What Makes A Comic Book Artist?

The Merlin asked me earlier today, if I love comics and animation so much, why don't I learn to draw. Apparently one of my younger brothers is teaching himself to draw precisely because of his similar love.

My reply was something along the lines that I consider myself to paint using my words and I hadn't really thought of taking time and energy to learn a new skill from scratch - such as with drawing. But then I came online and stumbled into this post about Greg Land. It led me to this defense of Land. In it Rich of Comic by Comic uses this phrase:

I appreciate what Land can do, even if half of it is from some kind of collage.

That phrase has momentarily rocked my world. While reading the previous admonishment of Land's recycling, reusing and swiping, I'd found myself thinking that he must spend an awful amount of time collecting poses from magazines and tv-stills. I had the thought that if he used that time actually drawing, his skills and speed might improve to the point he wouldn't need to keep doing what he has been doing. But then I realized that given how long he's been allowed to pass with his lightboxing, he probably has a fair enough build up images with which to make collages.

So why aren't more people tracing off collages and creating their own comics? And is that an avenue I'd want to take in order to tell a story? Or is it better to find an artist to collaborate with if I ever decide/want my love of comics to go from appreciation to creation.

Does one need some artistic talent to trace? What if you have a good eye, as Land is thought to do via his composition? Is that enough? Does anyone have any ideas on how long it'd take to become proficient at tracing? Does it count as drawing? Could an entire comic actually be done that way? Should I get a digital camera and go out and take as many pictures of city-life as I can? Should I save interiors from a magazine? Is someone out there besides Land already doing precisely that?

What makes an artist? What constitutes vision?

I don't think I've actively thought about this in terms of drawing/visual representation before.

What's the difference, in technical terms even, between the stills that Land draws (I see them as movie stills/ movie storyboarding) and panels that speak of action. I know when I look at comics I often see the characters moving in my head. Realistically I know they're standing still, but as I read and involve myself in the story, there's movement - I read it from the panels. Where does that sense of movement come from and is that the only really important thing when it comes to drawing comics? Is it one of the most important things?

For example, with Land, I've often found myself bored with the story, because the pacing seems slow. Is that impression a result of the lack of movement?

Does it matter to most readers what the quality of art is? The defense of Land also mentioned the 'too plastic' sensation I've gotten with a lot of Land's drawings. I've mentioned before that I find photorealistic artwork staid - more slideshow than living breathing tale. But is that something that can be ignored in favour of good storytelling? Or is it not just the writing, but also the artwork that makes or breaks the tale?

I know for me, some of my absolutely favourite animated stories, are my favourites because of the combination of artwork and writing/dialogue. One of the reasons that I know I'm unlikely to appreciate certain classics of Japanese animation is because the artwork's often too blocky for me to enjoy watching it. I can't really define it at the moment but the art, background and foreground has to be all of a piece to me, and living; the creation of a world. In some animation it feels to my eyes as if the buildings and characters and rubble and sky are all different pieces instead of one whole. It's not just a flipbook level of animation with jerky movements, it's as if a different person drew the buildings, or the buildings were stock drawings added in against the cel.

Hmm, I've rambled a bit. But I think I'm asking: What makes a comic book artist an artist? Should we be thanking the inkers and colourists for making Land's compositions seem alive to some? I know when I've found a story I want to read that involves Land's artwork, I check the colourist first. The beauty of their creations may sway me.

Avalon's Willow and The Merlin

My Dad's currently reading, and will be reading my blog from now on. I have no idea if he'll ever comment here instead of just calling me. But if you'd like to say hello to 'the Merlin' (cause what else would I call my Father *smile*), here's the place to do so.

Apparently I'm still as opinionated as when I was 4. This amuses me immensely.

Sweet Merciful Heavens, I'm About To Slap Someone(s)

NO!

RushmoreDrive is not racist you small minded, penny ante, refuse to do your homework, idiots on the internet.

No it's not. No it's not. NO IT IS NOT!

A search engine for African American folk is just that, a search engine catering to and fetching results that are geared towards a demographic's specific needs and interests.

THERE ALREADY ARE WHITE SEARCH ENGINES. They're called; Google, Altavista, Yahoo, the new Cuido and all the rest.

Having a search engine that brings up facts about African American statics and diabetes, when one searches for diabetes is helpful to ME.

Having a search engine bring up Luke Cage and this lovely page about Milestone comics and other black superheroes and their fans is helpful to ME.

Not to mention that it brought up Urban Style Comics and an international superheroes site.

Type in superheroes in Google and what do you get? Two wikipedias', one superhero hype, a superheroes general database and PARIS FRICKING HILTON.

This has been an example of the difference in thinking when WHITE is not the default on a search engine.

ETA: 'They Don't Know' & a total nod to Delux Vivens

Grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change

My ass should be lying down, but I came online to check email for something, ended up looking through my feeds and saw two things that just had to be written about.

The first is about Comic-Con and how apparently there's no set Con policies on what to do or where to go to report harassment and or abuse. In fact there's no set policies against harassment or abuse.

"Don't point your replicated weapon at someone!"

But there's nothing there about not pointing your dick (or a facsimile) at a woman, not grabbing her ass, not encroaching on her personal space to kiss, hug and photograph her and there's nothing there to report some crazy ass fool who takes it upon himself to shout at and try to verbally degrade female artists.

All of this has left me thinking if I ever went to a Con, I'd get arrested. Cause some jackass fool would reach to touch my hair and I would commit grievous assault with my cane. I mention hair, cause I'm black and I have dreads and my roots are curly and some fool is going to be curious. And without clear guidelines and with seeing women's asses being groped and women being cornered without anyone official saying ANYTHING, or there having been a mention in some opening speech, or in the Con booklet - they're gonna think ""I was just paying her a compliment." and not understand why their gonads are whacked up into their body cavity and why my good foot kept kicking their ass - "Why is the black woman, who thus being black and a woman is worth less than a 'regular' woman so angry?! Why are my nuts gone?!"


Speaking of men without balls. There's this fool I've mentioned before. Some of you may remember when I wrote that.

Well Tom Brazelton has spoken - again. He's crying a river of tears and it's so full of bullshit the stench could kill Godzookie.

Basically, I decided that when it comes to matters of race, gender, disabilities or any other sensitive subject, I'm simply not intelligent enough to create comics that tackle the issues in a constructive way...

I don't consider myself to be racist, sexist or discriminatory in any way. I don't harbor ANY ill will toward anyone because of superficial differences.

However, I will admit to being ignorant and not often understanding the complicated facets of a given issue. As a white guy in my 30's, I'm not often forced to approach things any differently. I try to remain open to different points of view. But in my attempts to learn and eliminate my ignorance, I believe intent and context are shoved to side and what's left is an irresponsible cartoonist left to explain himself to angry readers.

You have to understand the kind of guy I am. I'm not the kind of guy who seeks to offend anyone...

To sum up?

Tom Brazelton Paraphrase 1:This sensitivity shit is hard! So instead of waiting for a bunch of angry _ insert minority here_ to come raining all over my parade. I'm raining on it myself. Cause you see, even though I'm aware I don't understand things, I"m not bothering to do the work to educate myself. It's MUCH MUCH easier to just say...

I don't feel like I'm kowtowing to the vocal minority by editing myself in this way. Truthfully, the reaction of these critics played only a very small role in my decision...I know some of you will read this blog and think to yourself "What's wrong with those comics? I thought they were funny!" If so, thank you. Sorry for wasting your time with this entry...So, moving forward, I think it's best for me to stick to what I know and resist the temptation to make an easy joke that might end up offending someone unintentionally.

Tom Brazelton Paraphrase 2:... Really the PC police and roaming hoards of rabid minority activists didn't scare me into this. It's just even though I have no idea why I keep putting my foot in it- I don't want to be shouted at anymore or make anyone mad at me. Also I don't want to...

... end up offending someone unintentionally.

Tom Brazelton Paraphase 2- Continued:...so I'm just going to avoid going anywhere near anything controversial or that might upset anyone at all. I am repressing myself.

Don't believe that's what he's saying?

I leave you with one last quote. Do note the emphasis is mine.

I feel sorry for anyone who might be legitimately offended by certain aspects of the film...

Because even if he's not making jokes, he's still sure that someone, somewhere who isn't a white, able bodied, able minded, cisgendered male, is oversensitive about something unlike the group over there who has a legitamate complaint.

I'd say heaven help us and preserve us all from fools like this - but then no one else anywhere would be getting any other kind of miracles.

Whatever Holds My Brother Down, Holds Me Down

I've been thinking recently about the forgotten, ignored and plowed over African American Feminists, whenever an essay about gender equality, written by a white woman, shows up somewhere online that I can see it. What's been getting at me, is my feeling of being lost and of either not recognizing names, or recognizing them but realizing I've never read them. I've been wondering where did my sense of self and sense of the need for equality come from.

So I did a couple of internet searches to see if there were women listed with such terms as Caribbean Feminists. And while I did find a couple papers within the first few minutes - it was the chapter titles that stopped me stunned where I sat. You see a chapter in one of the papers talked about the gender imbalance and inequality in the school system - something I'd experienced. Something my mother had complained about, and my friends' mothers. Something many accomplished and learned women I knew when I was younger, had also complained about; Women who were nurses and doctors and lawyers and bankers.

So like I said, something hit me.

I can remember distinctly how it felt to realize that I had passed a particularly important national exam, with a grade that would have gotten me into very good, the top ranked in fact, schools - if I were a boy. But girls had to get fifteen points more if they wanted to get into what had been, traditionally, all boys schools.

And then something else hit me. Dame Nita Barrow. A woman I'd looked up to, and had been told to look up to for most of my childhood.

And in thinking about Dame Barrow, I realized that the women who helped shape me into being who I am today, didn't label themselves feminists - not as far as I knew. They called themselves activists for social justice. I grew up knowing about them as activists for social justice. I grew up knowing there was a concern about, social justice and that I needed to be mindful of it and to make things better when I could.

So I sat there and it hit me why feminism has always felt odd to me, segregated and narrow focused. And I felt incredibly relieved, but also proud and overwhelmed; the happy kind. I've been angry for ages and ages now about the lack of intersectionality in the feminist movement. And I couldn't quite understand why I was so angry and so affronted and so disappointed. But I also couldn't understand why I'd so often mentally rejected the term feminist.

Now I know.

It may be a side affect of living far from home (extended family, not geography), and thus far from a cultural base to remind me of all the many wonderful and varied sides of being from the Caribbean. It may be (and far more likely) an effect of living in the US as a woman who is not white. When I wake up in the morning in the United States, I don't wake up as a woman, I wake up as a Black Woman. It's a lesson that had to be learned for me. It's one that had to be learned by varied members of my family. Thinking of myself like that and realizing that there were far more reasons to ally myself with Black Americans than to hold myself apart - I think I let go of, instead of integrating, parts of my heritage. Philosophy is so easily shaded and overlooked when you don't have a clear grasp on it. And a child isn't likely to have a clear grasp on something that just feels instinctual and is encouraged as instinctual.

I can remember as a child, discussing Apartheid in South Africa with my parent and family. And it wasn't a conversation about a problem in a far, far away land. It was about a grave social injustice that was affecting a huge amount of people; people just like me - children and mothers and fathers. I learned about Nelson Mandela when I was nine or ten years old and why he was important and what his role had been in fighting social injustice. I learned about Ghandi in the same way.

It was never those people and that leader and that country and its problems. It was social injustice in that place, being fought by these people who are like me, and who are being lead by these individuals who are like those individuals who are also fighting social injustice in that other place. It was always, always all tied together.

I learned that.

That's how I was brought up.

It didn't come out of nowhere, which is often how I've felt recently when I see blog after blog talking about how 'All women need to put aside xyz for this cause and how all women should be united against men because of abc.'

That's piecemeal.

That's cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Social Injustice should be fought everywhere, by everyone willing, in whatever way they can because it affects all of us; the world. It makes the world a smaller, pettier, more hateful and hurtful place. It creates imbalance. It raises the strong above the weak and makes the weak suffer. It steals voices.

The way I was brought up meant that Chilean Death Squads related to me. It meant The Disappeared in Argentina related to me. It meant that women being crippled in African nations related to me. It meant Apartheid related to me. It meant Independence Days were celebrations about throwing off the yokes of oppressors; of self definition, of pride, of a chance to stand alone a moment before holding out a hand to someone else. It meant that those suffering from cold and starving in Russia under communism mattered and related to me despite the miles between us and our varied spots relative to the equator.

And at least now I know why I couldn't think of Caribbean Feminists off the top of my head. American Feminists seem to quite often be all women. I grew up with Activists for Social Justice; they come in both genders, varied ages and skintones and a myriad of nationalities.

Blogger Ate Me

From Midnight (late in the night of Tuesday or the first seconds of morning on Wed) until about 30 mins ago - My journal (among several others) has been down.

Sorry about that.

Blogger hasn't told me how, what, why or even who. And for part of the last 30 mins I've been testing all my functions until they all worked (for a while I couldn't edit my layout).

International Blog Against Racism Week

Is still going strong.

There are still some days left over this weekend for you to post something of your own. And there's still time to read while people are open to you listening and asking questions.

IBARW - Year Three

The People of Colour in SciFi and Fantasy Carnival, which I promote just about every six weeks, is about reaffirming our presence in the genres. Sometimes it's about celebrating, sometimes it's about pointing out 'Enlightenment, you are doing it wrong'.

But the International Blog Against Racism Week isn't confined to just the world of speculative fiction (and those editors and writers and other artist/creators who're blinded by privilege or racism). IBARW is once a year and specifically about racism; what it is, how it hurts and harms, where it's been and where it's going and what people are trying to do to stamp the crap down.

IBARW 3 Started on Monday. The theme this year is INTERSECTIONALITY. Given the year we've had online, it is most appropriate. I suggest going to check it out.

So far I've seen the following interesting articles I need to go back and read.

1. 50 books by Poc by the IBARW founder, Oyceter


2. Racism Against Roma In Italy - How You Can Help. By Anna, of Annaoverseas.com at her Livejournal.


3. International Racism also by Oyceter


4. You can't order justice for one by Yeloson of Livejournal.


5. And Delux Vivens links back to earlier this year and Cassie Edwards.

IBARW - 3

Don't just read the links I point out. Go look. Go HUNT. Because just scrolling through my feedlist I realize that far too often we're preaching to the choir. I know most of the people writing and they probably know me. Then again, we're all being pro-active on the internet. Still, it's a week where PoC and Allies of PoC are giving information, freely and are willing to engage.

Don't go read and interact expecting them to teach you. Racism 101 by a PoC is a gift, not a right, not something to demand, and not something to walk away from with a lazy, narrow minded brain because it wasn't spoonfed to you.

IBARW is NOT Racism 101.

But it is a week where those of you full of questions, would do well to listen.

ETA: 6. ...25 years of cover whitewashing in Joan Vinge's "Cat" series

Officially Anti Wowio

I have deleted the link to Wowio from my sidebar.

If you can stand the blinking, distracting ads, or if you have Ad Block Plus - there's nothing to be lost, I suppose, from reading what they have available for online viewing.

I do suggest, however that for purchasing/downloading that you head to the creator's site and perhaps buy there or at PullBoxOnline.Com or at Drive Thru Comics. Or you can try hunting around at EnWorld.rpgnow.com - I'm totally lost over there. But no doubt there are other places - feel free to link in comments.

Comics at Wowio are only free so long as there is a sponsor (likely to be found by the comic author themselves). And the sponsor only allows for -one- download. That's it. And the Sponsor gets to choose which area of Wowio they wish to sponsor; articles and essays, comics and graphic novels, fiction, etc... Currently Breastcancer.org isn't willing to sponsor my comic habit. I feel snubbed.

At this rate I'd rather hit a donate button for some artists and download stuff from their site or their upload account.

*Goes to find a good source for Lai Wan: The Dreamwalker*

More non Wowio related entries later - I've got a draft or two in the wings.

The Dark Knight

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PARTIAL SPOILERS

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I just saw The Dark Knight movie. I liked it. Of course I was already spoiled with all the WiR posts (with the term in the titles) going on re: TDK. Though since I was avoiding, I kind of thought there would be a fake out.

But I haven't cared a damn for the character since the first movie. And I didn't care too much now. The character was a plot point to me and not where my interest fell. I think I'll care more about WiR in this franchise when I give a damn about the female character in general.

Luckily I'm not a feminist so I can't be a 'bad' feminist for not giving a crap and for actually thinking 'Thank Goodness we don't have to deal with that character in the next movie'. It was wish fulfillment.

Re: The Joker? - I loved his intelligence, his lack of history or identity other than as the Joker. I'm someone who didn't like Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's creation. To me he read like Jack Black in make-up or the Joker high on pot and full of 40's. Just... didn't like him. Or rather, I wasn't scared of him.

Things I didn't like? There's only one. Will Kevin Conroy or Will Friedle please contact Christian Bale and teach him how to do a presentable Bat voice? PLEASE?

I might have more thoughts later. I'll definitely be up to discussion in IM. Mostly I'm just wondering when we'll get a Superman movie that's even half as good as this one. Nay, half as good as the first one.

Figuring Out What Universal Means

In the midst of 'rarrrr' over Wowio, I scrambled to check out Shadowgirls and was happily surprised to search and find that it's a web comic.

Shadowgirls reminds me strongly of Hack/Slash (Devil's Due Publishing). I want to talk about that resemblance and the fact that I like these stories / these comics, with their strong, white, female protagonists.

There are times, like I mentioned in Flipsides last night, where it doesn't take much at all to imagine most of the main cast of a given comic or book as being PoC. But there are other times when who the character is and what their experiences are and how they've been formed and how they react to any given stimuli is very informed by what they look like, what their skin colour is, what their life experience is - as white; Hack/Slash and Shadowgirls are such two comics for me.

I've spoken of Cassie before; daughter of a school lunch lady who then becomes a serial killer and then an immortal horror film serial killer. Being so close to being able to conform but internally - mentally and emotionally - being so far away from 'normal' is part of what makes Cassie dynamic to me. Her mother's status as being border-line and having things push her over the edge is another part. And on top of all of that - being percieved as 'poor white trash' - I've found the themes universal. Shadowgirls really made me think about why I think of such themes as universal while at the same time acknowledging the fact I don't think the storylines could work with PoC.

Be warned, I have no idea if I'm going to be able to explain myself properly.

Shadowgirls involves a woman, Charon, who goes missing / is deemed a runaway when she's in 10th grade (that's around 14/15 in the US I think). She's found again some months later, but she's pregnant and apparently suffering through a psychotic episode. Years later the plot kicks it up when her daughter, Beka, is now a teenager.

The plot's set in a small town, Innsmouth. Small town politics and social mores are all over everything. How a small town reacts when a teenager shows up pregnant; how they teach their children to respond to the 'bastard child'; how they treat the unwed mother; how they think about themselves. The undercurrents that bind a small town together from family power plays to highschool dynamics that never mature - it's all there. And I found myself nodding with comprehension as I read.

Now maybe it's a case that PoC in the US (and elsewhere) have to understand white life and white dynamics because it's everywhere and we have to learn to navigate it (from whence comes the code switching). So maybe what I think I'm seeing as universal, isn't and is really only universal in so far that if you're white or have been deemed white in the last fifty years, it's something you could relate to.

Yet I don't think that's it - I hope that's not it. The suffocation of a small town seems similar to the possible suffocation in a small village or any other small self supporting population area. The weight of traditions and social maneuverings seems universal to me. I mean, a girl goes missing and the only one who cares what happens to her when she comes back is her grandmother. To everyone else she's a slut who got what's coming to her...

[ Remind me at some other point in time to discuss/'think out loud' the conflict in the anti-choice argument where a child is both precious and to be protected while simultaneously being a punishment to women and an anchor meant to hold her down. It might explain why they tend not to give a damn about the child once it's born. Because when s/he can breathe on their own, they're now the albatross to be hung around the neck of the mother; who shouldn't get any help because THIS IS WHAT SHE DESERVES!]

Where was I? Oh yeah. Small town shunning. Charon and Becka have managed to carve out an existence for themselves, or rather Charon has carved out an existence for her daughter - even while she seems to teeter on a self destructive edge. And mothers putting one foot in front of the other purely for their children; mothers who refuse to have their mistakes or perceived mistakes reflect on their children? I can understand that. I think that's universal. The fact that there are supernatural influences in everything that's happened so far, with a touch of small town conspiracy (public and possibly also private) only adds to that.

Hack/Slash has Cassie's origins as similar. A small town. The school lunch lady. A disappearing father. A picked on daughter. And then things get weird and bloody.

I suppose Cassie and Charon are similar to me in that Cassie is trying not to let who her mother was define her, even as it so obviously does - but at least she's dealing with it in an active manner. Whereas Charon doesn't care anymore if the town tries to define her but she refuses to let them define her daughter because of who her mother is and what they think she's done and what they think that says about her (Charon) and thus consequently Becka.

But I haven't gotten into the whole 'But why did you bring up race in the first place, Willow?'.

I also read Scar Tissue last night. And it was meh - ok, I guess. Maybe a 4 on a scale of 1-10. Not horrible, but it had enough things that distracted me that it didn't get a higher score. And what distracted me? The fact that there was nothing in the story as it was laid out, that meant the characters had to be white.

If Cassie or Charon were WoC, the undercurrent (in a well done comic at least) of racism and how that played into how people treated them; how that gave people the mental impression that they had some sort of right to treat them as inferior or only worthy of mockery and bullying; that would change the story and change the tone. Cassie and Charon would already be set up as OTHER and any supernatural entanglement in their lives would only make them even more OTHER. And people would still feel they had the right to have treated them the way they did because see - there's the proof of the other.

Scar Tissue on the other hand is a story about a sickly boy who gets a needed heart transplant. But his organ donor is a bad guy; a super powered bad guy. And the powers begin to seep into his body and possibly take over his life.

All the while reading it, I was very aware of the fact that the group of brothers, could have been Black or Chinese or Japanese or Latino. They could have been African immigrants or from the Caribbean or from South East Asia. They could have been second generation or third of East Indian parentage. They could have been NDN/First Nations. Changing the race of the characters wouldn't change the story at all. There would still be a protective older brother, a bit of a wastrel, if well meaning middle brother and the younger brother they're determined to protect. And then there's a girlfriend involved in the storyline and she could have been any number of backgrounds as well and it also wouldn't have changed a thing to the storyline. She'd still want to protect this family of brothers because they're part of her chosen family.

The only reason they're white, is because white is so often the default.

Now I'm well aware that Cassie and Charon (and Becka) are more than likely white because it's considered the default as well. It's possible in Shadowgirls that despite a moment where one individual is picked on because she's half Japanese (I believe) the concept of Charon and Becka as anything but white didn't cross their minds. But there is the fact that changing the race of those characters would change the path of the story.

Now I feel like I'm repeating myself and not saying anything.

But I guess I did make part of my point last night. The fact that it's so easy for me to see the characters in Scar Tissue as characters who could have been PoC says something about how I view the world. And the fact that white is the default for so many creators says something about their world view. Because I don't want to pick on the creators of Scar Tissue. I'm not calling them racist. I'm not even calling them blind. They had a vision and in their vision - everyone looked just like them; except for the token WoC in the superhero team that shows up near the end - y'know, for the traditional diversity.

But there is something going on when a creator's story could be universal - three brothers trying to look out for one another - and they're white, the people they interact with are white, the doctors are white, the people in the street are white, the police and FBI are white.....

Maybe it's not that these stories aren't universal the way Shadowgirls and Hack/Slash are. Maybe it's that the universal themes are muddied by privilege. Maybe the two comics that move me so much, move me because I can't imagine the heroines as being anything else but what they are. And since I can't, I can pay attention to the universal themes. Whereas most of the time I read a comic and I'm just very, painfully aware of a void.