The answer is there in black and white...
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Well here goes:
It's not usual for me to mention my own blog here, but I recently put up something that's of great interest to me, and may be to you, too. I published a Silver Age chronology of black characters who'd appeared in American comics, which you can see by clicking here.
One thing I noticed was that in the Gold Key Star Trek comics of the 1970s, there was barely a trace of Uhura on the covers or in the stories. Even when the rest of the crew were on the bridge of The Enterprise, she wasn't shown.
Yet, at the same time, she was prominently featured in the British Star Trek comic strip series.
Can anyone tell me when black characters appeared in comics in Great Britain in the 1960s and 1970s? I also have James Bond's Dr. No from the 1960s British newspaper comic strip. Black people are featured in that.
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I feel obliged to point out (seeing as readers will be visiting BP's post via the link on my site) that he has his facts wrong in at least a couple of instances. I've told him about them several times now, but so far he hasn't corrected them. For details, see my comment over on his post.
14 comments:
Black characters have appeared in UK comics for years, the first I recall reading about was in the 40s with the rather dodgy name of Sambo , Sue and Golly (or similar) who were cartoon type characters of there time. My first personal recollection of a black character was Sparky from Sparky in the mid to late 60s a truly awful characterisation of a black person, you have to wonder what they were thinking about with that one . Other than that I can only think of real life characters like Pele (football legend) Ali etc being on the cover of Valiant represented realistically. And of course as the enemy against the British in various war stories (Zulus etc).
I think you may be looking at Sparky through modern pc eyes, McS. Sparky (and Peanut from The Beano) were no worse caricatures of Black people than Fred Flintstone or Alfred E. Neuman were of White people. True, Sparky was a certain type of Black from a certain part of the world, but he was always treated with respect and usually (if not always) came out on top. If anything, I'd say Sparky and Peanut were good for race relations as they weren't mocked or ridiculed by the writers and the two characters were portrayed in a positive and friendly light.
Im afraid we will have to agree to disagree on Sparky it was 1965 when he was thought up and by that time common sense should have been in place. As to it improving race relations I can't comment as I can see no evidence that was the case (or indeed wasn't the case)
But you haven't explained what you think was wrong with him as a character. Shape of his limbs? Same as Popeye. Wearing a grass skirt? All cartoon Scotsmen wore kilts. It was a caricature, no better or worse than any other. Think about it. A black character who was the hero of his own strip in a British comic. and who always had the last laugh. Remember, this was the same time as Till Death Us Do Part and Love Thy Neighbour. If you can't draw a cartoon Black man (or kid) in a strip, then why draw White ones? To me, it was a strip about how an immigrant to our shores dealt with a lifestyle he was unfamiliar with.
Balance, Kid Balance.
There were hundreds of white people drawn correctly in comics, so it is alright to parody them. But when the majority or only characters are stereotypes it is offensive.
Amos and Andy, about two black men, was a famous and popular TV show in the 1950s. The NAACP complained to the network that is wasn't right just to have the only show featuring black people on the network be foolish, which they often were. They asked that the network put on shows that showed respectable and smart black people. The network then cancelled Amos and Andy, a high rated show.
In America, before the Silver Age, the only black characters I have seen (in reprints I was not around before the Silver Age) were stereotypes, often of African Natives.
Popeye did not offend me because the same studio was making Superman cartoons. And Betty Boop.
With Sparky, we're talking about 'cartoon' caricatures, BP. He was the 'hero' of the strip who came out on top each week. He wasn't any more exaggerated in his features than any other characters who were usually white. He had arms and legs similar to Popeye, so I wouldn't say it's 'balance' to object to Sparky but not the sailor. Sparky (and Peanut) wasn't ridiculed by the writers, nor made to look foolish or inferior in any way. In fact, the reverse was true. Sparky wasn't just treated as an equal by the publishers, but shown as superior in a lot of ways. Of course, you'd have to analyse the strips to see that, because they were really just about a comics character who got into humorous situations in order to entertain the readers. And he was the cover star.
I happened to buzz through some Gold Key TREK comics a few months back, and I did see a few in which Uhura had a modest role. One even showed her doing some sort of kung fu, which she never did on the teleseries. However, I think that by accident or design, Uhura's skin color was "white-washed" a lot of the time, so often she was difficult to recognize.
The situation with the Sparks character sounds a bit like that of Will Eisner's SPIRIT character Ebony. While there are things about Ebony that are strongly objectionable-- the name, the liver-lips-- Eisner put a lot of heart into the character. One random story made him into an electrical genius, though this wasn't by any means consistent. He did a number of dumb things, but he wasn't dumb because he was black, and he had a number of clever moments as well.
Y'know, GP, a lot of Scots people take offence at the stereotypical mean, drunken, Scot portrayed in comics and movies, etc., but it doesn't bother me, nor, I'm sure, a lot of other Scots. Perhaps Americans think that Scots are all cast in the Harry Lauder mould; a kilt, a Tam O'Shanter, knock-knees, a gnarled walking stick, etc., but I regard it as just a short-cut caricature for the purpose of a story, I don't fret about it. Maybe it's time other people stopped worrying over cartoon drawings and learned to laugh at and among themselves. It's just a drawing, for feck's sake.
Interesting comment, thanks for making it.
You might want to look around online for an archived copy of PLASTIC MAN #25 (Golden Age version), in which Jack Cole has a lot of fun with a character named "Angus McWhangus," who is the epitome of the "skinflint Scot" but is also so completely silly no one ought to take offense.
Trouble is, GP, someone will, somewhere, as some people just seem determined to take offence at things. Had Woozy Winks been black, we'd now be hearing cries of racism from some quarters. Skin colour shouldn't enter into it. Has the PM tale (#25) ever been reprinted?
Don't forget Scrooge McDuck - Donald's rich tight-fisted Scottish uncle.
My father was one of those who took offence at Scottish stereotypes - he refused to watch Rab C. Nesbitt for example. But the supposed meanness of the Scots annoyed me too because my dad wasn't the slightest bit mean. Whenever I went to a birthday party at somebody else's house I was given a piece of cake to take home that was so thin you could almost see through it but at birthday parties in my house my father divided the cake up among the guests and everybody got a big wedge to take home.
Maybe, though, CJ, your friends' parties had more guests, resulting in thinner slices to accommodate them all? I know what you're going to say - they should've had a bigger cake then.
Gene, that was also 70 years ago and it has not been reprinted. I sent Kid a copy of the splash.
Thanks, BP, that's exactly the look that some Scots are offended by (yet they still dress up in kilts for weddings), yet it doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's a caricature, a stereotype, a cartoon Scot - it's not me though, so I don't have a problem with it. It's a shortcut way of denoting a Scotsman, for the purpose of making a joke and raising an affectionate laugh - it's not to be taken seriously. So I don't. In my view, Sparky was the same - hell, he had a whole comic named after him and he was the cover star. Why would anyone have a problem with that?
What people should have a problem with is Peanut being removed from the masthead of reprints of early copies of The Beano. A little Black boy who wasn't ridiculed or looked down on - whitewashed from history as though he didn't exist. I'd say that was racist, not him being on the cover and on the letters page inside..
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