Shaft is best known for the movie that launched an entire genre and features a score so awesome that we are legally obligated to link to it. But it actually started with a series of novels from Ernest Tidyman, some of which are long out of print. Fortunately, Dynamite is not only bringing them back, but bringing Shaft to the comics.
Admittedly, there’s going to be some polishing. Somehow, we suspect that Shaft Among The Jews and Shaft Has a Ball will be getting new titles. And there will be more of them, as Dynamite has cut a publishing deal with Tidyman’s estate to publish new books and create comics, according to The Hollywood Reporter:
In a statement accompanying the news, Steve Kasdin, the literary agent representing the Tidyman estate, said that he was “thrilled with Dynamite’s vision for Shaft.” Nick Barrucci, CEO and Publisher of Dynamite, added that the company “couldn’t be more happy that we’re getting a chance to tell new stories in multiple mediums” about the character, saying that the publisher intends to “bring Shaft back to the forefront of pop culture, where he belongs!”
This is exciting for me because one of my hobbies is finding the novels popular movies are based on and reading them, which can be enlightening to say the least. But I also hope Dynamite uses this as a way to showcase Black creators in comics. Unleashing, say, Jimmie Robinson of Five Weapons or Malcolm Jones III on Shaft would be amazing.
And it also means we’ll have an excuse for the kind of intellectual humor naming a character Shaft inspires. We’re all about the intellectual humor, here. Honest.