Sociology

Well, HOLY CRAP. It's all done broke loose now, hasn't it. What the hell is going on? The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together. OR should that be: men and women, blacks and whites making COMICS together. It seems like "The Diversity Issue" in comics has exploded all over the place. It can't be silenced. It can't be swept under the rug. More accurately, its ISP can't be blocked. The intersquawk just won't let these issue die. Is it just a few malcontents who won't shut up? Is it a reflection of the world we live in? Or is it just that as we enter the Digital Age of comics (and everything else) infinite accessibility means that the broadening audience for comics needs them to step up and join the real world?

All of you folks who have been crying about diversity in comics had better be all over this! Marvel has revealed that the new Ultimate Spider-Man will be Hispanic/African-American teenager Miles Morales. A USA Today story broke the news and reveals that yes, Donald Glover's campaign to play Spider-Man was an influence on writer Brian Michael Bendis, although only as an indication that previous discussions about relaunching Spider-Man as a non-white character were on the right track.

It seems that Kyrax2's lonely crusade at Comic-Con -- booed and laughed at and told to shut up -- has yielded results, as the internet has swelled one voice to thousands. Last yesterday, DC Entertainment co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee posted a statement called, simply, We hear you:

Less than 24 hours ago The Beat and several other websites linked to a Kickstarter page forWomanthology, an all-female anthology of comics by both established and new creators. Less than 24 hours later not only has it met its $25,000 goal...it is OVER the goal with $27,454 in pledges. In case you haven't noticed, there's been a SURGE of interest in comics, video games, books, movies and TV from females readers, nerds and geeks out there. I have already pointed out how successful female cartoonists and writers are on the bestseller charts. It would seem that everyone who has been squawking about this has spoken with in the loudest way they can -- not with Twitter, or Tumblr but the DOLLAR.

The latest round of outrage over the matter of women in comics was sparked off when DC's relaunch had only three "distaff" members. In all the talk-talk there was some along the lines of Adam P Knave's Why Aren’t There More Women in Comics? which points out the lack of a welcome mat for female creators.

Knave takes pains to point out that he's talking "mainstream" comics, but this got me thinking about how obsessing about women at The Big Two is really like worrying about the number of saunas in the Kalahari.

In a blog post, Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams reveals himself as a male-basher who thinks all men need to be castrated to ensure a smoothly running society because all they want to do is rape and tweet pictures of their junk to co-eds:

We've heard from some of our pals in the comics industry that they have received two anonymous postcards -- both postmarked in Chicago -- with various statistics on gender disparity in the comics industry. One highlights problems with the materials:

A few years ago we pointed you at a 1950 Life Magazine spread that included various NCS cartoonists happily scribbling on swimwear covered models. Well, in the spirit of that shoot, but also to show how times have changed in 61 years, the Sequential Arts Workshop has updated these images with Ball Point Boxers which finds cartoonists Sara Varon, Leela Corman, Joan Reilly, Emily Flake, Hilary Allison and Jungyeon Roh recreating the stunt, this time with male boxers from Gleason's Gym.

For a movie about mutants, X-MEN FIRST CLASS has led to a lot of interesting discussion. Set in the '60s -- a time of great social change and timeless fashions -- filmmakers Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman had more on their mind than just fighting.

It's a new style of pimping. Instead of selling their bodies, or busting their backs digging ditches, some Chinese prisoners are forced to play World of Warcraft and pass the winnings on to cruel prison guards.

With all the talk about comics and racial stereotypes, this show running at NYU sounds like a must see. MARVELS AND MONSTERS looks at images of Asians in comics from the stereotyping of World War II through to the 80s. Curator Jeff Yang has some installation in progress photos on his Facebook Page. Sadly we missed the opening talk and reception last night but it looks to be a very comprehensive show, looking at different stereotypical roles including The Alien, the Kamikaze, the Brute, the Lotus Blossom, the Guru, the Brain, the Temptress, and the Manipulator. How well we know all those. The show runs until August 19th. Deets below:

Since the announcement that Wonder Woman pilot had not made NBC's schedule, there has been no dearth of analysis about what it says about Wonder Woman, about us, about women, about...EVERYTHING, dammit. The Wonder Woman pilot getting dropped may just be the most significant event of our time! First off, a picture of the variant "shorts" costume has been making the rounds. Would showing a bit more thigh have tipped the balance for the show? Probably not. With Wonder Woman nothing can ever, ever be simple.