Technolandy

Day 175 (of 2024/25) do people who hate its #pridemonth and #indigenouspeopleshistorymonth root for the sentinels when they read x-men? #tcaf #tcaf2025 

Loved the time I had at #tcaf. Some great panels that still have me thinking about diversity and inclusion and who the content creators have always been… and how comics have been reflective and proactive when it comes to society and culture. 

Many graphic novels are great books on mental health. On inclusion… no matter what ability, race, gender, orientation – yet we still need to be mindful of how in the past many comics would be… problematic today (even Mickey Mouse got a tad racist…) 

Just because it is a comic book… the media is not juvenile. I would not just give comics created in the 50s any more than most novels without some context… racism and sexism remain systemic… and while the comic code has influenced decades of comics, important topics have always found audiences via graphic novels to reframe and take on racism, sexism, and other exclusionary systemic forms of discrimination (as often symbolized by the Sentinels in Marvels X-Men series’s

Comics have long been under attack – not just because of sexuality (…of the creator as much as a character) and representing bipoc authors (…and characters…) but the self-monitoring monster that was created to assure comics were… safe-ish (minimizing sex drugs alcohol et al) finally came to an end in 2011. Now comics, like video games have age guidelines that often get ignored – both mindfully and by accident…

But haters still hate the medium (not a genre – comics/graphic novels have content for pretty much any genre shelf in a bookstore. How to do heart surgery? ✔️ parody of teenage mutant sword wearing amphibians debating schools of philosophy… probably😜

But I do still wonder, as per the heading… are there fans of the sentinels… the over controlling robots trying to end the Uncanny X-Men? Readers who see how the mutants are metaphors for many oppressed peoples as to how they look, act, and love… and worry that as a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s a lot of progressive ideas that are being found in some fabulous graphic novels … from Ducks where Kate Beaton takes on toxic misogyny and toxic environmental pollutants. To Emilia Strilchuks “Be Yourself – oh, not like that’ that takes on neural and sexual diversity (I’ll be highlighting this one via video soon – I’m becoming a big fan of this author!) All the way to this years keynote at our school comic con, Tony Weaver Jr who takes on all topics of growing up in Weirdo. But I can’t help but think that there are readers who will be rooting against these protagonists… do they also cheer the sentinels?