Besides “Contact,” ignore those other pages at the top. They’re still in development.
All posts by A. David
After the Crash…
The previous Caption Box site crashed a week or so back — but fear not! Everything will be back soon, both with a new design and a new (more reliable) server site.
In the meantime, email Dave at captionbox (at) gmail (dot) com, or find him on Twitter as @adlewis.
Lots of news to come; we’ll be back in action by Thanksgiving week — and thank you for your interest and patience.
Turban, not Wingtips
In September, Salon.com contributor Vishavjit Singh, on the anniversary of his article “My Life in a Turban” and, of course, the 9/11/01 New York Trade Center attacks, wrote about his experience as “Captain American in a Turban.” Singh, a software analyst by day and an editorial cartoonist by night, took to the streets of New York City adorned in Captain America’s superhero, superpatriot garb to test perceptions — and reactions — of America.
It was the most unlikeliest of days for me. Hundreds of strangers came up to me. And we were able to lay to rest any anxieties or inhibitions in those moments — about other people, about the unknown, about ourselves, about violating other people’s personal spaces or not understanding their beliefs. We could simply meet. Say hi. Snap a memory of that moment. Continue reading Turban, not Wingtips
Islam and Comics: Sensing a Trend?
Part of Rao’s modus operandi is to catch religion and comics stories in the news as they happen and save them to a repository for later re-reading, analysis, and then write up. Of course, while that allows for cautious commentary and limited knee-jerk reaction, it also can cause a back-up of reportable items, sometimes having them fall completely off the radar.
In this case, however, there’s been another intriguing effect to this scheme: The backlog of reportable items is hinting at a trend.
That is, despite coverage over the last several months of, say, the Muslim Superhero Tournament on The Huffington Post or a politician claiming Batman is only for Judeo-Christians, still a massive amount of news concerning Islam and comics has amassed for Rao “backstage.” More than any other religion, Islam seems to have the most constant, news-worthy engagement with the medium, over any other faith or community circa 2013. For instance:
- The International Museum of Women featured the work of artist Katie Miranda as part of their “Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art & Voices” exhibition. The first part of her story “Tear Gas in the Morning” features semi-autobiographical protagonist “Barbara Silverman, a Jewish-American artist volunteering as an activist and human rights worker in the West Bank […transforming] from a naîve and idealistic volunteer trying to save the world, to a seasoned activist hardened by a year and a half of nonviolent resistance and human rights work in one of the world’s most complex conflict zones.”
- PRI’s The World spoke with Israeli cartoonist Uri Fink about the imprisonment of Mohammed Saba’aneh, a cartoonist for Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the Palestian Authority’s official newspaper. According to Cartoon Movement, he was released on July 1st, five months after his arrest and nearly three months after the PRI coverage.
- WorldNet Daily (now WND) profiled The Infidel creator Bosch Fawstin, a self-described “recovered Muslim,” on his character The Pigman opposition to Islam while superheroes like Batman and Wonder Woman “bow” to it. Writer Marisa Martin also questions the motivations and depictions of Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa’s The 99 comics series (praised by U.S. President Barack Obama).
- In counterpoint to The Pigman, several pro-Muslim comics and stories have come to light in recent months, from the long-running Superhanallah Tumblr to the Muslim superhero Excalibur briefly becoming the living embodiment of England as Captain Britain. (Alex Hern of New Statesman, however, suggested that this was a troubling sign; the Islam and Science Fiction site was far more neutral in its reporting.) More recently, all eyes have been on the Burka Avenger, a Pakistan-based superhero comic, series, game, and animated cartoon. teaching kids by day and fighting evil by night with ninja-like books and pencils.
Response to the Burka Avenger is still unfolding, but, unquestionably, it will be met with a steady stream of new news stories on comics engagement with Islam globally, culturally, artistically, and politically. They are everywhere.
Rao wants to know: Does modern Islam have a special relationship with the comics medium?
Is the Pope Catholic? Better Yet, Is the Hulk?
In July, Matt Staggs of Random House’s genre site Suvudu conducted a brief examination of comics’ relationship with religion, prompted by a report by the British Telegraph that the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano “devoted a full page looking at the Catholic identity of popular comic book superheroes while questioning the religious affiliation of some of the most popular like Superman and Batman.”
Senior journalist Gaetano Vallini writes,
Bruce Banner, the incredible green man [the Hulk], in fact married his beloved Betty Ross in a church and a Catholic priest presided at the ceremony. […] There are other indications dispersed among the hundreds of comic strips dedicated to him that are said to unequivocally reveal his faith.
Kevin Melrose, covering the story for CBR‘s Robot 6 column, notes that Adherents.com‘s listing of superhero religious affiliations has the Hulk as “a lapsed Catholic.” The greater question here might be whether the religion of one’s alter ego or monstrous other self carries over across manifestations; if Dr. Jekyll was a Christian, does that also make Mr. Hyde one?
Oddly enough (or tellingly), the full-page examination of superheroes is neither available at nor catalogued by L’Osservatore Romano‘s website — at least, not yet. All the site offers when searched for “Superman” or “comics” is a 2011 excerpt in praise of Tin Tin in advance of Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson motion-capture movie The Adventures of Tin Tin based on the comics of Herge. Josephine McKenna of The Telegraph notes that the 2013 Vatican piece was published in the wake of Man of Steel‘s impressive global box office draw.