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
