Pulitzer Prize Winner Junot Diaz loves Matty’s Rocket, stating, “Fielder takes us on a fantastic, time-warping, genre-bending Afrofuturistic voyage to the final frontier and beyond … Matty’s Rocket is just superb.” I cried like a baby when I got notice that Diaz loved the book. How I create the book? I create the graphics completely with the computer. I wanted the main character to women both young and old. I wanted to create a female character who isn’t overly sexualized. Her idea is loosely based on the lives of Freedom fighter Harriet Tubman and Bessie Coleman, the first internationally licensed African American female Pilot. Who is Matty? Matty Watty, the title character, is named after my Great-Grandmother. My art gives me the power to fill that void with an adventurous narrative. So I wanted to restore parity in that area while I blessed to still have my parents, both born in the 1930s in Mississippi. My motivation: My parents, and grandparents never saw themselves in outer space or in fantasy situations. Narratively, Matty’s Rocket reveals the truth behind her need to become a space pilot. This rural images are juxtaposed by intergalactic imagery filled with flying saucers and spaceships. The story is told in three time periods with Matty as an old woman, a young woman in her late 20 to early 30s and as a young girl in the fields of Mississippi. It’s 120 pages of southern charm and outer space adventure. What is Matty’s Rocket? Matty’s Rocket Book One is the first graphic novel from Fielder’s Dieselfunk Studios. This concept is an effort to provide images to people of color born in the early to mid-20th century America with long neglected images of themselves. Matty’s Rocket is what artist Tim Fielder calls Retro-AfroFuturism. He also has taught for many years in arts and educational institutions. He has worked for decades in the field of sequential art and illustration. Who am I? Tim Fielder is a NYC based graphic novelist. For further inquires, go to our Contact Page These are the answers to frequently asked questions that readers may be curious about.