Milestone Media Company

After years of seeing black characters as sidekicks or stereotypes, a group of men decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own comic company. Denys Cowan, Dwayne McDuffie, and Michael Davis, three black creators, had had enough and worked together to start the Milestone Media Company. These artists had each created a career in the white-dominated comic book industry. Along with their business-minded friend  Derek T. Dingle, they sought to create comics by African American creators to represent black folks in comics properly.

“Every Black kid on the planet who has ever read comic books, from the day they realized that every superhero was white, has wanted to do a Black comic book company. We all had that dream.”
-Michael Davis

The group created the "Milestone Bible", a collection of their ambitions and story. Milestone allied themselves with DC comics who were impressed by the boldness. Milestone Media negotiated to keep ownership of their creations and the company while DC received publishing and distribution rights. The comics were a hit touching on deep and real topics including colorism, teen pregnancy, police brutality, and racism. Colorist Noelle Giddings developed the Milestone 100 Color Process, allowing comics to print all of the black and brown skin tones accurately. As the company expanded they sought out other underrepresented voices including Latin, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, and LGBTQ creators.

As many things do Milestone Media eventually slowed down. There were difficulties with racism, and pushback on the more mature themes from publishers, executives, and ads. There were issues throughout the comic industry and Milestone Media closed in 1977. More recently after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Milestone media realized there was more work to do. Milestone did a 2021 relaunched for a new generation of readers. Cowan states: “Milestone has always been about the times we’re in now.”