King & Stereotypes

King by Ho Che Anderson was a good read. I learned a lot more about MLK than I thought I knew. The only history I got about him in school was watching Selma and a 30 minute documentary in grade school. King  is a good example of a comic not using or relying on stereotypes to tell a story. The novel is a biography and because it’s so based on reality the visual component matches it in realism. The style is almost photographic, in fact I noticed there are real photographs comped in at some parts. The black and white vector style also takes on a serious tone. The subject can get gritty and raw. The civil right movement faced scrutiny and racism is a prevalent subject, so the style matches well. The one time there was color was when King was stabbed and he seemed to be dying and having visions. I thought that was really cool. On the topic of stereotyping in comics, I think it’s good that comics stay away from harmful racial stereotypes like the aggressive black male, Arab terrorists, or drug-dealing Latinos. Any exaggerated visual stereotypes are also outdated in my opinion. They just make me cringe and question if the artist has malintent behind it. I don’t think all stereotypes may be bad though. Almost every character in The SImpsons is a stereotype, but that’s not all they are. They have dimension and are shown to be caring and genuine individuals at the same time. In my opinion they’re handled well.