Delaware County has made the superhero comic book circuit, thanks to Derek “Lonzo Starr” Allen of Lansdowne, writes Tara Behan Marmur for Main Line Tonight.

Starr is the creator and owner of Konkret Comics, an independent Black-owned publishing company he started in 2019.

Amongst his superheroes of Color are Akolyte, Kandake, and Luna. They hang out in Sapphire City, which Starr modeled after Lansdowne.

“I turned Delaware County into its own mythical city.”

Starr’s creations are winning awards. Kandake won the 2023 Glyph Comics Award in May for Female Character Of The Year from the nonprofit literacy and arts organization East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC).

IN 2023, Konkret Comics was nominated for 14 Glyph Awards.

Starr is a self-described Black nerd who grew up in Lansdowne. He noticed a lack of Black and brown representation in comics. 

Black characters were mostly sidekicks.

Then “Black Panther” became a huge hit and suddenly there were possibilities.

“I can only imagine what it would have felt like to be a young kid and walk into a comic book store and see a superhero that resembled me,” he said. “Superheroes that weren’t the sidekicks, that weren’t living in poverty. Superheroes that were actually inspiring characters.”

Read more about Lonzo Starr in Main Line Tonight.