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  1. #1
    multiple choice Orion's Avatar
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    Default Shado's skin tone in Mike Grell's Green Arrow

    I've been reading through the excellent 80's Green Arrow series by Mike Grell, Dan Jurgens, and others, and while I like the character of Shado and the stories involving her, I'm really put off that her skin is colored the same sickly yellow/golden as Shang Chi was in the 70s Master of Kung Fu.

    Shouldn't they have been a little past that by the 80s? It's especially striking in the Black Arrow Saga issues where Shado and Dinah share many scenes...it really comes off like a racist caricature.

    I understand maybe Marvel didn't have as many color options from the printer in the 70s with Shang Chi, but surely by the 80s they would've either used more appropriate colors or the same skin tone as the caucasian characters.

  2. #2
    Three Legged Member married guy's Avatar
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    I didn't really think anything of it.
    I appreciated that DC actually made the effort not to whitewash her.
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  3. #3
    Astonishing Member phantom1592's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by married guy View Post
    I didn't really think anything of it.
    I appreciated that DC actually made the effort not to whitewash her.
    Exactly. Technology being what it is... your choices are either the yellowish color which is a bit racist.... or making them look white... which is also racist. Or just not putting Asian characters in books... but again... y'know... Racist.

    I'm glad they at least acknowledged a different skin tone even if it wasn't the best color in hindsight.

  4. #4
    Ultimate Member Riv86672's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by married guy View Post
    I didn't really think anything of it.
    I appreciated that DC actually made the effort not to whitewash her.
    Same.

    Also, that particular shade didn’t clash with/fit the book’s color palette.

  5. #5
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    In the 1960s and even 1970s, some publishers used a flat yellow for Asian characters where DC used an orange shade (the magenta and yellow plates). Once they moved to offset printing, the colourists had to figure out how to get the colours they wanted from the new printing process. Sometimes this didn't work out so well, because it's hard to predict how the colours will come through on the final printed page.

    But I don't find this orange that offensive. Since I always lived among Asian people, it upset me to see characters coloured that flat pale yellow, but I thought the orange was at least close enough to the real skin tone--just like with the white characters in comics, the skin colour isn't true to life but you know what they're going for.

    If anything, Shado just looks like she's tanned, which she would be, because she's in the outdoors all the time. A lot of Asian people I know try to avoid the sun, so their skin has a paler shade.

  6. #6
    Fantastic Member mikelmcknight72's Avatar
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    I'd say that giving the creators the benefit of the doubt would be a good policy.

  7. #7
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    from Who's Who Update '88 Vol. 3 (October 1988)

  8. #8
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    Colours on GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS: Mike Grell (covers); Julia Lacquement (interiors)
    Colours on WHO'S WHO UPDATE '88: Carl Gafford (Shado entry)
    Colours on GREEN ARROW (1988) 9 - 12 "Here There Be Dragons": Bill Wray (covers for 9, 10); ? (covers for 11, 12); Julia Lacquement (interiors)
    Colours on GREEN ARROW (1988) 21 - 24 "Blood of the Dragon": ? (covers); Julia Lacquement (interiors)
    Colours on GREEN ARROW (1988) 35 - 37 "The Black Arrow Saga": ? (covers); Julia Lacquement (interiors)

  9. #9
    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    Speaking as someone who owns the entire Grell GA collection I can tell you the entire color scheme of that book is weird. There's stuff that doesn't stand out very well because of the weird color choices. I have no idea how accurate this is to the original run. But they made some odd choices. This may have been just an attempt at being cheap on the coloring. I certainly don't think they had any racist intent but keep in mind that at the time, GA was kind of off doing it's own thing away from the rest of the DCU. Which means it may not have gotten the best resources.
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