“Actually, it started off with me wanting to do a mix tape. Everyone does a mix tape and I thought to myself what can I do to make this different?” He then began to write fiction as ideas came to him.

“It occurs in a post-apocalyptic future and follows this artist, Slick, who wants to be a hip hop artist more than anything. He winds up meeting a DJ who said if you sign this contract I can make you a star.” Drake explained, “He doesn’t read the contract and signs it. He then finds out that he signed up to be a hitman for hire. Now he has to navigate being a hitman and trying to release a debut album at the same time.”

Drake promoted ‘The Indies’ and a few contributors’ art pieces at BoroughCon at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. He excitedly described the atmosphere as he and his contributors worked on the project.

“I recorded out of, Grammy Award winning, House Studios in Washington D.C…The music came out really dope. It was a dope energy because there were three different rooms and everybody was bouncing from room to room to room just collaborating.”

Before this endeavor, he worked on ‘The Blender with DJ Gemz and DJ Tony Drake’ so he has previous connections with the music industry. These connections and knowledge of the industry helped open doors for this plan.  Contributors began to come together as the story took shape. From music to cartooning he enlists talented artists from all over the U.S.

“We are trying to get diverse characters that are deep and have a lot of layers to them. To put that in this world were the music really makes up the environment,” he said.

As the pieces come together a web comic will be released at the end of summer which should be followed by a short in September.

“We going to be doing a kick starter…that will give people a better idea of the  personalities of the different characters so I’m really looking forward to that.” Drake explained ‘people are craving diverse stories with different type of characters.’

Like the main character of the series, many of the contributors are up and coming artists. As long as the person is talented they are invited to contribute their skills.

“[The Indies can] also be a platform for artist as far as music artists that are dope but don’t get the shine. We can put this in front of millions of people and then have artists that we believe in on the soundtrack. It can help propel a lot of artists.”

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The cover, created by Oscar A. Romer, depicts the strong solitary heroine. Her stance radiates defiance. Sebastian Navas and Gat Melvyn also illustrate her stance-against-the-world persona on the first page as she is shown alone in the vast desert.

No mercy is the concept throughout the story. Kindness seems to be a foreign concept usually met with confusion and dismissal. Latifa and Al Faisal may kill murderous mutants, but saving people isn’t their intention. Latifa, who is filled with hatred, only seeks revenge while her sword, Al Faisal, seeks those who do evil and judges them. Their targets only happen to be the same.

Every shadow, curve, and cut is expressed in great detail from a woman who held her children as she wept at the grotesque and bloody fight scenes. In this story, there’s no prince or magic, instead there’s Latifa and Al Faisal, her sword with artificial intelligence. The two refuse to stop as they work towards the same goal.

Latifa’s dismissal of her fellow humans defines her as an anti-hero. Her likable aspects rely mainly on her fierce demeanor. She displays her strength in her muscles and skills as a fighter, while she draws the reader into the action packed mysterious adventure.

Saudi Prince, Fahad Al Saud, began with an idea that included the first Middle-Eastern heroine. He then brought in writers such as Stan Berkowitz.

“We have had that great amount of freedom to create whatever we wanted. I really enjoyed having that freedom.” Berkowitz said.

The story brought up terms that allow the reader to look into the culture, such as, “Bedouin.” According to Britannica.com, Bedouin are Arabic-speaking nomadic people of the Middle Eastern deserts. This includes North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. The writers received much of their insight from Al Saud.

“I’d never been to the Middle-East but Fahad, of course, was raised there. So, he had a lot of information, a lot of thoughts about the culture that he transmitted to his writers.”

Women’s strength is clearly depicted in this piece. No one will save anyone and therefore you must stand and protect yourself. That is life in a nut shell making her character relatable. The in-depth back story with bloody action and its intriguing mystery truly makes the piece an enjoyable read.

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Berkowitz wasn’t always the big-name writer celebrity that he is today. Like some, it began as a hobby, “When I was a little kid…I had a friend, who loved movies. He tried filming his own versions of the movies he saw in life. He wanted me to help him out and it was fun.”

His love for the entertainment industry continued so Berkowitz attended college for film. Like most writers, he has experience in a variety of genres which allows for flexibility. Though he is known for work in fiction, his first published piece was for the college newspaper.

“At the time, I was writing film reviews, I was also a film major at UCLA. I figured I could write, I’ll do the reviews and also try to make movies at UCLA.”

Though journalism didn’t end for him in college, “I was an entertainment reporter. Basically, doing interviews with showbiz people from about 1978 to 1985 for Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, The Daily News, Esquire Magazine and a bunch of others.”

When comparing journalism to fiction, Berkowitz said, “I prefer fiction, I think I’m better at fiction. Journalism is pretty hard because in addition to telling a good story you have to make sure it’s accurate and truthful and represents everyone correctly.”

Throughout his career Berkowitz moved from journalism to comics and finally onto animation. It wasn’t always easy, “For me it’s much harder to write a comic book strip because my background is in action. Live action and animation, where you’re describing an action. Whereas with a comic book you’re describing a moment, a single moment. It’s very hard for me to envision one phrase that will convey the information we need in that moment. But eventually the more you do it, the easier it is.”

Once he joined Warner Bros., he began to receive awards for his skills as a writer.

“I never thought I’d win any awards, I never planned on it. The first Emmy was kind of a cool thing… We put it in the kitchen. It’s kind of a bare kitchen and suddenly this statue up there immediately calls attention to itself.”

Berkowitz is now part of a new project that has debuted called, Latifa. Saudi Prince, Fahad Al Saud, came up with the idea of Vigilante Middle Eastern Women who fight for what’s right.

“With Latifa, Fahad had this vision for a whole world and he brought in writers like me to help him kind of articulate it. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to something that been created fresh from the ground up…Working on Latifa, working for Fahad was great.”

Berkowitz was approachable as he attended the Q&A segment on Comics and as he stayed at his booth. There he autographed the first comic of the new series he helped create. He also spoke on his experience at St. John’s first comic convention, BoroughCon.

“I’m having a great time here at the convention. Some of the nicest people came here. Here it’s easier to talk to people and find out what fans are looking for, what they like and how your work affects them.”

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