feature: turtel onli – the “father of the black age of comics”!

My name is Turtel Onli. I have a BFA and MAAT from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and a AA from Olive HArvey College. I am a Rhythmistic Visual Artists. Now for the rest!

By Turtel Onli, AFROPUNK Contributor

I came of age in the 1960s as a teenager in Chicago. Black Cultural Revolution meets the Hippie Counter Counter. At 16, during the night of the riots after the murder of Dr. King I decided to commit my talents to making a positive difference. Two years later I formed BAG;The Black Arts Guild as a sustaining group of young talented artists. Our goal was to convert negative stereotypes related to the watermelon to a red black and green icon. Also to aid in our transition from students to professionals. BAG members went on to become certified educators, art therapist, fine artists, fashion designers, authors, historians and indie publishers. It worked. I disband BAG in 1977 when I went to live in Paris. There I discovered France’s robust and innovative Bande Dessinee industry. I studied at the Sorbonne and freelanced as an illustrator with the likes of the Rolling Stones, the Paris Metro and MODE Avante Garde Magazine. I was doing elegant and raw punk and future-primitif styles. I won a national contest there which resulted in my firs solo exhibition of Rhythmistic Fine Art..

(BAG at the National Conference of Artists Convention at Howard University in 1972.  I am on the right.)

I returned to Chicago to secure my BFA in Art Ed. My MAAT in Art Therapy and the launch ONLI STUDIOS as an indie publisher. I had freelanced in the music industry like working on the movie “Mahogany” for Motown, along with creating alum covers for George CLinton and Captain Sky to name a few.

But my focus was to grow ONLI STUDIOS to become the “motown” of the arts industry.  We published “NOG, The Protector of the Pyramides in 1981.  We launched the Black Age of Comics Movement in 1991 to celebrate creators and concerted derived from the Black, African and Urban experience. We produce annual comic-cons in Chicago and spawned similar Black Age type events in San Francisco, Harlem, Detroit and Atlanta.

We support your dream instead of the mainstream. I once posed this question in a GQ Magazine interview about the lack of Black concepts in comics. I asked,”Why are most music collections Blacker than most comic book collections?” To which they had no answer.

ONLI STUDIOS hires freelancers. We host events. We are growing.We are looking for dedicated, professional minded, talented, competitive visual artists and writers who can take a licking and come out kicking. We plan to win this war for minds and market shares. To provide jobs and impact along the paths of creativity, culture and commerce. I taught in the Chicago Public Schools for over 22 years and still teach at the Harold Washington College. This gives me constant contact with waves of young bad asses to mentor. To reach and teach. We are building the winning team!