Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Minority voices: At UnderGround Online, Rich Watson talks about the representation of blacks in mainstream comics with Eliot Johnson, webmaster of Stop Trying to Eliminate Ethnic Legends (STEEL):

"The fans make a huge distinction between white and black characters. The myth of something called a 'black book' has somehow popped up in mainstream comics. 'Black books are only for black people' seems to be the opinions of the mainstream comic fans, looking at the sales of many books starring black and minority characters. First of all, a 'black book' is a myth. Even books that deal with some of the issues that black men and women face today are not at all totally centered on those issues. Secondly, even those issues should be relevant to and understood by everyone. It's not intentional racism on the part of the fans, certainly, it's just that they don't think they can relate to 'black books' and therefore don't give them a chance. If they would give these books a chance, then I think that they would see there is no problem."