The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Emmett Furey has a fascinating multi-author interview over on Comic Book Resources, where he discusses the changing portrayal of Native Americans in comics over the years, with Jason Aaron, David Mack, Jeff Mariotte, Jay Odjick, Robert Schmidt, Michael Sheyahshe, Tim Truman and Mark Waid all taking part. It is interesting to see how different groups have been portrayed in the medium through the years, be it Indian tribes, coloured characters or women, especially since we have seen a growth in quality reprints of classic archive comics which bring some of those representations right back to the modern audience – only last year DC Thomson was attacked by a few folks for their facsimile edition of the first Dandy Annual from the 1930s, which the objectors said contained racist material. DC Thomson responded that they were reproducing classic material ‘as was’ from decades past and did not want to censor it to meet some modern sensibilities. With more Western-themed comics cropping up (the return of Jonah Hex, Scout, Loveless, the Lone Ranger etc) this theme of Native Americans is quite timely.

Although some previous decades may well portray certain folks in a way we would be uncomfortable with, if not downright disgusted by today, it is important to remember not to judge the past from the perspective and standards of the present (one of the first things my old history master drummed into us). Besides, although we may sometimes feel uncomfortable at certain portrayals in older comics (and movie, books etc) perhaps it can also be educational, showing modern readers how different groups were perceived and portrayed in the past as compared to today, effectively airing out problems rather than pretending that everything is fine and always was; better to look and learn, I would think, and given the recent debates we’ve all being having in the online comics community about homosexual characters in mainstream comics, women as characters and creators and ethnic representations (to say nothing of the portrayal of certain religious icons in cartoons) the CBR article adds to the debate and I’m of the ilk that thinks the more we debate issues like these the more we make people aware of them and get them thinking.