on Kickstarter and featured a number of talented creators such as Cullen Bunn, Greg Pak, Steve Orlando, and Justin Zimmerman.
A. David Lewis earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from Boston University and his M.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University while developing original graphic novels such as The Lone and Level Sands and Some New Kind of Slaughter. He is the co-editor of Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation. Lewis teaches in the Greater Boston area and was a 2015 Eisner Award nominee for American Comics, Literary Theory, and Religion: The Superhero Afterlife. He is a founding member of Sacred and Sequential and an Executive Board Member for the Comics Studies Society. His website is www.captionbox.net and his Twitter name is @adlewis. 
