Wednesday, September 30, 2009

More Slippery Rock vs Keith Knight's KKK Chronicles

Yesterday I talked about the protest going on at Slippery Rock University over a K Chronicles strip.

Here is a video of news coverage on this incident.

I'm still surprised that a whole campus of college kids didn't get the point.

But it was mentioned in the video that there where a number of cases of racist at the school and because of that I wonder if problem isn't the kids not getting satire but the fact that everyone was still on edge for whatever happened at their school.

I can understand that happening. In fact I remember having a protest when I was in college, no over anything as stupid as this one. But the event that happened before we protest really had nothing to do with why we protest...it was more of the straw the broke the camels back scenario.

But in any case the kids should take off the nooses, someone may not get the satire and call you racist too.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

K Chronicles...you know the K doesn't stand for Klan, right

Students at slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania are in an up roar about a comic strip that appeared in their school newspaper.

The protest is being lead by students in that school's chapter of the NAACP and the student group Black Action Society who are up set because of a panel in the strip which main character (an African-American) hanging form a noose.

Now I'm all for students fighting against racism but in this case. Here's the strip so you can see what I mean.


(you can click the image if you want to be taken to a bigger more readable version)

context is everything...yes the strip has a black hanging in a noose...But if one reads the words to the strip instead of just looking at the pictures (it's something one most do when reading a comic) it is clear that the strip is speaking out against the current racism we face in this day in age. Namely the racism that can be found in many of the protesters against Obama and the fact that when Black people point out racism we get blamed for playing the race card.

maybe the reason the students at Slipper Rock missed the message is because they aren't used to people tackling serious issues with humor or maybe it because humor is subjective or because satire is a form of humor many people don't get or they are victims of the dumbing down of America.

I think it should be pointed out that the cartoonist of the strip, Keith Knight is Black and the main character of K chronicles (and the guy being lynched in the first panel of the above strip) and you can get more info on him and the strips he does at his site, Kchronicles.com. He talks about this event in his blog section.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Happy National Comic Book Day

I was just made aware that today is National Comic Book day.

at least that what it says on holidayinsights.com

I would think that the comic book industry would really jump on this holiday the same way they have a big push for free comic book day. But the day has gone one with out much notice. though I am sure there is some comic book store out there taking advantage of this holiday, to push more comics or at least I hope there is.

though thinking about it for a second maybe this day would be better off if it was celebrated every 4th Wednesday of September instead of a set date because Wednesday's the day of the week new comics come in...though I guess it also smart not to have a day like this on the day that would already be your your heavy volume day and having something like this on what would a slower day may makes some sense.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

a new president has been named but who will be DC entertainment new publisher?

I didn't really think about it when the news was released but Diane Nelson was only named to be President for DC Entertainment but Paul Levitz was President & Publisher of DC. so who's going to be the new publisher?

odds are we will here the answer in a few weeks but until then lets speculate.

Nelson has praised the vertigo line so who knows maybe it will be Karen Berger or Shelly Bond if not either of them someone else that works in the Vertigo line.

Part of me wants it to be Bill Jemas just to see a large number of comic book fans head explode. I know a lot of fans didn't like him when he was publisher of Marvel but Marvel did put out some good comics during that time period and he turned marvel profitable after a period when they where going into the dumps.

but honestly I have a feeling they will pull someone that has publishing in magazine industry, like someone that worked in Time for kids. but that just a hunch that has no barrings in fact (like nothing any of the other guess in this post)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

DC Entertainment

Last week Marvel made news with the fact that Disney has bought them.

This week DC is making news today by the fact that not only Warner Brothers is spinning DC comics off into it's own company called DC Entertainment. This company will of course focus on making comics but will work with other parts of Time Warner to make other media products based on DC's Characters. Y'know movies, video games, TV shows and stuff like that.

But the other big news is that DC Entertainment will be headed by a new president then Paul Levitz (who's been the head of DC since 2002.) The president of DC Entertainment will be Diane Nelson.

Diane Nelson is an executive at Time Warner Brand Management department where she handled the such brands as Harry Potter and she headed Warner's direct to dvd line Warner Premiere.

Paul Levitz will go back to what he did before he joined the business side of DC write for them. Paul Levitz will now be the writer of Adventure Comics writing the Legion of Superheroes (a group he was a writer of from 1974 to 1989)

Well I guess this means we will be seeing more movies, games, and shows based on DC characters in the future and with new leadership I am sure there will be some change in DC's comics.