What's your view on making political comics constantly

baasinsimple 2019-01-20 23:01:23 UTC #1

Note: I'm not stating my own Political point of view

Do you like them, If so, why? Do you not like them, if so, why? I dunno, I personally I don't like the " ha ha yes. half of the population are mongoloids" mentality. Or the idea that reiterating the same thing that everyone else does without any sort of difference somehow draws an audience. Honestly in recent years it seems like political comics are the easiest thing in the world to make:

1) take a controversial/sensationalized topic

2) Treat the opposition like they're less than human and they have malevolent intent despite the fact that they're just different from you

3) "Haha yes. The other people are bad. haha yes"

4) Alt: Literally state word for word what your preferred news source says

5) Get followers

I honestly feel like there isn't any kind of artistic integrity when all you're doing is making a living retracing the same 4 or 5 steps everyday. Honestly making political content sounds like a living hell because all you're really doing is regurgitating something people smarter than you have said thousands of times already and devolved it into basic insult "comedy" because you can't really do anything else to bring in the clicks. Honestly it seems more like a step towards creative death.

To Anyone that does this: Why the hell would you do this to yourself? Instead of creating characters that people come to love or even just stories that you find interesting, why do you do something so soulless and unoriginal day in and day out knowing someone does it infinitely better than you? And that you don't stand out to really anyone and the only people who follow you only do so because they also dislike the orange man or they also dislike the activists? It seems pretty unfulfilling especially if you've wanted to make comics all your life like a lot of us here have.

Hexigate 2019-01-20 23:41:04 UTC #2

I want to cover some political topics in my series.

...Well, it's more that they boil down to ethics and moral thematic, but we (mostly in the US of A) have made them political.

But I don't want to cover these topics with the structure that you've talked about here. There are going to be characters and ideals in my series that are going to be objectively evil, but It's not about bringing down the hammer of absolution to judge these folks and ideas into the pits of hell. It's about understanding where these ideas come from, and what happens to those characters that leads them to carve their identity from these ideas.

Just as an example, neo-nazis are easy to dismiss, and there is no way to excuse such a radical and resentful ideology. However, I think that there are certain occurrences that direct these people in that path, not that they're absolutely born as neo-nazis. A lot of them seem to join simply to feel belonged alongside like-minded people, and there's a ton of miscommunication in that mess that will give birth to such ideas. In that case, it may serve better to talk and communicate to them, to help them understand the points of view that they are attacking. In fact, I've heard a lot that one-on-one talking is a very effective antidote.

All in all, I think it's important that we can distinguish ideology from a person. If one is refuting and attacking anything, They should attack the idea, not the person. Making things personal hardly helps, and it's important for others to understand that you are not attacking their identity, merely the ideology; an ideology that they can always separate from.

Just my take on it.

baasinsimple 2019-01-20 23:46:49 UTC #3

I agree with this, Even if I didn't come to agree with what you were saying, I think that's really respectable way to go about that. I guess it can be said that it bothers me a lot when people just devolve into insults instead of looking at a point of view in a more empathetic way and honest way.

DokiDokiTsuna 2019-01-21 00:01:50 UTC #4

I've only read political comics from newspapers and the like, so maybe I haven't seen what you have. But in any case, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

Most of the ones I've seen are used less to attack people and more to show the irony of certain viewpoints vis a vis the reality of the actions they spawn, or the difference between what politicians say and what they do. Pretty standard political commentary, just in joke form.

I also think it's kind of rude to ask things like "why the hell would you do this to yourself" when talking about someone's area of interest/profession, just in general. =/ I mean, those who make political comics could make the same arguments to those who make fictional ones. You think the 90 trillion BL comics on the webscape these days couldn't also be called "soulless and unoriginal"?

And these things:

"the idea that reiterating the same thing that everyone else does without any sort of difference somehow draws an audience."
"...knowing someone does it infinitely better than you?"

^^^Welcome to the world of entertainment, baby. Political or otherwise, chances are your idea is NOT a 100% original special snowflake, and someone else probably does it way better than you.

But ALL artists get used to that. It's just the way it is.

TL;DR, there's nothing wrong with making political comics, not even constantly, if that's what you want to do. And it's not nice to bash a whole genre just because some of its members are hacks.

LittleMissDevil 2019-01-21 00:02:17 UTC #5

Hu, I needed to think a little about weather I had seen the comics your are describing. A lot of memes like that come to mind and some daily strip like comics do from time to time have jokes about politics, buuuut the strict formula you're describing doesn't seem to have crossed my path yet. However: they way your are describing it just sounds flat and boring to me. I generally don't like the use of controversy to gain viewership unless you have something insightful to say.

But things like dark satire or other forms of comedy/commentary are still very much needed when it comes to politics (especially in heated times like these). So I wouldn't entirely condemn it and I also can understand artists putting their frustration with ideological enemies into their art. Sometimes you need to vent and I would be lying if I said that there is no cartharsis in actually getting angry over the political mess. When a comic would devolve into nothing but name calling that of course would be just that: name calling and not very productive or interesting.

As for myself: I do use political themes in my comic. Heavy political themes at that. Terrorism in particular forms a huge backdrop for the story I am writing. It is a necessary backdrop for the journey of my characters as the story itself deals with the corruption of good people due to ideology and hatred. It makes me uncomfortable a lot of the times as these are heavy issues, so I try to do my research well and try to be as respectful as I can with it. I also chose to remove my story from reality enough to not include real life events (the story takes place in a fictionalized world) as I am really not the person to talk about real world politics.

What I am trying to say: Political topics can be important for comics. Our whole life is influenced by politics and the lifes of the characters in our comics can be as well. What's especially important is, that people do research about it and be aware of the message they might be sending and how their political opinions might bleed into their work. Basically I just try to be aware of what I'm doing.

Luminosophy 2019-01-21 00:06:37 UTC #6

This is my major problem with strip based political comics (and comedian routines.) It's inherently very negative, it treats dissenters like they're inhuman and could never possibly have a reasonable point to make in contention and largely, they're all the exact same after a while. There's no new material, read one political comic (or watch one comedian) and you've read/ watched them all.

There was one I liked in my local newspaper, but I think he was so well liked because his cartoons attacked the heart of what was absurd with our political world. And it was often portrayed in light hearted ways (no one was right or wrong.) A lot of the ones I come across on the internet don't really have any humourous intent behind them, they're just there to shit on politician X of the day.

Carossmo 2019-01-21 02:30:37 UTC #7

I personally want to make a political comic, yet it's very risky in our country to do so, seeng how easily triggered filipinos are when it comes to being called out for the president's bs :'D Not all but just those avid supporters who finds those in the government as "right" all time time while others find how corrupt it is.

It'd be a challenge to tackle this one, I just wish I knew how to write it properly with accurate information.

baasinsimple 2019-01-21 02:45:43 UTC #8

Just to clarify I'm not talking about political themes that have been well implemented into the story to share an insightful look into the setting of a story, I'm referring to strip comics that misconstrue and misrepresent other political sides as bad people and others who are just shitting on a random politician because that's what they do to get followers. I'm not exactly referring to a well done political satire, I'm referring to dumb surface level childish behavior. Just a talk show host in comic form essentially.

baasinsimple 2019-01-21 02:50:36 UTC #9

Yes, but there's a clear difference between a comic you actually care about and are willing to get better at and a hollow excuse to shit on someone because you know the public opinion is against them.

SilentHamster102 2019-01-21 05:57:16 UTC #10

I'd like to create political satire (hard one) comic about our internal things here in Russia, but I wouldn't do it, at all. Altough I'm using a VPN, there is no 100% guarantee anyway. And I don't want to be sent in the court for that, because in Russia it's only the liberal pro-western opposition stays free when they critique the government. Communists, NBs and nationalists are going to the prison, of course 3 years in prison is not so scary, but anyway it will ruin the whole life afterwards

indigodrawing 2019-01-21 08:31:59 UTC #11

That's not a problem with political comics, that's a problem with politics!

The form that western democracies has taken is a confrontational one. It's basically us vs them in most cases, and as we're clearly right and they're obviously wrong then that can only mean that they're a bunch of stupid idiots, or they're being deliberately malevolent. The idea of consensus in this atmosphere is laughavle. Political cartoons are only a reflection of this, not a cause.

baasinsimple 2019-01-21 13:59:19 UTC #12

Yeah, you're right. That's why I don't like the political comics, it brings everything toxic about politics itself and simplifies it to the point where it just becomes insults.

baasinsimple 2019-01-21 14:02:44 UTC #13

Yeah, no matter the politics, in general it's just terrible to try to suppress the opposition. Good luck with all that stuff man.

SilentHamster102 2019-01-21 14:35:55 UTC #14

This isn't problem at all Opposition is always supressed here, we have a hundreds years of experience in that. IRL and in the internet I'm just not into politics at all, so I don't have a problems Of course I have my opinion and beliefs, but I never discuss and talk about them.

indagold 2019-01-22 01:22:55 UTC #15

I'm iffy on political comics since they have a habit of being really bad. I kinda like comics that don't rely on strawmans but they're hard to find. I think its like its so bad its good with me, like Ben Garrison comics which are so erratic and confusing you gotta love them for their words WORDS (did I forget WORDS???).