Looking For Problems Right Where They Are

Not gonna mince words, there’s some lame-ass shit right here:

You say they are going to get a lot of personal abuse and it’s completely deserved. First, their twitter rant was childish. If Graham has beef with Wood he should take it up with wood instead of calling him out over the internet like the pussy he really is. Secondly when female creators start coming up with good content the’ll get better representation in comics. Look at DC. They currently let Ann Noccenti write 2 books (1 is ending) and they all get panned. Now you can’t tell me that this is not affirmative action. The only reason she is on catwoman is becasue Catwoman sell because she’s is catwoman. Not because of the talent of the write of which there is none. It’s time we stop looking for problems where there aren’t any. When women start making content worthy of publication they will get jobs. Like the rest of the world where some jobs are dominated by certain demographics, it is foolish to believe that comics should be any different. What we is a lack of woman make good content.

Being on Reddit, this lazy rhetoric and F-grade grammar should come as no surprise. Breaking it down, this dude named ‘kruig’ (and it could only be a dude) believes:

1. Female comic book creators don’t “come up with good content.”
2. DC ‘letting’ Ann Nocenti write two of their comics (she’d also had a stint on Green Arrow, in addition to Katana and Catwoman) is “affirmative action,” simply because her books are getting “panned.”
3. That Ann Nocenti has no talent.
4. That there are no problems with misogyny in the comic book industry, as demonstrated in points 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.
5. That it’s because women don’t make “content worthy of publication” there aren’t more women working in the industry.
6. That the job of comic book creators is rightly “dominated” by certain demographics–implicitly white, heterosexual men.
7. Except Brandon Graham, who is “a pussy” for saying mean things about Brian Wood on the internet–even as this guy says mean things about Ann Nocenti…on the internet.

Now, I’m not sure what this guy’s beef is with female creators who have worked in the industry for decades–from Nocenti to Kate Beaton, from Elaine Lee to Mary Skrenes, from Gail Simone to Laura Allred to G. Willow Wilson to Jill Thompson to Colleen Doran to Emma Rios to Laura Martin to Louise Simonson to Elizabeth Breitweiser to Amy Reeder to etc. etc.–but to say their relative scarcity (to say nothing of their second-fiddle status in the Big Two) is the result of their lacking talent shows an ignorance of comic book history (Nocenti alone is a veteran writer with highly-regarded stints on Marvel’s Spider-Man and Daredevil characters, the latter succeeding despite the unenviable task of following up Frank Miller, hardly an “affirmative action” case), the politics of the industry, and even human behavior.

The similarity of such statements to the platform of modern, right-leaning politicians is obvious: those on top of the socioeconomic ladder are there by divine right, and everyone else is not in the little club because their worth is equal to their station (a rigid, caste-system mentality not dissimilar from slavery, as Leonard Pierce points out). A convenient answer to avoid dealing with pesky questions of why certain people always seem to be left out by cultural “gatekeepers.”

Such dismissal of the talent listed above, which doesn’t even scratch the surface (It’s a whole different ballgame if I were to, oh say, include the Year 24 Group), is sadly common in the unwashed dens of comic fandom. If it ain’t uppity women “looking for problems where there aren’t any” (because the industry certainly doesn’t objectify female characters and is absolutely not obsessed with depicting them getting raped), then it’s the appalling treatment of black creators, homosexuals, or…fuck it, just pick anyone who’s not a straight white American male (fictional or otherwise), and comic book readers and/or the industry have had a shitty attitude to their very existence.

As for calling anyone “pussy,” I think Daryl Ayo said it best:

it means something that you equate weakness with the organ that brought you into this world and could still snap your weak phallus in half.

You aren’t built for the kind of trash your talking, boy.

Like their Republican counterparts, these keyboard thugs see a world outside their little bubble, demanding to be treated equally, and see only someone wanting to take away their toys. Evangelical Christians making up wars on Christmas, businessmen grumbling about minimum wage, Tea Partiers demanding more rights for giant corporations than for the people who work for them, this is the crowd many a comic geek lumps themselves into with their rhetoric. They would be pitiable if their actions, or rather their words, weren’t dripping with poison.

Now the Labor is Done, It’s Time for War

Another brief piece, on account of not having many comics to write about.

There were a couple big discussions in comics over the last week: one which blew up from a Comics Journal post, and involved the question of a comic’s use of racist imagery being answered by the comic’s creator (Jason Karns) and various other people with catcalls about censorship and “political correctness.” Because alt comix are edgy. So edgy, any complaints about their edgy content have to require crying on a soap box about how they’re being bullied by people asking questions like “Is this racist?”

On a very similar note: the Penny Arcade guys caused a stir–again over the “dickwolves” thing–at PAX. Apparently, this was their ‘Nam, in that they pulled out and have been feeling guilty ever since. Leonard Pierce weaves it into a larger piece (along with the Chelsea Manning conviction, and the transgender announcement which followed, and controversy over Spike Lee making a list of movies) about how tone deaf people can be when it’s pointed out how their treatment of other races or women or homosexuals or transgenders is not respectful.

In both cases, what’s interesting isn’t the original work itself–Karns’ Fukitor is pale imitation of 80s underground art; Penny Arcade‘s the sperm donor for countless formulaic videogame-based webcomics–but how their creators respond to criticism. Posturing and straw man arguments with a heavy dose of “la la la NOT LISTENING!” This isn’t strange to the comics community: Marvel editor Steve Wacker has built a public persona around being a beleaguered authority figure having to deal with “unreasonable” fans pointing out things like how ridiculous Spider-Man: One More Day is or how double-shipping comics is more harmful in the long term, and Jim Lee over at DC is learning quickly how to do the same. What’s new is this rapid realization: indie comics, self-published comics, whatever form they take, still draw from the same poisoned well as the mainstream publishers. Simply substituting one for the other will not fix the medium’s problems with misogyny and racism, since the culture is still dominated by white guys who benefit from both. Therefore, it’s even more important now to be vocal about these things when they crop up, be it a massive, 20-book superhero crossover or a cheaply produced mini-comic being hawked on the convention circuit. Not to enforce politeness in art, or to make whites feel guilty, or whatever bullshit people who wish to maintain the status quo will say, but because it’s the duty of the audience to constantly reframe and rethink art. Both in a broader, social context, and in a personal one. Denying that power in art may as well be denying art even exists. And if that’s the case, what are we left with? Useless commodities?

Hark! A Vagrant: The Secret Garden
Art and Writing by Kate Beaton
Self-Published

Such a succinct recap of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel, it’s also a cunning yet gentle parody of religion and Romanticism. Kate Beaton shows how English brat Mary and her handicapped cousin Colin are “fixed” by entering the garden–he being able to walk again, she becoming more pleasant (“I used to be horrid, and now I am just relaxed,” with the letters of “relaxed” spaced out as if being exhaled). A common theme in Romantic era literature and that of Christian Science (of which Burnett was an adherent) is the healing power of nature, directly opposed to Industrial Age science, which is complemented by Beaton’s semi-Impressionist backgrounds and crude, whimsical figures. The twist, though, is how Mary and Colin (and Archibald Craven, Colin’s father) ascribe mystical properties to the garden, while the dilated eyes and spontaneous freakout Beaton depicts imply herbal intoxication. Stoner comedy, English Lit style.

What’s humorous is not so much the characters’ faith in nature–there’s medical marijuana subtext–only the nature of their misinformation. Lacking a full picture, they will cling to Romanticized notions of magic (the gibberish in Colin’s word balloon shown above equivalent to speaking in tongues), rather than understand the reason behind it. And without understanding, their garden is just another opiate of the masses.

Sheltered #2
Art by Johnnie Christmas
Writing by Ed Brisson
Published by Image

“Inconsistent” comes to mind when thinking of this comic. Not in terms of plotting: Ed Brisson’s dialogue favors explicitness over implication, as when teen Victoria outright tells the group of boys who just killed all their parents (and are trying to cover it up) they are lying, which is at least a form. Not in terms of art: Johnnie Christmas captures the youth of these characters–children in a survivalist camp who overthrew their parents last issue–well with their gangly limbs and eyes that are often big and bright (except for ringleader Lucas’ beady gaze). Nah, this comic is inconsistent in tone: Brisson and Christmas seesaw between stark horror (burning bodies) and melodramatic action (Victoria tackling and punching a boy she saw dragging her father’s corpse) with no intervening tension built up. Conversations don’t ensue with these people, just talking. Internal life is non-existent, with hardly a glance at a character thrown before we get uncommitted fistfights. Christmas threatens to become an engaging artist–the cover depicts flaming skeletons in Victoria’s hair–but ends up drawing boilerplate action beats, with inset panels of an ankle breaking or characters entering a room for spice. If Brisson were a stronger writer, this may have been enough, but the art can’t carry this script.

The whole thing’s not much different from several Image or Boom Studios publications (Shari Chankhamma’s colors here are almost indistinguishable from those of Alex Sollazzo’s on Peter Panzerfaust). Mercenary, High Concept works like these have no consideration for genre history (Jack London’s survival novels or Lord of the Flies don’t seem to inform Brisson’s script despite it swimming in their tropes) or social and political context (the way Brandon Graham confronts sci-fi imperialism in Prophet and Multiple Warheads). They attempt to exist in a vacuum. The result isn’t fresh or new storytelling, just wishy-washy pages which beg readers to imagine how much more enticing the material could be vs. what’s actually there before them. Commitment? Aesthetic? Theme? These comics scoff at such notions.