Racial Artwork in Punisher # 15

[CrazyOldHermit]

Not a big deal. Proportions can get screwier as a figure gets smaller. Obviously this does have some nasty connotations but it's a pretty obivously a mistake. No reason to drop a book.

^That was a weird story but I didn't think it was racist.

I think (hope) the point he's trying to make is that the term OP was looking for is "racist." "Racial art" makes no sense.

[DocGreen]

Not a big deal. Proportions can get screwier as a figure gets smaller. Obviously this does have some nasty connotations but it's a pretty obivously a mistake. No reason to drop a book.



I think (hope) the point he's trying to make is that the term OP was looking for is "racist." "Racial art" makes no sense.

I didn't call the post racist because I don't think that Mitch Gerads is a racist. I do believe that he drew some racial artwork. Hence the term "Racial Artwork". I don't intend to drop the book but I do think that it needs to be addressed and not ignored. The point of the post was to see if anyone else had noticed it and hopefully draw attention to it so maybe someone might take notice and make sure it get corrected when the trade comes out. I can't believe how many people get on here defending this mistake.

[Mao Ten Doo]

You've actually answered my question without realizing it.

Haha. Good job

[leo619]

I didn't call the post racist because I don't think that Mitch Gerads is a racist. I do believe that he drew some racial artwork. Hence the term "Racial Artwork". I don't intend to drop the book but I do think that it needs to be addressed and not ignored. The point of the post was to see if anyone else had noticed it and hopefully draw attention to it so maybe someone might take notice and make sure it get corrected when the trade comes out. I can't believe how many people get on here defending this mistake.

While I don't find the artist racist, mostly because I haven't seen enough of his pictures with black characters to draw the same conclusion, the fact that these ridiculously large lips didn't ring bells in the artist mind clearly provides the indication that he is at least ignorant and perhaps a bit bigoted. These lips are clearly in the realm of the stereotypical, no question, and someone with any sort of diversity training should know that almost no black person alive have the lips literally being the biggest feature on their face. The fact that he didn't notice such a glaring issue shows a clear problem on his view towards black people.

[Pymparticalz]

Yeah, that's some racist trash right there...nice job pointing that out. Punisher is one of the comics I collect, but I'm saving to read until it's over. I do that, it's weird but I do that. I am going to stop collecting it now.

[Captain Haddock]

I didn't call the post racist because I don't think that Mitch Gerads is a racist. I do believe that he drew some racial artwork. Hence the term "Racial Artwork". I don't intend to drop the book but I do think that it needs to be addressed and not ignored. The point of the post was to see if anyone else had noticed it and hopefully draw attention to it so maybe someone might take notice and make sure it get corrected when the trade comes out. I can't believe how many people get on here defending this mistake.

What do you mean by racial then? As in, drew someone of race? Because literally every artist in the industry does that in every single panel. Sometimes the race is white, sometimes it's not. This is just one really unfortunate error that really should have been caught but it's not a big deal. The character doesn't look like that in any other panel, no other black characters look like that AT ALL. It's an error made in haste... and that's it.

[Kieran_Frost]

This may not help, but I seem to remember there were some rather... odd undertones in the Slavers arc towards the torturing of black males. A little too much continued attention was given to their demise. A very unpleasant series all round.

What do you mean by racial then? As in, drew someone of race? Because literally every artist in the industry does that in every single panel. Sometimes the race is white, sometimes it's not. This is just one really unfortunate error that really should have been caught but it's not a big deal. The character doesn't look like that in any other panel, no other black characters look like that AT ALL. It's an error made in haste... and that's it.

Errrr; gotta disagree there. It's a major f*ck up by the artist, THEN the colourist, THEN the editor. It's incredibly offensive to some, and they are all paid enough that a mistake that absurd should be caught every. Single. Time.

[Of Atlantis]

A very poor error in judgment by multiple parties resulting in an insulting depiction of a character's race? Absolutely. Racist? No. It lacks the intent. The character's not drawn that way anywhere else in the book and it's very obviously a poorly drawn/coloured/edited panel.

[Diamond]

This may not help, but I seem to remember there were some rather... odd undertones in the Slavers arc towards the torturing of black males. A little too much continued attention was given to their demise. A very unpleasant series all round.

The series was unpleasant on purpose. The Slavers arc was all about the Punisher fighting against the WORST kind of criminals and making the reader question Castle's methods in the process.

Errrr; gotta disagree there. It's a major f*ck up by the artist, THEN the colourist, THEN the editor. It's incredibly offensive to some, and they are all paid enough that a mistake that absurd should be caught every. Single. Time.

As I and others have said, the might had caught it, but they let it pass because there was no time. Monthly books are produced with very strict deadlines, to the point that fixing mistakes can mean not shipping on time. Yeah, sounds absurd, but we don't know how much time the creative team had. Not that I'm okay with those mistakes, though.

[hawkeyefan]

I didn't call the post racist because I don't think that Mitch Gerads is a racist. I do believe that he drew some racial artwork. Hence the term "Racial Artwork". I don't intend to drop the book but I do think that it needs to be addressed and not ignored. The point of the post was to see if anyone else had noticed it and hopefully draw attention to it so maybe someone might take notice and make sure it get corrected when the trade comes out. I can't believe how many people get on here defending this mistake.

I don't think anyone's defending the mistake. Just about everyone in the thread has said it was unfortunate and should have been caught. I believe if anyone is defending anything it is that it does in fact appear to be a mistake, and has no intent to offend.

This may not help, but I seem to remember there were some rather... odd undertones in the Slavers arc towards the torturing of black males. A little too much continued attention was given to their demise. A very unpleasant series all round.


Errrr; gotta disagree there. It's a major f*ck up by the artist, THEN the colourist, THEN the editor. It's incredibly offensive to some, and they are all paid enough that a mistake that absurd should be caught every. Single. Time.

I cannot comment on how much they are paid or if that is enough to catch every single mistake....although that's pretty much impossible. It was unfortunate that this got through, though, I totally agree about that.

A very poor error in judgment by multiple parties resulting in an insulting depiction of a character's race? Absolutely. Racist? No. It lacks the intent. The character's not drawn that way anywhere else in the book and it's very obviously a poorly drawn/coloured/edited panel.

That sums it up pretty well.

[krazijoe]

I don't like to read too much into things, especially if it's a one shot with no pattern.

[TheObsessor]

It might've been a mistake, but if not it's absolutely disgusting. Thankfully I don't buy Punisher solos, so I don't have to worry about it.

[Shockdingo]

Seeing this made me raise an eyebrow, since Sidewinder has been drawn normally in all his prior appearances. It was a bit distracting, but I think it was more of a ridiculous mistake. Previous depictions of him didn't appear like this, his character hasn't been represented in an offensive way, basically there haven't been any other undertones, so I think it's a really awkward mistake. As cringe-worthy as this incident was, it's not making me drop the book.

[DocGreen]

I wouldn't suggest anyone drop the Punisher over this. I know Bleeding Cool ran a story for a day saying it needed to be fixed after Rich trolled the message board. Hopefully it gets someone's attention and gets fixed. If not Marvel really needs to address quality control issues.

[ViewtifulJC]

I still can't believe nobody said anything about this when he was getting worked on.

Like, "dude...seriously?"