Created by pioneering Visual AfrofuturistTim Fielder,Matty’s Rocketis a galaxy-spanning animated series about the adventures of space pilot Matty Watty. Set in an alternate past where the pulp stylings ofBuck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Fritz Lang’sMetropoliscollide with the real-world events of World War II, FDR, the Harlem Renaissance, and the oppressive Jim Crow era, the series follows Matty as she navigates her vessel through a dangerous world of evil villains, heroic feats, alien oddities, and down-home adventure.
The complete first season ofMatty’s Rocketis available for fans to stream free atAfrofuturism.org, with season 2 premiering at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2026 for Afrofuturism.org members.
Along with this collection of animated shorts, Fielder is also animating his 2021 epicINFINITUM: An Afrofuturist Tale.INFINITUMfollows the immortal King Aja Oba from the destruction of his kingdom to the pre- and post-colonized worlds, to the future of space and alien contacts.
George Carmona 3rd: Originally a graphic novel, the sequel to Matty’s Rocket has been in the works for years. What made you decide to go back and animate it?
Tim Fielder: Actually, Matty’s Rocket, originally titled ‘If God Was A Woman, ‘ was conceived of as a comic that I was pitching to Vertigo Comics back in the mid-1990s. The late editor,Lou Stathis,had taken an interest in it before his untimely passing. Then the comic industry collapsed, and I moved into animation, game design, and raising my kids. I returned to the concept in 2009 while attending NYU and decided to do it as an animation, as the motion graphics tools had reached a certain level of advancement…Ultimately, not advanced enough. To that end, the sheer volume of pre-production work done over the years on Matty’s Rocket is enough to fill 3-4 books. Hundreds of storyboards have been produced. When I went back into comics, Matty seemed like a good fit. I’m glad I did it, as the transition back to comics changed the course of my career. Complete obscurity sucks. The animated variant of Matty has made me the most fulfilled I’ve ever been artistically.
Carmona: Understanding that art is never finished; it’s just meeting a deadline. How much was changed from the original graphic novel, and was there any catharsis if you had to tweak something?
Fielder: I beg to differ. Art absolutely can be finished. Any illusion I had of that was dispelled after INFINITUM damn near killed me with the workload. With Matty, the written, visual, and animated narratives are 80- 90 percent of what I imagined in the book, as all of the images are literally the illustrations ANIMATED. The additional 10-20 percent is that the technology has allowed me to do things I couldn’t have imagined in the original run. I LOVE this work as much as anything I’ve ever done in my entire career.
Carmona: You announced at San Diego Comic Con that your other big title, INFINITUM, is in the works. Because it’s so epic, will this also be broken down into shorts, or will fans be able to enjoy a more feature-length production?
Fielder: As I’ve gotten older, I like to experiment more often with formats. Matty’s Rocket will remain an animated serialized microdrama (although I will likely screen the entirety of Season 1 in a theater at some point). I had debated doing INFINITUM as a serial but decided it works best, in this variant, as a feature. To ensure the work gets out in whatever format I choose, I created my own streaming service, Afrofuturism.Org. Work is ongoing.
Carmona: For both of these productions, who is your target audience?
Fielder: Each project I do has a target audience. Matty is obviously for women. INFINITUM is for men. BROTHEROBO is for kids. But I always embed as much dynamism into the stories and concepts to make them universal.
Carmona: Will any new graphic novels be coming out of Dieselfunk Studios?
Fielder: Yes, Matty’s Rocket Book 2 will come out sometime after the completion of Matty’s Rocket ANIMATED Season 2. I have one or two other internal books I may be doing. I’m deep in production on my graphic novel adaptation of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Comet and Black Prince, from University of Georgia Press. Beyond that, my focus is growing Afrofuturism.Org. I love animation and telling these stories that my 92-year-old father and 88-year-old mother are totally into.
Carmona: Besides your new website Afrofuturism.org, how can folks keep up with you?
Fielder: I will encourage folks to please subscribe to Afrofuturism.org, as it keeps production going. But also, I’m always findable @Dieselfunk on all socials.
