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[Classic]

I get that this isn't news, per se, but do these facts diminish that it's kind of a dumb idea?

[Thad]

Flaming Carrot collections coming back into print, plus not-print.

[Büge]

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/04/a-comic-show-the-new-green-lantern-is-not-a-terrorist-hes-a-car-thief/

 

[Zaratustra]

"Muslim car thief becomes Green Lantern" sounds like a GTA mod.

[Ted Belmont]

“The next question was about Marvel and DC Comics not being creator friendly. Ennis said he thinks that DC Comics has realized what Marvel Comics has, that you do not have to do creator-owned comics, and you can keep putting out the same thing and people will buy it. “Before Watchmen”—which he said he has not read and will not read—is a message that the balance is going away from the writers and artists back to corporate. As such, DC Comics is not creator friendly right now. He said that going to smaller publishers and getting as much of your own works out in print is not changing the industry, but survival. He does not want to be a creator in failing health asking for charity. Nor does he want to be a creator knocking out a “Huntress/Catwoman” series at 65. He said there is “no union, no one looking out for” the creators. Later he added that he wished he owned several characters he created under work-for-hire agreements, including Baracuda (from “The Punisher,” published by Marvel Comics), Kev (meaning Kevin “Kev” Hawkins from “The Authority” published by WildStorm), and “Hitman” (from DC Comics).”

[Shinra]

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/04/a-comic-show-the-new-green-lantern-is-not-a-terrorist-hes-a-car-thief/

 

So, the black muslim green lantern that uses a gun and has green lantern prison tats is also a car thief.

Not racist.

[Ted Belmont]

He's not black, he's Lebanese. The car thief thing goes like this: he lives in Dearborn, Michigan, where he worked in an automotive factory which was shut down. Desperate for money, he turns to car thievery, but accidentally steals an armed van bomb, gets arrested by Homeland Security, extradited, and tortured, which is when the ring finds him and makes him the new GL of Sector Whatever.

Yes, it's incredibly hamfisted, but that's pretty much par for the course with superhero comics, and given that Geoff Johns, who created him, is also Lebanese, I think the cries of RACISM were a bit premature this time. I know, people on the internet casting judgement without knowing all of the facts, crazy, right?

[Shinra]

To be fair, he can't be just Lebanese. Lebanese arabs are typically pretty light skinned. Check it:

google image search

Is it possible that his 'ethnicity' might have gotten amped up by DC? It just seems weird that the masked, gun-wielding green lantern car thief is also a suspiciously african american looking lebanese person.

[Büge]

Yes, it's incredibly hamfisted, but that's pretty much par for the course with superhero comics, and given that Geoff Johns, who created him, is also Lebanese, I think the cries of RACISM were a bit premature this time. I know, people on the internet casting judgement without knowing all of the facts, crazy, right?

Johns was born in Detroit, Michigan, son of Barbara and Fred Johns of Clarkston, and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston. He is of half Lebanese ancestry. As a child, Johns and his brother first discovered comics through an old box of comics they found in their grandmother's attic, which included copies of Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Batman from the 1960s and 1970s.

Huh. I dunno how strongly he identifies himself as Lebanese, but it's news to me.

[Ted Belmont]

To be fair, he can't be just Lebanese. Lebanese arabs are typically pretty light skinned. Check it:

google image search

Is it possible that his 'ethnicity' might have gotten amped up by DC? It just seems weird that the masked, gun-wielding green lantern car thief is also a suspiciously african american looking lebanese person.

That's entirely possible; every other recent controversy over minority superheroes has resulted in boosted sales for the company involved, so I wouldn't put it past DC to try and manufacture one. Here's an actual shot of him from the comic:

[Mongrel]

Yeah, Lebanese guys look very mediterranean.

Because they are.

[Shinra]

To be fair, he can't be just Lebanese. Lebanese arabs are typically pretty light skinned. Check it:

google image search

Is it possible that his 'ethnicity' might have gotten amped up by DC? It just seems weird that the masked, gun-wielding green lantern car thief is also a suspiciously african american looking lebanese person.

That's entirely possible; every other recent controversy over minority superheroes has resulted in boosted sales for the company involved, so I wouldn't put it past DC to try and manufacture one. Here's an actual shot of him from the comic:

Yeah, looks completely different in the actual book. I'm convinced now that DC just made him look black on the cover to get people talking about the book.

[Mongrel]

I'm convinced now that DC just made him look black on the cover to get people talking about the book.

I can totally beleive that at this point, but it could just have been an unintentional cock-up/miscommunication between Johns and the cover artist.

Or, simpler still, the cover artist was all "A-RAB? OH LIKE A SAND-NEEGAR, RIGHT?"

[TA]

That's some pretty washed-out lighting though.  Have any other pages?

[Shinra]

I'm thinking it's the latter:



Having lived 15 minutes away from Dearborn for 22 years I don't think I ever met a person of Arabic descent that was this dark skinned. I've met some Indian people (as in India) who did but that's like saying Mongols and Japanese are functionally the same because they're both from Asia.

[Thad]

Ennis said he thinks that DC Comics has realized what Marvel Comics has, that you do not have to do creator-owned comics, and you can keep putting out the same thing and people will buy it. “Before Watchmen”—which he said he has not read and will not read—is a message that the balance is going away from the writers and artists back to corporate.

Tempting as it is to treat "DC" as a monolithic entity, this is really down to the ousting of Paul Levitz and the reorg that put DC more directly under WB's thumb.

Levitz didn't always make creators happy -- he pissed off Moore, Ellis, Millar, and Ennis himself off the top of my head -- but he was (is) a creator himself and much more sympathetic to their situation than most company presidents.  He actively pursued equitable deals with creators, even old ones who he was under no obligation to help, even renegotiating old deals to give royalties and profit-sharing agreements to creators who Marvel would have just told to fuck off.  He came pretty close to a deal with the Siegel estate, and even did his best to appease Alan Moore -- he didn't really succeed at either of those, but current management doesn't even seem interested in trying.

And he was very clear that there would be no Watchmen sequel on his watch.

(Wait...Watchmen...watch...Dr. Manhattan's watch, the Doomsday clock -- I just got that!)

It's not a coincidence that Before Watchmen was pretty much greenlit as soon as Levitz was out the door.

I'm convinced now that DC just made him look black on the cover to get people talking about the book.

I can totally beleive that at this point, but it could just have been an unintentional cock-up/miscommunication between Johns and the cover artist.

Bears reminding at this point that every single #0 cover is pretty much terrible.  I'm sure none of us have forgotten the Catwoman one.

(EDIT: Actually apparently the Catwoman one's been changed.  Still a pretty impossible pose but not as bad as it was.)

My uncle was flipping through my stack yesterday and got a look at Animal Man #0.  "So the artist left and they got a guy who quit art school before the class on foreshortening?"

These covers were designed by editorial/corporate; I think even a good artist is pretty hamstrung under those conditions.

[Zaratustra]

The next question was about Marvel and DC Comics not being creator friendly. Ennis said he thinks that DC Comics has realized what Marvel Comics has, that you do not have to do creator-owned comics, and you can keep putting out the same thing and people will buy it. “Before Watchmen”—which he said he has not read and will not read—is a message that the balance is going away from the writers and artists back to corporate. As such, DC Comics is not creator friendly right now. He said that going to smaller publishers and getting as much of your own works out in print is not changing the industry, but survival. He does not want to be a creator in failing health asking for charity. Nor does he want to be a creator knocking out a “Huntress/Catwoman” series at 65. He said there is “no union, no one looking out for” the creators.

Migration is change.

[Thad]

I think it's missing the word "about".  As in, he's not TRYING to change the industry in doing more creator-owned stuff, he's just trying to make a living.  (And he's a big enough name that, in his case, there IS more money in owning your shit.)

Now, it MAY change the industry -- as I've said before, most A-list creators seem to be doing creator-owned work on the side, and a few have started doing it exclusively.  But even if it doesn't, it's just a good business decision for some of them.  (To say nothing of creative control and the other perks.)

[Mongrel]

Basically, change via demographics rather than by revolution.

[Mongrel]

LADY COP

(no relation to Axe Cop).