The Four Color Media Monitor

The Canadian Global News spoke with an artist from Edmonton who was hired by Marvel to work on their project about north American Indians:

Kyle Charles received an email from Marvel Comics in August, asking if he would be a part of Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices Volume 1. [...]

A few years ago, Charles quit another illustrator job to focus entirely on Indigenous content.

“I decided to go on my own path. I had the idea that I was going to do this until Marvel comes to me. I thought it was going to take five to 10 years,” he said. “They reached out to me in a year and a half, asking me to work for them.”

Charles worked with writer Darcie Little Badger and colourist Rachelle Rosenberg on his story. He said it’s been meaningful to work alongside other Indigenous creators on the anthology.

“When you have a company owned and operated by Disney and recognized internationally… it’s putting us in the spotlight,” he said.

“(It’s) letting us tell our own stories and I think that’s incredibly important.”

In all due honesty, this sounds more like somebody who's not particularly interested in making a name for himself from a general perspective as an artist, and doesn't have faith in other publishers like Dark Horse, Alterna, Lion's Forge or Image to do for him what he believes Marvel can. And if Disney theme parks haven't sold comics at their stores for years, and the New Mutants movie was a failure, how does he expect international recognition that easily, especially if merit doesn't play a role here? The whole notion you can't tell your own stories is tiresomely ludicrous.

The story also made it to the CBC, and the following also makes me wonder if jealousy plays a role here:

It's an important step from one of the comic industry's leading brands, Charles said.

"I don't want to sit on the sidelines while someone scores touchdowns using our stories and our culture," he said.

"If anyone should be benefiting from those, it should be the people who actually grew up in the culture and have distinct voices inside that culture and understand that culture better than anyone on the outside."

You know, this is honestly troubling, considering Stan Lee "scored touchdowns" by creating and overseeing introduction of characters from Indian descent. Now, some guy has the nerve to come along and suggest famous figures of the past were committing "cultural appropriation"? This is exactly what's bringing down modern entertainment and literature today. Just several months ago, an author named Jeanine Cummins was victimized by political correctness because she dared write a book ("American Dirt") starring a Mexican woman. By Mr. Charles' logic, Lee, Jack Kirby and Chris Claremont, among others who created Indian-descendant characters, were guilty of profiteering. Apparently, Charles doesn't believe Indian characters created whites benefit the community they represent, and that's troubling. It doesn't get much better with this:

Throughout comic-book history, Indigenous people have been regularly portrayed as sidekicks or outright villains, built on racist stereotypes, said Niigaan Sinclair, an Anishinaabe writer and associate professor at the University of Manitoba.

And this is an obscuring of Lee's hard work introducing Wyatt Wingfoot and his neighborhood's residents, along with Claremont's introducing Dani Moonstar. And all in the same article that mentions her! The double-standard couldn't be more grossly insulting to the intellect. Plus, they make it sound like Indian descendants all live in isolation from the rest of society, don't go to movies, play basketball or Dungeons & Dragons board games.

According to Sinclair, the collection can be divided in two parts: books about and books by Indigenous people. He said about three-quarters of the collection is Indigenous stories written by non-Indigenous writers. But that trend is beginning to change, with smaller publishing companies leading the way.

"Now what you're seeing is Indigenous stories are best told, most interestingly told, most creatively told by Indigenous creators," said Sinclair, who contributed to the Indigenous graphic novel anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold.

Yup, and here we're being lectured to by academia about who knows better, and who tells the flat-out best of stories...and it ain't whites, right? No doubt, there's literature by Indigenous authors that's enjoyable, but the college bozo above is doing them a disfavor by making it sound like they're incapable of making a mistake. Granted, there is some value to arguing that smaller publishers can do a better job. Certainly if they're less vulnerable to PC. But the elitism expressed by the interviewees here is not helpful, and if Mr. Charles has no interest in putting his art talents to use in a story that doesn't star Indian protagonists, he's letting PC get the better of him, and that's no way to make a name for yourself. A real disappointment.

Labels: marvel comics, moonbat artists, msm propaganda, politics, X-Men