Eye of the fanboy "Storm"

The Philadelphia Daily News chats with novelist Eric Jerome Dickey, the latest author to make the jump to comics with his upcoming six-issue Storm miniseries for Marvel Comics:

The series follows African Prince T'Challa (the future Black Panther) meeting with Ororo (the future Storm), their unfolding romance and their joining together to fight a mutual enemy.

"I'm like - What issue can I raise? What can I tell about Storm that we don't already know?" Dickey said. "You want something that's different, but you don't want it to ring false.

"Because if I hit a false note all the readers will be like, 'Oh, hell no! Oh, hell no! Go back to writing books! Go back to writing books!' "

But the Daily News doesn't stop there, going on to interview BET head honcho Reggie Hudlin:

But Hudlin isn't just BET's programming chief, he also finds time to write the "Black Panther" comic book for Marvel, and he's brought the Gulf Coast tragedy into that series' storyline (see issue No. 12).

"That's the only comic book story that I know of that's set in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina," he said.

While Hudlin could have settled for making points metaphorically in the story - New Orleans has become a "city of vampires" in Katrina's aftermath - he instead tackles the subject in a very direct way.

"People are really quite shocked... because we just go there," he said.

There are pointed jabs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, racists and wealthy New Orleans residents who believe "the flood has washed away many of our city's undesirables."