I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Kosi Harris. Kosi is just a few weeks shy of graduating with a masters in Communication. She is a fashion, lifestyle, music, travel, nonprofit publicist, and she’s the mastermind behind Hunter Haute – a comic book with elements of action, fashion, and drama that will appeal to a wide audience range.
HC: It’s safe to say that you are a wearer of many fashionable hats, but when it comes to the real you, what would you want readers to know?
KH: “I’m a publicist and a blogger. Big believer of coffee :) I grew up in Woodside (projects in Queens, NYC) and moved to Brooklyn when I was 15. I’m the youngest of five, so I think I got my many hats from my brothers and sisters. Fashion and makeup stuff from my sisters and interest of comics and video games from my brothers.”
HC: From your blog, I’ve learned about Hunter Haute. Could you talk about what that project is, and what inspired you to start it at such a young age?
KH: “In my mid-twenties, I started going to NY Comic Con. That was right at the time when ‘The Avengers’ movie and the Christopher Nolan ‘Batman’ Trilogy were coming out. Old ’90s shows like ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ were back on cable channels again and it prompted my interest [in comics] even more.”
“I was always into comics, but during high school and college, I thought there was something wrong with that. I always thought that I needed to do what everyone else was doing. I was at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) at the time, and there were days when I was the only African-American girl in class. I didn’t think it was the best thing to vocalize that I liked comic books and Adult Swim on Cartoon Network (pretty lame on my part). So, I tried to hide myself a lot.”
“Working in fashion at times, you feel that pressure to be like everyone else, but now I embrace the fact that I am different. Whether in my hair, my body shape—all of it.”
HC: How did you find that ability to embrace your differences?
KH: “It just came over time. It wasn’t a moment or anything. I still struggle with it – no one is perfect. Being around positive people was a key thing for me that helped me embrace my differences. Different is GREAT!”
HC: You say that our current time is an important time to CREATE. Where did you get the inspiration to move forward in this dark time?
KH: “I had planned to release the comic the Friday following the election. Of course, the election happened and the energy was intense, to say the least, so I was worried about whether I should release a comic book when there were protests around bigger things. But, then a friend of mine told me to just release it. Get it out there. It’s one of those things where you have to trust your gut and go for it, and we did.”
HC: Even though we live in an ever-evolving world, certain stigmas remain intact. So when one thinks of comic books, oftentimes they think of male-oriented content. Your comic book, however, has elements that appeal to an all-gender audience. Did you always have this underlying intention or was it something that just created itself?
KH: “My co-writer Phil and I struck a balance between the technical aspects of the comic book and the fashion sense. The important thing was to make the dialogue realistic. If the dialogue was strong and realistic, readers would enjoy the comic. Once we got our dialogue on point, Candace, our illustrator, who is a student at Parsons, came on board to provide the comic’s visual component through her fashion illustrations.”
“I really wanted girls and guys to like it. I wanted to make sure it was accessible. You can always cater to and target a certain audience, but there should always be some sort of accessibility to the content as well. This issue came to my mind when ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Thor’ and ‘Iron Man’ movies came out. If you didn’t see ‘Ant Man,’ for example, then how will you understand how he got to know Black Falcon in ‘Captain America: Civil War’? I didn’t want my comic book to be like that. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.”
HC: You mention this project “came back to life” once you reevaluated life following a rather difficult time. How can readers who are in a similar situation learn to think in such a way and use their pitfalls as momentum to carry forward like you did?
KH: “Talk to loved ones. Family or friends. When I was down, I leaned on my mom, my niece and sisters, as well as a few close friends. It definitely helped me get through it.”
“A lot of stuff they were telling me was stuff I didn’t want to hear at the time, but it was the right advice I needed in order to move forward.”
“Now that I am where I am today, I am grateful for what I went through back then. Being a publicist, I’ve learned to see things in a ‘bigger-picture’ sense, and I think that also helps me a lot now in realizing that things can be much worse. It’s always important to take a step back and be grateful for what you have.”
HC: Are your characters inspired by real people or are they all imagined?
KH: “Maybe…Maybe not. That’s all I’ll have to say!”
HC: Anything else you want to say to our readers?
KH: “Don’t hold back who you truly are to just to fit in. No idea is really a bad idea when it comes to creating. You can have many passions – there isn’t a law that says you can’t blend them together. DO IT! You’ll never know what you can create until you try it!”
HC: What are the future plans for the series and yourself?
KH: “We’re going to begin illustrating the second issue so that we can debut by late summer or early fall. Then, once I graduate [in a few weeks] I’ll take a short break then start thinking of plot ideas for issue Three. The goal for the end of the year to have the issues in print. I have really cool packaging ideas for that.”
“Personally, I hope to travel more and attend a regional comic-con.”
“I also want to continue to focus more on staying fit and practicing self-care. Last fall, I joined an amazing program held by my friend Robyn who is a health coach called the Geek Girl Strong Power Program. Robyn taught me the importance of self-care. There is a self-defense class she introduced us to last fall, a few of us have gone a few times this winter. The Chinese Hawaiian Kenpo Academy is rad! I highly recommend it.”
Speed Round!
Favorite food? Pasta.
Favorite movie? “The Godfather Part I”
Most used app? Instagram
Favorite song? “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac and “It Aint Hard to Tell” by Nas
And now, a snipit from Hunter Haute, Issue ONE!
Want to find out what happens next? Check this out.
Follow Kosi on social media: Facebook, Twitter: @kos27, Instagram: @kosi27, Website