I first noticed racism in comics while reading Winsor MacCay’s Little Nemo.  The black characters in his comics were overly stereotyped, with lips that covered half their face and heavy use of Ebonics.  While reading some of the more modern comics, such as Mama’s Boyz by Jerry Craft, you can see that much of the stereotyping in comics has been done away with.  Characters are represented more realistically with less exaggerated features. Some television shows, such as animated series like The Boondocks and Black Dynamite use stereotypes and overly exaggerates them, leading the shows to be more satirical and humorous.  I don’t think that stereotyping is a necessary strategy to represent characters.  I think that comics shouldn’t have to use stereotypes, but in the case with The Boondocks, the use of stereotypes makes it much more hilarious.

I remember in middle school I was stereotyped, a pretty bad stereotype too.  I was the quiet guy who didn’t talk to anyone and sat in the back corner of the class drawing and not paying attention.  Everyone thought I was going to bring a gun into school and shoot everyone. Some people joked about it, and some people just ignored me, I tried not to pay attention. It probably didn’t help my image that most of my drawings were of swords and other weapons, sometimes chopping people in half. I also shouldn’t have drawn a guy getting shot in the face with a machine gun on the back of a test. I remember being called to the principal’s office and him telling me that I should try drawing flowers and cars instead.  Eighth grade wasn’t too fun…

Promethea

            While reading Promethea by Allan Moore, I noticed several prominent symbols throughout the comic.  The first symbol I noticed was the scepter with the snakes, similar to the medical symbol.  The girl’s father at the beginning of the story summoned the staff while giving his daughter time to flee, sacrificing himself.  One of the gods that meets the girl in the desert holds this staff. Later, we see that Promethea (the girl) and all other reincarnations of her wield a glowing magical version of the scepter.  I assume that the scepter is representing that whoever is holding it is protecting someone else, such as the father protecting the girl, and writer that turns into Promethea protecting the former Promethea.  Another symbol that I noticed was the ankh, the Egyptian symbol for “life”.  One of the gods that meets the girl in the desert wields a staff with an ankh on the end, and later in the story, you can see it again on Promethea’s armor.

            I was able to connect with a bit of the story, remembering studying ancient Egypt in middle school; I recognized a lot of the symbols and gods. I recognized Hermes with his winged helmet as well. I can connect with the main character a bit with being in college and writing term papers. Other than that, there isn’t much more I can relate to in this comic.
            If I were to adapt Promethea into a movie, I would probably leave out the scene with “The Five Swell Guys”.  I think that the audience wouldn’t understand it and it doesn’t really fit in the serious theme of the story.  Another change I would make would be with the two gods meeting the girl in the desert.  In the comic, I’m not sure whether or not the gods are supposed to be conjoined.  In the first panel with them, their arms are confusing in that they are going through each other’s torso.  In a later panel, it looks like they are conjoined on at their shoulder down to their hip. This was really confusing me when trying to figure out who was holding what staff. I wonder why the artist made them conjoined, If the reason isn’t important, I would have them as two separate gods. These are just some of my thoughts while reading Promethea