Controversy with Minority Representation Within the Comic Book Industry in the UK and USA

Comic books are a wonderful medium, but the community that surrounds them are going to have some disagreements and controversy especially in the zeitgeist (the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. that is 2017. speaking of zeitgeist There have been big ruptures in the gastric fabric that is the internet recently surrounding marvels vice president and the lakes international comic arts festival (UK). around how they handled there public relations. so with no hesitation lets hazard a go at dissecting the issue of minority representation within the comic book industry.

lets have a look at two industry examples on the topic of minority representation on from a convention and another from a corporation. so we can get a look at representation with the creators as well as the published material.

IN THE UK

lakes festival controversy

Akhtars responce to the TLICAF

66 guests= white, white, white, with a mild sprinkle of East Asia. There's really no excuse for any comics show to look like this anymore. https://t.co/EW7yLBUfqk

— Zainab Akhtar (@comicsandcola) October 7, 2017

(Johnston, 2017)

flaws in lakes festivals response one; directing the tweet directly at Ahktar personally 2 talking in the first person, this is unprofessional especially in regards to being a twitter account that represents a group of people leads readers to believe that the person writing does not represent the belives of the organisation or that they have a personal gripe to deal with which further demonstrates there unprofessionalism. three; deleting there repleys, i can understand this as a reaction to the bak lash but it looks extreamly shady they should have gotten ahead of this and directly appolagised pointed out there flaws i addreased abouve and then the damage may have been limited.

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IN THE USA

marvel contravercy

an interview ICv2 did with marvels PV(vice presedent) s David Gabrial

(note: i am keeping the entire quote so as to avoid subversion or misleading readers but i would recomend reading the whole article which i will put a link to at the bottom of the page)

Why did those tastes change?

"We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked."

[Note: Marvel’s David Gabriel reached out to correct the statement above: "Discussed candidly by some of the retailers at the summit, we heard that some were not happy with the false abandonment of the core Marvel heroes and, contrary to what some said about characters “not working,” the sticking factor and popularity for a majority of these new titles and characters like Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, The Mighty Thor, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and Moon Girl, continue to prove that our fans and retailers ARE excited about these new heroes. And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel Universe and pair them with our iconic heroes.

"We have also been hearing from stores that welcome and champion our new characters and titles and want more! They've invigorated their own customer base and helped them grow their stores because of it. So we're getting both sides of the story and the only upcoming change we're making is to ensure we don't lose focus of our core heroes."]

(Griepp, 2017)

polygon did a article discussing this interview acknowledge his update ed remark but that the statement "- appears to further complicate his argument" as further along they say "the first time DC Comics consistently outsold Marvel in years;" aledging that this support the fans oare gicvng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUGm1ATJB4

Bibliograph

Johnston, R. (2017). The Lakes Comic Art Festival Issues Statement Of Regret Over Response To Racial Criticism. [Blog] Bleeding Cool. Available at: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/09/lakes-comic-art-festival-statement-regret-response-racial-criticism/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017].

Griepp, M. (2017). MARVEL'S DAVID GABRIEL ON THE 2016 MARKET SHIFT. [Blog] ICv2. Available at: https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/37152/marvels-david-gabriel-2016-market-shift [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].

https://www.polygon.com/comics/2017/4/4/15162432/marvel-sales-slump-david-gabriel

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/01/08/after-snubbing-women-how-angouleme-fest-finally-bungled-its-way-to-the-right-decision/?utm_term=.541426650b91

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/09/lakes-comic-art-festival-statement-regret-response-racial-criticism/