Diversity in Comics/Novels

[indagold]

Yeah that's the best thing to do. I personally been collecting handmade crafts and such nearby me... well used to until covid hit lol

[domisotto]

True. I think it says something about a person putting so much effort into a story to write a viewpoint that isn't their own and doing it successfully.

Nobody argues with success; the problems arise when you invested heart, time and efforts, but it turned out dreadful, and worse—hurt people. It’s one thing to quietly fail, it’s another to make a total mess of a charged theme.

[indagold]

I've read and watched stuff made by my own race that was pretty offensive and messily done, causing so much outrage it spawns news stories and internet fall out claiming it was a mockery of their own culture...(nutshack comes to mind lol)

It all depends on whose making it and how they handle it in the end.

[Lady_T_Musings]

That's what's up and I feel you there because I came to the same conclusion.

Thank you for sharing that too. It really goes to show why it's such a driving force in my work to depict diversity and why I encourage and love to see it in the works of others as well. I can't stress enough how It really makes a difference in how we can perceive ourselves when we are immersed in the media we consume and aren't represented in it as opposed to when we are. It has an impact and can affect how we see ourselves as we develop. It's wild to think about, and there are those that can't understand how, but it's a real thing folks.

SMH indeed. I can already tell you I can't. The closest person I could think of was sailor pluto in Sailor Moon, and that's only in the comic and to be honest, she looked more ambiguous than anything, but at least she had darker skin...in the manga anyway. I wasn't huge on the Sailor Moon scene, but when Pluto did show up in the anime I remember just how devastated 2 of my gal pals were bc they had seen scans online of Pluto being dark and were so excited to see her in the anime, but she appeared in the anime, she didn't have a drop of melanin on her skin. Knowing that she had dark skin in the comic and was whitewashed for anime was so messed up. They still love the show, but I still can hear the disappointment to this day.

Go oF Tsuna go OFFFFFF!

If you already got some bases established, why not build off them is what I say. Thay way you can continue to hone your craft without completely jumping into the deep end and get used to things as you go. I don't think it's gimmicky at all as your facing your previous work and acknowledging it doesn't represent what you want and working to change that. It may feel a bit awkward at first, but as you said, keep at it and it will feel natural. We've been taught and picked up so many habits and feelings about who should be the leads of the stories we tell and what they should look like by the exposure we've been given, and getting reflective about that put us in an awkward feeling position, but it's one that when faced will help us grow and create more of the content we wish to see in the world and help us better address why it's important.

Yeahhhhh seeing that ish in fantasy is the thing that grinds me the most. Because of all genres Fantasy is the one I always expect to be the most diverse in the cast and yet it's usually the whitest. it's FANTASY. Magic is a thing, intelligent creatures that can speak are a thing, and yet there are no people of color, and let somebody show up with an ashy gray elf or green man and act like it's inclusion. I'm like if you don't chill out with that and stop playing with me BC if a green person can exist next to a white one, so can a brown.

YASSSSSS TSUNA PREACH! We are more than our pain. Though valid, we have way more to us than that and there should be more stories told that explore our mysteries, triumphs, joy, and fantastical fun sides as well. Mansplaining does have context and that is important to understand, YASSSS! This is a whole thing that defiantly deserves to be discussed and I'm for it, so I get where you coming form.

Were not a bunch of walking PSA, ty ty ty.

Just gonna end this with some virtual patty-cake. I'm nodding my head as I do it and looking at your icon

[Lady_T_Musings]

Ok then lay down some of that French history for us

Yasssss I love that you have been able to meet so many diverse people in your life and that it has reflected in your work. that is beautiful, thought that breaks my heart to hear about your nephew

That's right. If you can't find the beacon of hope, become it. THAT'S BEAUTIFUL and it warms my heart to know you out here doing creating these beautiful characters looking all fly and stuff and just existing. Yo I'm tearing up over here

Nah, go on ahead Nixx share your tale, you good and I'm here for it!!

That's right! Make them potential roles for your folks!! He looks fly A-F too!
Yesss show me that action, get it good!!

The Broadcaster looks elegant A-F and can totally look down on me AHHHHHH-HA!

[Lady_T_Musings]

Come through Joanne! (insert preach hands, come on Tapas gimme that lil preach hand icon so I can spam it haha) Bookmarked and Saved thank you very much for the resources and thought

[Lady_T_Musings]

It does bc there all all kinds of stories that deserve to be told. Some happen to take place in areas that have a monolithic race or culture, so it wouldn't make sense to snatch someone from another ethnicity just to have floating around for no reason and having no impact on a story other than to say hey look diversity. An example of this was in the Avatar movie (Air bender not blue aliens) where the southern water tribe was filled with actors who looked Inuit/native Alaskan but when you get to the protagonist Katara and Sokka, they are these two random white people. That was so jarring to witness. Like, why are they here. Made 0 sense.

Also stories that center around personal reflections, small casts of characters, and /or personal experiences are also legit forms of story telling that may not be very diverse at still be cool in my book.

Thank you for sharing.

[Lady_T_Musings]

That is what's up Nick! bring your reality into this word through your creations and keep representing all the beauty and uniqueness that the people of the world have to offer

[Lady_T_Musings]

It be like that sometimes, but look at how far you have come! All that beautiful color in this character line up ahhhhh loving it

I agree as well. It totally can help as an artist. I know a lot of artists that fear same-face syndrome and I tell you what, start drawing folks of other racial backgrounds in earnest and I guarantee your characters will start to look different from one another.

[domisotto]

I've read and watched stuff made by my own race that was pretty offensive and messily done, causing so much outrage it spawns news stories and internet fall out claiming it was a mockery of their own culture...(nutshack comes to mind lol)

There is a difference between mocking/stereotyping self, and mocking/stereotyping someone else.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Yasssss I'm here for it, look at all them cuties ! Thanks for sharing your work as well!

[Lady_T_Musings]

That's a beautiful sentiment and I live to see more folks who think the same way Thanks for sharing!

[joannekwan]

and mocking/stereotyping someone else.

Oh the Nutshack did a lot of that too. xD
The name rang familiar and I realized I watched this video about it years ago.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Yoooo Iridium!

Thank you for sharing and please do continue to tell stories that treat people of color as people with goals and feelings like everyone else in the world. The more folks normalize creating content featuring folks of other races and ethnicities, the more normalized it becomes in the everyday media we consume. As it should be since all kinds of people exist in this world!

[Lady_T_Musings]

Living that fantastical fantasy life yoooooo, analogues is all it is and yet we doing it big and still representing

You are most definitely correct Kay. Bright colors pop on Dark skin so I'm all about it, Yassssss!!!

Indeed it can be. In this forum post alone you can see just how hungry for this kind of rep folks were (and still are) growing up.

Ah yes, the informative side of Tumblr. You and me both though, I learned some things on some pretty epic blogs through that site and though it ain't the same, there still are some folks persevering and creating good resources. I'm super happy to hear you were able to tap into those worlds and learn new things through that site

Ain't it fun being able to diversify your palettes!? Go on then!

Deep breaths. I'm living for her hair Ahhhhh you've done a lovely job illustrating that she has some texture and the way you have graduated that color throughout chefs kiss She is stunning, and I love how you've shaded her skin ahhhhhhhh yas yasssss YASSSSS insert Skeletor gif

He is beautiful and that is so wonderful that you are pulling from the beautifully diverse people that live beside you <3. If I was in need of healing I'd perk up quick if he were to come and lay healing hands on me haha!

[Lady_T_Musings]

Build that world and tell that story of mixed ancestry and finding your way O-K!

[Lady_T_Musings]

Happy Black History Month to you too Suren!!

Brining all that beautiful Asian/Black excellence into the world with that stylistically true to you jeweled tone color palette highlighting beautiful skin with all that colorful radiance Ohhhh Black leads in horror is something I live for, but they are rare. Have you ever seen the Tales from the Crypt movie called Demon Knight? If you haven't I totally recommend giving it a lookup as it was one of the first horror movies I had ever seen with a black female lead. Shoot there is also another awesome black woman in it as well! Anyways I trailed off, but that was too awesome to hear you also like black folks leading in horror haha XD.

That's right!!!! You have every right to create the stories and characters that you create, and I am glad you are able to accept that and not feel the need to explain yourself for why you do what you do. You just being true to yourself!

They are beautiful and statuesque characters ahhhh loving them!

[Kura]

I love that you have always had the self awareness to do so, bc unfortunately not all of us have. I love hearing when your response is the case!

It was kind of odd when I was younger though an still experimenting with writing and drawing ngl. I had a lot of 'reluctant to admit are poc' characters despite them always being there, cause I was always made fun of every time someone saw my drawings of them because 'lol black anime characters?? haha what even???' so I generally avoided colouring my characters so that people wouldn't find out, or being vague with mentioning character descriptions in my writing like "She had dark skin" would only be mentioned once in the intro description and then never mentioned again.

As for the ones that I did colour I would get all kinds of complaints about 'that's not how I pictured that character at all (because they pictured them as white)' or how it doesn't fit the style, because Asians don't draw dark people because they never see dark people to know what they look like (I am dark Asian, I guarantee you Asians know what dark people look like and have seen them. Just a lot of them are extremely colourist because darker tones are looked down upon and need to be corrected with skin bleaching products)

So yeah, I may have been more aware to add people of different complexions on races but I was so self conscious about it because I was taught to be pretty ashamed about doing it, but at the same time I couldn't stop, I would keep 'accidently' making characters darker when it was time to give them appealing colour pallets, and depending on how much people liked the character, lighten their skin tone so that I wouldn't get backlash.

And honestly, having dealt with situations like that constantly when developing as a creator, it's really great to see artists being more open to diversity and including PoC more.

For the topic of 'I'm white, I can't draw / scared to draw PoC because of how I portray them.' I just want to say that the first time I started noticing that white artists were drawing more PoC OC's (that wasn't a racist caricature), I was really happy to see it. You have no idea how hard it is to only see yourself drawn by people inside your race group. So seeing someone outside of your group draw your people, it was like being seen. It was nice to know that people outside our ethnicities care enough to draw us you know? I know it can lead to a lot of nuances or complications that I won't get into (more so on the writing end for the OCs and stories) but surface level. It was just... really nice to finally be considered when it came to someone else's character design,

[TheGentleArtist]

Happy Black History Month!
I have not created black characters for my comic yet, or at least, not revealed them. I have created some outside of my comic though, if that's alright to show.
When it came to creating my characters, they were all white until I got into color more and changed their skin color so that they stand out more and it matches who they are. Ethnicity came way later though, when I got really into my OCs and wanted to flesh them out more, so they aren't a driving force and will just pop up here and there at random; let me just call back to memory what they were.

For the main three cast
Here is Carrie:
Russian/Swedish. Darker skin tone because of being in the sun so often

Tanrooki:
German
>

Lin:
Japanese/Celtic* (*haven't chosen a specific one yet, but am looking into it since it is a broad term)
Is pale and has a natural glow

Since then, I just been expanding outwards with my art and characters. Diversity, when not doing it for the sake of it, is pretty fun and knowledgeable.

[indagold]

Actually the nutshack was actually a passion project done by an indigenous staff and was hoping to be the first animated filipino adult comedy that would be successful and loved everywhere and well... the rest is history lol

I guess in a way it became a cultural sensation.