Minorities in cartoons: Lobo

Apr 182013
 

LoboThis week’s minorities in cartoons entry is Lobo. No, not the more familiar DC Comics alien bounty hunter, but a Western hero published by Dell during the 1960s. Lobo’s significance is being comics’ first recurring African-American character to headline his own comic book series. While there are preceding comics starring Black characters, they tended to either be one-shot stories (such as “Negro Romance“) or about Black Africans. Lobo was created by Dell writer Don Arneson and artist Tony Tallarico.

“Series” might be a technicality, as only two issues of “Lobo” were published, one in December 1965 and the second in September 1966. The premise was that Lobo (a nickname given to him by his adversaries; his real name’s unknown) was a former Civil War Union soldier who’d moved out west to start a new life. Unfortunately, he was framed for a robbery/murder he didn’t commit, and found himself at odds with others, including law enforcement. Similar to the Lone Ranger, Lobo then decided to become a heroic gunslinger, righting various wrongs in the Old West. Lobo’s signature “calling card” was leaving a gold coin with an “L” stamped on it on the foreheads of those he’d defeated. Lobo had gained the gold via a prospector he’d rescued leaving Lobo his gold mine.

According to Toonopedia, the reason for the short run was that many newsstands of the time refused to carry a comic starring a non-stereotypical Black character, and thus many issues were returned to Dell unsold. Like most Western characters in comics, Lobo’s been in comic book limbo since his second and final issue. However, there’s still at least one happy outcome: his co-creator Tallarico was honored by the East Coast Black Age of Comics convention in 2006 for his work in creating Lobo.

 

Minorities in cartoons: “Schoolhouse Rock”

Apr 112013
 

Schoolhouse Rock (Verb)This week’s minorities in cartoons entry is the classic educational TV series “Schoolhouse Rock.”

“Schoolhouse Rock” was a series of three-minute animated shorts that ran on ABC’s Saturday morning lineup (during commercial breaks) during the 70s and 80s. Devised as a way to give kid viewers a bit of educational information (in between episodes of the “Super Friends” and “Scooby-Doo”), each short taught its lesson via a catchy song. The shorts came branded under one of the following sub-series:

  • Multiplication Rock: Various math lessons. Memorable songs from this series were “Three Is a Magic Number” and “My Hero Zero” (about the numbers 3 and 0 respectively, the latter as a superhero).
  • Grammar Rock: Probably the most popular segments of the series (other than “America Rock” below). Various grammar lessons. “Conjunction Junction” is probably the most famous song from here, and has been parodied (including a typically crass “Family Guy” parody).
  • America Rock: Produced in time for the American bicentennial in 1976, this was a series dedicated to American history, plus the workings of the American government. “I’m Just a Bill” is the most well known song from this series, and has been parodied (including a “Simpsons” one I didn’t much care for).
  • Science Rock: Science facts. My favorite song from here is “A Victim of Gravity,” sung as a 50s-style doo-wop song (complete with a Fonz-type biker).
  • Computer Rock: AKA “Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips.” A series of several shorts about computer facts, meant to capitalize on the dawn of the home personal computer era. The most quickly dated shorts of the series.
  • Money Rock: A revival in the 90s brought a new batch of episodes, meant to teach viewers facts about money. “Tyrannosaurus Debt” was a pretty decent song (about the rise of the US deficit/debt since the country’s founding).
  • Earth: A newly produced series of shorts released to DVD in the 2000s about the environment.

Currently, Disney’s the owner of the “Schoolhouse Rock” series, presumably as part of their purchase of Capital Cities (the former owners of ABC) in the mid-90s. Since children’s entertainment isn’t valued much by modern broadcast television (outside of PBS and the bare minimum educational programming the FCC requires), the shorts haven’t been aired much in recent years. However, the entire series is available on a DVD set.

One short of particular interest for today’s post is the entry “Verb: That’s What’s Happenin’.” This song, which covers the subject of verbs, shows an African-American youth going to the movies to see his favorite superhero, “Verb” (“Verb-Man?”). An entertaining, and very 70s feeling, song. Besides the youth, Verb’s also African-American. Unlike his fellow 70s heroes Black Lightning and Black Vulcan, Verb (or Verb-Man) seems to have powers more like Rocket‘s mentor Icon (a fellow Superman pastiche) rather than electrical-themed ones. Well, assuming Icon and Superman had super-baseball-playing abilities, anyway. YouTube features the song (at least as of this writing):

 

Minorities in cartoons: Delta James

Apr 042013
 
Luann

(From left to right) Delta, Bernice, and Luann.

This week’s minorities in cartoons entry is Delta James, a supporting character in Greg Evans’ long-running newspaper comic strip “Luann.”

“Luann” focuses on the life of its teenage star, Luann DeGroot, who spends her time dealing with the usual teenage issues: schoolwork (she’s an average student), her parents (who love their children), and her older twentysomething brother, Brad. She also deals with her dating life, or at least, her attempts at a dating life, which have largely had one roadblock after another thrown in front of it. (Her current boyfriend, for instance, lives in Australia; they communicate via Skype.) Compounding Luann’s social life is her rival, Tiffany Farrell, a pretty and popular (but utterly vapid and back-stabbing) cheerleader.

Of late, the strip’s focus has partially shifted to Brad’s life, who (not being locked into a high school setting like Luann) has evolved over the past decade or so from working in a fast food restaurant to working as a firefighter. Brad spends most of his time (when not with his family) with his girlfriend, Toni, and his (slightly shady) best friend and roommate, T.J.

Delta is one of Luann’s closest friends. Unlike Luann, she tends to view life in a more practical manner, and doesn’t focus much on dating. (Luann and Delta’s friend Bernice brings this up in a recent storyline.) Delta is quite aggressive about pursuing volunteer and charity work, often trying to coerce her friends into joining her various causes. She’s also a top student at school, and proud of her grades.

Wikipedia states that Delta had a storyline in the late 90s where she deals with, and is treated for, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which goes into remission. A 2009 storyline has Delta, while on a class trip to Washington, DC, meet President Obama.

Minorities in cartoons: Amanda Waller

Mar 282013
 

Amanda WallerThis week’s minorities in cartoons entry is DC Comics’ Amanda Waller. Waller first appeared in “Legends” #1 in November 1986; she was created by writers Len Wein and John Ostrander, as well as artist John Byrne.

As her backstory reveals, Waller was originally from Chicago, where she lived in the (now demolished in real life) Cabrini-Green housing projects. While there, her family fell victim to violence. Waller eventually got a doctorate and became a political aide; while serving as such, Waller first discovered the existence of (and soon became in charge of) the “Suicide Squad,” a top-secret US government group consisting of various super-villains/anti-heroes. Said group performs highly dangerous covert operations for the US government, in exchange for commuted prison sentences. Waller proved to be both quite strong-minded (one of her nicknames is “The Wall”) and engaged in various morally dubious actions. As a result, Waller has often has clashed with both the Squad’s members and with actual super-heroes, such as Batman.

As “Legends” was DC’s first post-”Crisis on Infinite Earths” big crossover storyline, this makes Waller one of the first post-Crisis continuity characters by a matter of several months.

Waller has made it into the “New 52″ reboot, but (with the reboot’s general bias against older/non-attractive-looking characters) is now portrayed as a very slim and shapely young woman, to the annoyance of her fans.

Waller eventually appeared in the 2000s “Justice League” cartoon, where she played a similar role as in the comics. Playing into the above, she’s implied to know of Batman’s secret identity. Waller was voiced by C.C.H. Pounder, a Guyana-born actress. Waller’s also appeared in some other modern productions, including “Smallville” (where she was played by Pam Grier) and the “Green Lantern” movie (where she was played by Angela Bassett).

Minorities in cartoons: Mary Melody

Mar 212013
 

Mary MelodyThis week’s minorities in cartoons entry is Mary Melody, a minor character who appeared on the early 90s TV series “Tiny Toon Adventures.”

“Tiny Toons,” the first modern TV cartoon produced by Warner Bros. (in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment of Steven Spielberg fame), focused on the adventures of a group of adolescent characters resembling (but not related to) the original Looney Tunes characters. The characters attended “Acme Looniversity,” a high school/university institution where the Looney Tunes themselves were the faculty (Pete Puma as the janitor, Bugs the principal, Granny as the school nurse/secretary/also a teacher, etc.). There, the Looney Tunes taught the kids on the finer points of how to be a funny cartoon character, with courses such as “Wild Takes” (Bugs taught the beginner course; Daffy, the advanced course), “Class Clowning,” and painting tunnels on the side of walls (taught by Wile E. Coyote). One episode also featured a class on how to make an animated cartoon, complete with Porky, Bugs, and Daffy forced to watch the students’ utterly awful animation attempts at a student film festival. The show took place in the fictional city of “Acme Acres” (where the Tiny Toons and Looney Tunes characters lived), but could (and did) take the show’s stars anywhere in the world. The show’s stars were Buster Bunny (a smooth-talking, blue-furred boy rabbit) and Babs Bunny (a more manic-behaving, celebrity-impersonating pink-furred girl rabbit)—”no relation,” as their catchphrase went.

Mary Melody was the series’ one non-villainous recurring human character. The other two human characters were obnoxious spoiled rich brat Montana Max (who had Yosemite Sam’s temperament) and dimwitted animal lover/abuser Elmyra Duff (loosely based on Elmer Fudd). Mary was presented as a friendly character toward the others, and also attended Acme Looniversity, though generally wasn’t subject to the same slapstick that befell her costars. Mary’s also one of the few “Tiny Toons” characters who didn’t have a Looney Tunes counterpart (though a few people online apparently have tried to compare Mary to some stereotypical Black character from a now-little-seen Looney Tunes short). Her name, however, is a reference to “Merry Melodies,” the companion series to “Looney Tunes.”

Aside from this, Mary didn’t get used for anything other than as an occasional supporting character. Mary’s most prominent role was in the short “Cross-Country Kitty,” where Mary’s shown as the owner of Sweetie (a female variant of Tweety) and, in this short, Furrball (similar to Sylvester’s non-speaking character in some shorts, but with even worse luck). In this short, Mary gets tired of seeing Furrball trying to eat Sweetie, so takes him on a vacation on the other side of the country. Unfortunately for her, Furrball keeps heading back to Acme Acres behind her back (using ludicrously-fast airplane rides and other travel means) to try to take shots at eating Sweetie, which inevitably fail (best parts: Sweetie feeding Furrball a full box of the insects she was having for lunch, plus several of Furrball’s more ludicrous cross-country travel attempts).

Mary also appears in other episodes, sometimes to comment on her minor role—”another cameo, another paycheck,” she notes in a Robin Hood parody where she’s one of the “Merry Men.” In the episode “Prom-ise Her Anything,” Mary is shown covering the school’s prom preparations for a TV broadcast; she also shows up later with her own prom date (a one-shot, non-speaking human African-American youth).

Mary was voiced by Cree Summer (who also voiced Elmyra) in all of her appearances save the above short “Cross-Country Kitty”; there, she was voiced by Cindy McGee (who apparently has had few or no roles since “Tiny Toons” per IMDB).

Minorities in cartoons: “Doc McStuffins”

Mar 072013
 

Doc McStuffinsThis week’s minorities in cartoons entry is “Doc McStuffins,” the lead character of an eponymously named series on Disney Junior (in the US). Disney Junior is a recently-started cable channel aimed at preschoolers, with both original shows and the former “Playhouse Disney” block from the Disney Channel’s morning lineup.

The show centers around a six-year-old girl named Dottie McStuffins (nicknamed “Doc” by everyone), who like other little kids likes to play doctor to her stuffed animals. Unlike other kids, Doc has a magic stethoscope that (when others aren’t around) brings toys to life, akin to “Toy Story.” Episodes usually involve Doc and the toys learning simple life lessons and/or Doc diagnosing various toys’ “medical” problems (such as a lack of Velcro on a toy opossum). The latter, of course, is meant to help kids in real life learn to deal with doctor’s visits.

Doc is voiced by teenaged actress Kiara Muhammad. Another voice on the series (a stuffed snowman) is by Jess Harnell, familiar to older viewers as Wakko Warner on 90s series “Animaniacs.”

The show is one of Disney Junior’s biggest hits, and has gotten much praise for featuring an African-American female lead character. It’s also one of the few preschool shows these days that doesn’t talk down to its target audience via obnoxious “Dora the Explorer”-style “questioning” of the viewer.

Here’s an interview with the show’s creator.

Minorities in cartoons: Ronald-Ann Smith

Feb 282013
 
Ronald-Ann

Ronald-Ann, in “A Wish For Wings That Work.”

This week’s minorities in cartoons entry is Ronald-Ann Smith, a recurring character in Berkeley Breathed’s comic strips “Bloom County” and “Outland.”

Ronald-Ann (named after then-President Ronald Reagan) is a grade-school aged African-American girl with a highly optimistic view of the world. This comes in spite of her impoverished environment (the strip says she’s from the “wrong side of the tracks” of Bloom County, and her doll’s head was shot off in drug-related gang wars). Ronald-Ann often spent time around “Bloom County”‘s biggest star, Opus the penguin.

After “Bloom County” ended, Breathed shifted to his new Sunday-only strip, “Outland,” with Ronald-Ann as its main star. Eventually, however, Ronald-Ann was soon displaced by the return of Opus (and some other “Bloom County” characters), and eventually disappeared from the strip altogether (save, at least claims Wikipedia, a brief cameo toward the end of the run of Breathed’s following and final newspaper strip, “Opus”).

Ronald-Ann made one animated appearance, in the Opus-starring Christmas special “A Wish for Wings that Work.” There, she’s voiced by Alexaundria Simmons, who IMDB lists as having a few acting credits, but nothing since 2000.

Diversity issues and Black writers at Marvel and DC

Feb 272013
 

staticRecently, there’s been much discussion online about the diversity problems facing the “mainstream” (read: DC and Marvel) comic industry. Particularly for African-Americans, the odds of working for DC or Marvel at all are apparently nearly nil. Out of their 70+-year-long histories, Marvel and DC have hired only about two dozen writers for an ongoing series (“ongoing” defined as two or more issues), per this Google Docs spreadsheet.

Among reasons for a lack of diversity at the “Big Two” I’ve seen cited: the limited-circle nature of the superhero comics industry (“hiring who you know” and all that); the same historical racism issues present in other American entertainment industries (movies, television, etc.); the general head-in-the-sand nature of Marvel and DC that’s led to their other problems (lack of diversity of genres/product, pricing, availability, etc.); and so forth.

I’d also add to the above problems with attracting any fresh, original talent (of any race, gender, etc.) in general: why should a writer contribute one’s best ideas for Marvel/DC (and see Marvel/DC own them lock, stock, and barrel) when they can publish them themselves at Image, etc.? Given the success of independent comics like  “The Walking Dead,” as well as various successful webcomics, etc., I can see why even the Wall Street Journal (the nation’s top business newspaper) has pointed this out.  (So did The Comics Beat, in case there’s any future issues re: the Journal link.) It also doesn’t help when DC itself is driving off some of their veteran talent recently (the high turnover rate on the Superman books, etc.).

Overall, if one’s not married to superheroes (which “mainstream” usually gets cited as being), there’s plenty of other comic companies (and independent comics/webcomics) for minority cartoonists to write/draw for. There’s also the fact that with the changing demographics of the United States (i.e. more ethnic minorities, openly LGBT folk, etc.), it’ll be quite foolish for any business, especially in the entertainment industry, to ignore said issues in the long run. This just makes Marvel and DC’s lack of truly fixing their broken business model even more problematic for them in the future.

Others online have written in recent weeks/months about Marvel and DC’s diversity issues:

  • An article by Hannibal Tabu about Marvel/DC not hiring Black writers.
  • Joseph Hughes‘ article on Comics Alliance about Marvel/DC diversity.
  • The Comics Beat also has an article.
  • An article from last fall by Comics Alliance, which mentions Kevin Keller’s success as a positive aspect of diversity driving sales.

 

Minorities in cartoons: Black Vulcan

Feb 212013
 

Black VulcanThis week’s minorities in cartoons entry is Black Vulcan, an African-American superhero who appeared in the classic 70s/80s series “The Super Friends.”

Black Vulcan was created as a pastiche of then-recently-created DC Comics superhero Black Lightning, when rights-related issues prevented Black Lightning’s appearance. Like, well, plenty of other African-American superheroes, Black Vulcan’s powers were electricity-themed. Said powers were often vaguely defined, per being the “Super Friends”: Black Vulcan could generate electrical lightning bolts from his hands, use said bolts to tie villains up, fly through the air (or outer space) via turning the lower half of his body into a lightning bolt, and so forth. Black Vulcan could even pull the fairly impressive feat of traveling through time under his own power, a feat only matched by Superman and the Flash (via the two’s super-speed powers).

Black Vulcan wasn’t the only African-American recurring character on the “Super Friends”; others included Aquaman villain Black Manta and late-season Super Friends member Cyborg (of Teen Titans fame). The 2000s “DC Super Friends” comic also featured Green Lantern John Stewart as a member. Vulcan was created along with several other minority superheroes to add diversity to the otherwise-all-Caucasian core group of Super Friends. These other heroes eventually led in the comics to the concept behind the “Global Guardians” superhero team, a team of superheroes from all over the world.

Post-”Super Friends,” Black Vulcan’s turned up several times on the Adult Swim series “Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law.” There, he’s parodied like the other old-time Hanna-Barbera characters on the show, such as making fun of his “Black”-themed name’s nature (Vulcan claims the name wasn’t his idea, but Aquaman’s). Other than such parody, however, Black Vulcan’s generally gone unused since the “Super Friends” left the air, as most non-comics DC Comics media favor using Static and (lately) Black Lightning when an African-American hero-with-electrical-powers is desired.

Black Vulcan was voiced by Buster Jones during the “Super Friends” run. On “Harvey Birdman,” he’s voiced by Phil LaMarr (who also voiced Static on his TV series).

And if you’re wondering, unlike Storm (Ororo Munroe), Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce), and Static (Virgil Hawkins), Black Vulcan doesn’t have a real name or an origin story!

Minorities in cartoons: The Jackson Five

Feb 142013
 

The Jackson FiveThis week’s “minorities in cartoons” entry is the classic R&B/pop singing group the Jackson Five.

The popular singing group (featuring Tito, Jermaine, Jackie, Marlon, and of course, the most famous Jackson, Michael) were big stars in the 70s, the same decade that they gained a Saturday morning TV cartoon. “The Jackson 5ive” (note the spelling) was produced by Rankin-Bass, the producers of various classic Christmas holiday specials. The series featured the fictionalized misadventures of the Jackson brothers and their manager, Berry Gordy (in real life, the founder of their label, Motown Records). None of the characters were voiced by their real-world counterparts; Gordy himself was voiced by resident Rankin-Bass voice artist Paul Frees. However, Diana Ross did make an appearance on the show’s initial episode, where she voiced herself.

The animated Jacksons series ran from 1971 to 1973 on ABC, for a total of 23 episodes. Each episode would feature two different Jackson Five songs that somehow related to the plot, a la the 80s run of “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” or the earlier, now-obscure 60s series “The Beagles“. The entire series is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD box sets.

“The Jackson 5ive” proved successful enough that Rankin-Bass produced for the 1972-73 season a cartoon based on fellow 70s family-singing-group the Osmonds. However, this was the only real animated appearance of the Jackson brothers as a collective singing group. Later animated productions (ranging from “Garfield and Friends” to “The Simpsons”) generally only portray or reference Michael, especially during the height of his popularity in the 80s. Despite not being a member, however, the Jackson Five’s sister Janet‘s been referenced in a few cartoons, especially during the height of her popularity in the late 80s/90s. For instance, the 1993 “Flintstones” TV-movie “Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby” shows “Janet Jackstone” exists along with her brother “Michael Jackstone”; Barney proposes Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm name their child after Janet if it’s a girl.

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