Monday re-cap for Firebug

 In Monday's class, I introduced the Audio-Tour assignment (see post below) and discussed the two options for the assignment--the powerpoint/video or the written-out script. If you do the first one you don't have to write a word, but you do have to wrangle with the technology; the second one requires you to write another paper, basically! 

DISCUSSION FOR FIREBUG

* We discussed the sumptuous artwork for this piece, and posed the question how extravagant the art could be before it overwhelmed the story. As a response, it was posed that the simpler the story, the freer the art could be; but a complex story needed to have much simpler art so we could follow it better. This might be why many historical or biographical graphic novels employ a pared-down, cartoony style (Maus, Persepolis), while works like Firebug, Scarlet Witch, etc. can have more freedom to embellish their world.

* We also discussed the emphasis on African folklore and mythology in this work, and why comics generally ignore the cultures of Africa and Asia in favor of the more familiar Greek, Norse, and Celtic mythos. If comics, which are often geared toward younger readers, told more African stories, kids would grow up knowing about them, and be as familiar with this world as they are with, say, King Arthur, etc. It's all about representation--or the lack thereof.

* One final point consisted of the Bechdel Test: this is a kind of joke that comes out of Alison Bechdel's comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, where two characters leave a theater after seeing an annoying overblown action movie. One says that she won't see another movie unless it (a) has two women who are main characters, (b) and these women talk to one another for more than a few minutes, and (c) they talk about something other than a man. It was suggested the Firebug didn't pass the test, since despite its focus on female protagonist, the two main ones are engaged in a love triangle with a man. Yet it was also suggested that this humanized the two mythical figures and made them relatable, particularly if the work was also intended for a Young Adult audience (if it was). Romance is an important element of storytelling, and the more epic and distant the subject matter, the more you need this human element. 

THE RACIST ELEMENT IN COMICS

* I then showed several slides documenting the racist past of superhero comics, many of which employed the following tropes:

(a) the evil "Orient" (characters from the Middle East or China who were depicted in grotesque fashion as the villains)

(b) a captive damsel who is nearly raped by the "evil" Asiatics before the hero saves them

(c) depictions of these Asiatics as primitiive and devoid of any technology; in the Hawkman comic, the villain has archers (!) attack Hawkman, and all of them are clad solely in loin cloths. 

* Other superheroes also engaged in explicitly racist behavior, notably Superman, who in a WWII ad, said "you can slap a Jap by buying US War Bonds!" 

* Comics tried to address racist tropes in the 70's by including more diverse heroes, though many of these attempts still fell back on racist stereotypes, such as Marvel's title, The Master of Kung Fu, which said proudly on the cover, "The Fortune Cookie Says Death!" 

* Another regrettable blunder was the comic, Lois Lane, Superman's Girlfriend, which had an issue where Lois uses a "body mold" to become black for 24 hours to test Superman's resolve: does he really love her? Would he marry her if she was African-American? 

* Today comics are trying to include not only characters of color by writers and artists as well, who are better able to represent their own stories and heroes. But are comics fatally shadowed by their racist past? Are superheroes by definition somewhat racist?