Well, we're still working on the comment conundrum, and all of your feedback has been most appreciated. More soon. I want to address one thing quickly: I have been deleting most Kirby-related comments because most of the commenters can't seem to make a point without becoming apoplectic, unhelpful and ultimately flooding the site with paranoid garbage. If you think I'm referring to you then I probably am. Knock it off.
Today on the site Jeet Heer visits us with a discussion of Harold Gray and race, excerpted from forthcoming Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume 10 (IDW). Here's a taste:
To twenty-first century eyes, Harold Gray was an unlikely racial progressive. He was famously reactionary, for most of his life on the far right of the Republican party. In private correspondence, he said he thought Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a communist. Gray gave ample expression to his anti-liberal politics in Little Orphan Annie, which was an allegory about how the poor (in the form of the heroine) are best aided by their own gumption as well as the occasional helping hand by the rich (in the form of Annie’s adopted father “Daddy” Warbucks as well as other benign representatives of the .01%). While Annie and Warbucks are always trying to overcome adversity through self-help, they have to fend off a wide array of leftist villains (corrupt and communist union leaders, snooty professors, meddling social workers, and demagogic politicians preaching income redistribution). Annie, a prepubescent girl, is always trying to work for a living but is often hampered by odious child labor laws enforced by officious bureaucrats.
Elsewhere:
The Cartoon Network has fired the creator of Clarence after sexual assault allegations surfaced.
A few Amazon links: Here's The Guardian on bestsellers vs. self publishers, and here's Anders Nilsen making the case more personal.
Paul Karasik contributes another great graphic report for his hometown paper.
I love this Bobby London post.
I liked this comic.
Alan Moore speaks out about a local art deaccession.
