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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? I'm good Ralph. How are you?
If you could, explain a little bit about your life and how you got into producing faith
based comics. 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. 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? 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. 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. Oh, that's easy. Peace of mind and to make
a difference and do some good. What is the dream or vision that sets the
course of your life? 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.
How important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?
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. Do you follow your hunches and intuitions?
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. What specific philosophy or philosophies guide
your life and your decisions? 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. What is your perspective on goodness, ethics
and moral behavior? 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. What place does the power of prayer have in
your life? 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.
What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?
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. Are your actions and goals consistent with
your beliefs? Absolutely. I sleep very well at night knowing
that. Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions
about achieving your goals? 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. Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks,
misfortunes and mistakes? Yes. There is one thing that I love. What
doesn't kill you will make you stronger. I think that it's absolutely true.
Is optimism valuable? 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.
That sounds important. Do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?
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. Do you take time out of your day to feed your
subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and your dreams?
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. That's true. Do you have the courage to pursue
new ideas? Do you think it takes courage to pursue new ideas?
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.
Didn't you grow up fatherless and weren't your grandma and your sister killed?
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. Were you willing to experience some discomfort
in the pursuit of your dream? 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. True. It's sort of a slam dunk.
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.
Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly? 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. Once you make those decisions are you slow
to revise or reverse them? Especially if they are important decisions?
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. In the process of becoming successful and
achieving your dreams how were you able to overcome your doubts and fears?
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. Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend
and oppose you? 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. 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.
Again, I've got to apologize for being so long winded.
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. 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. I think we all do. Do you experience service
to others as a sense of joy? 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.
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?
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.
So, it was family members that helped give you the ability and the willpower to change
things for the better. Right.
How important is it to believe your financial dreams will eventually become true or a reality?
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.
Yeah. 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. 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?
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.
Yeah. 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.
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. 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. Yeah. (Laughter)
I'm debt free now but I pretty much had a lot of debt.
Do you think that by having that debt it helped you get to where you are now?
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. What is your definition of heroism?
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. Yeah.
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.
Yeah. You had a pretty rough upbringing. Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind
to help you deal with life? Johnny Gent.
That was your hero? 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. Really? What did he do?
I should put him in one of my books now that I think about it.
What were the qualities or attributes he had? 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.
Was his last name G-E-N-T Gent? It was J-E-N-T because you know I went to
public school and I couldn't spell. He was a gentleman, Johnny the Gentleman?
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! Yeah, you should other than Larry the guy
that you used his library card. 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. 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?
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. Yeah.
We were on the honor system back then. Yeah.
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.
Who are the heroes in your life now? 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) 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?
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.
Sort of a reflection of real life. 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.
Well, how important is it to have trusted friends or a mastermind group to bounce your
ideas off? 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.
I was thinking more along the lines of your mentorship program and how important it is
that people who are successful mentor other people.
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.
Do you think some of our worst enemies are family and friends that love us and don't
want to see us get hurt? 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." Yeah. Do you think it is important to surround
yourself with people who support your dream rather than people who try to crush it?
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. You think it is important to be unique and
stand out in some special way? Different than everybody else?
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! To be unique, to examine oneself in that area.
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. Get to know who you are and what you are doing
and what you do best. 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.
Who do you feel who are the real heroes today in our society who are not getting the rewards
and recognition they deserve? 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! 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. 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. 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? 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.
You know, it's funny. How does it feel to be recognized as a social hero? Because I'm
recognizing you right now. 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. 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. Absolutely, yes. I feel that exact same way.
Absolutely. 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?
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. Do you have any good solutions to the problems
facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?
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! That's pretty hard to believe, isn't it?
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." If you had three wishes for your life and
the world that would come true instantly, what would they be?
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? Um hmm.
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. Um hmm. It definitely got results.
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."
I guess that got your attention! 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?
Okay. At least you didn't ask for more wishes! Yeah, that's the old story. Ask for three
more wishes! How about free cable? 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. 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. 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.
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.
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.
That's what I'm talking about. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Thank you very much. I don't think I've gotten
a higher compliment ever. Thanks again. I appreciate your time.
Thank you, Sir, and have a good holiday weekend! You, too.