FLAGSTAFF – Asgard, Wakanda, Xandar and other intergalactic empires are well-known to comic book fans, but a new comic is hoping to bring readers back to Earth to learn about Indigenous heroes.

Penned by Native American artists and writers, “Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices #1” was released Nov. 18, to the delight of Native Americans who feel underrepresented in the comic book universe.

The new release features several new Indigenous heroes and address their involvement in X-Men stories.

Keith Jim, a Navajo comic book artist who became interested in comics at an early age, is proud to see Native Americans breaking through into the superhero world.

“Sometimes I feel like we’re forgotten. We are still here, so it’s important to stand up,” said Jim, who drew the comic book episode “The Heroes” in 2018.

Jim said Native American comic book characters usually are depicted in stereotypical ways, as they are reduced to complementary or side roles and are shown in feathers and loin cloths.

Anthony Thibodeau, a curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona who specializes in Indian arts and culture, said this misrepresentation of Native Americans is evident in mainstream popular culture.

“Any character that was a non-white character, they were usually represented in a very stereotypical way,” Thibodeau said. “Either through their clothing, a lot of times how they talk or through their accent.”

Keith Jim, who drew the comic book episode “The Heroes” in 2018, says he sometimes feels as if Native Americans are forgotten. “We are still here, so it’s important to stand up.” (Photo courtesy of Keith Jim/KTJ1 Comics & Arts)

To eliminate these stereotypes, he said, it’s important that the Marvel comics are created by Native Americans.

“I think it is a good step,” Thibodeau said. “Especially having these writers and artists interpret these characters to bring a better sense of representation into mainstream pop culture than there has been.”

Thibodeau and Jim hope that the new Marvel comic book heroes, including Echo, Mirage and Silver Fox, will help tear down the misrepresentation of Indigenous people.

“I can’t wait for it to come out just to see how it should’ve been from the start, how Native Americans should have been represented from the start,” Jim said.

Cory Bushnell owns Cab Comics, the closest comic book store to the Navajo Nation, where the new Marvel comic will be sold.

“It’s something that we’re excited to have in the store and excited to help encourage people to know about,” Bushnell said. “It’s encouraging people to learn more.”

Bushnell and Jim both said that these new heroes will help Native Americans feel inspired. Kyle Charles, an Indigenous illustrator for “Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices,” already received support from Indigenous women for his depictions of the Marvel hero “Dani” Moonstar, a member of the Cheyenne Nation who was introduced in 1982.

“I hope they (women) get inspired or they feel empowered. I hope they get whatever they need out of it, even if it’s just to escape,” Charles said in an interview with the Canadian Press. “The most important thing to me is them seeing this and saying, ‘That’s me, I am that character.’”

Johnny Messiha is a Southern California native who expects to graduate in spring 2021 with his master’s degree in sports journalism. He has served as a commentator at the University of San Diego, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in communication studies.

McKenzie Allen-Charmley is originally from Alaska and expects to graduate in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in business. Aside from reporting for Cronkite News, she works in event production for Arizona PBS and at the JET Lab at the Cronkite School.

Via Cronkite News

Get Paul Jamiol’s latest book of political cartoons, Hatred Rising

Related Informed Comment Posting: “War Crimes: Israeli Snipers Kill Palestinian Nurse, Injure 100, at Gaza March of Return” .

More than 1,600 artworks were submitted to the “International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and his policies are the themes of an international cartoon contest organized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, with more than 1,600 artworks submitted to the “International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest,” PressTV reported.

Over 550 people from 75 countries sent cartoons to the contest, which began last Monday and will run for a week. The competition’s logo courted controversey as the “T” in Trumpism was positioned diagonally, apparently to depict a swastika.

Hadi Asadi, an Iranian cartoonist, took home first prize, receiving a US$1,500 award for his drawing of Trump donned in a jacket made of dollar bills, and a tie depicting the U.S. flag while he drooled over a stack of books that represent culture. His hair, flaming upward, partially blocks out a world map in the background.

“I wanted to emphasize the U.S. president’s money-mindedness and warmonger nature,” said Asadi.

Ali-Asghar Jafari, the contest’s director, said that the United States “is moving against Muslim countries, especially Iran.” He also emphasized that “it was difficult to prove U.S. brutality in the past, but Trump’s presence has made it easy.”

Another event organizer, Masud Shojaei-Tabatabai, noted that “the -ism in Trumpsim is a direct reference to racism and Nazism,” and that the exhibition is intended to highlight Trump’s misled policies within a satirical scope.

“This contest considers Trump as a symbol of U.S. capitalism and hegemony that many intellectuals compare with Nazism,” he said.

The Independent reported that other themes depicted in the contest included violence against women and wall building.

Via TeleSur

——

Related video added by Juan Cole:

TeleSur: “Artists Mock Trump in Iran Cartoon Competition”

Cartoonist Islam Gawish. Photograph from his Facebook page. Photograph by Mostafa Darwish.

Less than two weeks after the fifth anniversary of the January 25 revolution, Egypt is not showing any signs of improvement in its treatment of human rights advocates. On the evening of January 31, security forces raided the workplace of satirist and cartoonist Islam Gawish.

Islam is a prominent cartoonist whose work had been featured in many media outlets. His satirical material is mostly related to social phenomena and rarely involves politics. The 26-year-old, who publishes his cartoons on a Facebook page called Elwarka, which has 1.75 million followers, was arrested after his workplace was raided by police, as reported by albidaiah:

وأوضح المصدر، في اتصال مع «البداية»، أنه جاري حاليا تحرير محضر ضد رسام الكاريكاتير بتهم إدارة موقع «أخبار مصر» بدون ترخيص، وإدارة صفحة «ورقة» بدون ترخيص، وبث بيانات على شبكة الانترنت على غير الحقيقة، وبدون الحصول على إذن من وزارة الاتصالات بالمخالفة لقانون الاتصالات 10 لسنة 2003، وحيازة برامج مقلدة ومنسوخة، بالمخالفة لقانون 82 لسنة 2002، وعرضه على النيابة.

ومن جانبه، قال محمد الزيات، زميل إسلام جاويش، في تصريحات لـ«البداية» إن قوة من مباحث المصنفات اقتحمت شركة أيجيبشن نتورك لتكنولوجيا المعلومات بأبراج الشرطة بمدينة نصر وقبضوا على إسلام.

A source clarified to albidaiah that Islam is now being charged with operating the website “Egypt News” without a license, running “Elwarka” [his cartoon Facebook page] without a license, publishing false news on the Internet and publishing news without a license from the Ministry of Telecommunications in violation of Communications Law no. 10 of 2003, and using unlicensed software in violation of law 82 of 2002. He will be referred to the Public Prosecution. Islam's workmate Mohamed Alzayat told elbidaiah that a group of the intelligence officials stormed the Egyptians Network Technology offices in Nasr city and arrested Islam.

There are almost 27 million Facebook users in Egypt and we can't confirm how many of them are licensed, since there isn't a public announcement that they should be, how to get this license or where to get it from. That has not slipped the minds of other satirists though as comical account hantarisha tweeted this Photoshopped photograph of his “Tweeting License,” which allows him to use the Internet:

The Tweeting license

Thank God I have a license
[Photoshopped image says: licensed to change the avatar and tweet no more than 6 political tweets a day]

Cartoonists were quick to respond to their mate being arrested, offering solidarity on social media. Among the news being circulated while Gawish was being held is that he was arrested for making fun of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi in his cartoons – charges mentioned to Gawish when he was arrested but then dropped after the backlash his arrest created on social media.

Journalist Hossam Alsokari hits back on Facebook sharing cartoons by other cartoonists who reacted to Gawish's arrest by drawing even more cartoons featuring El Sisi.

‫#‏نصيحة‬.. إغلط في أي حد بس تجنب رسامي الكاريكاتير..
شارك بوضع رسوم أو روابط في التعليقات وسيتم تحديث البوست دوريا
(رسم أنديل من مدى مصر، وعبده البرماوي وهشام رحمة ومهاب من زائد 18، وأيضا صورة عمرو نوهان الذي حوكم عسكريا وحوكم عليه بالسجني سنتين)

Public Service Announcement: You can mess with anyone but cartoonists. Attached are cartoons by Andeel from Mada Masr, Abda Elbermawi, Hesham Rahma and Mohab from Plus 18. Also the picture made by Amr Nohan [featuring President Sisi wearing Mickey Mouse ears], who was tried in a military court and sentenced to two years.

Cartoon by Andeel from Mada Masr. The cartoon shows Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi covering his face and saying: “I don't like to be drawn.” The comment below reads: “Islam Gawish was arrested and accused of drawing the president.”

Cartoon by Hisham Rahma, which also features El Sisi. The caption reads: “Ban all laughter!”

Egyptian Facebook user Amr Nohan was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court for adding Mickey Mouse ears to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s image.

Islam's arrest brought prominent activists to Twitter, the satirists and recently Emmy awards host Bassem Youssef tweeted:

لو اسلام جاويش كان اختلس ٣٧ مليون جنيه كان زمانهم بيتصالحوا معاه و رجع بيته #كفاية_بقى

— Dr Bassem Youssef (@DrBassemYoussef) January 31, 2016

if Islam had embezzled 37 million they would have already been reconciling with him and sending him back home. Enough is enough.

. . .

— AlyaaGad AfhamTVأفهم (@AlyaaGad) January 31, 2016

Islam Gawish is trending worldwide

After being interrogated and questioned by the Pubic Prosecution, Gawish was released and all charges were dropped. On his Facebook page, the cartoonist pledges to continue doing what he loves doing most – drawing cartoons:

عمومًا هفضل أرسم أفكاري.. مش هأبطل رسم، وهكمل اللي أنا حابه وهفضل شغال فيه، وأنا لا بطبّل لحد ولا بشتم حد، ولا منحاز فكريًا لحد وليا أرائي سواء الفكرية أو السياسية الخاصة، ولا متطرف في الحوار ولا بدعي البطولة والمثالية
وبشكركم جميعًا..

I will continue drawing my ideas. I will not stop drawing. And I will continue doing what I like and continue working in this direction. I am not cheering for anyone, nor am I insulting anyone. And I am not biased to anyone. I have my own opinions, whether intellectual or political and I am not extremist in my ideas and don't claim to be a hero and a role model. Thank you all.

Via Global Voices

“Welcome to ISISville! The animated series that examines life under the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant!

You’ve read the headlines. So you know ISIS is growing in power as the terrorist organization murders thousands of innocent Muslims as it tightens its stranglehold on parts of Iraq and Syria.

In this episode, your tour guide explains why the world’s 1.2 billion peaceful Muslims should give up learning and instead be educated by terrorists.

Forget maths, science and computer programming. The ISISville curriculum includes chemistry (to make bombs), electrical engineering (to make bombs) and sewing (to make bombs).

Taiwanese Animators: ISIS Animation: what terrorists teach in schools

More than 80 cartoonists and other workers in the comics industry, including colorists, writers, critics, and editors, from over 20 countries, signed an open letter this week addressed to Franck Bondoux, the head of the International Festival of Comics at Angoulême, which opened in France on January 29th.

The letter, a follow up to a 2014 letter, demands that he sever ties between the Festival and Sodastream, an Israeli manufacturing company complicit in the occupation of Palestinian land. The authors of the letter include 10 prize winners at Angoulême itself, two winners of the MacArthur “Genius Grant,” many Eisner and Ignatz awardees, and a Palestinian cartoonist previously imprisoned for his work by the Israeli military.

The organizers of the letter also released an accompanying statement, in the wake of the slaying of cartoonists Wolinski, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Charb, among many others in Paris this month. “These horrific acts of violence compel artists of the world to act urgently for a world where the dignity, freedom, and equality of all people are respected and promoted,” said cartoonist Ethan Heitner and writer Dror Warschawski, organizers of the open letter. “We affirm that the Palestinian boycott movement is one important step towards that vision, and we urge others to join us.”

The 2015 letter expands on its predecessor in several key ways. Its signatories include workers in the comics industry beyond cartoonists, including critics Jeet Heer and former heads of the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée Thierry Groensteen and Gilles Ciment, and organizers of the first-ever festival of comics held in Palestine, Palestine Comics, which opened in November of 2014.

The letter also addresses itself beyond Angoulême, to “all festivals, conventions, and celebrations of comics and cartooning art in which we participate.” Finally, the letter expands its target beyond Sodastream, to all “Israeli companies and institutions” complicit in ethnic cleansing, discrimination, and war crimes. Noting that Israel’s assault on Gaza in the summer 2014 alone killed over 2,100 Palestinians, the signatories urge, “No business as usual with Israel.”

View the full letter and signatories at the Palestinian News Network.

Via IMEMC

Via Jamiol’s World