The Tuskegee Heirs Will Soon Take Flight

[Editor’s note January 14, 2015: The Tuskegee Heirs Kickstarter has launched!]

As a kid, I was completely obsessed with the Tuskegee Airmen. I read biographies, killed my Tuskegee Airmen videotape, did my best to know everything possible about the people and the times. This was in part because my grandfather, himself a member of the esteemed group, was pretty tight-lipped about his own experience when I was younger. But it was mostly because they were just the coolest.

So it’s probably no surprise that just the words “Tuskegee Heirs” got me pretty excited.

First was the title. The similarity between the title of the project and the historic group couldn’t have been a coincidence. Any iteration, no matter how disappointing, brings more exposure to the work and excellence of a relatively small group of people overcoming both subtle and outright aggression during a time of segregation and oppression, in order to be recognized by a racist military and administration as an asset and a boon to the success of the European Theater during World War II. And then I saw the picture. The sepia grey group shot of four young black people—men and women—in crazy-awesome flight suits gathered around a plane very reminiscent of the red tailed planes that are so familiar.

My body is ready.

The description on the Tuskegee Heirs Facebook page reads:

“Following in the Japanese animation genre’s age old practice of dropping unusually talented youths inside the cockpits of enormously powerful machines, the amazing pilots of this series will be no exception. We’re crafting this story to merge everything we love about science fiction, action-adventure, comedy, and rich character growth, to highlighting historic jewels of information to create a unique series for all ages.”

Burnham and Williams aren’t descendants themselves of the original Tuskegee Airmen, but the significance of these pilots’ role in history is certainly not lost on them. “I wanted make a black team of pilots that operate giant robots,” says Williams, “and the concept of very talented black pilots just so happened to be sitting perfectly in American history. The merging of the two was simply logical for the concept.”

Burnham and Williams have a lot of plans for the Tuskegee Heirs. Let’s see what they have to say!

Tell us a bit about the story and characters. Who are the Tuskegee Heirs and what are your plans for them?

Greg Brunham: The heirs are a group of ridiculously talented pilots ranging from age 14 to 19. The story takes place about 80 years in the future and the social structure of the world is quite different. Our main core, the stars so to speak, is made up of two young ladies, and three boys. But there is a nice supporting cast that adds dimension to the story.

Marcus Williams: The plan is to create an epic scifi adventure/comedy that exposes a rich history that has gone overlooked. The growth of the team will lead our audience on a journey that brings the young pilots together in a world that is falling apart.

What connection does that historic group have to the Heirs?

Greg: There’s some huge connections. Our Heirs, will be groundbreaking just like the original Airmen.

Marcus: They will heavily rely on the history to solve issues.  A couple of our characters will actually be descendants of the original Airmen. We can’t spoil it just yet, but we’ll be paying homage in some special ways.

It seems like there was a short timeline between vague inkling of an idea to significant concept imagery for the project. What was your process?

Marcus: The process always begins with characters. I have to see the characters before I can start with the story. After the characters are locked in, we can start adding supporting characters and the story follows.

The description for Tuskegee Heirs speaks about Japanese animation and the theme of talented kids piloting powerful machines. How much influence does manga and anime have in terms of both the art and the story?

Marcus: A lot. Japanese animation has set the bar really high as far as telling wildly descriptive, well thought out stories about youth in fantastic circumstances.

Greg: Yes, the depth, adventure, and attention to detail are elements we’re definitely trying to bring to the Tuskegee Heirs.

What are your goals with the pending Kickstarter? Are you aiming more toward print or animation?

Greg: The initial goal is for the graphic novel to be produced. If we are able to reach it, we’d like to add some stretch goals for an animated pilot.

Marcus: Yes, I’ve already been in contact with some animation studios. So we definitely want to explore that avenue if we reach our goal.

What is the ideal end-goal of the Tuskegee Heirs franchise?

Greg: The end goal would be an animated series and hopefully a movie or 3. We’re absolutely in love with the comic concept. But some of these concepts are too cool, they just have to be animated.

Marcus: We want the George Lucas deal! We want merchandising, apparel, toys video games, children’s books to eventually help teachers expose our kids to this history.

[Editor’s note January 14, 2015: The Tuskegee Heirs Kickstarter has launched!]