With the launch of G. Willow Wilson and Sana Amanat’s Ms. Marvel series featuring a teenage, American Muslim girl, S&S’s A. David Lewis discusses what’s at stake on ISLAMiCommentary. Read here.
Tag Archives: islam
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?
Comics at Universities, Protested and Praised
Some further evidence of religion and comics penetrating ever more deeply into academia…in both a negative and positive light:
- Bleeding Cool and the German magazine Taz reported that a graphic novel exhibition by the German university of Duisburg-Essen was the subject of outrage and vandalism by Muslim protestors. The “What Comics Can Do!” exhibit included art from Craig Thompson’s Habibi and Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds that the protestors found offense for their use of the Arabic word for Allah and for presumably pro-Israel sentiments.
- BU Today, a publication of Boston University, highlighted a recent article in its School of Theology Focus magazine, a profile on pastor Andrew Tripp and his appreciation for superheroes and comics in accomplishing his job. They had a foundational influence on him, he admits, ““The superheroes and the comeback characters spoke to something profound about what it meant to be human.”
Boston Professor Uses X-Men Character Costume to Illuminate Islamophobia after Marathon Bombing
In the wake of the Boston Marathon Bombing and capture of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston University Associate Professor Kecia Ali was invited as a guest blogger for NPR affiliate WBUR’s Cognoscenti where she recounted not only running a 5-kilometer fundraiser with a “Heroes and Villains” theme but also having to convince a fellow runner that her costume as Dust of the X-Men was actually heroic.
Dust, of course, brings the veil front and center. She may be a rare positive representation of a Muslim woman in comic books, but her character is affected by Orientalism and sexism. Does she break down stereotypes, or does she reinforce them?
Ali pointed to an earlier writing by blogger Broken Mystic on the character of Dust and the complexities her portrayals present:
So overall, can we appreciate a character like Dust? I think we can; however, there is a lot of room for improvement. […H]er character is incomplete and her character suffers from stereotypes that are due to misunderstandings about Islamic beliefs and practices.
What with the recent headlines generated by DC Comics’ introduction of Simon Baz as a new Green Lantern, are Marvel Comics readers likely to be reintroduced to Dust anytime soon?
Huffington Post Features Muslim Superheroes — VOTE NOW!
Thirty-two of the comics world’s Muslim superheroes — and who thought there were that many, really? — are profiled in the Huffington Post‘s Religion section, squaring off in March Madness brackets-style.
Characters from Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Teshkeel Media, and a host of other, independent publishers are all featured as readers vote on who will advance to face each other. Which hero has what it takes to be the finest Muslim superhero out there? (And how many did you know already, eh?)
The Tournament will be running all through the NCAA finals into April. Voting is free and open to all!