Unleashing creative superpowers at The Milestone Summit

In May Ally teamed with Milestone Media and DC to host aspiring comic book writers and artists at the Milestone Summit, a weeklong program where they were able to develop their skills and learn more about the industry. The program is part of the The Milestone Initiative aimed at championing the next generation of diverse comic book creators.

In October of 2021, the DC FanDome event put out the call for writers and artists to join The Milestone Initiative Talent Development Program, a project created to improve representation in comic books. After hundreds of submissions, the inaugural class was selected and 24 budding creatives from diverse backgrounds entered a 10-week intensive program of workshops and technical trainings. After weeks of sharpening their skills in virtual sessions, participants finally had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles for The Milestone Summit, where they visited the DC Studios to unlock their creative superpowers.

After the group completed a character creation project and received tech gifts from Ally to support their future careers, they attended a discussion on financial empowerment led by Ally Corporate Citizenship Manager Demetrius Scott. During the session, he addressed some of the financial challenges freelance and creative workers face, including:

Take a moment to watch some of the highlights from the week, and make sure to keep an eye out for projects from these creators in the future.

Milestone Comics launched in 1993 to showcase a new universe of Black and diverse Super Heroes. The goal was to change the way heroes looked, bring representation to the characters on the pages and the artists behind the stories, and develop a pipeline for those creatives to flourish. Almost 30 years later, Milestone Comics has relaunched with a new generation of characters and The Milestone Initiative has been created to continue that mission.