Spider-Man has had some truly iconic moments in his comic book history. From Peter Parker’s initial debut as the wall-crawling webhead in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962, to the introduction of the vast Spider-Verse in 2014. Arguably one of his most controversial moments was during the “Clone Saga.”
Continue reading “New ‘Amazing Spider-Man Beyond’ Trailer Introduces a Familiar Comic Face”
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, a cause for celebration of these many diverse communities. But far too often, many who champion this month have belied and ignored specific groups within this collective, often presenting a limited scope of who counts as “Asian” or “Asian American” in this collective consciousness.
Continue reading “For AANHPI Heritage Month, Here are 50 West Asians in Pop Culture You Should Know”
Ms. Marvel has a new comic series out! In the five-issue Beyond the Limit, Kamala must deal with unexpected multiverse shenanigans as she visits her cousin Razia in Chicago. Writing her in this series is author Samira Ahmed, who is the first Desi Muslim to write Ms. Marvel!
Continue reading “Samira Ahmed Talks about Writing ‘Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit’”
On a recent episode of Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batman podcast, Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada revealed that Marvel Studios has retained the rights to Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Of course, this isn’t the first time Quesada has assumed the rights to Namor had returned to Marvel — and Namor’s movie rights are some of the most confusing in comic book movie world. Still, it’s long overdue for a movie featuring one of the high-profile members of Marvel’s Illuminati, not to mention the fact that Namor is a perfect opportunity to cast an Asian American male as a lead in the MCU!
Continue reading “Marvel, Please Cast Daniel Dae Kim as Namor the Sub-Mariner”
This past weekend in Washington DC, the Smithsonian’s historic Arts & Industries building was home to the most important gathering of artists you have ever seen. The CrossLines pop-up culture lab on intersectionality brought together over 40 artists and scholars to explore race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, disability, etc.
I was fortunate enough to be invited and helped organize a Reading Lounge and live podcasts — while artist Matt Huynh painted a mural in real time the entire weekend. One of the questions I got asked the most was about the books we included, so after the jump you can find a complete list of books we had in the Lounge!
Continue reading “The Official NOC #CrossLines Reading List”
The world lost a titan of the Black Arts Movement when the poet Amiri Baraka passed away today in Newark, New Jersey after several weeks of hospitalization. Baraka was 79 years old.
On twitter, honorary NOC Saladin Ahmed wondered if Baraka was the first poet to reference superheroes in his work.
"Who has ever stopped to think of the divinity of Lamont Cranston?" –I wonder whether Baraka was the first poet to reference superheroes?
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) January 9, 2014
The poem Ahmed was referring to, “In Memory of Radio,” comes from Baraka’s first collection of poetry, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, which has been reprinted below. In it, Baraka — then still known as Leroi Jones — uses The Shadow to bookend the poem:
Originally posted at Salon.com
Perpetuating stereotypes isn’t just immoral — it’s bad TV. That’s why shows like Sleepy Hollow are so crucial.
When I was seven, I asked my mom if I could dye my hair blond and get blue contact lenses. It’s probably the first serious conversation I ever had about my appearance and all I wanted to do was look like Luke Skywalker. I wanted it so badly. She was appalled and I couldn’t understand why. Star Wars was Everything. There were no Latinos running through the halls of the Death Star, blasting storm troopers. Of course I was caught up.
Continue reading “Whitewashed TV isn’t Just Racist, It’s Boring”
Note: I am using Spec-Fic to encompass everything from fantasy, to sci-fi, to spy-fi, horror, and other things related to the fantastic genres. None of this “Neal Stephenson said science fiction isn’t a genre” stuff, please.
Continue reading “10 Things That Need to Change in Spec-Fic, a Pan-Medium Gripe”
The #DiversityInSFF hashtag gave a solid signal boost to the longstanding, often-ignored, ever-trolled, much-needed convos about race and gender, privilege and science fiction/fantasy that have been going on since the dawn of time. For a few weeks twitter was all aflame with debates, links and related shenanigans. We have these convos, increasingly in depth, at cons and across the blogosphere. Backlash against those who speak out has come in the form of death and rape threats, hate mail, doubling down on sexist/racist/homophobic/ableist material, and mind-numbingly nonsensical counterarguments. And, of course, comments sections. Still, we move forward, take breaks to recuperate and then move forward some more towards a vision of SF/F that isn’t just another white male savior fantasies, a diversity that’s more than fake smiling multicolored dress up dolls.
This month Rose Fox and I have been wrapping up the selection process for Long Hidden, an anthology of speculative fiction from the margins of history. It’s busied me up and kept me from banging my head against the keyboard trying to piece together a coherent response to some never-ending fuckery and maybe that’s a good thing. My words are coming, but sometimes the best counterattack is to simply reroute the conversation to creativity, to create something new, a new space for voices that don’t get play in mainstream venues.
Read on to find some links to recent conversations about race and SF/F:
The Nerds of Color collective is proud to be host to such an amazing group of talented creators, for not only are we fans, but among us are writers, artists, and musicians who distill their love for genre culture into new creations, continuing the dialogue and moving the culture forward. Today, as we close out #LitWeekNOC, our week-long look at issues of diversity in written speculative fiction, we want to recognize our talented colleagues. So go read these books!
First up, let’s acknowledge our fearless leader and Head NOC In Charge Keith Chow. Keith is education and outreach editor for the groundbreaking Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology and its sequel, Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology, and wrote several pieces in their pages, including the “Peril” stories. It’s not exaggerating to say that without Secret Identities and Keith, we wouldn’t be here right now on this blog. So thanks, boss!
Continue reading “Shameless Self Promotion: Read These Books”
