the vynsane asylum

apparently there's been a bit of a stink raised by some people accusing robert kirkman of being a racist because of characters that he portrays as such in his zombie comic epic, "The Walking Dead". i find it ridiculous, but i saw a BUNCH of closed threads over there regarding this topic, so i figured why not add my own to the pile. copied verbatim below is my post about robert kirkman's racist tendencies.

myself wrote: Robert Kirkman is a RACIST!

I take great offense to Robert Kirman's portrayal of Zombies in The Walking Dead. For too long the rights of Zombies have been trampled on by their oppressors. The usual Zombie stereotypes run RAMPANT in TWD: slow movement, decaying flesh, low moans, and of course they ALL love to EAT BRAINS! I'm disgusted by your ignorance of Zombie culture. In addition, you pulled the wool over our eyes, by naming the book "The Walking Dead" - which we all took to mean the Zombies. However, it was readily apparent early on that the book wasn't even about the title characters, and to add insult to injury, you have one of your lead characters brazenly claim that the LIVING humans were "The Walking Dead"! The amazing audacity of the living. Just like them!

The Zombie Rights Movement has all but been vanquished by this one comic book. The so called "self-evident" rights that my grandmother (that's right - she was a Zombie!) fought and died twice for have been all but dried up. I feel the oppression myself, being 1/8th Zombie - something I never felt before this age of fear and paranoia begun with issue 1 of TWD. And it's even harder for me, being mixed-blood. To the living, I'm just a Zombie, but to the full-blooded dead, I'm just on "live support"!

In short, I could've been a two-lifetime reader. Once I died and came back as a full-Zombie, I would've continued to read your work. Instead, because of your lack of interest in learning about the cultures you write about, you've lost two lifetimes of readership, something that your other, fully-living readers couldn't promise.

I bid you good day, sir.

here's the link to it, if you want to see any responses that it gets...

http://imagecomics.com/messageboard/vie ... hp?t=22772

That'll be $2 for use of "I bid you good day, sir."

I, in turn, shall pass it on to Jon Stewart.

Kirkman really IS a racist. Notice how SOME of his zombies are black? Is he implying that all persons of equatorial descent are mindless, flesh eaters? That is horrible and wrong. I'm never buying anything from Kirkman, Image or the state of Louisiana AGAIN.

I'll not have anyone defaming the good name of those filthy mongrels.

This guy is so right, it's not funny. I don't care if he does think Liefeld has some talent or not, I applaud him saying this even if it does turn out this is an attempt to get big names to go to Image.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17705

It's so right, the "not meant for but appropriate for" explanation couldn't have been more clearly stated. Too bad it seems just about impossible to hit this target these days - the creators are SO out of practice.

There is a good list of creators who's books I'd like to say I'd follow, even if they were entitled "Dog Shit Boy Drinks Pee" or the like.... but I've proven to myself over the years that I have a hard time keeping track of this stuff. I used to try and buy everything by Warren Ellis & Frank Miller, for example, but couldn't even keep track of their sporadic projects for companies other than the big 2.

I think Robert Kirkman is a bit of an altruist. He states that he makes a swell living, but just how is he faring compared to how he'd be making out as an exclusive Marvel or DC writer? Unless he can put the money where his mouth is, guys like Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis & Warren Ellis are going to write mainstream comics because it's for their own good and for the good of their families. Only martyrs would choose to take the hard road.

It's interesting to consider which creators would work this way (tons of them could); Guys like Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller & Kurt Busiek seem more likely to go creator-owned only (and could make a killing doing it) but I think there is still a large group of top-level creators (Alex Ross, for example) that have such a love for the mainstream characters of comics that letting go of working on them would be impossible.

I think Marvel and DC won't like it if this message goes too widespread - I think they're scared of losing ANY little bit of their respective sales numbers, and both companies know that geeks like us are much more likely to buy their lower tier books if well known creators are pulling the strings (Moon Knight, anyone?).

Kudos to Robert Kirkman for putting that together though, it truly couldn't have been said any better than that.

with invincible, walking dead, brit and astounding wolfman all under kirkman's pen, plus writing the image cross-over "image united" and announcing not one but TWO new miniseries coming out in the next year, and the announcement that he's been named a partner of image, i think he's really comfortable right now. he's living proof that it CAN be done, so he's not just talking, he's leading by example, which is the best way possible.