I only felt this was overly harsh because it hit too close to home. 🙂
For those who want a little history after the humor, check out these three books and one site.
Category Archives: comics
A Headline That, In This Bush Era, Speaks For Itself :)
No Words Necessary Here—Coming Attractions For May
Oooooooooo………. 🙂
Even Though It's Just Temporary……
…….I’ve got to admit I like the idea of this.
Yeah, I know that the picture’s too tiny. It’s an image of the Black Panther and Storm slumming in New York with two well-known Fantastic friends in a famous flying bathtub.
It’s a homage to this famous cover from the early 1960s:
I look forward to The “New” Fantastic Four in both Black Panther No. 27 and Fantastic Four No. 544.
Quick Review Of Black Panther No. 23: "Foreign Affairs," Part I of III
WRITER: Reginald Hudlin
ARTIST: Koi Turnbull
PLOT: King T’Challa and Queen Ororo are being drawn into the CIVIL WAR that has sharply divided the heroes of the Marvel Universe. One hero, Goliath, is a casualty. So it’s time for the Royal Couple to choose a side—and fast.
Goliath’s murder by a genetically engineered clone of Thor, The God of Thunder, was the highlight of Civil War No. 4. Some African-American fanboys—including moi 🙂 —were not happy about Dr. Bill Foster, one of Marvel’s few (!) Black heroes, becoming the Crispus Attucks of the superhero set.
VERDICT: I’m not a CW fan, but Hudlin is beginning to create well-crafted stories. I still can’t call myself a fan of this book, but I’m no longer a hater. I look forward to seeing the seeds planted here flourish in future storyarcs.
Quick Review Of Black Panther Nos. 20-22: "World Tour," Parts II, III, and IV of IV
WRITER: Reginald Hudlin
ARTIST: Manuel Garcia
PLOT: King T’Challa and his new bride, Storm of the X-Men, begin a global diplomatic mission. They have to discover who their friends and enemies are, now that they are a power couple on Marvel’s world stage. So they visit the Inhumans on the Moon, Prince Namor The First of Atlantis, and Iron Man in Washington, D.C. as CIVIL WAR continues to rage throughout the Marvel Universe.
VERDICT: I’m still not feeling the characterization of any of these characters, but Hudlin’s writing is improving. The conflicts seem contrived for action’s sake, which, in comics terms, is so mid-1960s. 🙂 But Hudlin is trying to tell a story. The flashback sequence with The Invaders in 21 was well-handled. The confrontation with Shellhead would have been interesting if I hadn’t read the far superior Enemy of The State II a few years back.
Anyway, the stage is set for King T’Challa and Queen Ororo to become major players in CW. And I guess you’ve heard by now that the Royal Couple will soon join a certain well-known superhero team?
The History Of The "N" Word………..
……….is summarized here pretty well. What happened to Michael Jackson that time, however, must have been in this artist’s mind, though, because the word “kike” is suspiciously absent.
Happy 40th Birthday, (Both) Black Panthers!
I’m not just talking about the Party. That reunion happened in Oak Town over the weekend. Check out the archives here, and here’s two articles. It was good to hear a former Philadelphia Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal, set it off with his commentary. His Op-Ed served as an appropriate and powerful open to the Pacifica broadcast. His BPP anniversary oriented interview, aired later in the program, was on-point as well. Here’s the transcript of the latter.
This photo is from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Bro. Mumia, as he was known then, as Lt. of Communication for the Philadelphia branch of the BPP. He was 15 at the time. The picture was on the front page of The Sunday Philadelphia Inqurier in January 1970. It was published one month to the day of the COINTEL-PRO-led police murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
(Related asides: First, are you as excited as I am about Kathleen Cleaver’s forthcoming autobiography? Like Mumia’s forthcoming book on jailhouse lawyers, it can’t come soon enough. Second, let’s enjoy this footage for as long as we can.)
But there’s another 40th Panther birthday to celebrate: the one of the Marvel Comics superhero. Same age, believe it or not. The African warrior-king was the first Black superhero to appear in American comics.
When you have a free half-hour, you can check out this animated adaptation of the character’s first appearance—at least until it disappears. 🙂
“Prey Of The Black Panther”, Part One
R.I.P. "Boondocks" (THE COMIC STRIP, *NOT* THE TEE VEE SHOW)
Hmmm……
NOT surprised—neither by the news, nor how he chose to make the break.
I prided myself on reading EVERY McGruder interview that ever came my way. In virtually every one that went beyond than 200 words, I remember him complaining about how grueling it was to do the strip. (Here’s the most in-depth profile of McGruder I’ve yet seen.) To do a comic strip was my original ambition, so I both sympathize with him AND feel he was whining all the way to the bank.
I guess in the 21st century, everything is just a platform to another platform; every spot someone gets is just a temporary space to nap while preparing their next (upward, hopefully) hustle. Ed Gordon and Tavis Smiley use National Public Radio as a forum to keep their very public profiles while setting up their television vehicles. Hiphop Gen stars Queen Latifah and Ananda Lewis were among many that fell into cookie-cutter syndicated daytime Tee Vee talk shows that came and went, but at least their demos haven’t forgotten them, Heaven forbid. 🙂
Ultimately, McGruder—who wrote in the introduction of one of his “Boondocks” anthologies that he wanted to continue the strip because it kept a foot in The Man’s @ss—didn’t want to be Charles M. Schulz or Garry Trudeau. He had always wanted to leverage the characters and the concept into a Tee Vee deal, and he got a very successful one. So why kill yourself? I guess he thought.
And, to be real, for the most part, it’s not like he wasn’t phoning it in for the last couple of years.
If you are going to miss the strip, get this collection and you’ll be straight. It’s the best of the early ones—those made when his full attention was on the task, the ones that came before the Tee Vee show jumped off.
Speaking of the Tee Vee show, here’s the first-season episode that I rank as one of the best Black half-hours of Tee Vee ever.
As these characters become more and more multi-media, we’ll see some of the characters he created that had yet to make the strip. We’ll see, but, sadly, we’ll no longer read.
Quick Review Of Black Panther No. 19: "World Tour," Part I of IV
WRITER: REGINALD HUDLIN
ARTIST: SCOT EATON
PLOT: King T’Challa and his new bride, Storm of the X-Men, begin a global diplomatic mission. They have to discover who their friends and enemies are, now that they’re a power couple on Marvel’s world stage. So they take up Doctor Doom‘s offer to come to Latveria for a summit, and fisticuffs ensue.
VERDICT: The usual complaint about Hudlin’s execution of what could have been an interesting idea. Even though I think Hudlin is trying to weave a(n accessible) political tapestry, a la the inevitable Civil War crossover, the book is still too lightweight in terms of plot, dialogue and situations. And as someone who went through the whole African medallion-Public Enemy-KRS-One-“Fight The Power” era, I think I’m just 18 years too late (read: too old :)) for all of the Black pop-cult, simple humor, and Afrocentric self-esteem Hudlin feels the need to constantly shoehorn. He’s only got 22 pages a month (not counting the re-cap splash page at the beginning of the comic), and that space could be better used for plot, etc. But I think he’s writing for today’s 20-year-olds, who have mucho entertainment options.
There’s been a lot of online discussion about Doom’s racist comments in this issue—to the point, whether it was appropriately consistent with the character. I don’t see Doom’s racial statements in this issue as a big deal. I view Doom as a bigot, not (necessarily) a racist. I think Doom was trying to goad the couple, so he (like Hudlin, *SIGH*) went with the obvious.
I still like this book for what it is. But I have to admit that I’d be much more excited about this six-part storyline if I thought it was going to end in any way other than a spectacular show of (Black) prowess by T’Challa and Ororo. *YAWN*
Although I like the book, my original criticism of Hudlin still stands. Although Hudlin’s writing as greatly improved from his first few issues, the universe he has crafted is still one that is only mildly interesting at best. Hudlin’s re-working of Panther does not improve on The House Stan and Jack Built and subsequently fortified, by various degrees over the decades, by Marvel writers Roy Thomas, Don McGregor and Christopher J. Priest—the latter my personal favorite. (Priest’s first two Black Panther stories, “Black Panther: The Client” and “Black Panther: Enemy Of The State,” can be found in trade paperback on Amazon.) Those looking for a piece of graphic literature—something that is supposed to go beyond the obvious, that creates its own interior rules for specific reasons that advance the story, that provides thoughtful uses of language with a distinct rhythm, that’s supposed to be both internal and external, that at best contains symbolism and multiple meanings—will be disappointed here.
As far as the current storyline goes, I wish I could be shown how “badass” and “cool” Storm and T’Challa are by them acting like the complex characters they are (well, were) in a layered, detailed storyline. But I guess I’ll just have to enjoy what I have and wait for the next writer to do that.
Drums in the Global Village 