Diversity

by Xavier Lancel In a never-ending whirlpool of controversy, Fleur Pellerin, french minister of Culture, released a list of people who will received a medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts...

There's been a lot of tweeting and tumblring about the need for more diversity in comics. And now you can make comics more diverse! Here is a chance to actually support a project by African-American creators that deals frankly with racial issues from a non-white perspective. BLACK is a new kickstarter for a graphic novel written by Kwanza Osajyefo (aka Kwanza Johnson)and Tim Smith III with art by Jamal Igle with additional art by Khary Randolph. Former Vertigo editor Sarah Litt will oversee the production. The story is high concept: what if only black people could become superheroes? Let your mind wander over that.

Interference Archive's Our Comics, Ourselves ongoing art exhibit is a powerful reminder of how comics have always been an expression of personal issues from many viewpoints.

Valiant Comics relaunched as a publisher in 2012, and they've certainly done most things right since then, putting out quality comics with high level talent, and reaching out to fans on all levels—as the...

In a massive COVER story on Time Magazine, Mattel has unveiled a bunch of new shapes and sizes for Barbie, the long reigning ectomorphic queen of the toy aisle. The fashion icon will now...

Awards season is underway! And GLAAD has announced its annual media award nominees to "recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and...

A site called "Sweatpants and Coffee" has just posted an anonymous insider whistleblower report on the Where's Rey? controversy that has seen the main character of the world's most popular movie left out of...

One of the most rewarding things I did all last year was participate as a judge for the first ever McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics; not only was I exposed to a lot of great comics material I had never seen before, but I worked with a fine panel of judges and it was a genuine joy to get more attention for the eventual winner–Nilah McGruder's MFK. Happily, I'll be part of the final selection committee for this year's awards, with the winner to be announced at the Long Beach Comic Expo on Saturday February 20, in room S5 from 2:30pm - 3:30pm.

A few reminders for Martin Luther King Day today. As always, the 1956 Martin Luther King "Montgomery Story" Comic Book is available free to download and read in this link. March Book One and...

https://twitter.com/blicqer/status/688898644632825857 https://twitter.com/theblerdgurl/status/688484747992002560 The Black Comic Book Festival, held at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, just has its 4th outing on Saturday and by all accounts it was jammed with people; as many as 5000 showed up,...

https://twitter.com/HasbroNews/status/684555948959096832 The people have spoken. And Hasbro listened. Two for diversity in two days! After all the hue and cry about there not being a Rey figure in the new Star Wars Monopoly and Hasbro's...

Whooooo-ah! This whole Angoulême-gate thing got out of hand FAST. In just 24 hours it went from an angry petition to the world's best cartoonists rejecting their nominations to front page news to the festival sulkily added Marjane Satrapi and Posy Simmonds to their list, even though no one would vote for them, and a whirlwind of hot takes.