Racialicious is going to Comic-Con!
By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
It’s official: yours truly will be part of the press corps at fandom’s biggest media expo – San Diego Comic-Con.
The full schedule isn’t out yet, but already on my agenda are:
* The panel showcasing The Last Airbender
* The “smaller” panel for the show that built a Roundtable, Heroes
* I’ll be doing my damndest to track down and talk to POC talent and fandom
* Usually there’s a POC-specific panel during the weekend, so I’ll be there, as well.
Anybody else going? Perhaps we can do a get-together, show LDP and the 212 crew how a meet-up can be done with a West Coast style, hmmmm?
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Is there going to be a Lost panel? If so, I totally think Racialicious needs to report back on the latest from The Dharma Initiative.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 12:09 pm ¶
thebiblophile wrote:
Hi Arturo – I’m new to graphic novels and comics. But recently I was in NYC and came across two graphic novels – Incognegro (by Mat Johnson) and Bayou (by Jeremy Love). I was blown away, particularly by the art work and story line of Bayou. Are you familiar with either work – and what advice would folks give for a novice just discovering comics and graphic novels (and the attendant racial/gender/class dynamics that may go with them)?
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 12:25 pm ¶
A.D. Nix wrote:
I will both be there and be square with semi-useful press pass in hand (you still have to wait in long-ass lines for some reason). I can’t believe it’s already entirely sold out.
@ Carmen
There had better be a ‘Lost’ panel. There’s always a ‘Lost’ panel. People will burn down the convention center if there’s no ‘Lost’ panel with secrets revealed.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 12:56 pm ¶
R-SON the Voice wrote:
JEALOUS!!!
Find Dwayne McDuffie and get the scoop on his firing from Justice League. I think people were scared he was making it too diverse, but I want his perspective and what he was told by DC.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 2:20 pm ¶
Mammith wrote:
Ack! I’m so jealous, I’d love to be there!
Well if you’re going to the Lost Q&A, could you please ask about Ilana’s (Zuleikha Robinson’s) status in Season 6 and for any tidbits of info on her character?
I mean finally a badass WOC leader character in the Lostiverse (I love Sun, but by no stretch of the imagination is she anything approximating badass).
I think I just exposed my Lost geekdom.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 2:38 pm ¶
Persia wrote:
I’ll be there on Thursday– I missed the boat and didn’t get a Friday pass as planned. But so exciting!
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 3:08 pm ¶
Keith wrote:
This panel has just been accepted for Friday, July 24 6:30pm to 7:30pm:
FOUR-COLOR REALITY: Making Comics Relevant to Readers Across Cultures
Even as comic book stories have become the core of American pop culture–is there a big-budget spectacular that doesn’t in some fashion owe its existence to comic-book roots these days?–comic books themselves, in their traditional floppy format, have been in decline for years. Top Marvel and DC titles used to sell 300,000 copies; now they’re lucky to sell 50,000.
And while pundits have been quick to blame the rise of the graphic novel, the shift of attention to the Internet and video games, and even the cultural dominance of manga–all of which surely have a hand in this decline–more and more critics are noting that mainstream hero comics also suffer from an increasing sense of demographic irrelevance. The biggest icons in Marvel and DC’s universes are invariably straight, white, male—and American. And that’s logical, given that these universes are wedded to well over half a century of continuity, meaning that the most significant characters come from a time when straight, white, male and American was where the very definition of “hero” began.
But with Latinos and Asian Americans as the two fastest growing populations in America; with the U.S. population itself projected to become “majority minority” in 2042; with literal billions of consumers in China and India poised to join the global media market in the very near future—the superhero industry needs to figure out a way to connect with a very different and very diverse audiences…not just of wildly far-ranging colors and races, but from completely different cultural backgrounds and national origins.
This panel will bring together some of the industry professionals who’ve been most involved in the attempt to open up the comic book world to fresh audiences to discuss the challenges and opportunities of reinventing superheroes for a global and multicultural 21st century.
Moderated by Jeff Yang, Editor-in-Chief, Secret Identities
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 3:23 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
@Arturo
So. Freaking. Jealous.
Cosign: Lost, (although beg to differ re: Sun not being a badass) and Dwayne McDuffie.
Yes, please.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 3:55 pm ¶
Sadface wrote:
Oh, please ask Tim Kring about his characters of colour. I don’t know how such a question should be worded… but I’d like to see how he’d explain himself.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 4:18 pm ¶
Mammith wrote:
@Joeseph – I thought they were gonna make Sun awesome at the end of the last season, but all she’s done since is run around looking for Jin. Bleh.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 4:21 pm ¶
Erica wrote:
/me is jealous
Throw something heavy at Tim Kring on my behalf. Preferably with sharp edges.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 6:46 pm ¶
babybro wrote:
haha well I will be in a booth. I’m currently under aswembar productions and I’m selling a sketchpad there. (I live in San Diego by the way.) My all time goal is to draw for Marvel and DC, and self publishing my own comic. I tried to go to Art Institute of San Diego but it was too expensive for my military scholarship (The reason I joined the military was to go to AI but that’s a different story.) In any case, I am working on a web comic as well as establishing my own business in the future. So perhaps I will see you there.
As for Dwayne Mcduffie, there was no conspiracy theory behind it. While IMO, it was wrong that he was fired, the reason was at least understandable. You can find the information on his post here.
http://dwaynemcduffie.com.lamphost.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=471&start=0
Hope that answers some questions as to why Mcduffie was let go.
Posted 24 Jun 2009 at 10:48 pm ¶
Miztification wrote:
@Mammith-You’re not alone. I read the commentary on Heroes here, and I was thinking, I wish someone would mention “Lost” here, in the back of my mind. (Or maybe I missed some older posts?) I didn’t think I was the only one here that watched it, but it’s always nice to have the confirmation.
Posted 25 Jun 2009 at 9:57 am ¶
Zahra wrote:
@thebiblophile
I read Incognegro–I thought it had a lot of clever moments, particularly in re-interpreting the superhero trope (also love the moment where the black characters use the house slave/field slave division against their white tormentor), though I have some qualms about the treatment of female characters. Brilliant twist at the end, though.
I’m also relatively new to graphic novels/comics, and got into them through people-of-color and/or queer authors telling stories I couldn’t otherwise find: Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, which I cannot recommend highly enough, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (a graphic memoir by a white lesbian about her closeted gay father), Mariko & Jillian Tamaki’s Skim (a biracial white-and-Chinese-Canadian teen girl copes with high school, depression, & her attraction to a female teacher). All of which I highly recommend.
Other POC-authored graphic novels I’ve had recommended to me include Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings and Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (which has no words). Bayou looks great–I’ll definitely look for it.
For me it’s been a shock to transition from graphic novels to comics, where more open racism is easy to find. I would recommend the work of Brian K. Vaughan (white but trying), with caveats. His work in many ways brides the GN & comic sensibiity, and he creates some great characters of color and makes them fully-realized people, often with significant power within the story. Unfortunately a lot of his characters are killed off &/or turned evil, and he doesn’t always avoid stereotypes.
I’ve also enjoyed the 99, a Muslim comic with a very diverse cast, when I can find it, but it’s often been a challenge.
Posted 25 Jun 2009 at 2:34 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
My pal Victor (enrolled Pechanga Indian) and I usually go Thursday. I always look for works by American Indians and other POC.
They’re usually hard to find. They sure don’t own 30% of the market–as you’d expect from their proportion of the population.
We could try getting together and comparing notes. Maybe give you a few sound bites if you’re writing something on the Con.
Posted 25 Jun 2009 at 3:51 pm ¶
Erica wrote:
Maybe we should add Lost to the Roundtable lineup…. I’ll go add it to my Netflix queue.
Posted 25 Jun 2009 at 5:41 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
@Erica #16
Cosign.
Yes, please!
@Mammith
I hear you, they definitely dropped the ball with Sun and Jin. I just think she is so cool.
Posted 25 Jun 2009 at 5:57 pm ¶
Liza wrote:
Shameless friend promo: He’s not going this year, but check out Jorge Vega’s site http://www.kidkong.com . He was the guy who won the Platinum Studios Comic competition 2 years ago with his comic Gunplay about a Buffalo Soldier. All of his mains are POC’s with his latest Kaeru Boy – a biracial (Japanese/Caucasian) kid also out on iPhone. His other comic, 9 Months, did well with the POC women’s crowd at the Baltimore Comic Con because the main is a very empowered Black woman who kicks @ss!
Have fun at San Diego CC!!
Posted 27 Jun 2009 at 9:47 pm ¶
Liza wrote:
The link to 9 Months is http://www.twofistedpress.com — because Kaeru Boy is for kids, there isn’t a link for the 9 Months comic (obviously). That’s the one that was selling out hard at the comic cons that had good POC representation!
Posted 27 Jun 2009 at 9:50 pm ¶