See you in class P.C.

The second best comic was Uncle Scrooge. Both Carl Barks and his successor, Don Rosa (who is very popular in Europe, where he is now on tour, seemingly all but forgotten in the states), imbued each issue of this title with more plot, more character development and more exotic and historical atmosphere (with, plainly, a lot of research) than an entire year of a modern, meandering, continued, made-up-as-it-goes-along superhero series.

In fact, superheroes have, in my view, almost destroyed the creativity in comics. The genre used to incorporate so much more: horror, sci-fi, crime, war, historical, kids’ stories, piracy, even an old EC title about psychotherapy. Now there is very little but superheroes.

I’m glad that black artists and writers (far more important than a single token black superhero) have broken through. Now I’d like to see them use their singular insights to take comics into new directions, away from the, ironically, effete field of superheroes, into real self-expression. How about a comic book about real, everyday black experience, in the ghetto, in white culture – in the presidency? That would be a REAL breakthrough.

BTW, if any black folks in the comics industry ever get into Knoxville, we’d love to interview you on our predominately black CTV call-in show, Open Dialogue.