So I've been trying to write a comic book. Well, I guess 'trying' is too strong a word, I've been kicking around ideas and developing characters in the hope that plot will happen. It's a superhero team story, and so I'm dealing with a number of my own pet peeves about the comic book industry.
Except sometimes, this is proving to be unexpectedly difficult. Particularly as far as race and gender are concerned.
My main character is female. So far, so good. She's a white, blond girl and he has an extremely destructive power that she has trouble controlling - she breathes fire every time she opens her mouth, so in order to curb this power, she spends most of the time silent. She was invented long before I started to worry about whether this sent a damaging message, and though I intend that she'll eventually gain control of her powers and be able to speak freely, this won't happen till a long way into the story. Another problematic thing is that there are several characters who have energy-conversion powers so she frequently finds herself in a position where she's providing power, rather than directly taking part in combat.
As for the rest of the team, at the moment we have three white males - two of whom used to be the main character's military superiors and the other is one of those energy-converter characters. They're not really important in this gripe. The fourth character is.
She's a trans latina, and she has earth and magma powers. I mainly put her in because I wanted to add more female members to the main cast, I feel there aren't enough trans people in comics and also my main team was really just too white. Also, she's one of the heaviest hitters on the team, and her arguments with one of the other team members - who is basically an abusive drunk to everyone - are interesting.
Except. Is this tokenism? Is it alright to include this character as a target for the team asshole's ire - and he does always use her transgenderism as a weapon, simply because he's trying to be deliberately hurtful - or is it worse to have her be the only one who isn't a target? It certainly wouldn't be a realistic portrayal of him, and my readers wouldn't get to see her magnificently holding her own in these arguments.
But this is not my problem with this character.
My problem is that she doesn't catch my imagination.
I have made many, many characters for this, both major and minor, and I've tried to write minorities and even out the gender balance, but the characters I can't write often get replaced with characters that catch and hold my imagination, and usually these characters are white.
It may be because I actually know very few minorities - in this English country town there are a lot of Muslims and a few Asians, but they keep to themselves for the most part and I have none in my own social circle. Besides, unless someone is a very good friend, it feels weird to suddenly start grilling people about their culture - people who know me would likely be very wary if I did that because somehow the rumour's started going round that I write furry porn.
I don't want my comic to be one of those teams with a token female and a token black guy, but the characters keep grouping together that way in my head. So should I write comics at all?
Except sometimes, this is proving to be unexpectedly difficult. Particularly as far as race and gender are concerned.
My main character is female. So far, so good. She's a white, blond girl and he has an extremely destructive power that she has trouble controlling - she breathes fire every time she opens her mouth, so in order to curb this power, she spends most of the time silent. She was invented long before I started to worry about whether this sent a damaging message, and though I intend that she'll eventually gain control of her powers and be able to speak freely, this won't happen till a long way into the story. Another problematic thing is that there are several characters who have energy-conversion powers so she frequently finds herself in a position where she's providing power, rather than directly taking part in combat.
As for the rest of the team, at the moment we have three white males - two of whom used to be the main character's military superiors and the other is one of those energy-converter characters. They're not really important in this gripe. The fourth character is.
She's a trans latina, and she has earth and magma powers. I mainly put her in because I wanted to add more female members to the main cast, I feel there aren't enough trans people in comics and also my main team was really just too white. Also, she's one of the heaviest hitters on the team, and her arguments with one of the other team members - who is basically an abusive drunk to everyone - are interesting.
Except. Is this tokenism? Is it alright to include this character as a target for the team asshole's ire - and he does always use her transgenderism as a weapon, simply because he's trying to be deliberately hurtful - or is it worse to have her be the only one who isn't a target? It certainly wouldn't be a realistic portrayal of him, and my readers wouldn't get to see her magnificently holding her own in these arguments.
But this is not my problem with this character.
My problem is that she doesn't catch my imagination.
I have made many, many characters for this, both major and minor, and I've tried to write minorities and even out the gender balance, but the characters I can't write often get replaced with characters that catch and hold my imagination, and usually these characters are white.
It may be because I actually know very few minorities - in this English country town there are a lot of Muslims and a few Asians, but they keep to themselves for the most part and I have none in my own social circle. Besides, unless someone is a very good friend, it feels weird to suddenly start grilling people about their culture - people who know me would likely be very wary if I did that because somehow the rumour's started going round that I write furry porn.
I don't want my comic to be one of those teams with a token female and a token black guy, but the characters keep grouping together that way in my head. So should I write comics at all?
