On July 24, 2024, former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick announced a “groundbreaking platform” called Lumi that uses artificial intelligence to create comic book stories. The press release for the platform states Lumi can “[transform] any creator into Disney” as well as cut out “gatekeepers” that keep stories by diverse creators from reaching the market. It has received $4 million in venture capital funding with the firm Seven Seven Six taking the lead.

Kaepernick’s announcement led to outcries in the comic book industry against the Lumi platform. Veteran cartoonist Khary Randolph (We Are Robin, Excellence) took to Facebook and said that he met with Kaepernick about the new platform and voiced his concerns about Lumi would cut out the human creators need to bring comic book to life. He said, “Hard work, a pencil, and paper is all you need to make comics“, and that the writers, artists, colorists, and letterers who spend underpaid decades learning their craft will be hurt by his new product not the wealthy tech executives, who are funding his platform. So, it’s hypocritical that Colin Kaepernick is announcing a platform that will take jobs away from comics creators using social justice language in this initial press release.

It is unlikely that Kaepernick would receive $4 million in venture capital funds for a more traditional pursuit like starting his own comic book company, imprint, hosting platform, or even an anthology publishing the work of marginalized creators. However, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Colin Kaepernick is estimated to have a net worth of $20 million. He also has pull in the entertainment and publishing industry, co-creating a Netflix show about his life with Ava DuVernay and also starting a publishing company called Kaepernick Publishing that has put out graphic novels by creators like Eve Ewing (Ironheart) and Greg Anderson Elysee (Puerto Rico Strong). As recently as 2023, Kaepernick was paying writers, artists, and letterers to put out graphic novels so it’s reasonable to assume that it’s something that he would be interested in using his money for in the future, but perhaps he was led astray by the promises of lucrative profit from the (currently booming) AI sector.

So, instead of using the $4 million in venture capital funding to set up an AI platform, he could use that money to revive something like the Xeric Grant. Funded by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird‘s Xeric Foundation, the Xeric grant awarded $2.5 million to cartoonists from 1992-2011 to self-publish their comics and get in their foot in the door without having to rein in their creativity, art styles, or subject matters for big publishers like Marvel, DC, and even Image Comics. Some well-known creators that got their start through the Xeric grant were Adrian Tomine, Gene Luen Yang, Megan Kelso, Jessica Abel, Jeff Lemire, Tom Scioli, Box Brown, and Hazel Newlevant. The money from the Xeric Foundation allowed them to pursue a singular creative vision and put out work into the larger creative marketplace.

If Colin Kaepernick wants to actually nurture the work of marginalized comics creators and help them in the battle against “gatekeepers”, he would be better served creating something similar to the Xeric grant than an AI platform. He could even expand the scope of Kaepernick Publishing to include comic books of other genres other than nonfiction biographies. These are better options than selling his soul to big tech and reducing creativity to a high tech assembly line, and it would be better for his reputation as a civil rights activist as well.