Since It’s All We’re Talking About Anyway

Back when I was the editorial cartoonist at the Hilltop, I was also encouraged to write a few humorous articles for its editorial section. Kind of like a young, Black, woefully-unqualified Dave Barry.

In light of MJ’s passing, I thought I’d post up my thoughts about the man and the controversies that surrounded him. My thoughts from 5 YEARS AGO! Most of it still holds true today, so instead of typing it all out again, I give you… 2004 Cory:

I remember when it was still cool to like Michael Jackson. Back in the day when real thugs wore leather jumpsuits with zippers. That was when he dropped Thriller on the world like Deep Impact and single-handedly changed the face of music forever.

I wouldn’t exactly categorize myself as a big fan back then. My preadolescent brain was already crammed to the walls with comic book scenarios and make-believe superheroes. Needless to say I boarded the nerd bus pretty early on in the game.

Nevertheless, I did spend enough time glued, in a glassy-eyed trance, to the TV to recognize that MJ was indeed the man. It was impossible to escape the fact. His cultural influence at the time was undeniable. And the love that the world had for him was profound and sincere.

That was then …

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when things started to go wrong for Michael. Gradually over the years, though, public sentiment began to shift around the self-coronated King of Pop. Slowly, his image deteriorated as he slipped from fanatically deified icon to object of relentless derision.

Perhaps his eccentricities became too much for us to blink at. Or perhaps we could just never forgive him for legitimizing the Jheri Curl. Whatever the explanation, the love affair with Michael Jackson ended a long time ago, as we now scrutinize his Peter Pan persona with raised eyebrows and more than a little suspicion. We now shift uncomfortably in our seats, as we watch a giggling middle-aged ghost hovering about children like a slightly too-friendly Casper.

Now, for the second time in nine years, Michael is the subject of a criminal investigation. For the second time, some young boy has been placed in a room of salivating grown-ups as he sobbingly points to his teddy bear’s midsection, demonstrating Michael’s bad touch.

Jackson’s guilt or innocence was never resolved in the first episode. Yet the court of public opinion charged, tried and convicted him without the need for tangible evidence. All the necessary proof was garnered by just looking at him. With his superfluous indulgences and his outlandish persona, he was different. He mutilated his appearance to the degree of horror movie makeup. Frankenstein’s Monster with a perm. And that was all our xenophobic natures needed for us to form mobs and encircle him holding aloft torches.

That’s what bothers me about the reactions to this latest accusation. Very few seem to question his culpability. He’s already been condemned based on unsubstantiated claims, as if the money he swims in like Scrooge McDuck doesn’t make him a target for extortion.

Maybe it’s all true. Maybe he is a dangerously twisted kid-toucher. If so, he deserves to have the weight of the law dropped on him like a grand piano. But, in the meantime, here’s the extent of what we know about Michael Jackson … Dude is weird. That’s it. He’s psychologically damaged, he’s physically a mess and he’s the loneliest man alive. And when he looks in the mirror for whom to blame, he can’t even find himself.

I wish there was some way to really know what went on behind Mike’s closed doors. I’m sure, now that he’s gone, every landscaper and pizza delivery guy is going to try to cash in on “his story.” But all we really have is a men who left behind a legendary legacy of music. So much that a not-even-a-major-fan fan like me can feel the vaccum.

Mean on Film

I may actually have won myself tens of new fans last week. Turns out nobody cares about what I’m doing over here until I disrespectfully mock the work of other people. Then it’s all one big, sweaty lovefest with lotions.

So this series of strips from last week seemed to go over well with people. It was originally planned as a week of trailers for movies I made up like Ghost Wedding or My Pet Dad. But then I figured those wouldn’t be funny (or interesting) to anyone other than me. Then an idea for the Bailey trailer shot me in the ass and the rest of the week followed from there.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done one of these fake comic strip trailers, though. Anyone paying attention a couple of years ago might remember this blockbuster:

Crappy art. Not as funny. But it’s where the idea was born. I like that I had more space to flesh it out. Maybe I’ll revisit the idea some day as a series of Sunday strips. A lot of stuff didn’t make the cut, after all. From the 300-style Hagar the Horrible movie to the Copland-ish corruption thriller with Sam & Silo.

This could turn out to be my trademark. Like Garfield and lasagna jokes or Snuffy Smith and unbridled inbreeding. I have to be careful not to wear it out, though, by doing it too soon or too often. Nothing is more crucial to a sequel’s success than timing.

Just in Time for Fathers’ Day…!

…Yeah… I know.

Anyway. I was going through some boxes this morning, trying to reduce the clutter that substitutes for decor, and I came across what may be my oldest surviving piece of artwork.

I must’ve been about 9 when I turned out this homemade card (judging from my older brother’s Jheri Curl), so I guess this is what 25 years does to notebook paper.

My mom got me started drawing, but my dad was the one who started my love for comics, bringing home something for me to read almost every day when I was little. He didn’t live to see me become a comic artist, but I wouldn’t be here without him.

Then again, I wouldn’t be anywhere. Unless I was adopted like I always suspected.

Is it me?

“The movie’s most disturbing aspect, of which the filmmakers could not have been unaware, is the physical resemblance between Mr. Elba and Ms. Larter to O. J. and Nicole Brown Simpson. It lends “Obsessed” a distasteful taint of exploitation.”- Stephen Holden, NY Times, 04/25/09

…

Pleased to Meet You

As you may have suspected from seeing this week’s series of strips: Yes, I phoned it in. I needed a break. And I’m not eligible for one until 2011, so…

Still, though, in lieu of an actual storyline, I figured it would be a good time to reintroduce the characters to new readers. Every now and then I feel the  need to reset and get people familiar with who they’re reading about. I usually try to find interesting ways to do it. And, inspired by my new love affair with The SuperFogeys , I thought some mock super-hero database bios would be kind of cool. Well, really, I thought they would be kind of not-much-work.

By far my favorite character introduction strips, though, are these from 2007. Cory has a camera and some free time:

(I probably should be saving this stuff for the new book, but consider this a preview.)

Settlin’ with the Oldies

If you need proof that today’s comics pages are stuck in a freaking time warp, check out this list of the most popular comic strips of 2008 (I got this from D.D. Degg on the RACS newsgroup, who got it from somewhere else):

The most popular DAILY comic strips:
#1 – Garfield
#2 – Blondie
#3 – Zits
#4 – For Better or For Worse
#5 – Beetle Bailey
#6 – Baby Blues
#7 – Hagar the Horrible
#8 – Dilbert
#9 – Mutts
#10 Peanuts

This list was compiled by Media Research Associates. They looked at newspapers with circulations of 50, 000 or more , broke out their notepads and wrote down what comics these papers are carrying in their comic sections.

So that’s it. That’s what the majority of Americans who read the comics page are being offered. 3 of them came out back in the 90’s and the rest are practically heiroglyphics. And I can assure you that most smaller papers aren’t any more progressive.

It’s like running the Donna Reed Show or Bonanza at primetime and then wondering why people aren’t watching TV. God forbid the program director get a call or three from an angry Gomer Pyle fan.

What’s Old is Still New and Gets Old Real Quick

Back on February 10th 2008, I was part of a group of (mostly) black cartoonists speaking out on the obstacles faced by minority artists in the comic strip world.

As hard as it is for any new cartoonist of any race to come up, minorities have our own extra share of hurdles which make it that much more difficult. As expected, when we started to talk about them, a lot of people accused us of making things up and looking for special treatment.

Well according to this 1966 Ebony article, we’ve been making the same crap up for 40 years.

I Love You, Man.

You may or may not remember this post from last August: You’re No Lady, Ma’am! In it, I talked about how Dana’s gender was a point of confusion for many readers (including my Father-in-Law, it turns out).

Well…

…I’m gonna have a lot of fun with that over the next couple of weeks.

It’s The Start Of The Swirl As We Know It.

Well… it’s true.

That’s how Kevin and Dana were first introduced to you as a couple. Out of the blue. A Saturday morning cliffhanger. And… you guys just swallowed it up without question. No previous strip ever showed them together or even hinted at any touchy-feely. In fact, they occupied totally separate worlds in Cory’s life. Then as the Cory-tells-Robin-he-loves-her storyline winded (wound?) down to a conclusion, I dropped that little cluster bomb.

So what inspired me to join those two at the hips? Was it an attempt to lend to the  discussion on black-white relations in America? Was it a desire to explore the complicated dynamics of an interracial relationship?

Nah.

My deadline was 30 minutes away and I needed to come up with something quick.

My friend, Kris, thinks I should never pull the curtain back too far, but I don’t know. I like the HBO Behind the Scenes approach sometimes. So, yeah… I admit it. The Kevin-Dana thing, one of the best parts of the strip today, started out as a cheap jolt in the absence of an actual punchline. But it wasn’t quite that straightfoward.

You see, I was all prepared to have Omar and Dana become WYH’s official proponents of  Essential-Oily, Afrocentric, Ebony Boho Love. I’d actually already been sprinkling the seeds for the relationship.

At the time, I had absolutely no idea what to do with Kevin. There wasn’t much more to him than being the White Guy. He was kind of Cory’s best friend, except I’d already given ‘honor’ to Omar.  Kevin was just… there.

Flash forward to Cory-loves-Robin, 5 strips done and half an hour to crank out a 6th (bearing in mind these things usually take me 4-5 hours each). I have no ideas, no jokes and no desire to have my editors cuss me out. So… aha! I tell myself. I’ll just unveil Omar and Dana as a couple! A bit premature, but it’s the best I have right now. That’ll shake ‘em up!!

I don’t remember why Kevin crossed my mind. He hardly ever did back then. But when it happened this time, it all fell into place. Omar was better as a bitter hermit anyway. While Kevin and Dana would open up a much richer vein of storylines, and finally give the White Guy something to do! And that’s how their relationship came to exist. With absolutely no forethought.

I’m surprised I got away with it for so long.

She’s NOT the Giant Squid Monster?

This is where I turn in my badge and relinquish my pocket protector. I’m a fraud. A sham. I don’t deserve my nerd credentials. See… I’ve been reading comic books about as long as I could read but… I’ve never read ‘Watchmen.’ Partly because I was 10 and in a foreign country when it first came out, but mostly because of my bird-like attention span.

I mean, I’ve read parts of it. I kinda know the gist of the story. But I also know enough to know how dense the real story is beneath the surface.

I’ll probably just see the movie and pretend I read it all. Though it’s getting very mixed reviews. What is getting positive reviews is this parody by PVP’s Scott Kurtz:

Here’s the rest:

http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/03/ombudsmen-part-2/
http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/04/ombudsmen-part-3/
http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/05/ombudsmen-part-4/
http://www.pvponline.com/2009/03/06/ombudsmen-part-5/

Jabs are taken at the current state of the newspaper comics page. Can’t say I disagree with much. Hopefully it continues next week, so I can have my whining validated.