First Black woman to open a comic book shop on the East Coast shares her reading recs

Ariell Johnson is making her comics dreams come true—and inspiring an entire community in the process. Illustration via Max Fleishman, The Daily Dot.

Advocates of diversity in comics kicked off 2016 with a big milestone when Ariell Johnson opened the first Black woman-owned comic book store on the East Coast: Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Inc.

Johnson, 33, embraced her identity as a geek in college and became known as an advocate for diversity in geek culture and better representation in comics. “Representation is important,” Johnson told the Daily Dot at the fourth Annual Black Comic Book Festival in New York last month. “I think people who are part of the majority … are represented well, all the time and in different iterations—it’s like you get to be whoever you want.”

“When you are in those groups it’s easy to downplay representation like, ‘Oh, it’s not that important. It’s not that big of a deal,’” she added. “You say that, but you always see yourself.”