Comments on: Episode 53 – Reaching Another Milestone

By: Kevin Malcolm

Kevin Malcolm — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:37:45 +0000

Damn you! Now I have thoughts of Liefeld's stuff hanging in an art museum! So wrong.

By: marks

marks — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:48:21 +0000

Hey, when Picasso moved people's parts around in totally unnatural ways, he was considered a genius!

Ok … I can't even fake it.

By: Kevin Malcolm

Kevin Malcolm — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:58:53 +0000

Hey, consider it a thought project. Would you rather I make it, “Pro or Con-Rob Liefeld is an artistic genius” and make you take the “Pro” part?

By: marks

marks — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:18:07 +0000

It does seem we're in agreement on this one

By: ahe

ahe — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:52:51 +0000

How dare you. Marvel?!?

By: Kevin Malcolm

Kevin Malcolm — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:50:43 +0000

And now I'm going to come in and say THIS is why I like our podcast and the community we're building. We took a contentious issue with a lot of strong feelings and though the discussion seemed to get a little tense on both sides in the end in a way not commonly found on the intar-webs a point of agree to disagree was found.
Okay so now lets try Marvel vs DC. Ahe you take pro on Marvel, Marks you take it on DC. Aaaaaaand, go (kidding)

By: ahe

ahe — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:07:57 +0000

You're right, we're definitely operating on two different levels, which isn't productive.

I kind of hate the French. I don't think that's racist, though.

By: marks

marks — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:00:01 +0000

If we disagree, we disagree. You'll just have to rest assured that I've done my research (your comments that I haven't being another assumption ), done my living, and am comfortable in the positivity of my beliefs. And disagree with you from an informed place. Sadly, I may not be wording any of this in a way that convinces you of that, so I'm asking for a little faith. As I have that the same applies to you.

And no. I don't hate the Japanese

By: ahe

ahe — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:27:28 +0000

Asking you about your point of view is not an attack on your character. I'm sorry that you feel that you're being insulted, but if you want to have this discussion, you're going to need to be prepared to examine your own background and assumptions because race issues do not exist in a vacuum. For good or ill, the way that you were born and culture in which you were raised, race gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status–these things all inform your point of view. This is true of real people and it is true of a good character. Would Mitchell Hundred be exactly the same character if he were the son of Korean immigrants? Or a woman? Not acknowledging diversity, insisting on color- or gender-blindness, is passive marginalization.

If you want to continue to talk about this, please do some research on anti-racist discussions/activism and the concept of derailment. There are a lot of great resources out there and I think I gave you some good key words in my earlier post.

Also, try not to take this so personally! I think that sometimes people can get defensive about these topics because they think they're being called racist–not true. I mean, unless you hate the Japanese. You don't right?

By: marks

marks — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:37:20 +0000

Diversity doesn't matter to me in things like comics, because it's the writing that makes for that broad range of experiences among the characters, not their color. And since we're talking about race in comics, and not race in the public school system, that's what my comments targeted.

By way of example, if I were to note a character as being black, what difference would that make to me? Should I be expecting him to act different than had he been white? Should I be expecting him to act stereotypical? Or be shocked if he doesn't? I'm not inclined to apply stereotypes to people, so in the end, my expectations for that character have no bearing in whether or not he's black or white, they're based on his actions/words/etc.

To keep things on topic (i.e. not about me) Is it safe to say you take issue with the lack of diversity in comics? Are there any you think excel in the area? Any particular titles where you feel they handle it better than others? Any that you think represent you're particular circumstance, be it in a positive or negative light?

And just a side note: I feel like I'm being repeatedly insulted here, with multiple assumptions being made about me without any real knowledge of who I am, or where I come from. Defending my comments, not a problem, defending my character, problem. If you want to have a discussion about race in the world, by all means ping me and we can meet over drinks/etc.