The Four Color Media Monitor

Kurt Busiek recently claimed that Doctor Strange was originally created as Asian before getting his background simplified to just another Anglo-Scottish protagonist. Culture War Reporters gathered nearly every tweet he wrote where he argued that, if there was any superhero filmmakers and TV producers would've made Asian, it's Stephen Strange. He claims that Steve Ditko actually drew the Master of Mystic Arts in an Asian style, with Asian features, and said this all because of the petty complaints raised about Iron Fist not being changed to Asian on TV. Trying, clearly, to side in his own way with all the fussbudgets who're supposedly desperate to see different racial backgrounds represented at all costs. Here's one of the tweets:

For your dubious entertainment, this is what Dr. Strange looked like in his debut: pic.twitter.com/1KqWAkzEup

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) February 28, 2016

But did Ditko really draw Stephen Asian-style in the early Strange tales? I think it's all a matter of opinion or interpretation. I've taken a look at other books Ditko drew at the time, including Spider-Man, and there too, the cast of characters could sometimes appear with eyes drawn narrowly, which could make them look de facto Asian. But does that genuinely confirm they were? I don't think so. Ditko had a style of his own, and for a concept like Dr. Strange, I'm sure the character design was intentionally drawn to look outlandish. "Spooky", "macabre" and "nocturne" could probably describe the approach as well. Lee and Ditko were after all trying to develop a story about a guy dealing with a world of magic and other bizarre ideas. If anything, Strange is drawn with very weird looking eyebrows that don't look anything like what I've seen real Asians with. And I'm sure that was the intention - to make Stephen look, well, strange.

So was Strange really drawn to look Asian? Or does he look that way in the finished products? Not by a long shot. Besides, if Lee/Ditko really did intend to make him Asian, surely his name would've been something eastern like "Sheng Lao" or "Sasuke"? A name like "Stephen Strange" isn't something you would typically expect folks from Asian backgrounds to take up. If Strange does look similar to his mentor in early appearances, it's coincidental. Besides, from what I know, Ditko modeled Strange after Vincent Price. Busiek shouldn't be trying act like he knows better. Ditko might've been influenced by the styles of eastern artists, but that doesn't prove he intended to make Strange an actual Asian guy. This does make me think of how different races are drawn in anime series: blacks are easily distinguished by skin color alone. But white and Asian characters are almost indistinguishable because they're drawn with the same skin color and physical designs, like dishpan eyes and pointy noses (and the female protagonists seem to be deliberately drawn with heart-shaped faces!). In fact, now that I think of it, even in real life, whites and Asians, though obviously of different races with different characteristics, still look very much the same in skin color! I wonder if that could explain why whites are often described as "caucasians" as opposed to "asians"?

Furthermore, if Strange were Asian, then it wouldn't be a clamoring for diversity so much as it would be a case of SJWs yammering that Strange was drawn stereotypically. After all, these are people who'll never be happy and want to drag the world down with them. So there's no point in Busiek's pandering to a vision that isn't really there.

Later, Busiek had a whole discussion going on his Facebook page, with one guy making the following accusation:

Calling Stephen Strange Asian due to Ditko's style is hardcore racist.

And:

Also, this line of argument would prevent a black Norse God.

Consistency matters.

I think what the guy's trying to say is that Busiek's putting down white people, all for the sake of PC pandering, and stereotyping them. If anything, I do know that Busiek hasn't exactly been campaigning for the sake of victims of modern day slavery in north Africa.

Let's now move to the next subject here. Busiek also recently posted (or worse yet, "shared") an illustration intended for promoting transgenders using public bathrooms for both sexes, or, presumably, just transgender men using women's bathrooms, as some of the news about this I've seen suggests. He got the following response from a lady who's rightfully upset:

I prefer to use the woman's bathroom. I am not comfortable with men being in there. Especially when my granddaughter has to go to the bathroom. This just opens the door for males to lay in wait in the bathroom and assault females

She also asked a pertinent question:

Seriously.. do you want some creepy guy to be able to follow your daughter into the bathroom?

She's got some very good points. At worst, enabling transgender men to use a public women's bathroom can lead to cases of sexual harassment. On which note, think of the comics conventions: suppose this kind of monstrosity made convention hall bathrooms unsafe for women? There have been complaints made in past years that there aren't enough women reading superhero comics, or any comics, for that matter. Or, that they may not make a big percentage at conventions. This wouldn't make things any better. It was creepy enough when Busiek indicated he had no serious issues with Scott Allie after the terrible assaults he carried out against several Dark Horse staffers. Now he's digging even deeper into the muck by supporting a horrific campaign that can end up hurting women, once more proving why he's unreliable on hard-hitting issues. He didn't respond to the lady, but he did retweet the following on Twitter:
So let's see if I have this right: in the twisted mind of Busiek, alleged online harassment against anti-Gamergate commentators is bad. But sexual humiliation in public bathrooms is allowed. As noted before, this has, if anything, come at the expense of girls. Point: even men who aren't transgender could exploit this at ease. Busiek has stooped astoundingly low this time, by siding with a position that advocates invasion of privacy. It's clear he's not winning over the ladies with his position, and if an older woman could be mad, younger women can't be far behind. After this, Busiek's past writings have really been cheapened, and will have to be taken with salt, including his allusion to the Hank Pym-abusing-Janet Van Dyne storyline from 1981, which he brought up again during the Ultron Unlimited tale. I remember some people arguing how the story all kept boomeranging. At this point, one could argue that if this is the kind of mindset Busiek's catering to, he did a big disfavor to reference the Yellowjacket/Wasp tale in his own writing. He certainly suggests now that he wasn't fit to address the topic of abuse.

And since we're on the subject, Kurt also posted the following about an animated movie called Zootopia:

ZOOTOPIA was fun. Formulaic as all-get-out, but done with wit and style. An SJWpalooza of animated entertainment.

He explained why to another guy:

It's a pejorative to some, a badge of honor to others, a mixed bag to yet more and a meaningless jumble of letters to more still. But I find it apropos in this case -- the people who rage and fume about SJWs won't like this movie at all, I expect.

They probably won't like to read Busiek's own products if they think he doesn't respect the ladies. As if it weren't bad enough that the comics medium as a whole doesn't have many women working in it, and leftists like him will only ensure more could be discouraged. He's certainly given quite a poor impression of himself to the fairer sex.

Here's also 2 more tweets he wrote:

It may perhaps have been sexist of us to defuse that the writer wanted to date Scott. But she did.

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) March 15, 2016

Did it ever occur to him that it's sexist to deny women the right to privacy in a public facility?

White supremacy is the _best_ supremacy. I mean, it’s huge. And it just wins and wins. So much winning! You’ll get sick of it!

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) March 16, 2016

Straight from a guy who's catering to a form of male supremacy. Shudder. And back to the subject of Asian cast members in comics, one can only wonder why he chose to suggest changing a white character's race, but wouldn't suggest making a TV show or movie with Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu?

Labels: animation, Doctor Strange, Europe and Asia, manga and anime, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics