Hollywood writer Reginald Hudlin launched his career with the blockbuster House Party; his follow-up Boomerang grossed more than $150 million. Hudlin developed Bebe's Kids, the first mainstream animated feature film aimed at African-American audiences, and served as BET's President of Entertainment. In 2005, Hudlin wrote Birth of a Nation, a satirical graphic novel produced with Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder and award-winning cartoonist Kyle Baker. A longtime Marvel fan, Hudlin jumped at the opportunity to write Black Panther, as well as a run on Marvel Knights Spider-Man.

Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan's comic-book career began on backup features: White Tiger in Spectacular Spider-Man and Firestorm in DC's Flash. At Marvel, he moved on to pencil Power Man and Iron Fist, a Black Panther miniseries and Moon Knight: Divided We Fall, among other projects. Back at DC, he specialized in such urban heroes as Green Arrow, Question and Steel; he also penciled multiple miniseries, including Batman: The Ultimate Evil, Fight for Tomorrow and Total Justice. In the TV field, he produced episodes of Milestone spinoff Static Shock and comic strip tie-in The Boondocks, subsequently becoming senior vice president of animation for Black Entertainment Television.