I think CBO has the world covered. Now if only I could get views from the International Space Station....but would that be "Views from outer space" or "Views from ISS" or "Viewed by non terrestrials"? I NEED THAT VIEW!!!!!
Sorry -two cups of coffee before Mid-day.
It is interesting that occasionally I get someone ask in a rather rude way "Oh, and how many black characters do you show in YOUR comics?" They never ask "How many Chinese characters?" or "How many Japanes?" or even "How many Indian or Pakistanis?" Very telling about agendas.
For fun I can tell you that Black Tower Comis, even as a Small Press publisher, reflected modern times and the fact that we are a multi-cultural society in the UK and that there are other countries out there!
Shown to better effect in something such as Return or Green Skies there are characters from....Japan,
China, Korea, Africa, South America, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Germany (obvious there)m France, Belgium, Netherlands and I could go on for a very long time. Kotar and Sabuta have been with me since the 1960s and while Kotar may have English-Arabic parents Sabuta is Arabic. Tarot (a newcomer in the early 1980s) is from a rather unusual Gipsy clan. Shiva is from Romania.
Now, I did not set out as a youngster, a teen or later butch, bearded man to create characters from those places. I just drew straight onto a blank sheet of paper, as I still do. I don't think "Let's make him Argentinean" or whatever. I draw the character and his bio is in my head (that may never be revealed to readers but it is all there).
I think the years being raised by my grandparents in St Werburgh's influenced a lot of this because I had friends from Afro-Carribean, Indian, Polish and Sikh families.
When I once put forward a project to Fleetway in the late 1980s that featured a number of (I really hate this word) "ethnic" characters I was told that it was good but would probably be turned down by the "upper management" at boardroom level. But the idea was broached and..."Slapped down before they evemn looked at an art page!"
In 1986/1987 (it's a long time ago now!) I decided that I wanted to do a story featuring my Chinese hero team -The Phoenix Squad- with my, then, Soviet team The Red Star Squadron. Initially, it looked like the nationalistic differences and border tensions would see them fight each other until the real villain (the Salamander) was discovered. No war or border clash -both teams cooperated with each other. Three different people at a Westminster Comic Mart who had read the strip decided, one quite loudly, that I was "a Communist" one even said "an unapologetic commie". This was in London not so location in the US. It seems that unless the Chinese and "Soviets" were depicted as gnarl faced folk up to evil and trying to destroy the Western 'Free' World they were not accepted -probably by people who had only read American comic books. Weird.
The problem is that no one seems to consider that "we're all human" -good and evil on all sides. Now I have read a good few Indian comics and I never saw any that ever saw Pakistan as anything but an evil war mongering nation. Not sure whether that has changed at all.
Witches. Oh yeah. In my "other work" as well as away from it I have known a few Wiccans. I have shown the good side of "magic" as well as the evil use of "magic". When I had to interview a comic creator from the US the editor involved wrote: "I ought to tell you that she is a witch"....All I could reply with was "Okay". I mean...meh. Turns out she practices Wicca and is a very nice lady. I was not in any way expecting a black clad old hag with a crooked dagger who would ask "Where are the babies?".
Even more laughable was when I was in London on business and waiting to meet an artist. The person with me shuffled awkwardly before saying quietly: "I should tell you he's Jewish". Again "O-kay" and it was explained that as I was part German and most of my family were he thought I might not be "happy" about meeting someone who was Jewish. I actually broke out in hysterical laughter and once I recovered I told the person "I'll damage you b******s you say something like that again". As it turned out the artist was a Catholic and his family Polish!!
There was even the time when the fact that I knew an artist from South Africa was seen as disgraceful. I take people as I find them and if you can't handle that then F.U.
My point, and I have to admit that it is a very long and winding road to it, is that my comics are not thought out to be politically correct, the support BLM or follow any other agenda. I have no idea which character is going to appear in a strip or how the scene might suddenly change to another location. No agenda. Back in 1984 I produced the first zine (Iam told by others) featuring two gay characters -Liz & Jen. Got me work with UK comics but they "Could never get away with publishing" L&J (which by today's standards was Very tame) and I got a few (I think three) letters from people who liked the zine in Germany. Several other characters from the time were also gay but...I was told by one angry young woman that "a straight man should never be allowed to write about gay people or women".....but she admitted the story was good (this was in the 2000s).
Just write and draw comics you want to and do not make the mistake of thinking you MUST "diversify". You write and draw what you want and what comes into your head and people who do not read comics and have NEVER read one of your books have no say in it.
Make your comics good, honest and fun!
yes. Nuff said.
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