Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: How are you making the world a better place?
Jeff Wright: I’m blessed to be a part of a ministry and a business that can do things like bring the Guardian Line, some positive characters to the comic universe, to be able to bring teaching resources to many thousands of churches around the country and to give away resources that particularly speak to people of African descent in the context of their culture.
Jeff Wright: I believe as we help to shape cultural and Biblical worldview in the lives of people through the teaching resources and the content resources that we develop at UMI, the world is becoming a better place. Transforming lives so that they can be used by God to His glory is making the world a better place.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions for the problems facing society, especially racism, child abuse and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?
Jeff Wright: Again, I believe that it is really important today, especially as Americans, that we limit our participation and our support of and our consumption of negative media content.
Jeff Wright: I may sound like a broken record on this but I think that is perhaps the single greatest problem that we face today. If we can begin to focus on more positive content and then take positive actions to do the things that we as a nation may be uniquely equipped to do, it can make a difference in the world.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and the world that would instantly come true what would they be?
Jeff Wright: I guess my first would be to end injustice and oppression and expose the evil that is so pervasive in our society today. The second thing would be to get us to a place where person to person, man to man, woman to woman, we come to a place where we are judging people by the content of their character and where we all begin to understand that this world, this life that we live, is one that should have an opportunity for everyone and that all people count. And I wish that were an understanding that we had and not the privileged few.
Jeff Wright: I have a third wish, right? Well, I’m not going to wish for world peace. And I can’t wish for more wishes.
(Laughter)
Jeff Wright: I have to say that I do think that there is a unique situation with such a small group of people, 5% of the world’s population here in the U.S., having nearly half of the wealth of this planet. If we could see a way that we could be used to make a difference in the lives of the billions of people who are food insecure, who have no clean water and inadequate housing, this country could take on the vision of using its great wealth to really make a difference in the areas of world hunger, disease, inadequate food and shelter, which is something I believe we could actually do. I would like to see that happen.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think of the In Search of Heroes program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?
Jeff Wright: The In Search of Heroes program is a tremendous program in part because it is doing a good thing, but mostly because of its accessibility through the Internet, putting a positive message out globally through this resource will change lives. And I believe that positive visions disseminated widely may be perhaps the most important use of the Internet. And your work with this resource will certainly bear much fruit as we hear testimonies of people who perhaps aren’t even alive yet about how their lives have changed because of the content that they encountered in In Search of Heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: Jeff, I really appreciate your time and I thank you for answering the questions. I have to say that it is truly profound, the things that you had to say, and it’s something that every person would benefit from hearing. I just really appreciate what you are doing with Urban Ministries. It’s a great thing to bring positive images into the comic book industry.
I just congratulate you and Michael for what you are doing.
Jeff Wright: Thank you so much. Thank you for selecting us and for the opportunity to share. We really, really appreciate it.
Ralph Zuranski: Thanks again and God bless you and have a great day.
Jeff Wright: Thank you.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: What are the things that parents can do that will help their children realize they, too, can be heroes and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Jeff Wright: I believe that parents today can do a number of very practical things. They can help their children realize their full potential as heroes and as people and as individuals who can be used by God.
Jeff Wright: Number one, limit the amount of television their children watch. I think television needs to be rationed for children. Why? Because it’s just too negative and it’s too hard to keep them on TVLand and the one or two positive channels that are there.
Jeff Wright: I believe more good could be done by simply measuring and monitoring the amount of media consumption, especially television, in our society than perhaps any single act.
Jeff Wright: I think parents should also be very actively involved in all of the information and media content that their children are consuming. It would be unthinkable, some of the lyrics and the music that any child can go into a Target or a Kmart or a music store today and buy and get ideas that are literally poisoning their future. Parents need to be engaged in that.
Jeff Wright: Parents need to make sure that their number one responsibility is to become a faith mentor to their children, to teach them to have a life of faith, a life of understanding, trust, and belief in God’s Word and Biblical worldview and to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is a critical part.
Jeff Wright: Jesus can be the greatest hero to those who accept Him and He should be. And I think that’s the role of the parents.
Jeff Wright: I also believe that it is very, very important as a parent to be deliberate, consistently deliberate, in bringing positive visions of what can be into the view of children. You do that by doing the ordinary things that aren’t so ordinary any more like taking children to museums and being actively involved with children in the social events of everyday life. You do that by being involved in their school and making sure that you are there as a parent to provide as many positive outcomes and experiences as negative that children will experience in the world today.
Ralph Zuranski: How do people become heroes?
Jeff Wright: It begins with a decision. You make a decision that you are going to go in a different direction or in a positive direction or that you are going to pursue a vision. It all starts with a decision.
Ralph Zuranski: How does it feel to be recognized as a hero?
Jeff Wright: This is a tremendous honor for me. I appreciate the work that you are doing in trying to identify heroes and I’m not sure as I look at the lives of some of the people that have been recognized as Internet heroes that I’m even worthy to be in the group. But I’m certainly honored and I appreciate that.
Jeff Wright: This is a credit really to what God has done in my life in allowing me to accomplish and to even have the mind to do some of the things that I’ve done. So I am humbled and appreciative.
Ralph Zuranski: How will being recognized as a hero change your life?
Jeff Wright: I’m going to be a little bit more careful about what I say and do because somebody may say, “Hey, I saw you on the Internet and there you are speeding down the highway.”
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to have trusted friends or a mastermind group to bounce your ideas off?
Jeff Wright: I think that one of the things that stops a lot of people from accomplishing the goals and the dreams and the visions that they have is that they do not have trusted friends or a mastermind group or counselors and advisors to help guide them along the way.
Jeff Wright: There are no one-man shows on this planet. Not really. And I think it is very, very critical to have the wisdom that comes from counselors. Of course, this is a Biblical principle to have counselors, to have others around you who can bring you the perspective, or as my wife would put it, the last 10%.
Jeff Wright: We all need someone who can say, “Hey, you know what? You’ve got something right around your mouth that we need to pluck off.” Or, “There’s another way of looking at this. I know you feel convinced. I know you prayed. I understand that you’ve got a clear vision but here are two or three things that you haven’t thought about that you might want to consider.” And that only comes when you have counselors, when you have people around you who you trust, who can give you the kind of input that you are going to need to accomplish the things that God has set out.
Jeff Wright: These people obviously have to have some clarity about your vision and the track record that can allow you to comfortably take their advice and their wisdom and incorporate it into your program.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you feel are the real heroes in our society today that are not getting the recognition and the reward they deserve?
Jeff Wright: This is a great question. I believe today because of the way media is managed and concentrated in so few outlets and all of the other negative trends that we talked about earlier in terms of media content, we are missing the stories of many, many real heroes.
Jeff Wright: I know, for example, that the teachers, particularly in the grade schools, have in their midst a number of heroes that we are probably not seeing. While there are some teacher-of-the-year awards and some other things like that, in my own life I can look back and think of several teachers who were tremendously influential in shaping my life to be what it is through their influence. They will go unheralded and unrecognized publicly but they have been tremendous in making a difference.
Jeff Wright: I’m sure that’s true for almost everyone. Almost all of us have had one or two teachers whether we went to private school or public school, or maybe even homeschooled and the teacher was our parent, who became a hero to us because they set out a path and they set themselves firmly in their commitment to bring the best out of each of us.
Jeff Wright: There are also another group of unrecognized heroes who are labeled teachers and those are Sunday school teachers and Bible study teachers, teachers who are outside of our public school or our family setting but who we encounter in the faith community and our churches who have made a difference in our lives.
Jeff Wright: I think that it’s very easy to discount the impact of individuals who, in a learning situation, are able to pour values and visions into our lives.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Jeff Wright: I think heroes are important in the lives of young people because it’s very difficult to achieve something you haven’t seen. If you can’t see it, it’s very hard for you to achieve it. And heroes give vision.
Jeff Wright: The National Visionary Leadership project, which was begun by Dr. Camille Cosby, Bill Cosby’s wife, and Renee Poussaint, the former television newscaster, has put together a program which is designed to bring visions of heroes, bring visions of leaders who made significant accomplishments, primarily in the African American community, into the view of young people.
Jeff Wright: I think it’s important for people to see that they can be great, they can be successful, and that they can achieve things that for them, particularly for African Americans, might not appear to be possible just from the media that they are consuming on a regular basis.
Jeff Wright: If you looked at that web site or learn more about that project, at http://www.VisionaryProject.com, I think you can see the power of heroes in the lives of people.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: When you are vision casting a lot of people put money there and many other things. Do you think that it’s valuable to know exactly how much money or whatever your goal is that you want to have in whatever bank account, in your spiritual bank account, in your emotional bank account or just regular bank account and have a specific date for the accomplishment of that goal?
Jeff Wright: The more specific the goal, the more clear and definite the outcome that you seek, the better your chances of accomplishing it. And I would say that’s true whether it’s money or any other goal that you set. It has to be clear.
Jeff Wright: If you don’t know when, how much, exactly what it’s going to look like, okay, the exact denominations, the $20s, $50s, $100s and what you are going to have, you are less able to get there.
Jeff Wright: I just think that people who focus purely on the money, which is just a tool. Dennis Peacock says, “Money is nothing but foldable time.” It’s a resource for some other purpose and it shouldn’t be an end in and of itself.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your definition of heroism? Helping to create the Guardian Line, which talks about heroes in form of angels and people that intercede in the lives of humans, what is your definition of heroism?
Jeff Wright: A hero is one who has sacrificed his life to be used by God so that God can accomplish what God wants to accomplish in life.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Jeff Wright: A secret hero I never had. I have to say that I tried to use as many examples from Scripture as I can in my life to help me overcome obstacles or to achieve the successes.
Jeff Wright: One of the things that has helped me is looking at individuals who have accomplished and knowing that a particular goal is achievable because someone has already done it. I tend to think that first and foremost, of course, having the mother and the father that I did and seeing their lives from poverty in the South to success in their careers and in my mother’s case in particular, overcoming obstacles like being handicapped, a word we never used in our home, that helped me tremendously.
Jeff Wright: So seeing these individuals who aren’t secret so much but just public examples helped me deal with difficulties in life and to just get to the accomplishments that I’ve accomplished.
Ralph Zuranski: What were the qualities and attributes of your real life heroes when you were growing up?
Jeff Wright: People who were focused. People who set goals and achieved them. People who overcame their fears. People who understood the discipline and perseverance and maintaining virtue and operating with the purity of Biblical worldview would bring about the results that all of us would want to be a part of or would like to achieve. Those are some of the qualities and the attributes.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the heroes in your life now?
Jeff Wright: My wife is a tremendous hero in my life right now. Lakita Garth is doing and has done a tremendous amount of work mentoring and being an example to young people that you can live a virtuous life, that you can adhere to qualities that would make you a better person.
Jeff Wright: She’s poured her life out into millions of young people around the country and around the world and she is a tremendous hero to me. She’s done it at great personal sacrifice and I have the great blessing of being able to be married to her right now.
Jeff Wright: I also believe just tremendously in the work and the results that the life of Melvin Banks who founded Urban Ministries represents. I think that he is a great hero for all of us, both in terms of Christian entrepreneurship as well as pursuing a vision. One man leaving the comfort of a secure job and possibly a reasonable future to take care of his family, to sacrifice and create UMI, to create the company that today touches millions of individuals.
Jeff Wright: Then there are some people that we all know. I think Oprah is a hero. When I look at what she’s done in the area of bringing a positive voice in media. I wish she were more overt and explicit in her faith in Jesus Christ if it’s there, and I hope it is, but despite that I can’t help but celebrate the positive content that she brings to televised media.
Jeff Wright: I appreciate Dennis Peacock and the work that he has done in trying to develop and propagate a Biblical worldview that goes beyond simply getting people saved but getting to a point of transformation in life. And there are many, many others.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Jeff, when was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life-path to one of victory over the obstacles you were facing at that time?
Jeff Wright: Probably the lowest point in my life was the destruction of my marriage. One of the problems that we perhaps don’t recognize as a problem in America, in addition to many of the things that have become put into law in our country, the area of no-fault divorce is unexamined and has caused tremendous devastation in our society.
Jeff Wright: When our laws move to a place where we said that the state’s interest in preserving the family is of lesser importance than one individual’s decision to end or destroy a marriage, particularly where there are children involved, we dealt with what may be a death blow to the more core underpinnings of our society and that is a strong family structure.
Jeff Wright: So I can say I was a victim of a no-fault divorce. I had no desire whatsoever, no intention, to become one of the (I suppose) more than 50% now of people who get married and get divorced.
Jeff Wright: That was a very, very low point for me. Now I had to go and get to a point of forgiveness, I had to get to a point of understanding that even some of the most negative things in your life can be used by God. And I had to recast my misfortune in the context of what God was doing in my life and what he was preparing me for.
Jeff Wright: So I began to look at that experience, which was certainly not one that I would wish on anyone and didn’t ever expect to see in my own case, as one that I could overcome and use as a part of my development as a better person and as a more understanding and more forgiving person going forward. And that’s exactly what happened.
Jeff Wright: All of that came through the guidance of Scripture and through prayer.
Ralph Zuranski: Was there anyone who helped you and gave you the willpower to change things in your life for the better at that time?
Jeff Wright: There were a number of people who poured into my life. It is amazing that when you are in the family of God, when you are a Christian, when you have friends and family members who are disciples of Jesus Christ, the ability of those people that God has put in your life for that purpose to become a source of strength and a place of refuge and a place of respite is just unlike anything you can imagine.
Jeff Wright: So many of my closest friends, Dr. Clarence Walker who is a marriage and family therapist who was just invaluable to me. My own mother who became a tremendous source of comfort and support for me, and many, many friends, all of whom had one thing in common: They understood the Word of God to be the guiding principles for life and they had well-developed and intimate relationships with God and were able to bring into my life the kind of support and encouragement that I needed to overcome.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to believe your financial dreams would eventually become reality?
Jeff Wright: The ability to vision properly, whether it’s in the area of finance or in other areas, I think it’s critical to getting from the place of dreaming to the place of reality.
Jeff Wright: I think that Andy Stanley’s definition of a vision is appropriate. He says, “A vision is a clear mental image of what could be, fueled by or powered by the passion that it should be.” And I believe that’s important.
Jeff Wright: I think that when you are looking at financial dreams they have to be about something. People who just want more money just so they can say they have more money, I don’t think that’s a dream. I think that’s just being caught up in the lust of the flesh, the lust of money and the things money can buy. And of course the media is fueling that.
Jeff Wright: I don’t think anyone should focus on financial dreams for the reasons that we see in mass media today. But at the same time I really believe it’s critical to have a clear vision of what it is that you are trying to achieve, to understand that vision empowered by your passion and to have enough clarity about that vision so that you can do what it is that that vision requires.
Jeff Wright: That’s just an important skill and I don’t believe there’s enough vision casting going on right now.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Are you slow to revise or reverse an important decision?
Jeff Wright: Again, I would bring the same set of considerations in. Sometimes a decision has been made, you’ve committed to a path and information comes that suggests that you should go in a different direction.
Jeff Wright: When you get to a point of critical mass where it’s really clear that something has to happen, I think it can be very, very devastating to not make that decision timely. Money can be lost and maybe lives or other consequences if an important decision that requires a change of direction isn’t made promptly.
Jeff Wright: On the other hand, depending on the consequences and the number of people and resources that are involved, you do need to take your time in making the decision.
Jeff Wright: Timing is everything and execution, whether it’s done quickly or slowly, needs to happen with enough consideration, enough prayer, and enough information so that when you make the decision, whether you did it quickly or did it over a period of time, you can be comfortable that you moved with the hand of God in that.
Ralph Zuranski: How are you able to overcome your doubts and fears? I think that’s probably one of the greatest tools of Satan is to have us doubt what we are doing and just fear so many different things.
Jeff Wright: I believe that the closer you walk with God the more you can, from Scripture, from prayer, from the counsel of elders and friends who you know are leading lives that are God-directed, Spirit-led, Biblically worldview oriented, the easier it is to overcome doubts and fears.
Jeff Wright: Will they come? Yes, they will. Will you overcome them? If you operate from the perspective of faith and trust that God has your best at heart, which he does, you can overcome.
Jeff Wright: I’ve had many situations in my life where I’ve had to really, really rethink, “Did I make the right decision? Is something very negative going to happen?” Again, I think about coming here, at UMI, to Urban Ministries.
Jeff Wright: There were times when I thought this was a tremendous mistake because it came at great financial sacrifice, it came with sacrifice to my family and to many other things that I was doing that looked like they were solved problems suddenly became problems and I really began to doubt God.
Jeff Wright: But through prayer, through the continuing meditation on the Word of God, through the support and encouragement of others around me and when I think about the kind of feedback that we get from people and places, Africa, Nigeria, and in Southern Africa. We’ve given away literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of Christian education literature.
Jeff Wright: We’ll get a letter every now and then and someone will say, “This really changed our village or our life.” Or people in churches who have given us testimony about how drug addicted and substance abusing individuals have had their lives changed because of the work we are doing, that becomes a tremendous encouragement and a confirmation that what I was doubting, what I was concerned about in terms of the wisdom of the decision was totally, totally something that didn’t need to be thought about because God was with it.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Jeff Wright: I wish I could say I do that all the time but no, I don’t. Sometimes I get mad and I stay mad for a couple of days. But I’m working on it. I’m working on being angry and sinning not. But you know what; I think that when you are in any position of leadership there are going to be people who will offend you, people who are going to do things intentionally to upset you. And if you are involved in any kind of Christian leadership as I am, there’s going to be continuing opposition.
Jeff Wright: I have learned to forgive. I’ve learned the power of forgiveness is one of the most important lessons of life. Understanding that forgiveness is what allows us to continue in relationship and also to let loose the burdens that lack of forgiveness will put on you.
Jeff Wright: It takes a lot of energy to operate without a forgiving spirit. It really does. It is a very, very hard burden. It’s sort of a ghost in your head that you won’t let go.
Jeff Wright: So I believe that we should forgive and I try to forgive so as not to carry around the past.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Jeff Wright: One of my greatest sources of joy is to know that here at UMI we get to serve the church leadership, Christian educators, pastors, teachers and the community by providing products and resources that will help them to do what God has called them to do in changing lives and to do it more effectively. That’s probably my greatest sense of joy.
Jeff Wright: To be a part of something that really God is doing. I didn’t start Urban Ministries as I mentioned earlier. It was begun by Melvin Banks. But I get to be a part of something that God started through him and who knows, maybe generations before that, to get to a place where we would have the ability to reach and touch and teach.
Jeff Wright: I can’t think of any greater joy than to know that leadership as service, which is the kind of leadership that I exercise, is something that I get to be a part of in seeing God work in the world today.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know that is so true, “the bleed that leads” seems to be the mantra of the media that is in control of TV and radio. My goal with the Heroes program is to help spread good news about heroes in the local community doing good things at a grass roots level.
I don’t think that the media that we have today will ever change their way if they can make a cent off of somebody’s suffering.
Jeff Wright: I agree with that and I think that one of the things that we have to do as people of faith is to make a personal commitment that we will not feed into that frenzy of negativity. We won’t repeat a bad story.
Jeff Wright: Most of us need to limit the amount of consumption of that negative media content anyway. I wrote a book, God’s Vision of Television and really my point in that book was to limit your diet of negative media content and you will have a better life.
Jeff Wright: It’s an addiction and it does have an impact. There are just countless studies on the consequences of negative media consumption and negative behavior, whether it’s violence in children or sedentary lifestyle and overeating in adults which leads to so many conditions: diabetes and heart disease to arthritis complications. All of these ultimately are rooted in what you are feeding your mind.
Jeff Wright: Then the other point is, most people kind of go through life as if they have an infinite supply of thoughts when in fact it’s really finite. So if you have a finite number of thoughts, and you know you have a finite number of thoughts because you are only going to live so long and you don’t know how long that is, why spend those thoughts on so much negative?
Jeff Wright: All of our lives would be enriched if we would think on some other things.
Ralph Zuranski: That is so true. Do you think that it takes courage to pursue new ideas? So many people get caught up in that negativity and caught up in their own social peer group and it’s hard to make a change sometimes and get those negative people out of your life?
Jeff Wright: There’s an old saying that “nobody likes change but a wet baby and even they cry”. I like to think that the people who are going to make a difference in this world have to begin with understanding that it will take courage and it is also going to take boldness to stand alone, to stand for something new, positive and different and that is redemptive.
Jeff Wright: That’s got to be one of the core principles of your behavior if you are a person who is an innovator, who is trying to make a difference and to go in a different direction.
Ralph Zuranski: Are you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
Jeff Wright: Absolutely. I had to make a pretty significant sacrifice leaving my position in corporate America to come to Urban Ministries. There was a financial sacrifice.
Jeff Wright: There were a number of personal sacrifices. But it was uncomfortable because let’s face it, making more money has its advantages. But at the same time I got a tremendous unexpected reward from having a life that was synthesized, I think, for the first time with the purposes and aims that God had for me. And there’s no price you can put on that.
Jeff Wright: So in that sense the sacrifice was worth it. Sort of like a mother sacrifices her figure and some pain in order to bring a child into the world. There’s just simply no comparison.
Ralph Zuranski: Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly?
Jeff Wright: Sometimes it is and sometimes not. Some people don’t move forward in their lives because they can’t get to a point of decision. They take forever. They are looking for a sign. They want more confirmation.
Jeff Wright: Finding the pace of decision-making that fits the problem that you are trying to solve and the situation that you are in, there is actually a skill that has to be developed over time. Knowing when to act quickly and knowing when to say, “You know what, I think I better think about that one for another day,” is an important skill to develop.
Jeff Wright: There are times in my leadership of this organization when I do need to decide and decide right away. And then there are other times when I need to know that something needs a little more prayer, a little more contemplation, or maybe just some additional information.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Jeff Wright: I think sometimes mistakes and setbacks and misfortunes can be just that. They can be devastating. Things happen in our lives that are often unpleasant, unfortunate. We don’t want to go through them and it can be very, very hard.
Jeff Wright: Sometimes it’s not real easy to say, “Okay, let me find the good in this.” I think of the story of Joseph in the Bible. In the end he said, “You meant it for evil, God meant it for good.” But I’m not sure he was that happy to be in jail all those years or to be thrown into a pit.
Jeff Wright: So I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t try to find a way to look on the bright side and to be as positive as we can but I think it’s also important to operate in reality. And the reality is sometimes life is very hard and we need comforting. We need to take care of ourselves.
Jeff Wright: I don’t advocate going into pity parties and so on, but at the same time there is a certain unrealism that says that you have to always be positive and always look for the best because sometimes things aren’t real good.
Jeff Wright: At the same time I believe, and I kind of live by, one of my favorite expressions and that is there is a reason why the windshield is bigger than the review mirror. There really is a reason. We need to know what is behind us and it’s important to glance up there every now and then, but we have to go forward.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that optimism is valuable?
Jeff Wright: Absolutely. I just refer you to my comment I just made about looking ahead and not behind. We need to have a forward look.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain your sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Jeff Wright: I try to be as lighthearted as I can and to bring levity in many, many situations. I think humor is very therapeutic. Again I think the example of Christ is great. I think if we could have a laugh track to the New Testament we would find that there was a lot more laughter and humor coming in those words of Christ than we ever imagined.
Jeff Wright: I think God has a great sense of humor and I try to have a great sense of humor. It is just therapeutic. It’s a positive thing. At the same time I believe we need to balance that.
Jeff Wright: Sometimes people try to find humor in situations that just really are not funny. It’s an escape mechanism. So as much as I might try to be as positive and as humorous as I can, there are some situations that we are faced with, and particularly today, that really don’t need humor at all and in fact it’s probably inappropriate.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and your dreams?
Jeff Wright: I keep continuing an inner dialog of positive commentary going on. Scripture talks about how David encouraged himself in the Lord and I have to encourage myself.
Jeff Wright: I have to, as an ongoing practice of being a leader of an organization, make sure that I’m setting as positive of a tone as I can, often in the face of very difficult and complex problems that require a lot of intense thoughts.
Jeff Wright: So this is a habit, this is a practice, that I believe is an important one for anyone in leadership and it’s particularly important today because there is such a continuing drone of negative information that flows.
Jeff Wright: In fact, you can try this test any time you are in public or standing in line in a grocery store where people always tend to go towards the negative. The only thing we want to talk about in this society is what happened that was negative.
Jeff Wright: I’ve never been standing in a line in a public place and some stranger says, “Hey, guess what happened yesterday? My kid got all A’s.” Usually it’s, “Did you hear about what happened to the Crocodile Hunter man” or did you hear about this negative event or that negative event.
Jeff Wright: One of the things that I believe is a challenge to all of us living here in our media-saturated American society is to find our way to the positive. Find a way to think on and ultimately speak on those things that are good and honest and as Paul laid out, those things that are of good report.
Jeff Wright: It’s very easy for Christians to omit and to forget about the obligation that we have to be bearers of good news and not repeaters of the negativity that so pervades this society.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Jeff Wright: That’s a great question. I am convinced that just understanding that there are principles that are worth sacrificing your life for is a place that many of us need to get to and just really soberly ask the questions about what I would call convictions, those things that you wouldn’t live without.
Jeff Wright: I have many convictions but most of them are summed up in the principles of God’s Word. I would sacrifice my life for the name of Jesus Christ. I’m not going to sacrifice my belief and my commitment to live a Christ-centered life for anything because I understand that to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Jeff Wright: Of course, many things sound like they should be more important than that: your family, your resources or corporate America, but I mean, many of those kinds of things that we somehow feel are important aren’t really worth a life.
Jeff Wright: I’ve already sacrificed my life, in a sense, when I left my position in corporate America and came into really what is the ministry responsibility of shepherding UMI.
Jeff Wright: I had been working in corporate America, and for many people this is a life’s dream, to be a vice president in a Fortune 50 company. Successful, having had Ivy League degrees and attended Georgetown and Harvard and Colombia and so forth, and the Wharton School to be successful in corporate America. But I sacrificed that. I sacrificed that life in order to be able to contribute those skills and the experiences that I had gained to do something that would be of greater benefit both to the African American community and to the world.
Jeff Wright: I essentially got to a point of saying, “Okay, is my life about making rich people richer or is it going to be about doing something that will count for the kingdom of God?” So I sacrificed that life in order to take on this life, which is a life I live for Christ.
Ralph Zuranski: Are your actions and goals consistent with your beliefs?
Jeff Wright: I certainly hope so. Obviously God will be the judge of that. I try my best to make certain that I’m living a life that would be God-honoring. I pray for my friends, for my wife and even for myself that, as Paul prayed in the book of Colossians, my walk would be worthy of the name of Jesus Christ.
Ralph Zuranski: Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?
Jeff Wright: I think so. I think that highly charged emotions, I would translate that into passion, into enthusiasm and that word derives from a Greek word which means to breathe out.
Jeff Wright: I think when you really understand what it is that God wants you to do, what it is that is your life’s passion, that you will operate with a sense of energy and flow. There’s a kind of psychological term for it, finding flow, from a gentleman who is not really a Christian but he spent a lot of time studying this.
Jeff Wright: When you get to that point where your enthusiasm and your passion for a purpose is so intent and so fixed, time sort of seems to disappear for you. It stops. You could do it for days. And that’s exactly where I am in what I’m doing.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and your decisions?
Jeff Wright: I’m a Christian. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ and the philosophy or philosophies that guide my life are the principles of Biblical worldview. Understanding that life is about abiding in the life of Christ and abiding in His Word and living in line with a past, a present and a future that points to a world that God wants to see on earth as it is in heaven.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Jeff Wright: Again my perspective is one of a Biblical worldview. I believe that God has laid out in His Word, the Bible, the complete perspective that anyone should have on goodness, ethics and moral behavior. That is what is right and what is wrong. It’s all there in the 613 commandments.
Jeff Wright: There is the model of Jesus Christ who summed it up so well in the greatest commandment, “To love God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jeff Wright: That’s the summation of the law. But the specifics of the law also count and are important. And I believe, like the ultra-orthodox Jews, we should be seeking as much as possible to adhere to those things, those principles, those precepts that are laid out in God’s Word, the Bible. And I believe that with all my heart. And I believe that it’s possible to do it though the help of God.
Jeff Wright: Are we going to always be there? Of course not. But those should be the principles and the guidelines that we strive to adhere to.
Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Jeff Wright: Prayer is very important in my life. I am a person of prayer. I am of the belief that praying without ceasing and trying to make certain that with as much of your day as you can keep in conscious inner dialog with God, the more our lives will be led by the Spirit.
Jeff Wright: I was very fortunate to grow up in a Christian home so some of my earliest memories are praying at the bedside of my parents. I had six brothers and the seven of us would pray at night with our parents. They taught us prayers and they taught us to pray and I have a tremendous legacy of prayer in my family that has helped me to this day.
Jeff Wright: Not just showing me by example and through experience that prayer works, and of course it does, but also just the benefit of other people praying for me. So I pray and I encourage my children to pray and I depend on the prayers of my family members and friends and I don’t make a single key decision without some directed time in prayer.
Ralph Zuranski: Wasn’t your mother a real prayer warrior? Didn’t she lose an arm and a leg by being run over by a train and almost died and bled to death when she was younger?
Jeff Wright: Yes, that’s true. That is true. My mother is a tremendous prayer warrior. She’ll be 86 years old next month and it is true, she did lose an arm and a leg when she was eight years old and she lived. That happened in the South, in Northeast Arkansas where she grew up.
Jeff Wright: Of course, obviously a preacher’s daughter in a small community, there was a lot of prayer that brought her through that. But her life is in and of itself a testimony. She has gone on, obviously, to have seven children, all boys.
Jeff Wright: She raised us. She finished her master’s degree in Library Science when she was pregnant with my youngest brother and then went on and had another career, really. I mean, after a career as a mom with seven children she went on to a 20-year career as a librarian in the public library system and in the university libraries in Washington, DC, where we grew up. And she still remains very active in her church.
Jeff Wright: She is an active person and a volunteer in the mentoring world. She was one of the board members of the literacy program “Reading is Fundamental” for many years and just a tremendous example of the power of prayer. And, of course, she was a great mom.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: I think a lot of people don’t know what misogynistic means. Could you explain that, please?
Jeff Wright: Sure. Misogyny just means the hating of women and this is rooted in the Biblical story, really, of the fall of man. The enemy of our souls, Satan, the devil, and yes, I do believe in a very real, personal, individual devil as well as many demons, hates the creative potential of women.
Jeff Wright: The idea that women bring life into this world is something that is a special target for forces of evil and the more that the enemy can make women the subject of ridicule, the subject of being demeaned or referred to as a female animal or drive in any way the degradation of women, then the more points in the column of the enemy and the less in the column of those who stand for righteousness and justice, peace, and the joy that God really wants all of us to live out in our lives.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?
Jeff Wright: It’s critically important. I think that the story of my life or the life of Michael Davis or many, many others on your Heroes site is the function of focusing on a primary goal and a goal being tied to life-purpose.
Jeff Wright: What is it that God is trying to get out of your life? And that usually is something that you are very good at; that you enjoy doing that makes a difference, a positive difference, in the lives of other people. And once you have identified what that is, keeping it central in your life and not being distracted is critical.
Jeff Wright: I believe that one of the greatest weapons of Satan is the use of distractions, the use of deceptions as well as outright destruction to prevent people from accomplishing their God-given purposes. So staying focused and being clear of the distractions of life that can get you off target is a skill, really, that must be developed early in the life of a person who would be a hero, a person who would be successful and could be effectively used by God.
Ralph Zuranski: Boy, that’s so true. Do you follow your hunches and intuition? I know because you are a man of God you might consider that question, do you follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit that dwells in you?
Jeff Wright: I would say that the older I get the more I realize that what we might call hunches or intuition or that feeling inside really is in fact the Holy Spirit speaking to us. We have to learn how to recognize the difference between that and just the pizza we had last night because inevitably the outcomes that we intuitively come to, that we come to through hunch, intuition or just a strong feeling or urge, if it’s lined up with the Word of God, that’s the way God wants us to go.
Jeff Wright: I’ve had many, many instances where I went the other way and it turns out that I should have taken my first impulse and gone with that “hunch” or intuition that I had. The older I get the more I’m likely to just follow the leading of the Spirit in that way.
Jeff Wright: That doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking or that I’m operating in superstition or anything. It’s just more a matter of allowing God to guide my thoughts toward an outcome that He sees as the most appropriate one.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Don’t you think that sort of abuses African American people, where people that are in the general media and just people all around the world, they associate that type of evilness with black people?
Jeff Wright: Yeah, it is true and it does associate perhaps the most negative images that we have ever seen in media with black people whether it’s a foul-mouthed rapper or Little Kim demeaning women. All of that, of course, is not only a disservice to black people and in particular black youth but all youth in all society. We know that that’s not the reality of what black youth are about and what they look like.
Jeff Wright: We serve many, many young people through the resources that we create for the thousands of churches that use UMI curriculum and we’ve done the research. We can tell you that a far greater representation of African American young people are sitting up in Sunday school every week than are participating in any hip hop or rap video.
Jeff Wright: The unfortunate part about it is that major media entities that are promoting these negative images are painting a picture of African American young people, or just black young people generally and globally that is far different from what the reality is.
Jeff Wright: It’s something that African Americans are very, very concerned about. We joke and we say we want “raparations” because there has been such a tremendous exploitation of some of the most negative elements of our culture. Some of those have actually been created by media conglomerates to essentially create a picture that is just far from reality.
Jeff Wright: No one wants their child to grow up to be a girl starring in a booty video. No one.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, I understand that. That’s one of the reasons why I created the Heroes program, to shine the light on those people who are true heroes like yourself and Michael Davis that are making a positive difference in the world and are concerned about our youth coming up. Not just black youth, Asian youth or white youth, but all youth and to give them a good, positive message.
So I wanted to ask you a couple of these questions so people can really discern what real heroes are and what they believe.
Jeff, what do you want out of life in ten words or less?
Jeff Wright: I like to continue to have the opportunity to make a God-transforming difference in the world.
Ralph Zuranski: That is my belief also. What is the dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Jeff Wright: As the CEO of UMI I have an unusual opportunity to create transforming messages, messages that are rooted in a Biblical worldview. We are trusted to teach the Bible in over 10,000 churches weekly and as leader of this organization I have an incredible responsibility to make sure that our content is Biblically sound, is technically accurate, is going to be empowering and cast a vision that can make a difference in the lives of many people.
Jeff Wright: My goal is to do that, not just in print media but also in open word, in music, as well as in visual media and we are striving to achieve that and to grow to a level of influence that will meet or exceed the influence currently being exerted by the big five media companies.
Jeff Wright: When the giant media companies took over hip hop and it became more violent and more misogynistic and irresponsible, their bottom line was money. Your and my bottom line is the betterment of our community and our world.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: I was talking to you earlier and I was very impressed with your concept of how the black culture basically needs the impact on youth of all ages worldwide. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Jeff Wright: Sure. I think that it’s fair to say today that global youth culture is rooted in urban culture. When we think about the hip hop movement, the style of dress, rap music, all of these youth cultural icons have come out and are driving the culture globally. It almost doesn’t matter what nation you go to today, whether it’s Japan or Russia or even in Latin America. Young people all look pretty urban and hip hop.
Jeff Wright: One of the reasons for that of course is that we have six giant global media companies that are propagating these cultural icons through their music and video shows and through the sale, of course, and distribution of rap and hip hop music. But most of this originates, or has originated, out of the African American community.
Jeff Wright: Now the thing that is startling, of course, is that there is just not enough African American teenagers in America to sustain that kind of a global or even national business in and of themselves and so we find that upwards of 80% of rap and hip hop music is bought by suburban white teens.
Jeff Wright: The same is true when you get out of the U.S. Many people who don’t look like African Americans are consuming and thriving and pushing forward hip hop culture.
Ralph Zuranski: Isn’t there a problem with the message that the hip hop culture is perpetuating? Isn’t it sort of life-destroying, calling women “hoes” and killing the police and just the images that are created from that particular genre?
Jeff Wright: Like so many things, something that started off good gets turned bad. In the beginning in the origins of rap and hip hop, there were political messages.
Jeff Wright: There were messages of social justice and economic justice and even the earliest rap; most people will go back to Public Enemy and Chuck D and these groups. But way before those rappers and hip hop artists, spoken word, which is a part of African historical oral tradition, had messages of social redemption.
Jeff Wright: I think of artists such as Gill Scott-Heron or even before him, the Last Poets, who did use a fair amount of what might be considered profanity in their work, were delivering socially positive messages. In fact, one acronym used for rap in the early days was Rhythm And Poetry, RAP.
Jeff Wright: Now today what has happened in order to turn this into the commercial global phenomenon that we see, the most negative, misogynistic authority-defying, women-hating, God-hating lyrics, images, and artists have been promoted on a global scale by companies who clearly have no concern whatsoever either of the impact on society or the culture but rather just how extreme can we go in order to make money.
Jeff Wright: Then of course all of this is painted with a black face which is a pernicious evil in my view that is being foisted not just on the global community but in particular on the African American community.
Click Here to visit Jeff Wright's Heroes Page
check out the links below to the Guardian Line Comics and Urban Ministries
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Hi. This is Ralph Zuranski and I am on the phone with Jeff Wright. He is the president of Urban Ministries and also co-creator of the new comic book series called the Guardian Line.
How are you doing today, Jeff?
Jeff Wright: I’m doing very well, thank you.
Ralph Zuranski: Would you be able to tell me a little bit about your company Urban Ministries Inc. and also the Guardian Line comic book series that you guys are working together on?
Jeff Wright: Sure. Urban Ministries Inc. was founded by Dr. Melvin Banks in 1970. He had attended Moody Bible Institute, which is how he originally got to the Chicago area, and later he went to Wheaton College and graduated. He was actually one of the first African Americans to finish both those institutions.
Jeff Wright: While working for another Christian publishing company he got the idea that some specific, unique media targeting African American teens needed to be introduced. So in 1970 in the basement of his home he launched a magazine called InTeen and Urban Ministries Inc. was born.
Jeff Wright: that by the time the full line was complete a church could use the Urban Ministries curriculum as their Christian education or Sunday school curriculum. The product began to be introduced in many, many churches, primarily African American churches around the country.
Jeff Wright: The company went on in the 1980s to develop a Vacation Bible School course to re-introduce the use of video products. I’m talking dramatic stories in videos in Christian education and the African American church. It was upon seeing one of those videos in the mid-80s that I learned of the company.
Jeff Wright: The Guardian Line, which is the newest product line from Urban Ministries, then continues a tradition of the use of innovative media products to reach audiences with the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jeff Wright: By teaming up with Michael Davis who was already in the comic world and bringing the many years of church ministry and Christian education product resources developed by Urban Ministries we believe that we are going to do an incredible thing to extend the Gospel into even newer audiences.
Click Here to listen to Micael's In Search Of Heroes Interview
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Well, I’d love to get a link to some of your art work so that when people come in and listen to your interview, I’m going to break it up into like 20 different segments and post it in all the blogs, I’d love to drive people to your site so they can see your artwork. Because just how I’ve come to know you through your interview, I’m sure your art work is even more incredible and inspiring because you do it out of love.
Michael Davis: Well, the art work for the Guardian Line, I don’t do any of that stuff. I just have these great artists who work for me. But their art work is phenomenal.
Ralph Zuranski: I just really appreciate your time and I appreciate what you’re doing to make the world a better place. Creating faith based comics gives people the truth about how to successful lives by understanding the wisdom in the Word of God.
Michael Davis: Thank you very much. I don’t think I’ve gotten a higher compliment ever.
Ralph Zuranski: Thanks again. I appreciate your time.
Michael Davis: Thank you, Sir, and have a good holiday weekend!
Ralph Zuranski: You, too.
Click Here to listen to Micael's In Search Of Heroes Interview
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Okay. At least you didn’t ask for more wishes!
Michael Davis: Yeah, that’s the old story. Ask for three more wishes!
How about free cable?
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, two’s okay. Peace and the pot of gold is fine!
Let me ask you one more because I really don’t know how busy you are and I appreciate your time.
Michael Davis: No, hopefully I wasn’t too long winded. I pretty much talk for a living and I really get tired of doing it. But you make this very easy because these are great questions.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, it really shows how people become successful and what their thought process is. It’s not so much about the special tricks that you use but it’s about the type of person you need to become to be successful. By asking these questions of someone like you and other people who are extremely successful, young people have the opportunity to see, “Well, gee, that person is unique. They love what they do.” It gives them a good example of achieving their dream and becoming the unique person God created them to be and not being afraid but having the courage to be who God created them to be.
Michael Davis: I believe fear is the single thing that keeps most people from doing what they need to do. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of fear! I’m not being funny, I’m not being facetious, and I’m not being overly complimentary, but I will tell you this. I’m really hard to impress. People show me stuff and I say, “Yeah, that’s nice, but you know, whatever.”
I’m really hard to impress. But what you’re doing with this is very impressive. For me, that is the greatest compliment I can give. It is very impressive. I just love stuff like this. There’s not enough of this kind of stuff being done! Like I said before, I feel honored to be a part of this. I do interviews all of the time, but I’m actually excited to read this one. I was on TV and someone sent me a link to the video clip. They sent it to me yesterday and I have yet to look at it. I just think, “Whatever.” But this is exciting and I am very proud to be involved in this.
Ralph Zuranski: Thank you. And you know, it’s interesting that some of the most profound interviews I’ve done so far are with black men who’ve overcome tremendous difficulties in their lives, like Willie Crawford, Stephen Pierce, Orrin Hudson. Probably one of the most amazing people in the interviews was the black cop on Bay Watch, Gregory Alan Williams. He was the first hero that one of the high school kids interviewed because he actually saved the life of an Asian man during the L.A. riots in 1992.
Michael Davis: That’s what I’m talking about.
Ralph Zuranski: It was incredible. It was one of the best interviews of anyone I’ve ever done. He was so articulate and he really just set the tone for the entire program and he inspired me to carry on for 14 years. So just for people like you that have been successful and overcome tremendous things, I know it’s so inspiring for young people. So I really appreciate your time.
Michael Davis: No, no, not at all! Anything else I can do for you, you name it. Any art work you need, whatever it is that you need, just let me know and I will get it to you yesterday.
Click Here to listen to Micael's In Search Of Heroes Interview
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: That’s pretty hard to believe, isn’t it?
Michael Davis: They plead not guilty because of something that happened to them when they were seven years old, or something. I think people should be responsible for their actions. I think that we as a society should stop making excuses for people when they do bad things. And I think that if you do a bad thing, say you’re sorry, beg for forgiveness, and go on with your life. Too many people say, “This is why I did it, and this is why, and this is why.”
My solution is to take responsibility for your own actions. Which may or may not happen. I’ve made some horrendous mistakes and the biggest mistakes I’ve made was to not take responsibility for my actions when I did these things years ago.
Now when I do something, I say, “I’m sorry. My bad, my bad.”
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and the world that would come true instantly, what would they be?
Michael Davis: That’s hard! First of all we’d find true peace. Absolutely true peace. And even if you disagreed with someone it wouldn’t end with dropping another bomb on you. You can still be an individual. You can still disagree. But your fighting would be confined to verbal jousting. “I don’t like you.” “I don’t like you either, but I’m not about to bomb your country because I don’t like you.” So peace would be the first thing.
The second thing would probably be to see my sister again, because at that age when she died, I didn’t really have a whole time to bond with her. Like any other brother and sister, we were mortal enemies. I loved her and she loved me, but she was my big sister and I was her little brother and it was my job to be a pain in the butt. That’s like in the little brother handbook. I was a pretty good kid, but my sister, for the most part, was always getting into trouble. She used to get a spanking fairly regularly. My mom could give a good spanking. Long story short, I told you I was only hit once?
Ralph Zuranski: Um hmm.
Michael Davis: Well, the day that I was hit it was because I talked back to my mother. I did something stupid and then I talked back to my mother when she asked me if I did it. I said, “Yeah, I did it. So what?” She said, “Alright. Tonight you’re going to get your butt kicked.” I said, “Whatever.”
I can’t tell you what she used to beat us with because in the year 2006 it would be child abuse. (Laughter) Back then it was just good parenting.
Ralph Zuranski: Um hmm. It definitely got results.
Michael Davis: You know how some people have this little paddle hanging up in the kitchen for spanking? “Go get the paddle.” My mom had a .45 automatic hanging up there. “Go get the gun. I’m going to have to shoot you in the leg so you won’t do this again.” (Laughter)
Ralph Zuranski: I guess that got your attention!
Michael Davis: So my mother is coming into my room to beat me. My sister sees her coming into my room with the item she’s going to use to beat me. My mortal enemy, my mortal enemy, comes in. I’m thinking, “What’s the big deal?” She comes in and stands between my mother and me and says, “You can’t beat him with that. He’s not ready for it.” That’s when I knew true fear. When my sister stood up for me.
So, we got closer as we got older and I just wish I could see her again. That would be my second wish. I guess I will see her eventually.
I’m not very materialistic, man, so I don’t really have a whole lot of stuff that I would wish for. My life is pretty full. But I guess if I had a third wish, it would be for any stupid mistake that I’ve ever made—and I’ve made a few—for me to be able to rectify that.
You know what? That’s a bad wish. Take that one out. I wish for…I said world peace, and to see my sister again. A pot of gold? Some Skittles?
Click Here to listen to Micael's In Search Of Heroes Interview
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: You know, it’s funny. How does it feel to be recognized as a social hero? Because I’m recognizing you right now.
Michael Davis: I don’t know. As much smack as I talk, Ralph, I really am humble when it comes to talking about this sort of stuff. I’ll tell you just how. Years ago I had an auditorium named after me. It was a very big honor. They had a marching band there, they had all this stuff, they had these dignitaries and mayors and the governor. I only invited one person to come with me. You know, usually you invite fifty people to sit in the front row so you can have your moment.
My mother calls me now when she sees something in the newspaper and she’ll ask, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“I don’t know. A guy just called me up and he wanted to interview me.”
Here’s what I do know. I feel honored and privileged to be able to talk directly to the kids and to the parents of the kids who are going to be reading this. Hopefully I didn’t embarrass myself too much. I feel honored that you would say that and I feel a great pride to be grouped with the other people I’ve read about on your site. Very impressive.
Ralph Zuranski: The most important thing is making a positive difference in the lives of others. It’s really true that a hero is someone who has given their life to something bigger than themselves and they do the right thing when no one is watching.
Michael Davis: Absolutely, yes. I feel that exact same way. Absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: How will being recognized as a hero change your life since you’re constantly creating heroes and illustrating them? How do you think being a real life hero will change your creation of the heroes you create with your art?
Michael Davis: I don’t really think it will change me at all at any level. If you love what you do, like I do, you’re pretty much content with your station in life. If I was never recognized and I could do what I’m doing, I’d be okay with that.
As a matter of fact, it’s funny. We did a Guardian Line preview book. I did all the characters, I created all of the story lines, I created the universe, I created the city. But in the Guardian Line preview book my name isn’t mentioned once. Someone said, “Why isn’t your name mentioned?” And I said, “I don’t know.” It’s just not a big thing to me.
I’m just glad to do what I do. I’m a very lucky individual. Luckier than some, not as lucky as others. But I’m okay with my station in life.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?
Michael Davis: I don’t know if they are solutions but I certainly have opinions. I think a lot of the stuff we’re involved in, a lot of what you mentioned, are parental problems. Upbringing problems. I grew up in a horrendous neighborhood but I turned out okay because my mother, who was working two jobs, found a way to take care of me. She never complained. She just did it.
Men who beat women or women who beat men should be punched in the head on national TV. I really think people should be held responsible for their actions. I’m pretty much a liberal Democrat in most things in my life except when it comes to crime. Especially against women, because I have personal issues with that because of what happened to my sister and my grandmother. I really think people should be absolutely made to take responsibility for their lives.
I think society at certain levels should stop making excuses for bad behavior. You know and I know when something is wrong. Most people know when something is wrong yet they do it anyhow. I think, and again, this may not be politically correct, but I think if you’re caught on tape committing a crime, there shouldn’t even be a trial. You see people on tape doing something horribly bad. You know it’s them and they know it’s them. Yet they plead not guilty! (Laughter)
Click Here to listen to Micael's In Search Of Heroes Interview
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com
Ralph Zuranski: Get to know who you are and what you are doing and what you do best.
Michael Davis: If you are a phenomenal photographer, you can take any kind of pictures. One of the reasons comic books make great movies is because they are great stories. Frank Miller, phenomenal comic book artist and writer, isn't doing anything different with the movies. He is doing what he does. He is creating content. But now he is creating that content for a different medium.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you feel who are the real heroes today in our society who are not getting the rewards and recognition they deserve?
Michael Davis: Teachers. I can say that without even thinking. Teachers. Teachers. Teachers. The future of our country, the future of our planet, rests in teacher's hands and in their ability to reach young minds. I think clergymen also. One of the tenets of Christianity is that you bring other people to Christ; you give them the opportunity to come into that.
A lot of times you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to teach that lesson, because it gives them something to look up to. Being a rock star is very cool and glamorous, but being a teacher has real substance. I still remember my sixth grade teacher. She was phenomenal. I was a class clown, but she said, "You know, Michael, you do your work and I will give you five minutes just to be stupid.”
She didn't try to pigeonhole me. And I used to couldn't wait for that five minutes! I was able to cut up in class! I do a lot of lecturing and public speaking and I am a motivational speaker on some levels. I talk in front of just about everybody. And I know for a fact that my ability to do that now came from Mrs. Rabenow letting me have my five minutes. The hardest thing in the world when you are a kid is to get up in front of people, and I loved it! Yeah, I think teachers are it!
Ralph Zuranski: I think that is one of our problems with our world today. Schools don't allow kids to be individuals. They just try to look at every one of them as the same.
Michael Davis: The only reason I have any use for private schools, because I think private schools are kind of elitist and it is not fair, but it is because they really nurture individuality. One of the problems with people of color, in my opinion, is that their parents are usually so busy trying to work that quality time spent with one person at home is difficult.
Reading and writing is one thing, but it is the little things that really help you get ahead. Personality, the importance of not being late, the importance of dressing well, et cetera. Private schools really nurture that individuality. I almost taught at one, which would have changed me entirely as an artist if I had gone to teach at this school. It was making it really hard for me not to because it was such a great deal.
I just would have been a different person.
Ralph Zuranski: What do you think are the things parents can do that will help their children realize that they can be heroes and make positive impact on the lives of others?
Michael Davis: Listen to their kids. Talk to their kids. Be interested in what their kids do. Little things, like if a kid draws a picture and they put it on the refrigerator, that’s kind of cool for a kid. Just nurture what it is they’re doing, but be parents.
My mother was not my friend. My mother was not a disciplinarian but I knew for a fact that no meant no. She was not my friend. She was not my buddy. If I did something wrong I was in trouble.
I was a good kid, collectively speaking. My mother only hit me once. That’s all it took. (Laughter) That was it, dude! My mother hit me once and I knew I was never doing that again.
Mostly you can listen those kids and know that those kids are not dim. You see these nanny shows on TV, Ralph, like Nanny 911 or Super Nanny? Very seldom do you see a black or Asian kid on those shows. You don’t talk back to your mother, you respect your mother and father. Martin Luther King said, “If you’re a street cleaner be the very best darn street cleaner you can be.”
Respect yourself. Respect others around you. Respect others’ cultures, others’ religions. Once you get to the point where people understand you’re doing the best that you can, I think that makes you a hero. You’re doing the best that you can and you are acknowledging them in your space and you’re doing the things that people can go, “Oh.”
If someone can say, “You should look at what Michael Davis is doing,” if someone can say that to their kid, I would feel like a hero.
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Michael Davis: Actually, my philosophy is just a little bit different. I think it is important to surround yourself with people who support your dreams, yes, and I also think it is important to surround yourself with people who do what you do who are better than you. I think competition is probably the best teacher. When you see people and you see what they can do at their age, or they are the same and you see how much better somebody is than you, that makes you work harder than anything else.
One of the problems with art schools is a lot of the instructors are working professionals so they don't tell students everything they need to know, because they are training their own competition. If you are an illustrator, and I want to be an illustrator, why am I going to tell you all of my secrets so you can go out and possibly get my job?
So one of the things I tell kids is that their instructors have a responsibility up to a certain point, but your success is all on you. Your instructor is not responsible for your success. Your success is all in how hard you work when you leave that classroom, how hard you work when you leave your day job and go home to work in your studio.
There are so many actresses and actors who come to Hollywood, and they get these jobs working at restaurants and such. I know this one particular young lady, very smart, who has five or six jobs, and she still thinks she is going to be a big star, although she complains all the time. I told her one time, "You know, your job is your craft. These jobs that you have are to simply make sure you can eat. Your job is your craft. So if you are working 18 hours, maybe you should work 8 hours and do 16 hour perfecting your craft. But if you don't put in the time... Everybody who comes out here is pretty, or handsome, and can act. Everybody who comes to L.A. is that person. So you have to make sure you do due diligence, that your work ethic is far and above, because everybody is talented.”
Everybody is good at what they do. When you are from Larryville, Kentucky and you come out here, it is about making a living at doing what you do. You have to raise your game.
Ralph Zuranski: You think it is important to be unique and stand out in some special way? Different than everybody else?
Michael Davis: Yeah. Absolutely. I think there are three important things. Know your craft, if you are a writer, a photographer, an actor, a cinematographer, be excellent at what you do. Never stop learning. Know the history of your craft. Some of them, their entire knowledge is based on some comic book guy they like to draw. That is like saying the only movie star you like is Wesley Snipes, but you don't know who Humphrey Bogart is.
And three, show your individuality. A lot of people come out here and go on every single audition that they can. A lot of people come out here and think it is a numbers game. In some ways, it is a numbers game. If you go to a million auditions, you are bound to book a job. Let's say you audition for Martin Luther King. If you are a white guy, you are not getting that job.
But you get people who go to auditions who are looking for people who can swim and they go there hoping they can fake it. If actors and actresses would define what they do and say, "Okay, I am making these calls to these agencies and these casting directors and I am going on these auditions because these are the things I know I would be good at.” If they would define it as a business they would do a little better, yeah. To answer your question, which I forgot!
Ralph Zuranski: To be unique, to examine oneself in that area.
Michael Davis: A lot of people out here are actresses and I am lucky enough to work in the industry. I ask people, are you a singer who can act, or are you an actress who can sing? Don't be a singer/actress. Pick one. But this whole singer/actress thing, it is like jack of all trades, master of none. I have done a lot of different things. I have done TV, graphic design, illustration, comic books, but for me it is the same job.
I create content. That is what I do. I create content. TV, comic books, illustrations; this is all the same thing to me. Creating content. I am not a TV producer; I am a guy who creates content. That is what I do. And a lot of people, they want to be everything. "I am a singer; I am an actress; I am a ventriloquist; I am a juggler!” Nope. I create content.
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Ralph Zuranski: Sort of a reflection of real life.
Michael Davis: That is exactly what it is. The city that all this takes place in is called the City of New Hope, or New Hope City. There are different neighborhoods which reflect different ethnicities, just like any other city.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how important is it to have trusted friends or a mastermind group to bounce your ideas off?
Michael Davis: You know what? For the most part in my life I have been a loner. I am not a joiner, which is fascinating now that I work in Urban Ministries, because I actually love that company. The majority of my life I have made a living all by myself, sitting in a room and not having to deal with the whole corporate thing. They are such a great company that it is really like a family. It’s like a family business, it really is.
I generally don't share a lot of stuff with people. I will get feedback from the artists and writers at Urban Ministries, and the people who are working on this stuff. But I am not one to show cousins and people, “Hey, do you want to take a look?” I just don't do that. I really don't like talking about my work with people who do it, because there is a disconnect. But lately I have spent a lot of time talking to people, like my best friend runs the animations on BET, so we spend a lot of time talking about certain projects we might want to do together, bouncing things back and forth. That is actually how we created Milestone. We were sitting around thinking about what would be cool, and then we said, “Hey, why don't we make a company out of this?”
So on that end it is very, very important for the big picture, but for the little things, in my day to day business and creativity, it is pretty much done before anybody sees it. Then whatever feedback I get, I change it if I have to or I make notes. I am not about to get up and say to my wife when I finish something, "Hey, Baby, want to see this and tell me how great I am?” I am just not that guy.
Ralph Zuranski: I was thinking more along the lines of your mentorship program and how important it is that people who are successful mentor other people.
Michael Davis: Now that is a different question, Ralph. That is absolutely, extremely important. One of the great things about the mentor program is when you take these kids to a professional artist’s studios and you see the look on the faces of these kids when they see that you can do this. You can live like this. You can have an exciting life doing what you love.
Like one of the things I used to do when I lived in New York, we get a lot of resistance from inner city parents, because you want your kids to be doctors or lawyers, or to go to a trade school or something. But art? Oh, come on now, that is crazy!
What I would do is have a parents' night where I would invite all the parents to my house. They would come to my house and it was pretty nice, and they would see how I was living, and I would say "I made every single cent for everything that you see in this home as an illustrator, and I think your son or daughter is as talented if not more talented than I am. And they actually have a jump on what it is that they’re doing because I did not have anybody helping me at this level.”
I had people supporting me but I wasn't working with an illustrator, I wasn't working with a photographer, I wasn't working with a writer. I just had people telling me it was okay that I did it. And that is important. So a lot of these problems these young artists have, they go home and they are beat down by their friends and families. "Why are you doing that? You should go out and get a real job.”
I actually had a girlfriend tell me that. I won't say her name. I haven't seen her in 20 years. With my luck, she will read this. When I lost my job, I was teaching during the day, and at night I would work on my portfolio. When I lost my job and came home, instead of telling me "Don't worry about it, Baby, you will find another job,” she told me to give up this pipe dream of being an illustrator and get a real job. And the next day she came home with an application to the post office! It was not supportive. So it is extremely important.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think some of our worst enemies are family and friends that love us and don't want to see us get hurt?
Michael Davis: I won't say they are enemies, but I certainly will say they are some of our deterrents. Here's the thing. An enemy is out to do you harm. Family and friends really think they are helping you by telling you that you don't want to do that. They really think they are helping you. Enemies want to see you self‑destruct. But absolutely, one of the worst things to happen to you is to have someone you love and respect tell you that you can't do something.
And you know what? If you can't do it, you will eventually find out that that is not for you. But you should be the one making that decision. I am all for people giving other people constructive criticism, but at the end of that constructive criticism there should be these words: "You need to work harder so you can get better.” As opposed to, "You suck. Do something else."
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Do you think it is important to surround yourself with people who support your dream rather than people who try to crush it?
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Michael Davis: We were on the honor system back then.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Michael Davis: I did kind of atone for it. I was fortunate enough to help create the Comic Arts Festival out here in Los Angeles in conjunction with the LA Central Public Library. I was fortunate enough to do that and to help in that endeavor when they started.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are the heroes in your life now?
Michael Davis: Well, my cousin, William T. Williams will always be my hero. My mom is my hero. She is retired now but she’s lived a real life.
She is a real, real good person. A lot of people who would have faced what she faced would have just given up. Those are my personal heroes.
There are some people who I really, really admire. I don’t know if I would call them my heroes but I admire them. I like Bill Gates on a business level because Gates is a smart guy, and love him or hate him, I can’t deny his accomplishments.
The stuff that he’s doing with AIDS and the stuff that he’s doing with education is just phenomenal. To have that kind of bank it’s really easy to sit down and go give a couple of million dollars a year to charity because it’s a tax shelter. This guy is giving billions of dollars and he’s devoting the rest of his life to his main thrust, which is going to be helping humanity.
You create something like Microsoft and then you decide at the height of your career that you are going to now help humanity? That’s a hero! People are still taking shots at him for a variety of different reasons. You know, love him or hate him, business is one thing but he’s a real man. He’s a man.
Another person I admire was Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra back in the 40s and 50s, before the Civil Rights movement really got its national television push, was advocating equality for African Americans and Latinos. Frank Sinatra would refuse to play places if they didn’t let Sammy Davis, Jr. sit in the audience.
And you know, it was really 60s. There was something very sexy about being involved in the Civil Rights movement. It was the thing to do. He did it way before it started to become a big thing in this country.
One of the things I admire about him, Frank Sinatra was the biggest star in the world and he lost it all. He went back to playing saloons. Imagine selling out stadiums and then a couple of years later you’re playing saloons in Hoboken, New Jersey. But when he got back on top he never forgot his friends. Love him or hate him, he knew what he wanted. You knew what kind of person he was.
But basically my heroes are, like I’ve said, my cousin, my mom. From a business standpoint I love what Bill Gates is doing. Batman. (Laughter)
Ralph Zuranski: Well, let me ask you this question because you have been through some tough times. You’ve seen life in the inner cities. Would you say there is racism going in both directions in our society?
Michael Davis: Well, I live in Los Angeles, and I am a New Yorker, basically, though I live in L.A. I can tell you, when I drive my car in certain areas of the city, I am very conscious of the police because there is just a stigma out there that young black men driving really nice cars are out there doing something wrong. I don't know if that is racism or racial profiling.
When I first moved here I lived in Beverly Hills. I listen to a lot of audio books. I was listening to an audio book outside my house once, about two o'clock in the morning, and the cops came up behind me, put the lights on, asked me what I was doing. I told them I was listening to an audio book. They asked me where I was going, I said I was going home. They asked me where did I live and I said, “I live right there,” pointing to my door.
The guy said to me, and I will never forget this, “What do you do to live in that kind of a house?” And I made a really bad joke, because I though he would get the joke. He did not get the joke. He made me get out of my car and put the key in the door to make sure that that was my house.
Now, again, I don't know if that was racism as opposed to racial profiling, but I do believe that racism still exists in this country. I think it really is territorial and generational. I think it’s stupid. I think the single dumbest thing on the planet is religious wars and racism. I mean, come on. It is the stupidest thing. But on the flip side of that I think that today's kids really don't see color. Well, most kids don’t see color. You know, the media always gets blamed for certain things, but I think, taking a look at advertisements and TV shows, and you see more racial diversity.
You see more mixed couples in shows and in commercials, you see them in print ads, and they just put it out there. If you take a look at some of these dating shows, which are horrible, you will often see two people dating who come from different races and it is never brought up. In my opinion, and I am not a psychologist, if you just let it be, people also will at some point start to just let it be.
But yeah, to answer your question, I still think racism exists, and I think a lot of it is so generational and so bound up in people. I don't think the LAPD is racist, but just like the NYPD, a lot of these guys' dads were cops, and their grandfathers before them, and there are all these things. You get stories. “You know, once we had to break up this fight over on Crenshaw Boulevard and all these blacks …” You get this stuff embedded in you and after awhile you start making decisions based on what your forefathers have told you.
Now before I moved into the house I’m in now, I was in another one. And the first day I was there, this guy comes across the street and introduces himself. He is very nice and very pleasant. He is now one of my best friends. But when he introduced himself he asked me what I did, and I told him, and I asked him what he did and he said he worked for the city.
Later on when I was talking to my wife, I told her I just met the neighbor across the street, and I said I thought he was a cop. Now, he was a cop. And the reason he did not tell me he was a cop was because as an African American male in L.A., there are just these racial overtones, and he feels it. He is not responsible for it, but he feels it and is cautious about letting me in on that. I guess he thought I would figure it out.
Normally you don't say, "I work for the city.” You say you are a city planner, or "I work for sanitation,” or, “I work for the Port Authority.” He said, “I work for the city,” as opposed to, “I’m a cop.” He didn't want to start off on the wrong foot. He is literally one of my best friends now. I would take a bullet for him, he is such a great guy, so cool. But when he gets out of his patrol car, he feels that tension. I just think a lot of this is generational, Ralph.
But in the stuff we’re doing in the Guardian Line, if you take a look at the bible, the creative bible, not the Bible Bible. We've got maybe 300 characters and it is probably the most diverse universe in comics. It really is. It is very diverse. Urban Ministries is a Christian company. My books are really about good versus evil and doing the right thing. They are a Christian company, but in these books there are Jews and Muslims, we talk about racial, religious, political things.
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Michael Davis: He left me. He left my sister. My mom’s a hero. She never once thought of herself. She always took care of me and my sister first.
I hear a lot of this stuff about heroes, man, but a hero is not somebody who does something, dies and then is called a hero because he was really good at what he was doing. No, no, no. A hero is selfless.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. You had a pretty rough upbringing. Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind to help you deal with life?
Michael Davis: Johnny Gent.
Ralph Zuranski: That was your hero?
Michael Davis: I haven’t thought about that in years. His name was Johnny Gent. Me and him were boys. We were imaginary friends. I had a whole history about him.
Ralph Zuranski: Really? What did he do?
Michael Davis: I should put him in one of my books now that I think about it.
Ralph Zuranski: What were the qualities or attributes he had?
Michael Davis: He just did the right thing. I would have conversations with Johnny about not doing my homework. Johnny would say to me in my head, “You had better do your homework. If not, you’ll be in trouble tomorrow.”
Stuff like that. He just pretty much did the right thing, which is cool.
Ralph Zuranski: Was his last name G-E-N-T Gent?
Michael Davis: It was J-E-N-T because you know I went to public school and I couldn’t spell.
Ralph Zuranski: He was a gentleman, Johnny the Gentleman?
Michael Davis: Yeah, I never thought about that but yeah, Johnny the Gent. Yeah, G-E-N-T. He was just my imaginary very best friend who I haven’t thought of in years until you brought it up. I’m going to put him in a book!
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, you should other than Larry the guy that you used his library card.
Michael Davis: Larry White. (Laughter) To make up for my horrible indiscretion I always create a character in homage to Larry. I realize that that was wrong, wrong, wrong what I did.
Ralph Zuranski: You found his library card and then you just used it and never took the books back? Do you think the library came after that guy?
Michael Davis: It was a ridiculous amount of books! Back in those days they didn’t come after you. You could actually go into a library and ask for a different card and they would just give it to you.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
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Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. I know there are a lot of people who say that you should never go into debt to achieve your dreams. There are other people who say that you can utilize the capital of others to fulfill your dreams you will achieve it a lot faster than if you tried to finance it on your own.
Michael Davis: Well, I do a lot of work in education. I do a lot of work with the school systems. I do a lot of work with kids and I hear parents telling their kids not to take out student loans. I think that is the stupidest thing that you can tell somebody.
Take out the student loan. Go to college. Get a good job and pay the loan back or don’t take out a student loan, don’t go to college, starve and die.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. (Laughter)
Michael Davis: I’m debt free now but I pretty much had a lot of debt.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that by having that debt it helped you get to where you are now?
Michael Davis: Once again, I have a goal and I’ve had a goal for a pretty long time. In this day and age especially you can’t really go to college without getting some sort of financial aid. For people to make decisions who are 18 years old that they don’t want to take out a bank loan, to me it’s my personal opinion that’s just crazy.
The whole thing about the student loan is that it helps you get through school. Then when you get out of school and you get a job you pay it back. That’s a beautiful thing. The debt I’ve accumulated in my life is mostly that kind of debt, student loans and business things.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your definition of heroism?
Michael Davis: I think it’s the way you act and the good things you do when you don’t expect any rewards or when people aren’t looking. I think a real hero is somebody who makes a decision to do something to help someone else just because they can.
This may be a little bit controversial thing to say but not too long ago there was a sport, I won’t even mention the sport because you’ll know what I’m talking about, but let’s just say it was a very dangerous sport and a very big, big star was killed doing this. All of these people were calling him a hero.
That’s not a hero. The guy got paid a lot of money to do what he loved to do. That’s not a hero. A hero is the fireman who goes into a burning building who makes not a whole lot of money as a fireman. You’ve got to have a certain kind of drive to do that.
A hero is the guy who takes care of his family. A hero is the man who won’t desert his girlfriend if she gets into trouble. A hero is a man who takes care of his son. I don’t know who my father is but he ain’t no hero.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
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Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to believe your financial dreams will eventually become true or a reality?
Michael Davis: For me, money has never been a big deal. When my mother and my sister and I were living in one room, our big deal was getting into the projects. We were renting one room so we all slept in the same bed.
I guess I must have been around six and my sister was ten. That’s still pretty big for three people to be in the bed. We all slept in one bed and I remember when we got into the projects how that was like moving into Shangri La.
Even though we were dirt poor I never knew I was poor because I didn’t have any frame of reference. I didn’t know that people had big houses. I didn’t know any of that stuff.
It wasn’t until I got further along in school when people started buying Converses and Pro Keds and I went home and told my mom that I wanted sneakers for gym. She said, “Let Jim get his own sneakers.” I’ll never forget that. (Laughter) Thirty years later that still holds up.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Michael Davis: I really didn’t know that I was poor until I started making some money but money is easy to make if all you want to do is make money. That’s a quote from Citizen Kane. My main goal has never been about making money. Money is important but it’s never been my main goal.
If I have to think about making money on a personal level, now when I’m in business it’s really important to create a revenue stream so that the business can be sustained. I understand that. My philosophy in business is low overhead, high revenue. But as far as personal finances, I never really worried about that.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s valuable to know how much money you want to have in your banking account, and by when, by setting goals?
Michael Davis: Absolutely. It’s very valuable because again, in business and with your family if there is something that you want to do. Knowing that you’ve got $1,000 in your account and you want something that’s going to cost you a $100, that’s nice. That’s peace of mind.
You have to keep track of your finances and I would suggest that for people who are starting out. I have a money manager but I manage my money manager if you get my drift.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Michael Davis: I’m not going to be one of those guys who finds out his money manager has invested in seaweed off the coast of Jerusalem and now I’m penniless because I let somebody do that. I’m not that guy. I have a money manager specifically for my taxes to make sure that I don’t go to jail.
I’m not really interested in somebody else controlling my resources. But yes, knowing exactly how much money I have is important. I want to make sure that I get this across to any young people who are listening to it. It’s not how much money you have. It’s how much money you can control.
If you’ve got $15 dollars in the bank but you can call up somebody in business who has access to a lot more than that and they will let you utilize their funds for your project or whatever, that’s very powerful.
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Ralph Zuranski: That’s okay. It’s important to share what you believe because everybody wants to relate to somebody that has emotions and they’re not just a robot. They actually live, breathe and feel.
Everybody does. That’s just the true basis to life, especially in how they relate to others.
Michael Davis: I sort of went on really long about the guy who called me a fraud and I probably gave him way too much power by going on that long but I will say this. Those are the sort of things that you do if you are a lesser human being in terms of your self esteem.
My self esteem is very powerful. I think I’m all that and a ham sandwich. I tell kids, “You are all that and a ham sandwich.” Some of the biggest names in the comic book and animation industry have come out of my mentor program.
These kids are not kids anymore. They are grown men but they are absolutely the best at what they do. What we try to do in the program is instill in them a sense of self and a sense of purpose and their work with a sense of excellence.
I still get a little pissy faced over stupid things people say about me.
Ralph Zuranski: I think we all do. Do you experience service to others as a sense of joy?
Michael Davis: Oh, yeah. That’s why my mentor program, the biggest thrill that I get out of that is seeing somebody achieve something they didn’t think they could.
My favorite time of the year is Christmas because I just like doing stuff for people. I’m impossible to buy for because I collect toys. I collect GI Joe’s and Barbies but I want everybody to know out there that real men can collect Barbies.
It’s impossible to buy for me at Christmas time because first of all the GI Joe’s I collect are from the 60’s and you don’t want to spend that kind of bank and not know whether or not I have one or not. Second of all I’m pretty much at peace. I don’t need a whole lot of stuff, so buying for me is like, “Hey I appreciate it but you really didn’t have to.”
I get a lot of joy going out and buying stuff for my family and friends. I love that. I love the look on parents’ faces when their kid gets into a school that they didn’t think they could get into because they were tutored by people in my program or by me. They get this sense of excellence, this sense of self. So yeah; I really get a kick out of doing stuff for other people. I don’t know what it is. I just get a kick out of it.
Ralph Zuranski: When was the lowest point in your life? How did you change your life after winning a victory over the obstacles you were facing at that time?
Michael Davis: I touched on this a little before. When my sister died it would have been really easy for me to end up in jail or dead myself. My cousin, William T. William, that’s his name, and my mom, Jean, made it really, really, easy for me to overcome those obstacles, those dangers in my life.
They really took care of my not by preaching but by teaching. There was some preaching in there but it wasn’t over the top. It wasn’t, “You have to do this to be a better person!”
It was, “Here’s what you need to do. Here is how it’s going to affect you if you do this. Here is how we are going to help you.” That was the lowest point in my life but I was able to regain it so the path to victory, so to speak, was the support system in my life.
Ralph Zuranski: So, it was family members that helped give you the ability and the willpower to change things for the better.
Michael Davis: Right.
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Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose you?
Michael Davis: Ralph, to be perfectly frank, I’ve got a real hard time forgiving people who do stuff out of spite. I have a real hard time forgiving people who do stuff because they simply don’t like you.
There is a very, very famous artist who works in the comic book community who has called me a fraud because he thinks that if you’re going to work in comics you’ve got to draw comics for 20 years and do all the rest of this stuff to get your feet wet. You have to come up through the grind stone. Well, I didn’t do that. I create business plans and get it to people who make the decisions. I sidestepped all of that stuff.
Quite frankly, corporate America is not stupid. They do background checks and all of this stuff. A fraud by definition is somebody who can’t do but pretends to do what it is that they say to get you to buy into it so that you can give them money and then they abscond with the money. A fraud doesn’t do the job.
I pretty much do the job. That’s what I do. I get a deal. I do the job. I service the deal. I create this stuff.
It’s a little hard for me to forgive this guy because he is jealous of my success. Eventually I will but I’ve got to be honest, people who don’t like you because of your personality, I understand that. It’s human nature. But don’t tell other people that this is your opinion.
He made the mistake of telling one of my best friends that he thought I was a fraud. My best friend is like, “Hey, I’m his best friend. Don’t talk that way about him to me.” Most people understand that my over the top personality is because I’m just a real knucklehead. But he is really, really, really adamant and upset.
You don’t become president of a major corporation because you can’t do the job. Maybe one day I’ll forgive him but right now he’s on my hit list, figuratively speaking. (Laughter) Now people who oppose me? He hasn’t really done anything to oppose me because he’s not at a level where anything he says is important. He’s not sitting with people who make those decisions. He’s not sitting with the decision makers.
People that oppose me I don’t even think about. If you take time out of your day to try to figure out how to stop Michael Davis and Michael Davis is not even thinking about you? This is my philosophy about celebrities. You’ve got all of these TV shows on the air, talking about Paris Hilton and talking about Tom Cruise and all of this nonsense.
Somebody asked me as I was coming out of McDonald’s how I felt about Tom Cruise’s baby. They were interviewing people for a show. “How do you feel about the fact that Tom Cruise’s baby hasn’t been seen?” I said, “When you ask Tom Cruise how he feels about Michael Davis, I’ll comment on Tom Cruise. Other than that, what do I care?” (laughter)
I spend no time thinking about people who don’t affect me in a positive way. Lastly, if you do something to me which causes me harm but you had no intentions of doing that and if it’s a mistake, if you apologize, I will forgive you in a heartbeat if you own up to what it is that you have done. Quite frankly, Ralph Zuranski, you and I both know that there are people out there who do stupid things that affect other people.
Ralph: Boy, that’s true.
Michael Davis: They don’t think about it. They do it. Those people I can forgive because that’s not out of spite.
That’s not out of malicious intention. That’s simply because they made a mistake. I can forgive mistakes all day long.
Ralph: That’s true.
Michael Davis: Again, I’ve got to apologize for being so long winded.
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Ralph Zuranski: Were you willing to experience some discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?
Michael Davis: Every artist does. Every artist does. This may be cliché but if you work hard for something, you get a little hungry, it makes it all that much better when you do achieve whatever it is that you achieve.
There is no doubt if you have to work for something really hard when you achieve it, it feels better. I don’t like it. Nowadays I’m in less discomfort. (Laughter) Things are looking pretty good nowadays but earlier in my career it was extremely discomforting.
I never really thought of it as discomfort then. I thought of it as paying your dues. Yeah. You have to experience some kind of discomfort especially if you have a dream. If your dream is easy it’s not a dream.
A dream is something which by definition is something which is so phenomenal in your life that you are willing to make the sacrifices to achieve that dream. If you have a dream that comes easy that’s not a dream. That’s a thing to do. It’s not a dream.
Ralph Zuranski: True. It’s sort of a slam dunk.
Michael Davis: Take a look at old money people. There are families in this country who have extreme wealth. More often that not, maybe I shouldn’t say more often than not, very often, not every family but in a lot of these families you will see their kids having problems with drugs, their kids having problems in school, problems with authority. Money doesn’t really make you a better person.
I really think that with some of the suffering that you do, when you get that kind of money, when you get your money you tend to appreciate it. The last time my mother came to my home I was living in a loft in Tribeca in New York City. This loft is 5,000 square feet, 100 foot ceilings, beautiful, an absolutely stunning Architectural Digest loft. My mom comes over and checks my cabinets to make sure that I have enough to eat. (Laughter)
That’s grounded. I still handle my money as if I don’t have another job coming. A lot of people with real wealth would get in trouble because they don’t get it.
Ralph Zuranski: Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly?
Michael Davis: Now it’s beneficial to make decisions quickly because I pretty much know what I want. I have a goal. When you’re younger I think you really need to spend some time and think about it, but not too much.
There are a lot of people, especially kids of color but this applies to all kids, where they have an idea, they have written a screenplay, they’ve done some artwork, they’ve taken some pictures, they are doing something artistically but they don’t show it to anybody. They don’t show it to anybody. They just keep it in because they want to get better. They want to get better. They want to get better.
That’s a big problem for a lot of people because by the time they do show it to people there are all of these problems and they get discouraged because they’ve worked forever on it. I think taking too much time is troublesome but not taking enough time is troublesome also.
For me now, in this stage of my career I make my decisions very quickly because I’m sure of what it is that I want. I really don’t work with people who take their time doing stuff anymore. I just don’t. I’m just not that guy. I don’t have that kind of patience for working with people who simply take forever.
The creative process is one in which decisions should be made so that you can get to the next level as opposed to taking your time trying to figure out how to jumpstart something. My advice to younger people is to take some time to make sure it’s what you want to do. Don’t take too much time because the rest of the world will pass you on.
Ralph Zuranski: Once you make those decisions are you slow to revise or reverse them? Especially if they are important decisions?
Michael Davis: Nope. Clean it up fast, admit my mistakes and move on. I’m a paper trail guy and I think this is also important for kids to understand, especially people who want to get into the entertainment business. Write it down.
If it’s something that you have to do, write it down so even if it turns out that it’s a mistake you will have a written record of what you did wrong so you can go over it in your head or at least go over it so you know not to make that mistake again.
My philosophy is clean it up fast and go on to the next thing. Admit you’re wrong. If you need to apologize to somebody, apologize. Clean it up and go on to the next thing.
Ralph Zuranski: In the process of becoming successful and achieving your dreams how were you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
Michael Davis: My mom and my cousin made it really, really, really easy for me by supporting me the way that they did. I grew up in a place where if you walked out the door on a certain day, a certain time of the day, you could be shot. I never really appreciated that until I left because my mother set boundaries for me and my cousin allowed me to come and work with him on the weekends.
It kept me out of that whole Saturday night fever kind of going to parties and rival gang territories and hanging with the homeboys. It kept me away from all of that even though I was literally right in the middle of it, it never really dawned on me how dangerous it was until I got out because my support system was so good.
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Ralph Zuranski: Is optimism valuable?
Michael Davis: To me, my optimism has closed more deals. If you take a look at my resume I’ve done some huge, huge things. I’m not saying that to impress you or your listeners or readers.
I’m saying that to impress upon you that my optimism has gotten me those opportunities. If you can get into a room with somebody and you can express to them how excited you are about a certain opportunity, a certain deal, a certain anything, you will most likely get those people on your side.
Now, getting the deal and keeping the deal are two different things. If you are optimistic at that meeting and you have this great idea to change the world, if you are in that situation when you’ve been given the opportunity to change the world and you do not perform, well your optimism is pretty much done. My optimism is the one thing that I will never change.
Ralph Zuranski: That sounds important. Do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Michael Davis: I would probably maintain my sense of humor in the face of a firing squad. I find most things funny. Given my upbringing and the tragedies which have happened in my life, I thank God that I have this kind of sense of humor. The other side would just be too depressing to even deal with.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and your dreams?
Michael Davis: I think that’s very important especially if you are in the field like I am in terms of being a writer, being a creator, being anyone who has to do anything which involves you sitting alone in a room and trying to create something. I can not stress to you the importance of the ability to just be yourself in those moments.
I’m not smarter than anyone else. I am cuter. (Laughter) You’ve got to take the time to really deal with yourself. You know, sometimes your subconscious is telling you stuff that you need to listen to.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas? Do you think it takes courage to pursue new ideas?
Michael Davis: I think at this point in my career, Ralph, I don’t know if it’s courage. I don’t know at this point in my career if it’s courage but pretty much how I’ve made my living since I was 18 has been coming up with stuff that no one else is doing and selling it to someone who has the means and the budget for me to see it through first as an illustrator, then as the owner of a company, then as the head of a division for a major company, yadda, yadda, yadda.
I don’t know. I think it takes courage coming out of an environment where everyone is telling you, “Hey.” If you want to sit down and be an artist and you’re living in the inner city and being an artist is not the coolest thing in the world, that takes courage. I was lucky enough to have my mom and my cousin to support me when I was living in the projects wanting to be an artist and everybody else was outside doing things which weren’t good.
For me I think it took courage when I was younger. Now, I think it takes fortitude. I just think it takes drive. You’ve got to know what your goal is. I know exactly what my goal is and a lot of young people they don’t know but once you figure out what you want it’s a lot easier to get there.
So, courage for me, I don’t know if I was that brave because I had a lot of support even though I grew up in a really rotten area. But I can see how it would take courage for a lot of young people out there if they don’t have that support. That is another one of the reasons why I am so adamant about telling kids that they can do this.
Ralph Zuranski: Didn’t you grow up fatherless and weren’t your grandma and your sister killed?
Michael Davis: My grandmother and my sister were both taken by violence and I was raised by my mother, my sister and my grandmother. The thing that I had to learn really fast is I lost my grandmother and my sister but my mother lost her first born child and her mother. I had to pretty much grow up fast but it would have been really easy for me to slide the wrong way.
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Ralph Zuranski: Is optimism valuable?
Michael Davis: To me, my optimism has closed more deals. If you take a look at my resume I’ve done some huge, huge things. I’m not saying that to impress you or your listeners or readers.
I’m saying that to impress upon you that my optimism has gotten me those opportunities. If you can get into a room with somebody and you can express to them how excited you are about a certain opportunity, a certain deal, a certain anything, you will most likely get those people on your side.
Now, getting the deal and keeping the deal are two different things. If you are optimistic at that meeting and you have this great idea to change the world, if you are in that situation when you’ve been given the opportunity to change the world and you do not perform, well your optimism is pretty much done. My optimism is the one thing that I will never change.
Ralph Zuranski: That sounds important. Do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
Michael Davis: I would probably maintain my sense of humor in the face of a firing squad. I find most things funny. Given my upbringing and the tragedies which have happened in my life, I thank God that I have this kind of sense of humor. The other side would just be too depressing to even deal with.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and your dreams?
Michael Davis: I think that’s very important especially if you are in the field like I am in terms of being a writer, being a creator, being anyone who has to do anything which involves you sitting alone in a room and trying to create something. I can not stress to you the importance of the ability to just be yourself in those moments.
I’m not smarter than anyone else. I am cuter. (Laughter) You’ve got to take the time to really deal with yourself. You know, sometimes your subconscious is telling you stuff that you need to listen to.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas? Do you think it takes courage to pursue new ideas?
Michael Davis: I think at this point in my career, Ralph, I don’t know if it’s courage. I don’t know at this point in my career if it’s courage but pretty much how I’ve made my living since I was 18 has been coming up with stuff that no one else is doing and selling it to someone who has the means and the budget for me to see it through first as an illustrator, then as the owner of a company, then as the head of a division for a major company, yadda, yadda, yadda.
I don’t know. I think it takes courage coming out of an environment where everyone is telling you, “Hey.” If you want to sit down and be an artist and you’re living in the inner city and being an artist is not the coolest thing in the world, that takes courage. I was lucky enough to have my mom and my cousin to support me when I was living in the projects wanting to be an artist and everybody else was outside doing things which weren’t good.
For me I think it took courage when I was younger. Now, I think it takes fortitude. I just think it takes drive. You’ve got to know what your goal is. I know exactly what my goal is and a lot of young people they don’t know but once you figure out what you want it’s a lot easier to get there.
So, courage for me, I don’t know if I was that brave because I had a lot of support even though I grew up in a really rotten area. But I can see how it would take courage for a lot of young people out there if they don’t have that support. That is another one of the reasons why I am so adamant about telling kids that they can do this.
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Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Michael Davis: Lately, quite a lot. What I do is very, very solitary. I’m sitting at a computer most of the day. Most of the stuff that I have to do involves—it’s twofold. It involves the creation of the content, then there’s the business of the business.
Oft times when you really want to be doing something creative you can’t because you’ve got to tend to the business. What prayer has done for me is it has calmed me down. It’s really like having a conversation with someone who you know is always going to support you. So lately quite a lot.
Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
Michael Davis: My family. I hate anything that has to do with injustice. Living in Los Angeles you often see things which are less than, I’m looking for the right word here Ralph, which are less than fair. I think that’s the right word. I hate seeing that. I hate seeing people who are taken advantage of.
There is a whole class of human beings out there who simply don’t have the infrastructure to combat people who are, for lack of a better word, who are just mean. I think if my family was threatened, if my family was involved, I would most likely get involved in a moralistic fight over injustice or bigotry or anything like that. I think that’s something that I would be willing to give my life for.
Ralph Zuranski: Are your actions and goals consistent with your beliefs?
Michael Davis: Absolutely. I sleep very well at night knowing that.
Ralph Zuranski: Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?
Michael Davis: Well, for me that’s a funny question because I have an extremely over the top personality. You are actually getting a very calm Michael Davis. There are three types of people in the world, so to speak, when it comes to me in terms of my life. There are people who love me. There are people who hate me.
Whether you love me or you hate me everybody respects me because I can do what I say I’m going to do. I have an over the top, in your face, not shy about it personality. One of the things that I like to do, and this is not my quote, this is attributed to Yogi Berra. My thing is it’s not bragging if you can do it.
If in fact you’ve done something remarkable, and I’ve had some pretty good things happen in my life, I think you should be as loud as you can about that and bring as many young people into that fold to let them know that yes, this is possible for you also. I did this. I grew up in the projects. This is what happened to me but this is what I have achieved.
I’m probably not as smart as you are. I’m probably not as astute as you are but this is what I have achieved. This is what you can achieve also. I’m an in your face guy. I’m like, bam, bam, bam, bam, in your face.
My highly charged emotions I wear right on my sleeve. Most people get it. Some people don’t but hey, I don’t eat spinach. Some people like it.
Ralph Zuranski: Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Michael Davis: Yes. There is one thing that I love. What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. I think that it’s absolutely true.
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Ralph Zuranski: I wanted to go ahead and ask you some of the heroes’ questions. I have asked quite a few heroes in the different areas of the military and the Internet industry and in nonprofit organizations. I wanted to ask you what do you want out of life, in ten words or less.
Michael Davis: Oh, that’s easy. Peace of mind and to make a difference and do some good.
Ralph Zuranski: What is the dream or vision that sets the course of your life?
Michael Davis: Realistically I would like to have some kind of impact on the lives of young people. That’s pretty much why I create universes that are filled with kids of all ages and ethnicity because it’s great for kids to recognize themselves when they see something on television or they read about themselves in a book. So, that’s pretty much my dream, to have an impact on the lives of young people.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?
Michael Davis: Extremely important. I would say as a business person it’s the most important. I feel too many people get sidetracked and there is an old saying about being a jack of all trades and a master of none.
I’m one of those tunnel vision guys. Step one, step two, step three, step four. So it’s extremely important to stay focused on your goal.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you follow your hunches and intuitions?
Michael Davis: Absolutely. I want to have complete dominion over my life. I want to be the person who decides what I do, how I do it and when I do it. It’s taken me a while to get to that point but pretty much now my hunches and intuitions are my life’s blood.
When you come to Hollywood you have agents, managers and entertainment lawyers. A lot of those people are set up to say, “No.” A lot of those people are set up to try to discourage you because it doesn’t benefit what they do in terms of making money off of your labor. I absolutely follow my intuition and hunches.
Ralph Zuranski: What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and your decisions?
Michael Davis: Excellence in what I do. I want to be the guy who absolutely, when you look at the work that I produce and you look at the things that I’ve done, you can love me or hate me. But I would like to be respected for being original and really being good at what I do.
That really drives my philosophy especially in business and in life. I like to be the best friend that I can be to people. I like to be the best relative. I like to be the best neighbor, although don’t ask me for sugar because I don’t want you coming to my house.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Michael Davis: Well, that’s easy. Do unto others. I think that real morals are what you do when no one is looking. I think it’s real easy to pretend to be a certain way.
I’m a very simple person. I like to go to sleep knowing I’ve made the right decisions that day, knowing that I haven’t done or said anything that would cause anyone any pain, knowing that I made decisions based on honesty and truth as opposed to based on personal gain. Sometimes it’s easier to say no than it is to say yes but if no is what you need to say you need to say it and be okay with your decision.
You can not regulate morality which is what a lot of people in government try to do. I think the best way to have a more moral society is to lead by example. Parents and people in the forefront, especially people who have influences on kids like artists, hip hop artists, rock and roll artists, heavy metal artists, it’s real easy to get caught up in that stuff but you’ve got to stick to what it is that you know.
What I know is that it’s easier for me to be a morally upstanding human being as opposed to someone who is out for self. Sorry about being so long winded.
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Ralph Zuranski: Hi. This is Ralph Zuranski. I’m on the phone with Michael Davis who is the creator of a new comic book line; The Guardian Line.
It’s a comic based series that teaches Biblical principles to kids of all ages and also of all ethnic types. So, Michael, how are you doing today?
Michael Davis: I’m good Ralph. How are you?
Ralph Zuranski: If you could, explain a little bit about your life and how you got into producing faith based comics.
Michael Davis: I was actually trained as an illustrator when I was a kid. I went to the High School of Art and Design in New York as well as the Pratt Institute. As an artist you tend to always be looking for the next job, so to speak.
One day I realized that I was on the wrong side of the business. It was an advertising company who was using my art to do a calendar. They were paying me $5,000 a painting, which at the time in my twenties was a lot of money, but they were being paid a million dollars for the calendar. I realized that and the calendar was all of my art work. I realized that I was on the wrong side of the business.
I started a company called Bad Boy Studios and that’s before P. Diddy, a puppy. After that, through a partnership with three friends of mine, a company called Milestone Media.. Milestone Media became the biggest African American comic book company on the planet. From that I became president and CEO of Motown Animation and Film Works, of their television and film division.
At that time I really wanted to find properties which would resonate to African Americans so I started looking at the black church. I wasn’t able to pull it off back then but years later I met a guy named Jeffrey Wright who runs Urban Ministries. We started talking. We connected a few years after that conversation and that is pretty much how the faith based comics came to be.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s pretty amazing. It seems that you have had quite the success in a lot of different areas. You have an animated comic show that’s one of the best watched shows. It’s called Static Shock. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Michael Davis: Static Shock started on the WB about five years ago. I think last year we moved to the Cartoon Network. It’s an extremely highly rated show. We are very, very proud of it.
Actually the original Static Bible, which I wrote, was based on my life as a teenager. It’s pretty true to that bible, which is very exciting. I’m very proud of that show.
"Jeff Wright, the President of Urban Ministries, The Largest Independent African American Media Firm In the World, Joined Forces With Michael Davis, One of the Greatest Artists and Writers In the World Today, To Create A Faith-Based Comic Book Series, Called The Guardian Line, That Teaches Value Principles Based On God's Wisdom Contained in the Bible"
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Carl Jeffrey Wright is the fifth of seven sons born to Alvin and Lottie Wright. His parents were childhood neighbors in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Both individually and as a couple, Jeff’s mom and dad defied every perceived “limitation” and inspired the respect and trust of many, including their children. Their legacy is the compass that has guided Jeff through the best schools and several highly successful careers until he reached his latest destination—his calling, UMI.
Lottie Wright was one of eleven children, the daughter of a preacher. At the tender age of eight, she was run over by a train. After she nearly bled to death, her family praised God for preserving her life and accepted the awful truth—Lottie had lost her left leg and her left arm below the elbow. The future a poor, black double amputee could hope to enjoy in 1940s America was dismal, at best. But Lottie was extraordinary. Great things were bound to happen.
She and Alvin married in 1941. In the early fifties, the family, which now included their first son, moved to Washington, D.C. Alvin got a job at the Supreme Court building. Since he had not completed high school, he began his career in Washington as a maintenance worker. As he served faithfully and absorbed the daily routines of the Supreme Court, he received the notice of powerful men. Alvin became a personal assistant to Chief Justice Earl Warren. After 25 years of service to the Court, he retired from the position of Conference Clerk—the only trusted person admitted to the conference room as Supreme Court Justices privately discuss a case.
While Alvin flourished at the Supreme Court, Lottie’s loving, no-nonsense approach to discipline shaped the character of the couple’s seven sons. “Mom could spank us just as hard as Dad,” Jeff recalls. “I was 10 years old before I realized that she was “handicapped.” That word—“handicapped”—was never used in the Wright household. Lottie wore a prosthetic leg, but she managed to do everything required of a mother without the use of her left hand. Lottie’s boys had the best example of what hard work, determination and intelligence could accomplish. “If a certain goal could be achieved by any living human being, we knew we could achieve it,” Jeff remembers.
While she was pregnant with son number seven, Lottie completed her Masters of Library Science. She was Jeff’s school librarian and eventually held a position at the Central Library in Washington, D.C. During a library career spanning 20 years, she became one of the founders and served on the board of the D.C. chapter of Reading Is Fundamental and served on the black caucus of the American Library Association. “America is filled with two kinds of people—those who read and those who watch [TV]. My mother raised readers,” Jeff states with pride.
Jeff attended St. Albans School, the elite National Cathedral high school in Washington, D.C., where his classmates were the sons of senators and high-ranking D.C. personnel. He chose to leave the school in 10th grade and returned to the public school system “to be with the black kids again.” Upon returning, he discovered he was hopelessly ahead of the curriculum. After completing a few night classes, he graduated from high school at age 16. He started college immediately at Fisk University, where he served as student body president and graduated with honors at age 20. While attending Fisk, he spent the summers working as a custodian at the Supreme Court building. “I know for a fact that I am the only lawyer in America who has cleaned every toilet in the Supreme Court,” Jeff laughs. One day while he was vacuuming the carpet in the great hall, Jeff decided to pursue a law degree.
He was accepted to Georgetown Law School. During the summer following his freshman year, he began working for the airline industry. He had the opportunity to attend the deregulation hearings taking place at the time, and he found the whole process intriguing. He discovered that the business world interested him far more than the thought of becoming a lawyer and contemplated quitting law school. But his parents and the dean of Georgetown Law School encouraged him to finish what he started, so at age 23 he earned his law degree and immediately took a position with TWA’s marketing department in New York.
When he arrived in New York, he discovered that “corporate America had fallen in love with the MBA.” He was carrying the wrong degree. While waiting on an offer from TWA’s law department, he decided to apply for scholarships, hoping to acquire the obligatory MBA. He received two offers—one from the law department and one from Johnson & Johnson’s scholarship fund. He chose to leave TWA and in 1980 was awarded the Johnson & Johnson Leadership Award, the most substantial fellowship for minorities available at that time, which paid for his two year MBA in finance from Columbia University. As a cash-strapped graduate student, Jeff reconnected with the faith in Jesus that his parents had instilled in him as a young boy.
The next fifteen years were a season of spiritual and professional growth for Jeff. He worked first for Johnson & Johnson then for health care giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was vice president of corporate development (mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances) for their consumer businesses. In 1988, Jeff decided to become directly involved in ministry, so he enrolled in seminary and was licensed to preach in the Baptist church. He considered leaving his job to be a full-time minister until he saw a film produced by UMI, a company that produces media for the African-American church market, about two inner-city friends who had chosen different paths in life—one as a drug dealer, and one as the writer of Christian hip-hop music. “UMI was so far ahead of the curve,” Jeff recalls. “Here was a way to use media in a compelling way to reach young people with the saving message of Christ. I had to work with these people.” He called the number on the back of the tape and asked to speak with the company’s president, Dr. Melvin Banks, Sr. He was shocked to discover that a small company was producing such great work. Dr. Banks invited Jeff to serve as a consultant for UMI and then to join its board of directors. Jeff resisted a full-time commitment to UMI because his career at Bristol-Myers Squibb had really taken off.
In 1994, Jeff finally made the big leap of faith. He left a powerful, unbelievably high-paying job
(with stock options!) in New York to serve as UMI’s president and CEO. The company has nearly tripled in size during Jeff’s tenure. “When you consider my parents and my grandfather, the preacher, it seems obvious that I would eventually run a company that publishes Sunday school material,” Jeff muses. But his mission is not limited to reaching the African-American church alone. “We have seen that Black culture sets trends. It has become the global youth culture. The media delights in glorifying the underbelly of Black culture and presenting it as representative of the culture at-large. I want to spread the message of faith through the best that Black culture has to offer,” Jeff emphatically states. Toward accomplishing this goal, UMI will be releasing The Guardian Line, a new series of comics created by established comic book artists that will engage young readers in stories that incorporate UMI’s biblical worldview, in September 2006.
Jeff serves on the boards of Americans United for Life, Fuller Theological Seminary, Urban Outreach Foundation and Evangelical Christian Publisher’s Association (ECPA). He also serves as board president and CEO of Circle Y Ranch (Bangor, Michigan), one of the few African-American owned and operated Christian camps in the country.
The father of three and one more on the way, Jeff and his wife currently reside in the Chicago area.
For more information, contact
The B & B Media Group, Inc.
800-927-0517 Ext. 104
Read the Important Information about The Guardian Line Comic Book Series Below----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepare to Witness the Dawn of a Comic Book Revolution!
The joining of two publishing superpowers promises to create a new concept in comic book development that appeals to more young readers than ever before.
Chicago, IL—UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc), the largest independent African American media firm providing positive content for the urban market, announces one of the biggest launches in comics history for the young multicultural audience—The Guardian Line. This series is the superbly styled result of the combined resources of UMI and creator of The Guardian Line Michael Davis.
“We have been developing this concept for two years, committing all the necessary time and resources to perfecting it. We are releasing a product designed to connect with a large and diverse audience,” states president of UMI, Carl Jeffrey Wright. “This series of comics will invite young readers to become part of a universe filled with memorable and inspiring characters who look just like them. Teenagers and kids in America face daily choices between good and evil. As The Guardian Line keeps them highly entertained and coming back for more, it will nudge them toward the good.”
Michael Davis is the co-creator of the Emmy winning animated show Static Shock! and one of the founders of the Black comic publishing phenomenon, Milestone Media. Davis has been looking for the perfect opportunity to produce a positive, multicultural comics series for ten years. He first conceived the idea in 1996 while serving as president and CEO of Motown Animation and Filmworks.
“American youth culture is an expression of Black culture,” Davis states. “Black culture determines trends in clothing, music and language for young people from every cultural background in this country and worldwide. These comics are not just for black kids. They are universally appealing, both to urban readers who will recognize the realistic portrayal of their world and to affluent suburban hip-hop fans who haven’t experienced that world but are nevertheless drawn to the trends it creates.”
For over 35 years UMI has been the trusted source for teaching materials and inspirational book titles in the African American church market and is the exclusive or semi-exclusive publisher for several different church denominations. They are poised to reach a network of 40,000 churches and 1,500 bookstores with The Guardian Line—a larger audience than that of even Michael’s own Milestone Media. The Guardian Line will be available to the general market through Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., the world’s largest distributor of English-language comics and related merchandise.
The Guardian Line includes four separate series (Joe and Max, The Seekers, Genesis 5, and Code) targeting specific age groups. All the stories take place in the fictional New Hope City and feature the three essentials fans have come to expect in a Michael Davis universe: strong African American characters, a multicultural cast (some with extraordinary powers) and a guy named Larry. The focus of each series is the battle between characters chosen to fight evil, in the form of New Hope City’s nefarious nemesis, Steven Dark. While UMI wields its considerable experience to tailor the positive content to fit the needs of its market, Michael and a team of experienced A-list comic creators have crafted a comic universe that will surpass the expectations of seasoned comic readers who may be skeptical of a faith-based series. UMI’s recruiting of the best talent in the comic industry infuses The Guardian Line with the hip legitimacy necessary to connect with young readers and is in character with the company’s reputation for producing graphically superior, relevant content.
The unveiling of The Guardian Line is scheduled for September, 2006. The first series released, targeting the teen segment, will be Joe and Max, based on Michael’s experiences in elementary school. Well, Michael didn't exactly fight evil billionaires or have a big, buff Guardian Angel to keep him out of trouble, but it would have been really cool if he did. Additional titles will release weekly. The comics will then be released bi-monthly for a total of six issues of each series per year.
The Guardian Line
Launching September 2006
$2.99 per issue
Click Here to listen to Micael's In Search Of Heroes Interview
"Michael Davis Is One of the World Greatest Illustrators, Comic Book Artists and Graphic Designers Who Has Invested Thousands of Hours Over Many Years In His Artwork to Create Valuable Graphical Content for His Own Projects and Those of His Clients, Especially Urban Ministries, Who He Is Working With To Create A Faith-Based Comic Book Series, Called The Guardian Line, That Teaches Value Principles Based On God's Wisdom Contained in the Bible"
For his entire adult life, Michael Davis has made a living off of his imagination. As the creator of groundbreaking comic books, television shows and reading programs, he has constructed multiple cities, devised dozens of intriguing characters and introduced the kind of stories that leave audiences longing for more. Michael is well known as the co-creator of Static Shock!, the Emmy award-winning WB & Cartoon Network show about his life. His many clients have been as diverse as the multicultural casts he has created. He is an entrepreneur, teacher and mentor who snaps up opportunities to give others a chance at success.
When Michael was a fourth grader in Queens, NY, he was reading on only a second grade level. That summer his mother gave him some comic books to read “to keep him out of trouble.” This one wise act tipped the scales of Michael’s life toward success. When he didn’t understand a word, she pointed him toward the dictionary and wished him luck as he figured things out on his own. By the time the next school year started, Michael was a fifth grade comic book fanatic reading at a ninth grade level. His love of comics motivated him to pursue training as an illustrator at the High School of Art and Design and the Pratt Institute. In 1987 Michael’s talent and creative potential attracted the attention of Piranha Press, an imprint of the world’s largest comic book publisher, DC Comics. He was chosen to illustrate ETC, the very first book project from Piranha. ETC established new frontiers in the business of comic book art.
Michael founded his media company, Bad Boy Studios, that same year (yes, before P. Diddy!). The studio’s most notable achievement was its mentor program, another of Michael’s creations inspired by his childhood experiences. “I am every poor black kid in America,” he says. “I grew up fatherless, and both my grandmother and my sister were taken by violence. If my mother and my cousin William hadn’t been there tomentor me, I would either be in jail or be dead today.” Michael’s desire to provide that same support for other inner-city kids has produced a nationally recognized mentor program in which 100% of alumni have built careers in the media industry. In 1997, Mentor Magazine named Michael “Mentor of the Year.”
Michael’s position on the crest of big company comics’ freshest wave launched his next unique venture, Milestone Media. Michael and three partners founded Milestone in 1992. Milestone did the biggest joint venture deal in the history of comics when they cut a distribution deal with Time Warner, the first ever between the media giant and a Black-owned company. Milestone was a comic book revolution that spawned a full-scale multicultural universe of heroes and villains and good stories well told. The new universe of characters was distributed alongside Time Warner’s DC Comics. Since its debut in 1993, Milestone has sold well over 10 million copies worldwide, establishing itself as the biggest Black comic book publisher in the world.
In 1994 Michael was approached by Motown Records to run its new animation and film division. As president and CEO of Motown Animation and Filmworks, Michael created and placed into development television shows at Disney, ABC, WB and Fox. Static Shock! began its highly successful run in 2000 and is currently the highest rated animated show on the Cartoon Network. It’s the first and only Saturday morning cartoon show to feature a teenage African American superhero.
Reading comic books was key to Michael’s academic success. Inspired to motivate students who struggle with literacy, he created The Action Files (Simon and Schuster), the only comics based curriculum/reading program taught in any school system. Michael recognizes that if a child doesn’t learn to read, opportunities for that child’s success vanish. His passion for literacy prompted the creation of the Magic Media reading program, a joint venture with Magic Johnson Enterprises, and the co-founding of The Comic Arts Festival, an annual event in Los Angeles that promotes literacy.
Michael describes his latest project as “by far the greatest thing I’ve ever done—this is my dream job.” Since 1996, when he was at Motown, Michael has dreamed of creating a positive, faith-based comics series. That moment has finally arrived. Michael has conceived a new universe of characters and content for the Black mega publisher Urban Ministries, Inc, a company with nearly forty years of experience in the African American church market. Set to debut in September 2006, The Guardian Line will include all the hallmarks of a Michael Davis creation: strong African American characters, a multicultural cast and a guy named Larry. In February 2006 UMI named Michael VP of their new media division. His partnership with UMI is a joining of two market leaders in their respective industries. The Guardian Line will be the biggest launch in comics’ history for African American content—eclipsing even Michael’s own Milestone Media!
Michael was twice named to Hero Illustrated’s “100 Most Powerful People in Comics.” He has been profiled in Black Enterprise, the New York Daily News, the New York Times, CNN, BET, MTV, The Today Show, Mentor Magazine and the Comics Buyers Guide, to name a few. In May 2004 Michael was awarded his PhD from the Hollywood International Institute. He is also a highly entertaining and much-requested lecturer who has served as a keynote speaker for The New York United Federation of Art Teachers, The Partnership for a Drug Free America, the Urban League and the FBI.
Prepare to Witness the Dawn of a Comic Book Revolution!
The joining of two publishing superpowers promises to create a new concept in comic book development that appeals to more young readers than ever before.
Chicago, IL—UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc), the largest independent African American media firm providing positive content for the urban market, announces one of the biggest launches in comics history for the young multicultural audience—The Guardian Line. This series is the superbly styled result of the combined resources of UMI and creator of The Guardian Line Michael Davis.
“We have been developing this concept for two years, committing all the necessary time and resources to perfecting it. We are releasing a product designed to connect with a large and diverse audience,” states president of UMI, Carl Jeffrey Wright. “This series of comics will invite young readers to become part of a universe filled with memorable and inspiring characters who look just like them. Teenagers and kids in America face daily choices between good and evil. As The Guardian Line keeps them highly entertained and coming back for more, it will nudge them toward the good.”
Michael Davis is the co-creator of the Emmy winning animated show Static Shock! and one of the founders of the Black comic publishing phenomenon, Milestone Media. Davis has been looking for the perfect opportunity to produce a positive, multicultural comics series for ten years. He first conceived the idea in 1996 while serving as president and CEO of Motown Animation and Filmworks.
“American youth culture is an expression of Black culture,” Davis states. “Black culture determines trends in clothing, music and language for young people from every cultural background in this country and worldwide. These comics are not just for black kids. They are universally appealing, both to urban readers who will recognize the realistic portrayal of their world and to affluent suburban hip-hop fans who haven’t experienced that world but are nevertheless drawn to the trends it creates.”
For over 35 years UMI has been the trusted source for teaching materials and inspirational book titles in the African American church market and is the exclusive or semi-exclusive publisher for several different church denominations. They are poised to reach a network of 40,000 churches and 1,500 bookstores with The Guardian Line—a larger audience than that of even Michael’s own Milestone Media. The Guardian Line will be available to the general market through Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., the world’s largest distributor of English-language comics and related merchandise.
The Guardian Line includes four separate series (Joe and Max, The Seekers, Genesis 5, and Code) targeting specific age groups. All the stories take place in the fictional New Hope City and feature the three essentials fans have come to expect in a Michael Davis universe: strong African American characters, a multicultural cast (some with extraordinary powers) and a guy named Larry. The focus of each series is the battle between characters chosen to fight evil, in the form of New Hope City’s nefarious nemesis, Steven Dark. While UMI wields its considerable experience to tailor the positive content to fit the needs of its market, Michael and a team of experienced A-list comic creators have crafted a comic universe that will surpass the expectations of seasoned comic readers who may be skeptical of a faith-based series. UMI’s recruiting of the best talent in the comic industry infuses The Guardian Line with the hip legitimacy necessary to connect with young readers and is in character with the company’s reputation for producing graphically superior, relevant content.
The unveiling of The Guardian Line is scheduled for September, 2006. The first series released, targeting the teen segment, will be Joe and Max, based on Michael’s experiences in elementary school. Well, Michael didn't exactly fight evil billionaires or have a big, buff Guardian Angel to keep him out of trouble, but it would have been really cool if he did. Additional titles will release weekly. The comics will then be released bi-monthly for a total of six issues of each series per year.
The Guardian Line
Launching September 2006
$2.99 per issue
www.TheGuardianLine.com
www.urbanministries.com