Hi, everyone.
Good day to you all.
I wanted to share some great news for comic readers and vent on Jason Aaron's continual portrayal of Native American women at their lowest in "Scalped."
But first: the great news.
I wanted to say if you're looking for comic book ideas for your loved one this Christmas, please pick up anything by Jeffrey Brown. I've blogged about his latest epic: Undeleted Scenes and I'll put it up here right now:
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One of my favourite all time graphic novel artists and writers is Jeffrey Brown. I have followed his wily ways in "Be a Man" and "Every Girl is the End of the World for Me" (What a title!)
I have roared with laughter and marveled at his brilliant humour in "Incredible Change Bots" (If you love Transformers, you gotta read this to believe it. He nails the magic of Transformers and I guarantee you will laugh out loud. And I see there's an Incredible Change Bots II? You gotta be kidding me).
But if you've never heard of Jeffrey Brown, here's the deal: Jeffrey Brown documents his life: the good, the bad, the embarrassing. His female equivalent in the honesty and fearless department is Arial Schrag's "Potential" (Arial is my favourite female biographer graphic novel artist).
If you're looking to discover an incredible artist who bares all or if you're a fan who's lost track of what he's been up to, "Undeleted Scenes" is a must read for all comic book fans. This collection of Jeffrey's work finds him becoming a father, living through 911, the invasion of Kuwait, heartache, heartbreak, picking himself up, hanging with friends, doodling at Earwax--his favourite cafe, and longing for love.
One of the reasons I adore Jeffrey's writing is he has this incredible sense of recall. This is probably because he records his life as it happens in doodles and sketches. For me, his ability to be honest with what he's thinking or capture his excitement or dread about what's facing him in life is a gift that I don't see a lot in the comic book medium.
What's also great about "Undeleted Scenes" is the entire collection of "Be a Man" is in here--and that's a hard to find smaller book that I first discovered Jeffery in. "Undeleted" also has material from "Miniature Sulk", "Feeble Attempts," and more.
"Undeleted Scenes" is Jeffrey Brown's opus and reading it made me hungry to buy his entire catalogue:
Cats are Weird Incredible Change Bots I and II Sulk 1 through 4 Funny Misshapen Body Little Things Cat Getting Out of a Bag I am Going to Be Small AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy Bighead Clumsy Unlikely
If you're looking for the perfect gift for any guy, buy this book. Buy all of his books. Jeffrey Brown is a treasure.
:)
Richard Van Camp
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Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire continues to astound me. I see the trade paperback is out. The premise: a boy born with antlers tries to understand why he was born into a post apocalyptic world where other children are hybrid animals. The artwork is fantastic and so is the writing. Jeff Lemire continues to astound me with his writing. Lemire's Essex County continues to win award after award. If you're looking for epic reading, check out the omnibus edition put out by Top Shelf.
One of the greatest finds as a comic collector this year has been the "Comics" App by Comixology. They often have many comics up for free: so far I've been able to read the Left 4 Dead comic as well as be introduced to several new titles like Mathew Petz's "War of the Woods" (an otter's point of view of War of the Worlds). It's brilliant and the first issue is free. I see Josh Hagler's "The Boy Who Made Silence" (the entire series) up and this is a godsend as this series went out of print years ago. The first issue is up for free.
I worry this app will put a lot of comic shops out of business because you can buy most of your favourite comics for half price without any ads.
I've just discovered a great new series called "The Last Zombie." It's fantastic. The premise is the same as The Walking Dead: man separated from love of his wife must find her. The difference here is the man is part of a military unit and they have tanks and soldiers who know how to handle zombies. Great art. Great characters. I am hooked.
Info: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/headlines/p/detail/antarctic-press-presents-the-last-zombie
The Walking Dead (now at issue 79) continues to only get better. I wish Kirman would lose the 8 pages of answering people's questions at the back of each issue and use those pages for the story. Frankly, all of that can go on Image's website or his blog. It's a waste of space for me, so, thus, I've decided to start downloading the comic from the Comics App.
And great news for our Aboriginal comic book company. Sean Muir, our publisher, continues to publish fantastic and important comic books that deal with hard hitting issues facing Aboriginal youth and all communities:
Here's our website: http://www.thehealthyaboriginal.net/
You can now read the first 12 pages of all our titles.
My first comic book, Path of the Warrior, with artist Steve Sanderson is going into its second print run. This means we've sold 30,000 copies! If your organization would like to purchase some, please get in touch with me at vancamprichard(at)gmail.com
My new comic book, "Kiss Me Deadly" with artist Chris Auchter, should be out in February. It's about sexual health and it's hilarous. We're proofing it right now.
Our mission statement has always been "story first, issue second." What that translates to is if we're hired to write about diabetes prevention, we focus on the characters, plot, narrative first and deal with the issue through theme and positive action.
Okay, now for my rant on Jason Aaron. I'll be writing to Jason directly and his publisher right after I post this.
I've been collecting Jason Aaron's Scalped from the first issue because it was his take on Native American country right now. I loved the grit at first, but I've noticed something in the past few issues that others have been warning me about for a long time now: Jason Aaron loves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Native American women.
Last night as I was reading issue 43 I was saddened to see yet another Native American woman sexualized and used without any power at all by two men in the same night.
In issue 41, we open with a pregnant Native American woman smoking and then throwing herself off of a set of stairs to kill her unborn baby. Then she uses a coat hanger to try and give herself an abortion.
I have yet to see a single strong, self empowered Native American woman in Scalped and I think this is just so sad because Jason Aaron is a great writer, a fantastic storyteller, but he's made up his mind so far to use his comic book series to be hurtful towards Native American women.
As a writer and editor of Aboriginal comic books, I've been watching Jason Aaron for years now so I do not do what he does. I can't be the only person out there who's being vocal about this. I know Blue Corn Comics publisher Rob Schmidt has never been happy with Scalped, and I've been wishing for over a year now that Jason would use Scalped to show how it is Native American women now who are usually running the schools, health departments, curriculum development, libraries, band offices, etc. etc. I could go on and on.
Jason Aaron could say (and probably will say) that he continues to show how Native American women have no voice or power in modern day society, and this is why he continues to write like this. To this I say: bullshit.
To Vertigo Comics, I say shame on you for publishing such hurtful literature.
To editor, Will Dennis, and Associate Editor, Mark Doyle, I say shame on you, as well.
At what point was it okay for three men to get together and agree it was okay to brutalize Native American women by continually portraying them as whores, sluts and junkies?
Way to go, guys. I'd like you all to respond to what I'm saying here. Scalped is hate literature, in my opinion. I'm now cancelling my subscription. I can't stomach or support this anymore.
The Native American women I know are self empowered, strong, leaders, matriarchs.
Yes, there are Native American women who hurting, but show the leaders. Show the strength. Show the dignity.
I can't imagine how heartbeaking reading "Scalped" must be for a young Native American woman or girl.
Okay. I'll send this to Vertigo and Jason Aaron. I'll keep you posted.
Mahsi cho. Thank you very much.
Richard Van Camp
Tlicho Nation
Fort Smith, NWT
Way to go, Richard! You're the man for taking on SCALPED!
ReplyDeleteyeah man, that's so sad to hear, i read the very first collected anthology of scalped with trepidation, and thought it was interesting......
ReplyDeletewhy the hell do things never seem to change?
born a native, i say born an activist, because every day for the rest of your life, you will be forced to defend yourself, and your people.......
The only character in the story who is a matriarch(Gina) is pretty quickly killed off, in the most brutal, disrespectful fashion imaginable.
ReplyDeleteThat unfortunately is a tradition in comic books. They are not kind to female characters, most writers(male) can't seem to write one that isn't dysfunctional, or a stereotype.
I originally liked "Scalped" for Dash's character( I Like redemption/coming of age stories), but Carol is such a mess, in a comic where female characters are basically non existent.