Minorities In Comics and Related Media

[emac1790]

I'm glad you asked that because I always wanted to ask Skyvolt why he doesn't open up a comic book shop or something. He seems to know a lot about comic books (DC, Marvel, Archie, etc) -- honestly, I don't think I've ever seen anyone as knowledgeable as he is regarding comics. I don't know his situation, but I think given the breadth of his knowledge that it's definitely something that he should look into.

With regards to non-artists/writers, I'd first ask: what makes you think you can't write a comic book? I can understand that not everyone has the talent to draw comics (I'm still working on it myself, especially with regards to inking and coloring) but I think many of you could probably write a comic book if you tried. You'd need to find an artist of course, but why not at least make the effort? The doors seem to be (finally) opening for creators of color so it's really up to us at this point to develop the skills to fill those positions.

Also, I think Skyvolt mentions that he tries to get more young people involved in reading comics, so maybe mentoring kids and introducing them to Moon Girl or Miles Morales or Sam Wilson would be a good way to address the issue -- you'd help create a new generation of comic book readers while also helping promote the sales of "minority-led" books. After all, even if Marvel puts them out there, if they don't sell, then they aren't going to last very long...

Finally, though I really don't want to have to do this, I might initiate a Kickstarter this summer to get my studio off the ground. I've been trying to save up the money to hire an artist but realistically it's a little more expensive to publish a comic (or quite a few of them, as I've created my own universe) than I expected, mainly due to promotional costs. As it stands, I'm trying to decide between trying to fund an expansion of my Illumina website, production of my film (based on my Kerouac Black line of comics) or creating a videogame demo with a corresponding graphic novel (based on my Primus and Nihilon comics) so I'm wary of asking for anything until I've determined which project has the best odds of success. That said, I'm going to have to be bold enough to learn to ask others for help, and I'd suggest that maybe others should do the same (assuming they'd rather do their own thing than contribute to my efforts).

That's just a couple of things I can think of offhand -- I'll try to come up with a few more tonight and post them later on.

Opening a comic shop is not easy. There is a lot of responsibility to deal with. Not everyone wants to do it. That might not be Skyvolt's thing, no matter his financial situation. Besides, that doesn't really help diversity in comics.

As for writing comics, I can only speak for myself here. I wrote my own comics in 6th grade. It was a hobby. Now, I'm at an age where I have a lot of hobbies and writing my own comics is not something I want to do unless I'm getting paid for it.

One thing I do encourage younger people that I know to write. And not just comics. And of course to stay in school and go to college. This way more minorities can be in the position to write comics, if that's what they want to do.

It's great that you are taking the time and effort to make your own comics and video games. But not everyone wants to do that.

And lastly, there is nothing wrong with wanting and asking for something better than what we're seeing now.

[aja_christopher]

Opening a comic shop is not easy.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Making excuses is easy.

Changing the world (for the better) is not.

Again, if you don't want to do it, that's 100% A-OK -- like I said before, PERSONALLY, I think taking action is better than just complaining, and you are more than welcome to think otherwise...

...but if that's the case, please don't ask for me for advice or my opinion if you are simply going to ignore it or dismiss it, because it would be much more productive for me to be working on my own projects than wasting time trying to teach those who don't want to listen or to learn, or to put actions to their words.

[emac1790]

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Making excuses is easy.

Changing the world (for the better) is not.

Again, if you don't want to do it, that's 100% A-OK -- like I said before, PERSONALLY, I think taking action is better than just complaining, and you are more than welcome to think otherwise... but if that's the case, please don't ask for me for advice if you are simply going to ignore it, because it would be much more productive for me to be working on my own projects than wasting time trying to teach those who don't want to listen or to learn or to act.

Disagreeing doesn't mean ignoring. And I really don't see how opening a comic store helps with more diversity in comics.

[emac1790]

As I read your post again, aja_christopher, I realized something.

You said you wanted to ask Skyvolt "why he doesn't open up a comic book shop or something". My question is, why didn't you ask him? Why did you bring this up in a response to one of my questions?

edit; I see you edited your post and added stuff, again. I done with this. I find your style quite dishonest and manipulative. It's like you post something and when I post a response that you don't like, you go back and add something else to the OP, which makes it look like I edited your post in my quote of your OP.

Again, I'm done with this.

[Smoov-E]

So are you gonna ignore Claremonte vito'd Portacio on making Bishop Filipino for his long standing tradition of multiple white people on a team but one of each race only characters?


Or Claremont's strong deep seated sexual fetishes

[Vic Vega]

Whatever you think of Clairmont, it should be pretty freaking obvious that Stan and Jack NEVER INTENDED for X-Men to be a Civil Rights Allegory. Frankly that is inane, considering the time they were doing the book.

The analogy doesn't even make a lick of sense. Because Professor X is the guy training kids in self defense (which would make him Malcom) and Magento is an outright bad guy plotting violent overthrow of the government(which would make him a commie subversive in those days-The Weathermen/Weather Underground only came around later).

If anything Xmen reads as a anti commie scare book. Where the main characters prove they are not Red subversives by rounding up the ACTUAL Red subversives. Most likely its a S-F take on Village Of the Damned/Children of the Damned(A popular pair of SF movies which those guys might have seen at the time).

Besides Magneto was an unrepentant bad guy that the audience was supposed to hate until he becmes silver haired beefcake in the
mid 80's Clairmont/Sinkevwitz(?) run of New Mutants. The more sympathetic Magneto became, the better looking he got. 'Til you got him being drawn by Jim Lee running around the jungle with Rogue and no shirt on and you are supposed to root for him as a bad boy anti hero (despite him being old enough to be her grandfather).

Frankly, even Clairmont didn't originally intend for there to be a Civil Rights allegory with the Xmen at the start. It started out as being (and it wasn't even a little subtle about it either) an allegory about Jewish independence where Professor X is Ben Gurion and Magneto is Begin. Again CC had Magneto say "#$%^ peace" in Israel and had him immediately abscond with a bunch of Nazi gold. This ish wasn't subtle. AT ALL.

So what happened? Even in 1984 USA the amount of people who knew or even cared about who David Ben-Gurion and Menahiem Begin were was shrinking. And since America is the target audience for this book (and every other book that Marvel publishes) Clairmont made God Loves Man Kills(?) where he started using Civil Rights references because those are the references that the audience would actually get. But Clairmont has gone back and forth with those separate ideas/allegorys depending on the story he was telling.

For example, Genosha starts out being Mutant South Africa til Magento takes over then it become Mutant Israel (and Mags gets to be Begin again as Prime Minister).

PS: Most of the complaints that could have been made against the Clairmont/Byrne Xmen at the time(not enough females, only one POC after Sunfire and Thunderbird were written out) he addressed himself with New Mutants. Five members to start, three of them females (Karma, Wolvesbane, Moonstar) ,two males (Sunspot, Cannonball) and only two of them were White.

If you are getting on CC for diversity issues you are getting on him for a lack of MALE POCS only (specifically AA and Asian males) and by the time Clairmont left/quit in the 90's you had two male POCs: Bishop and Forge.

[Double 0]

Doom Patrol and Blood Syndicate > X-Men because frankly I'm tired of allegories. Want to write about minorities? Screw the big tent and write about them.

Allegories and metaphors about social identities issues are outdated to me.

[Agent Z]

Doom Patrol and Blood Syndicate > X-Men because frankly I'm tired of allegories. Want to write about minorities? Screw the big tent and write about them.

Allegories and metaphors about social identities issues are outdated to me.

Aren't the Doom Patrol kind of allegorical though?

[Overhazard]

Aren't the Doom Patrol kind of allegorical though?

Kind of, they did the whole "We're misunderstood freaks, please love us!" thing around the same time as the x men. I can't remember who came first.

I think it was in Morrison's run that had the chief create the accidents that gave them their powers, and manipulated them into believing they had to be superheroes in order to be accepted. Which sounds a lot like something Professor X would do.

Now that I think about it, the X-Men are a lot like a cult. They reach out to all these troubled kids and say "those straight laced types like your parents or those stuffy avengers don't understand you, we understand you, we think you're special, come out to our mansion in the middle of nowhere so we can indoctrinate you, Mutant and Proud, Mutant and Proud!"

I am much happier reading the Ninja Turtles.

[aja_christopher]

As I read your post again, aja_christopher, I realized something.

You said you wanted to ask Skyvolt "why he doesn't open up a comic book shop or something". My question is, why didn't you ask him? Why did you bring this up in a response to one of my questions?

edit; I see you edited your post and added stuff, again. I done with this. I find your style quite dishonest and manipulative. It's like you post something and when I post a response that you don't like, you go back and add something else to the OP, which makes it look like I edited your post in my quote of your OP.

Again, I'm done with this.

I added nothing after reading your post -- in fact, I didn't even see your post when I edited my own, and this is verified by the fact that when you edited your own post to ask for suggestions on how non-artists can contribute to the effort, I initiated an entirely new post to answer your query (rather than complaining about the fact that you did so).

The fact that you've had to result to personal insults -- while I've done nothing but try to be helpful and offer advice and information -- speaks volumes about your real agenda here: you claim that it's not "personal" yet you go on to repeatedly make personal attacks on my character, ultimately calling me "dishonest and manipulative" based on the fact that I frequently edit my posts after re-reading them and realizing that there is more that I have to say on the issue, which is completely my right.

Skyvolt has frequently pointed out that he goes to comic book shops and can't find the books that he is looking for, which is why I suggested he might consider opening a shop and stocking it as he sees fit. You managed to turn that friendly suggestion -- and nearly every other constructive suggestion I made -- into a way to insult or demean me in whatever way possible.

You could have easily -- as I suggested before -- PM'd me that question, but obviously your agenda was to publicly slander me as much as possible rather than to objectively consider the advice I gave regarding increasing diversity in comics.

That said, there are those who talk the talk, and those who walk the walk with regards to this matter, and I'm glad to know which side of the spectrum I fall into, regardless of whether others choose to do the same.

And from this point on, I plan to do a lot less talking, and a lot more walking, since talk obviously is getting us nowhere.

[Double 0]

Aren't the Doom Patrol kind of allegorical though?

By the more notable runs, that allegory was avoided for something IMO better.

[aja_christopher]

https://illuminamagazine.wordpress.c...ivil-war-clip/

“Watch Black Panther And Bucky Duke It Out In New, Long Civil War Clip”





“We know that a significant portion of the plot of Captain America: Civil War is dedicated to Black Panther’s hunt for The Winter Soldier. We’ve seen the Panther chasing Bucky through tunnels and jumping on cars in order to catch his prey. But what happens when the two finally meet face to face? We have at least part of our answer in a new clip of Civil War which appears to show the first time these two cross paths for the first time.

Chadwick Boseman, the man behind the Black Panther mask was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night and so we got to see a bit of him in action as part of the deal. At 40 seconds long, the clip actually gives us a significant amount of fight to look at. As a fight scene, it looks great. Chadwick Boseman tells Jimmy Kimmel that it is in fact him in the scene doing the fighting and he and Sebastian Stan look great trading blows. Of course, Black Panther has something of an upper hand when it comes to his vibranium claws. It appears they can pretty much carve through whatever The Winter Soldier tries to use to defend himself.

The most interesting part may be the opening seconds. Black Panther comes in from, as far as we can tell, nowhere, to take down Bucky Barnes from the back. His trajectory and velocity don’t really imply that he jumped from anywhere so much as flew. It’s possible, and somewhat likely, that this scene has been edited so we may be missing some information that would help it all make sense.

At the same time, this might literally be our introduction to Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. When we see Captain America and Falcon later in the clip, neither has apparently seen Black Panther before this moment…”

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Watch...ip-127967.html

[aja_christopher]

https://illuminamagazine.wordpress.c...-set-for-2017/

"Jessica Jones’ Season 2 Release Date: Filming Set For 2017”



“Come fall, it’ll be a year since Jessica Jones stepped into the MCU. Netflix and Marvel are great at keeping secrets and there’s been virtually no updates on the progress of the second season. Jessica Jones Season 2 wasn’t officially confirmed until January. Details about casting changes and plot twists are sparse, but Bloomberg was able to catch up with EP Melissa Rosenberg this week and she revealed Jessica Jone s Season 2 is scheduled to start production in 2017.

Right after the first season of Jessica Jones was released, Rosenberg also revealed to CinemaBlend that The Defenders has to start filming by a certain time, contractually. “Will it be before The Defenders or after? I’d certainly love it to be before but there are things that play into that — time, availability,” she added.

It’s too early for spoilers, but we can still make a few predictions based on the way Season 1 left off and small tidbits from the creative team. Rosenberg gave Deadline a few hints on new story arcs, but said she’d like to expand on the current cast.

“[Trish] is one of the characters that I’m looking forward to exploring, and pushing to new territory, and the world is our oyster on that one. We can go anywhere we want with it and there’s a lot of mythology behind her.”

Rosenberg is referring to Hellcat, Trish’s superhero alias. In the series, Trish isn’t known to have mystical powers like she does in the comics. However, in both universes she’s a trained martial artist. Trish (aka Patsy Walker) urged Jessica to use her powers to do good and helped take down Killgrave in Season 1.

Now that Killgrave is out of the picture, Jessica Jones needs a new villain…”

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/jessica...et-2017-530917

[MindofShadow]

will not click on anymore CW stuff, im done lol.

Ugh... I don't know where you go with JJ after season 1. That was pretty much her story....

[aja_christopher]

https://illuminamagazine.wordpress.c...-marvel-movie/

“When Captain Marvel Likely Will Appear In Her First Marvel Movie”





“The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to crack wide open. Black Panther and Spider-Man will soon debut in the coming Captain America: Civil War, but that’s only the beginning. As the Phase 3 films press on, even more iconic Marvel characters will make their long-awaited jump from page to screen. One such hero is none other than Carol Danvers a.k.a Captain Marvel, and it seems that we finally know exactly when she will finally make her debut in the MCU.

According to a recent report from Heroic Insider, rumors seem to indicate that the actress cast in the role of Captain Marvel will have to arrive to the set of Avengers: Infinity War by the end of this year. This means that the first glimpse audiences will get of Carol Danvers will come when Thanos finally brings his war to Earth when he gets his hands on the Infinity Stones. As excited as we are about the prospect of her arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the finer details remain shaky at best. Although the actress portraying the character will obviously be on set by the end of the year, it’s unclear if Marvel has cast her yet – some reports claim the role has been filled, while other maintain that Marvel is still testing performers for the part. Numerous names have been thrown around with regards to whom could take up the role, from Brie Larson, to Ronda Rousey, to many others. Just think of an actress; chances are her that name has been thrown around the rumor mill at some point or another.

Getting Captain Marvel properly off the ground is a major step for Marvel Studios. Despite the consistent presence of Black Widow on The Avengers’ roster and the recent inclusion of Scarlet Witch into the MCU, this particular superhero universe has experienced a noticeable absence of prominent female heroes, with the exception of Jessica Jones and Peggy Carter. Warner Bros. will beat Marvel to the punch with Wonder Woman in 2017, so Marvel needs to make sure that they absolutely nail Captain Marvel when they finally get the chance to properly bring her to the silver screen for the very first time…”

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Capta...ie-128067.html