MOCA: Alt. Comics and Marvels & Monsters

Museum of Chinese in America: Alt. Comics and Marvels & Monsters

Two exhibits in the Museum of Chinese in America

An event of 2012

Alt. Comics and Marvels & Monsters

·         The Alt. Comics portion featured artists from both the East and West Coast who are Asian American who worked on comics touching on the topic of being Asian in America.

·         They have a noted connection web where the cartoonists of the West Coast are part of a group called “Art Night.” The East Coast artists are similarly with their own connections.

·         The artists featured included Larry Hama, Alex Joon Kim, Derek Kirk Kim, Jerry Ma, Christine Norrie, Thien Pham, Lark Pien, Jason Shiga, GB Tran and Luen Yang.

·         Their art featured included works they are currently on, as with the case of G.L. Yang. Yang also worked on American Born Chinese, a graphic novel I enjoy.

·         The West Coast artists notably praise each other in their descriptions.

·         The works featured are that of the original pencils and inks with the exceptions of printed copies of the artists’ publications.

·         The gallery also included sketches the artists did in childhood.

·         Some artists are in relationships or married to some others.

·         The Marvels and Monsters portion featured an analysis on how Asians were portrayed in comics: mostly in archetype yellow face.

·         The exhibit opens with exaggerated color tones of yellow and brown colors that were used on Asian characters in comics: a noted difference from the white comic counterparts who had normal skin colors to them.

·         The archetypes covered were that of Schemers (Dr. Fu Manchu), Dragon Ladies, wise Sages, submissive women and others: all of which still has some prevalence in how Asians are portrayed in American comics and even American media today.

·         The archetypes of making the Asians look evil or lesser than their white counterparts was not limited to Chinese, as Japanese and other races of people were shown to cover the spectrum of archetypes.

·         For the Dragon Ladies, they were attractive foreigners of noted height, as they were drawn as tall as white people.

·         They included pages of Mary Marvel, the Unknown Soldier, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist and other known comics to show how Asians were commonly portrayed with a white character to introduce them. Not until recently had Asians been allowed to be the starring focus of their own in American comics.

·         If one were to wait for a guided tour, there was also an included exercise where one was to draw out your actual self versus your ideal self for Asian participants.

·         Overall, I like the exhibits and the museum and not only because I myself am an Asian American person