By Patrick Lugo
Ask today’s generation of martial artists what inspired them, and many might point Naruto or Avatar: The Last Airbender as a source for their pursuit. Ask an older generation and those early inspirations would probably be Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu or the Black Belt Theater show as seen at odd times on televisions of yore.
That fighting spirit still lives on and not just in the hearts of the Chinese Diaspora. It’s no secret that those televised Wuxia tales were foundational to the origin of rap and hip hop and continue to assert their influence to this day. Just ask Owen Ratliff, founder of Ratti Entertainment –
“When I was a kid, my uncle introduced me to Kung Fu Theater. It came on every Saturday at 12 noon.”
At that time, finding heroes to identify with was a challenge. We can look back on the iconic Jim Kelly as an exemplary figure, standing at that particular intersection. Today we’d be harder pressed to agree on such an iconic athlete or action star or even fictional character. We live in times both more homogenized and atomized; especially in terms of our media.
Talk to a martial artist about media and it won’t be long until we discover aspirations for action stardom or the concept behind a movie, video game or comic that acts as a distillate of what they’ve learned. Tiger’s Tale isn’t alone in this respect. But few are the creative endeavors, or properties, that reach completion in any medium. Fewer still, are made manifest in more than one format. That’s part of what makes Black Salt so unique; it’s a comic series AND a short film.
Owen Ratliff founded Ratti Entertainment with one purpose in mind, to independently produce the Black Salt franchise. Black Salt is a black-owned martial arts espionage series which has spanned films, comics, and video games for nearly two decades now. They developed a 3D arena game - Black Salt: Corruption - for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation. Most impressively, they also produced an award-winning short film licensed by HBO and Cinemax. The film won the Cinemax Urban Action Showcase and received a licensing deal with HBO for 26 months. The video game demo won several accolades including the Spotlight Award at GDC and DreamHack Dallas Best Action-INDIE PLAYGROUND Award.
With only three days left the clock ticks down towards a new world holocaust, the only thing standing in its path is Interpol agent, Samuel Tharpe. Sam is sent down a dangerous path of violence, romance, and intrigue in search of a weapon of mass destruction known as the Exterminatus. He follows hot on its trail into Japan and deep into the ancient land of China where he must seek aid from the Abbot at the Shaolin Temple. An evil Yakuza master stole the Exterminatus and seeks to use it in the East. Sam must prove his worthiness by fighting one of the Temple's most skilled monks. Only his long-past training by Yu Bai Shek, the Shaolin master who raised him, will make him a worthy hero.
Its comic adaptation Black Salt: Last Heroes Left was first published by Wise Acre comics back in 2010. I discovered it not too long afterwards, having a particular interest in the kung fu/comic cross-over; consider it Enter the Dragon meets Shaft set in modern days. But you needn’t just take my word for it, since my conversation with Owen also includes the offer of a comic preview.
PLUGO: We’ve already mentioned how early martial arts influences like Black Belt Theater were foundational to this project, but tell me a little bit about what motivated its creation?
OR: I created Black Salt out of frustration with how Black men were often portrayed in film and television. I wanted to build a hero who embodied strength, discipline, integrity and someone audiences could admire and be inspired by. As a lifelong martial arts enthusiast, I envisioned a protagonist trained in Shaolin Kung Fu who became an elite Interpol agent, taking on high-stakes missions, fighting injustice, and overcoming formidable enemies. His origin story is one of resilience: raised in a foreign land under challenging circumstances, where he developed the core values that define him. My goal was to create a character whose journey not only excites audiences but makes them root for him every step of the way.
PLUGO: Which came first? The movie concept or the comic?
OR: The comic came from the first script draft that was written.
PLUGO: So then how did the Black Salt DVD come into production?
OR: I was getting some buzz from the comic books and started to sell a lot of Black Salt T-shirts and hats. So, I decided to make a proof-of-concept short film.
PLUGO: What was the greatest challenge behind its production?
OR: The production actually ran pretty smooth once I hired the director, Ben Ramsey. He brought his whole team which were all professionals.
PLUGO: Can you share some info behind your action choreographer?
OR: Ronald Yuan is an actor, martial artist, director, and stunt choreographer. He had roles on Sons of Anarchy, Prison Break, Golden Boy, and CSI: NY and he‘s been in a lot films, including a lead as Sgt. Qiang in Disney's live-action adaptation Mulan (2020).
PLUGO: Sure, he was in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) he was Yeong, the main weapons engineer and before that, he was in The Accountant (also 2016) playing a reluctant Silat master. Yuan’s appeared in a lot of things readers of KFM will recognize; they include The Monkey King (2023), The Wind & the Reckoning (2022 - written by friend of KFM & past collaborator John Fusco), Paper Tigers (2020) Birth of the Dragon (2016) and a broad range of Actioners like The Art of War (2000), Fast & Furious (2001), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), Blood and Bone (2009) and Red Dawn (2012), plus some voice over for the classic Shaolin Soccer (2001) - just to name the high-lights!
PLUGO: Who else is in this movie we might recognize?
OR: Do you remember Michelle Lee? She’s an actress, martial artist, and stuntwoman. She’s done a lot of stunt work and motion capture for video games. She played Ada Wong in Resident Evil 6 (2016) and was Mileena in the second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy - the 2011 online series. More recently she had a few small roles in movies like Venom (2018) and Black Widow (2021).
PLUGO: When/where can people find out more?
OR: They can go to my Kickstarter pre-launch page. I am turning the comic book series into a graphic novel and I’m aiming to launch once I’ve reached 600 followers on that page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akoma/black-salt-the-last-heroes-left-issue-5.
Read a chapter of BLACK SALT: Last Heroes Left - click here.
Author:
Patrick Lugo is a freelance author, illustrator & comic creator who consults on comic Crowdfunding campaigns when not running one of his own. His acclaimed graphic novel series A Tiger’s Tale vols. 1 & 2 is available for purchase online at ATiger’sTale.com. He was the former Senior Graphic Artist for and Kung Fu Tai Chi.
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