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The Cultural Gutter

hey, there's something shiny down there...

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -- Oscar Wilde

Black Kirby

Artvoice profiles, Black Kirby, John Jennings and Stacey Robinson’s art team that “imitates and parodies Jack Kirby’s in style and substance, adding an African-American—and notably contemporary—dimension.”

“Me and My People Got History”

David Brothers writes about Luke Cage, comics history and how and why he writes about race. “I really, really care about this stuff. I care about others getting it right and I definitely care about getting it right myself. Otherwise, you get ‘LOL Luke Cage’ instead of treating the guy like his history is as [...]

To Kill A Mockingbird and Horror

“Even if we were to discount the element of Southern small town prejudice and the ugly courtroom trial that occupies the film’s center, this adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee is just plain spooky… and it is my feeling that it has bestowed upon us a legacy of horror that we [...]

The Last Minstrel Show

Joe Lansdale writes about the last minstrel show in East Texas.  “I never saw any African-American minstrel shows, but I heard about them from those who had. I certainly saw a white minstrel show. I saw it in a time when public places sported ‘white’ and ‘colored’ water fountains and restrooms, and when restaurants that [...]

Cloud Atlas, Racebending and Racism

Racebending and Hyperallergic discuss the racism and lack of critical response to racism in Cloud Atlas‘ use of “colorblind casting.”  Mike Le responds to the trailer: Ultimately…my belief is that Cloud Atlas will eventually be viewed through the same lens as films like The Good Earth, Birth of a Nation, or even Dumbo. These are films [...]

“Misconceptions in the Diversity Discussion”

Joking over lunch at the Game Developers Conference leads to Gamasutra‘s Leigh Alexander delineating “a few worrying misconceptions out there when it comes to what people want when we ask for equality.”  

The Unmasking of a Troll

In writing about–and exposing the identity of–Reddit moderator and troll, Violentacrez, Adrian Chen makes an interesting point, well, many interesting points in this excellent piece for The Gawker:   “When it comes to mods, the political model of Reddit is not so much a vast digital democracy, as it’s often framed by fans and users, [...]

A League of One

A documentary about Milestone Media co-founder, comics creator, screenwriter and director Dwayne McDuffie.  

Mike Le asks Joss Whedon a Question

“One of the things I loved about Firefly  was the exploration of the fusion of Asian and American cultures. Many Asian Americans go through a similar journey. I was wondering, if you were to explore that again in the future, if you would be willing to include Asian or Asian American performers?” More at Racebending.

Difficulty Settings and Cheat Codes

John Scalzi and Dr. NerdLove use gaming to understand being a guy in the real world. In writing about “straight white male” as the lowest difficulty setting in life, Scalzi builds on a  Luke McKinney article in Cracked. Dr. NerdLove is a little less explicitly game-centric in his “Virgins, Victims and Player Haters: Adventures in [...]

Wonder Women! Being the Hero of Your Own Story

Comics Editor Carol did a quick review of Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines for the ActionFest Blog.  “[I]t’s not just about letting little girls know that they can be heroes, that they can be anything they want. It’s about knowing that as adults we have great power and great responsibility.  We can [...]

“White Until Proven Otherwise”

The New Yorker‘s Anna Holmes reads Hunger Games Tweets and interviews its creator about reading, race and racism. “If the stories we tell ourselves about the future, however disturbing, don’t include black people; if readers of The Hunger Games are so blind as to skip over the author’s specific details and themes of appearance, race, [...]

“On a Tootsie Roll”

Riffing off Melissa McCarthy’s Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards and off the film Tootsie, film critic Bobby Rivers writes: “Hollywood, please give us more witty comedies like Tootsie and make the casts racially diverse.  Give minority actors more opportunities.  Then start giving more love to actors of all colors who do good work [...]

Nalo Hopkinson Interviewed at The New Yorker

African-Canadian writer and artist Nalo Hopkinson talks about her fabric designs at The New Yorker’s Book Bench:  [B]oth my writing and my designs are fuelled by the same passions and obsessions of mine…. I’ve been on a mission for the past few years to find historical depictions of black people and other peoples of colour [...]

Interviews with Dwayne McDuffie

Remembering Dwayne McDuffie on the anniversary of his death with an interview from an unfinished short on Milestone Comic by the makers of  the documentary, White Scripts and Black Men:  Black Masculinities in American Superhero Comics. And Dwayne McDuffie explains the secret history of  Luke Cage’s exclamation, “Sweet Christmas!” (Update: McDuffie discusses the “rule of [...]

The Story of Negro Romance

History Detectives has 13 pages of, “Possessed, ” a story from a comic, Negro Romance. Watch the segment  to learn more about the history African-Americans in comics, how the comic represents changes in American society after World War II and the creators of Negro Romance.  (There is also a link to the full 55 minute [...]

“Jeez, I can write a better story than that!”

At a panel discussion, Octavia Butler reveals how she became a writer, watching a movie and thinking, “Jeez, I can write a better story than that!”  Butler is interviewed by Charlie Rose in 2000. And a clip of her from a television documentary on science fiction.

Once Upon A Time There Was A Magic Negro

Team Valkyrie FTW likes Once Upon A Time, but “goddamn is it problematic when it comes to race….Do not let this shit slip past you: The only black man in the entire Enchanted Forest is quite literally a Magical Negro. Who is there to grant three wishes to his master. I’m not making this shit [...]

An Interview with Gordon Parks

In an interview with the National Visionary Leadership Project, the late Gordon Parks talks Life Magazine, photography, racism, his hometown and offers advice to young Black people.

Idie’s New Hair Cut

At Digital Femme Online, Cheryl Lynn thinks about Idie Okonkwo’s change from an afro to a pixie cut in Wolverine and the X-Men, and is sad that ” no other character is willing to address what is a glaring problem with this child in regards to her mutancy and her appearance is difficult to accept. [...]

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  • Of Note Elsewhere

    This tumblr collects many bad jokes kids have invented.

    ~

    “It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.

    It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.

    Oh, and it’s not true.”

    Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)

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    Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.

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    Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”

    ~

    The Black Girl Nerds Podcast discusses Black girls and women in the Heavy Metal industry with author and journalist Laina Dawes and Ursula “She-Wolf” Parson from Hear Evil News.

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    The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”

    ~

  • The Book!

    From ETC Press

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