Faces of Colour: The Razor Kid
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The first was here
WOWIO.COM has turned me onto The Razor Kid. Another Asian super-hero. A teenager. And a hero who's difabled. (Differently abled is too damn long to type out, and disabled feels weird. Welcome to Willow's comic blog vocabulary).
Unlike Superhero G who started off Japanese, I'm unsure which Asian ethnicity Alexander Tanaka is. His surname seems Japanese, but right now I'm not assuming.
Alexander lives in a world where superheroes need certification to do their jobs. He didn't start off wanting to be a hero. He's a genius and he was intending to follow the flow of his own brilliance. Then he stumbled into a horrendous conspiracy that then cost him his arms and he found his heroism.
I am seriously wishing there was a Pay for Download digital format for this comic. Because I'd spend the money for each installment. I want to support this product, this character.
Put out by Ronin Studios, whenever #2 comes out it should be available at Indyplanet.Com and ComixPress.
Extra Babble
It's only one issue, with some backstory on the main site. But I'm really giddy about an Asian hero. I realize that the loss of the arms might seem skeezy to some. That some how the Asian man had to be hurt etc. Truthfully I only realized that perspective several days after my "OMG! Asian Hero Kid! Genius Smarts! OMG Difabled Kid Kicked ASS!"
[backdated for dual posting]
Labels: faces of colour
Author: Avalon's Willow » Comments:
Faces of Colour
Friday, May 16, 2008
When I think Asian, art and SF I'm more than likely to end up thinking of Manga first, then the various free-to-play massive multiplayer online role playing games; Perfect World for example; then Manwha and modern wuxia stories. I'm less likely to think about Super Hero comics.
Jubilee doesn't have that many fans. Betsy Braddock was originally white. And as for Asian Males? Does anyone actually remember Sunfire?
... Ok, apparently some folks remembered him long enough to kick him up and down M-Day. But my point still stands.
That's why I was so delighted when I realized that the key characters in The Imaginaries were Asian. And that's also why I was so disappointed on reading the last installment almost a month ago and realizing that in this last issue (#4) those key characters had no longer been drawn Asian.
So I emailed the creator. His name and email addy were up on the site and I really wanted to know if I'd read things correctly. It turns out I had. But my follow up email asking if there would be a) more Imaginaries and b) more Imaginaries drawn with the key characters looking Asian didn't get a reply.
Still I heartily recommend reading the initial series, even if the art in the last issue is likely to break your heart at the sudden erasure of a powerful, Japanese superhero and even if New Beginings suggests that the characters are now Caucasian, permanently.
(What was this? Read here)
Labels: faces of colour
Author: Avalon's Willow » Comments:
ANOUNCEMENT: 9th PoC in SF Carnival!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
ANOUNCEMENT: 9th PoC in SF Carnival!
Go see the Carnival!. Read! Be educated! Become aware!
There's an interplay between art and speculative fiction and how we, poc, see ourselves vs how we are seen that makes me think thinky thoughts about that application in fiction.
There's also a history lesson about Bengali SciFi. BENGALI! If your mind is blown with yay, go find :)
NB: I have had a problem using the term NW for individuals. I've discovered I'm more comfortable saying NWP - it feels less like I'm shouting some equivalent of n***** and more like I'm discussing a huge swathe of the earth's population. But I, like the current, host invite everyone to define themselves how they wish in comments to the Carnival
Labels: admin, issue
Author: Avalon's Willow » Comments:
