Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Burn, baby, burn

David Brothers was one of the smartest comics bloggers on the scene a few years back when I was at my peak of following the industry, and he’s remained one of the few whom I still follow despite my current pull list being a shadow of its former self.

[Side note: Have to get to Midtown soon before they cancel my bare-minimum pull list again. Particularly looking forward to Joshua Dysart's Unknown Soldier.]

He has a great post up at his site, 4thLetter, called SuperHHero KKKomics 200Hate: A Year In Review, an exponentially more substantiative response to the knee-jerk (but cleverly illustrated) 2008: The Year of Misogyny, that starts as a typical rant about the poor treatment of blacks in comics, but quickly becomes something much, much better.

Some of my favorite highlights of 200Hate include:

Barack Obama- leader of Dark Reign, gullible enough to trust Norman Osborn
Crispus Allen- killed his own son, has to have some old white lady re-ignite his faith in God after he tries to kill his best friend for being a lesbian, probably Pro Prop 8, forced to wear goatee as racial identifier, likely never-nude
Falcon- lost his best friend, hasn’t appeared in Captain America lately, was set on fire once
Manhattan Guardian- tossed aside the second a WHITE Guardian shows up
Martian Manhunter- murdered with a spear (martians count as black, see also Lil Wayne “We are not the same, I am a martian”)
Spawn- blows own head off in own comic, promoting the suicide of strong and proud black men
Spawn (Michael Jai White)- Killed by the Joker in The Dark Knight, movie goes on to make a billion dollars
Storm- taken from high profile X-Men appearances to be a supporting character in some lower-selling book, forced into arranged marriage, needs Emma Frost (who once enslaved her) to call her names just so she can feel like she belongs somewhere
Tyler Perry- still not invited to write a Black Panther story where T’Challa remembers how his big grandma was the one that scared him into following the path of the warrior, leaving untold the story of Bg’mama, the true power of wakanda

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This started out as a reply to a friend’s email who asked the question, and despite my wanting needing to come up for air from the political waters for a day or two to avoid an early repeat of 2004 where my frustrations got the better of me and my cynicism hit new lows, it evolved into this post…

It’s a fair question that we really won’t know the answer to until it’s actually an option, but I’d say Obama is as electable as Hillary Clinton, if not a bit more so.  She’s a known entity and there’s a pretty large group of people on both sides of the divide who simply won’t vote for her, no matter who her opponent is.

I’ve got one foot in that camp myself thanks to the way she and Bill have been campaigning lately.

She’s got several old sets of baggage she’s carrying around from the 90s — failed health care proposal; NAFTA; DOMA; “don’t ask, don’t tell”; her refusal to release her sealed records from the 90s until after the election — not to mention what’s perhaps the biggest set that’s been pretty much overlooked because she’s a Clinton: she’s a woman. There are as many people in this country who won’t vote for a black man as there are who won’t vote for a woman, and if there was a way to pull back the curtain and see what’s really happening out there, I think you’d find a lot of them [not ALL of them, and not even a majority] are supporting John Edwards right now as a way to hide that bias, perhaps even from themselves.

As for the Republican contenders, they’re dealing with a seriously fractured party that doesn’t appear ready to compromise just yet. The longer Thompson and Giuliani stay in the mix, and as long as Ron Paul continues to play the reasonably well-funded Sharpton/Kucinich role, the better the Democrats’ chances are in November… as long as they don’t tear each other apart like Bill Clinton seemed intent on encouraging over the past week.

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{meme in which one takes the first line of the first post from each month and looks at it as a summary of the year. and is a little stunned at the results. NOTE: [My Vox] blog didn’t start until March so the first two months are from Comic Book Commentary.}

January: In the most glaring sign yet of how much my tastes have changed over the 3.5 years since I started reading comics again, compare my Best of 2004 choices to this year’s stellar roundup (below).

February: I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought behind it while despising its continued necessity.

March: The need to express oneself in such a public manner is a peculiar trait, indeed.

April: It’s somewhat fitting that the Don Imus fiasco blew up this week, but if the heightened awareness of the pervasive sexism and racism in this country is allowed to fade simply because MSNBC and CBS caved to the pressure and fired him — not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was the fiscally prudent thing to do — then it’d be akin to Jackie Robinson being the only black baseball player.

May: A 4BR detached house somewhere in the Bronx that my wife would be willing to live for at least another 5 years. (from an “If money were no object” wish list meme.)

June: The only thing cooler than handing out obligatory trophies to a group of kids who actually earned them, is having your son be one of those kids!

July: Keith Olbermann on Bush, Cheney: “Which is the ventriloquist and which is the dummy is now irrelevant.”

August: It’s somewhat ironic that on the same night I read a new poem entitled “On the 89yh Day, I Quit”, I end up drinking way more than usual.

September: Even though I’ve not been to work since Friday, August 24th, my vacation pretty much ended the minute we landed at JFK last Wednesday evening.

October: We trekked up to Lawrence Farms Orchards again on Saturday to have an apple-picking/pumpkin-picking/picnic party for India’s 5th birthday and the unseasonably warm October weather was absolutely perfect for it!

November: It’s Spindle’s penultimate update before the official launch in January and it’s the most eclectic mix of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and photography yet, including the debut of our first column, Mahogany Browne’s Coffee & Brooklyn (C&B), and the latest Notable New Yorker interview, Ivan Brandon: Crime Comics Czar.

December: I refuse to become as emotionally invested in the presidential race this time around, largely because none of the candidates speak to me as strongly as Kucinich did back in 2004 when he represented an admittedly longshot at legitimate change. 

We’re heading down to Virginia for the holidays and I’m planning to post a bunch of TPB reviews throughout next week — in between catching up on sleep and movies — including Stagger Lee; American Born Chinese; Opening Lines, Pinky Probes, and L-Bombs, and a few others. Oh, and I haven’t forgotten about the holiday giveaway I mentioned a few weeks back; I just haven’t had the time to pick and pull the comics in question. Stay tuned and have a great holiday!

TWO CENTS

*** Archie’s Redesign: Not feeling it at all, but then, I’m not the target audience. Considering the emphasis Archie puts on the familiarity of its characters being a selling point in mass-market outlets like Wal-Mart, though, I’m rather surprised by the decision.

*** Minx: Kudos to DC for continuing to diversify their output with another new imprint, and more importantly, for dedicating significant marketing resources to give it a fighting chance. Could there be more women contributors in the initial launch? Sure, but there could be a million legitimate reasons there aren’t that have nothing to do with sexism or stupidity, and considering Karen Berger’s editorial track record, I’m willing to take a rain check on the reflexive, self-righteous anger. I also have no problem with the name. Minx doesn’t evoke “slut” in my mind; more like precocious self-confidence.

*** Too Many Ads in Comics: Marvel notices money sitting on the table right in front of them and grabs it? Well, duh! Actually, this merits a post of its own, but if you want an idea of where I’ll be going with this, check out Marvel’s media kit. I will say that the idea that they should subsidize retailers’ increased shipping costs because of the additional weight is pretty silly, as is thinking they should lower cover prices because of the additional revenue coming from the ads.

*** Parker’s Peter: Such a non-issue, really, but it’s rather sad that in some areas of the country it could cause retailers a problem. As for the story itself, while a definite Dark Knight knockoff, it’s not necessarily a bad one. I was intrigued enough to check out the second issue.

*** Civil War’s Multiple Delays: Who cares? And why was anyone surprised? Sure, retailers got the shaft on this one, but at the same time… eggs, basket, old saying? If your business can be so dramatically affected by one publisher, no matter how big, you need to rethink your business plan.