My apologies in advance to everyone of Eastern extraction… This week’s strip achieves 2 firsts: a Main Female character (at last), and the introduction of fart-humour!
This strip was – and maybe still is – a mess. It’s the first of the lot that I’m not happy with. If I ever get up to around 3 strips ahead, it’ll give me a chance to tighten up the writing and the artwork before my Friday Deadlines.
But, I worked on it until 12:30 last night and from early this morning, in an attempt to salvage something: missing my Friday deadline! I do think it’s much better now in terms of writing, but I’ll try to fix it up a bit more – visually – as it’s still pretty rough. « Compare it with last week’s one? I think the line-work is too thick, amongst other things. (Seriously contemplating inking on the computer instead of paper, to sharpen things up)
What actually helped this morning as I wrote the script on this again – was when I went full-juvenile with the humour. “Pongy-pants!”
PC?
The other thing about this strip that had me in crisis last night, was the content/ideas – aside from the attempts at humour. There were things in it – before the version you see now – which really worried me, and made me fearful of publishing. I think it’s OK to point out people’s ignorance about race etc., or the societal problems associated with a particular era, but I don’t want to start giving the impression that the Seventies setting, and the immature characters give me a free pass to be offensive. Taking swipes at Nazis (with Germanic stereotypes, influenced by 1970s boys’ comics is one thing) but I felt I was getting close to stepping over a personal line. Yes, I do have one!
Do any of you recall that in the 1970s and 1980s, there seemed to be a regular group of actors who the US TV series producers would call on to play ‘Eastern-looking’ characters? Even as a child I was very aware of it. For example, the same actor might play a vengeance-crazed Vietcong Veteran, in Magnum P.I., or a terrified Chinese Railway worker in some wild-west TV show, or the reliable old script device of the old Japanese pilot marooned on a Pacific Island, who doesn’t realise that WW2 is over. The latter was in Six Million Dollar Man and Salvage, if I’m not mistaken. At least they didn’t get a Chinese actor to play an Indian.
My friend Darren Slade, who I bugged about my problems with the script, very late last night, reminded me of the fact that Bruce Lee was turned down for the main role in Kung Fu because he was deemed “to Chinese looking.” Yes, it’s true
I actually considered having Jenny remark to Jack that “He isn’t very Japanese looking, is he?” – but after a bit of panic, and reconsideration, I dropped it.
Acknowledgments!
Thanks to Darren Slade of the wonderful Episode Nothing for giving me some pointers very early this morning on how to try to salvage this thing! It was actually helpful even to put the problems into words and hit the ‘send’ button.
If you enjoy today’s strip and article, please leave a ‘comment‘ so that I know? And please ‘Share’ it – in whichever way you prefer. Every bit helps, to get my comic ‘out there’ – and – encourages me to stick at it.
Thanks!
** Stay Groovy, all you 1970s kids! **
– John White
Ooh, I like her! (But then I also liked Hong Kong Phooey!) ==
Thanks Grace. It’s nice to see you here again 😉
It was pointed out to me that Jenny has suddenly appeared without any set-up or introduction. It’s a fair point. I’m going to remedy that. I think she has terrific potential as a character.
It’s early. I don’t think she needs any more setup or introduction.
As far as PC issues go (to change topics out of the blue), I think we have to keep in mind that this was, for some of today’s jaded adults, ancient history. Star Wars was 38 years ago, and 38 years before that was the beginning of WWII! Today’s world is as different from the ’70s as the ’70s were from the ’30s, and being too PC would be to portray it inaccurately and unfairly. Now, me being very white, I won’t presume to speak for other ethnicities. But I can substitute something else, being rather high on the Kinsey scale. We’re talking about a time before the White Night riots,
before Prop 6 almost passed. Blatant stereotypes of gays and lesbians were perfectly acceptable. Was that good or right? No, but it was the world in which we lived, and in which we would live for quite a while yet. So if such an issue ever came up here, being too respectful and accepting would be an injustice, not only in misrepresenting the prevailing attitudes but also by effectively erasing what those who bore the brunt of it went through. To approach it askance, though, as I believe you are doing here with the issue of race, helps shed light on what we did wrong back then so we can, I hope, avoid making the same mistakes now.
Okay, I’ll shut up now. *(^_^)*
That was some excellent comment Grace, thanks for that.
The further away I get from last Friday, the less I think I should have worried about it. My main problem might have been that it just wasn’t a great strip, and my nervousness was heightened by a panel that I did, at first, have in there of Jenny pulling a face, with her hands together. It wasn’t even a typical, racist, “flied-lice, flied-lice” face, but still made me nervous. If the writing was better, and that panel was drawn better perhaps I wouldn’t have worried so much, and the Friday strip would have hit its deadline after all.
I’ll post one of the original versions, here at some point, perhaps in a blog post in the blog section.
John
That’s very insightful, Grace – especially the part about “effectively erasing what those who bore the brunt of it went through”. It made me shiver to see you spell out so bluntly that Star Wars was 38 years ago.
It was indeed. The comic is a good opportunity to allude to what was wrong with those times – but I need to find a way to do it without being overbearingly moralising. After all, I hope the comic is an escape – for us 1970s kids especially – and a source of entertainment. But yes, to erase the reality would be wrong in my sincere opinion. A good case in point is that not one single ‘non-white’ kid has appeared yet! My own experience, and I mentioned this before was that in Ireland then, there was little to no chance of seeing non-White people in rural villages – or towns even. And quite honestly, I barely recall seeing any in Dublin City. I could crowbar some in, for balance, but it’d be really inauthentic. So I need to do it in a way that seems right. I also haven’t contrived to evenly balance girls and boys. I was pleased to introduce Jenny in this strip, but it did take a while, and I think she’s going to be a bit of a tomboy! I hope to introduce more girls – and women. The sad fact is, boys aged around 7-10, don’t tend to be that interested in girls. As a parent, you’ll see it when the invitation list for their birthday parties are made up. Suddenly, there are no girls invited anymore. We found that very sad, but it’s par for the course. And it’ll usually change – of course!
John, I think this strip looks great. I was privileged to see the earlier version and while I’m not sure my late night feedback was that helpful, I think a few judicious tweaks have really focused the story. It’s a lovely little vignette. I’m looking forward to seeing where the Jack/Jenny relationship goes and getting a sense of their history, whatever it is.
Aww, thanks Darren. And I was privileged to have a friend and professional writer to take the time to help me out – around midnight, on a Friday, after a hard day at the office.
And now, I must finally read your latest ‘Episode Nothing’ Star Wars blogpost!