P.O.W.E.R. - Minorities in Comics

Faithful readers know that I am often critical of independent comics, many of which are often created by women or other minorities, but I have largely reserved my disdain for the "homosexual awakening" market. I have absolutely nothing against homosexuality or homosexuals, and I have nothing against women or minorities in comics, I've just berated this market in particular because they all tell the same story and 99% of them tell it poorly. My problem is that no one else will say this because it's just too controversial; who can criticize them without running the risk of being accused of being homophobic, elitist, or just plain racist?

Me. Because I can.

And like I've said before, being a homosexual, or a woman, or a Jewish person whose grandparents fought in WWII - or whatever along these lines - does not automatically make you a capable sequential artist. You have a valid story to tell and I applaud your efforts to do so, but I have to tell you: about 1 billion people have told that same story in comics before, so if you can't do it better than they did or you don't have anything new to bring to the table, I don't see the point. And if you do it anyway, then you better be ready to take the criticism and not pull up that "I'm a minority" shield when you don't like what you hear.

That being said, I really would like to see more comics from different perspectives - specifically minorities - because I like to think they'd have a different approach to the same old same. Lisa, from Neptune Comics and the Sequentially Speaking blog, has recently decided to throw her hat into the ring on this subject and she's developed a nice little acronym for her pursuit: P.O.W.E.R. - Promoting Ownership, Writing (and drawing), Editing, and Reading in comics by women and minorities.

I think this is a great idea and I urge everyone to send her whatever suggestions you have or whatever you can offer. But I do want to mention, as I did over to her blog, that I would like to see minorities working within the genre. That is to say that if we're just going to get more homo-erotica and personal pity stories, then it's not going to go anywhere. I also don't want this to become an attack on the majority white male readership, because it's not our fault that comics appeal to us and not so much to women and minorities!

And I was pleasantly shocked to see that a lot of people agreed with me, or at least saw my point!

It's simply not going to work if the creators decide to just make another black female crimefighter and focus the stories on how she hunts down bigots and wife-beaters. I would honestly like to see a woman's take on, say, Wolvie - or better yet, Storm!

And it's important to note that there are some minorities working within the field. Denys Cowan is black; Louise Simonson wrote X-Factor, along with several other titles and one-shots, for years; Ann Nocenti had a long run on Daredevil, both as writer and editor, as well as being editor of The Uncanny X-Men; Wonder Woman was helmed by a gay creative team for years (not sure about now)... there is a good-sized list of minorities who have worked within the mainstream industry and an even longer list of those who work on indie comics, but there really isn't a long list of women and minority readers or comics shop owners.

I think this could be a very good thing for the industry and we could all help it along for the betterment of everyone interested in the hobby! Be sure to check out Lisa's blog (also in the Blogroll to the side) and her shop, if you're in the area, and weigh-in on the issue there or here if you have something you'd like to say. We'll keep up with her progress and wish her the best of luck!