On Opinions

WARNING: The following is a post about opinions (imagine that: the title is straightforward). You may or may not agree with the opinions mentioned in this post. Your concerns are legitimate, and you should be civil if you choose to talk about them. If you don’t want to read this, that’s ok, too: Here are some comics you can read instead, or you can watch a video about new discoveries of the Velociraptor.

ANOTHER WARNING: There is swearing. Deal with that as you will.

Moving on.

The internet fascinates me. Mostly because on one page, you can find one conversation that’s meaningful and honest and then a conversation right below that basically boils down to “SHE COULD BE HOTTER LOL SHE LOOKS LIKE A PIG.”

Everyone who uses the internet knows this, and they know it exists everywhere, from Reddit to Tumblr to The New York Times website.

For right now I’m going to ignore the trolls (who doesn’t?) and talk more about the importance of recognizing what opinions are – because I think in this age we’ve forgotten.

C.G.P. Grey actually brought this up in a Q & A video he made. Since it’s a long video, I’m just going to share with you my favorite quote from the video that’s about opinions and people:

“The trick is to keep your identity separate from your opinions. They are objects in a box you carry with you and should be easily replacable if they turn out to be no good. If you think the opinions in the box are who you are then you will cling to them despite any evidence to the contrary. Bottom line, If you want to always be right, you need to always be prepared to change your mind.”

I love this quote because it’s true: there are plenty of good people out there who have bad opinions, but if they change their mind, their opinions become better. They’re still good people, just with better ideas.

Lately there’s been a story circulating around discussion circles I’m a part of, including the Facebook group Diversity in Media Now. This story is about how a black singer changed the minds of several KKK members and even broke apart the Maryland branch of the Klan. (link to read it is here.)

How did he do it?

By talking to them and listening. By encouraging them that their opinions are not who they are, because if they can change their opinions, they can help make the world a better place for it.

I’d like to think I had a similar effect on a conservative couple I encountered on my road trip from Ohio to Arizona in September last year.

I stopped in Springfield, Missouri for a night and I decided to go across the parking lot to a sushi bar next to the hotel (because I had never been to a sushi bar and I wanted to try it out).

So I went inside and ordered my food. And a couple comes in and sits next to me at the bar and they order food.

There was one point where I tried this eel with some kind of orange spice on top. That was when my mouth felt like lava was burning my taste buds and I had to spit it back out.

The husband from the couple noticed this and was like, “Not your thing, huh?”

And we just started talking from there.

We even talked about the things we did for a living and I mentioned that I work as a comic artist on Validation. Of course, before I mentioned it I said, “I make comic strips about social justice issues,” and THEN mentioned it (because it’s kind of odd to just jump in and say “I make trans comics!”). While the wife wasn’t interested (She explicitly said, “I’ll just live in my black and white world and call it good!”), her husband was more talkative.

So the both of us talked about a variety of issues and we eventually got to welfare. And it’s here that I’d like to think I opened up his mind for consideration on some issues.

Because he had said, “You would think with food stamps they would get better food than pizza and pop and all that other shit?”

Now this was before I discovered the Cracked.com  article about the habits of poor people (Habit #1: You Eat Crappy Food, mostly because you need food that won’t rot, and the stuff that doesn’t rot is generally pre-packaged).

But my response was, “Part of that, though, is that there are companies who make contracts with the government to make their food cheaper on food stamps. Most of those contracts are with Coca Cola and other companies that don’t have the healthiest food and they’re lobbying to stay on SNAP.”

There’s an article here. Under the heading “Appeasing The Junk Food Lobby” was where most of my arguing points came from. That, and I come from a military family, and half of the conversations I hear are about how the government is fucking up because of the contracts they sign with other companies.

Back to the topic at hand: I’d like to think I opened his mind about that possibility. He certainly opened up my eyes about how conservatives think, why they think the way they do, and even got me to reconsider my old opinion about gun regulations.

(Alright fine I’ll get it out here: if you use the reasoning of “I need to protect my family” as your reason for owning guns, then you need to consider the possibility that you’re fucking with shit you shouldn’t be messing around with in the first place.)

(However, if you live in the back-woods country and you primarily hunt deer or other food animals and you don’t use guns on people, it’s totally fine. I grew up in the country where my parents ran a hunting and fishing store and I regularly saw them tag deer and post notices about how much hunting was allowed that season. It’s regulated for a very good reason. That, and there were times where we didn’t have any meat in the house other than deer meat, and without that deer meat we wouldn’t have eaten that winter.)

(There’s a difference between shooting at people to be a gangster and using guns as a carefully-managed tool so you don’t starve).

Before we talked I was of the opinion that guns needed to be off the streets, period. But gun rights is a bigger gray area than what the media or the NRA would have you believe.

Just like life. Just like people.

Be always open to others’ opinions, and listen. If they’re credible and don’t come from a place of hate, be considerate.

You don’t have to change your mind with every conversation you have. Just don’t hold on to your opinions too stubbornly.

That’s all for now.

New Art Added, Library Visits, and Other Updates

Today’s post comes to you in THREE PARTS.

PART 1:

So I was going through the site and I realized I hadn’t put any new art up on here for a while. So I fixed that!

There is now new stuff in Illustrations, Sketches, and even a few updated links in Comics, including a link to an old preview I made of The Legend of Jamie Roberts.

You can also read the preview comic by clicking THIS PICTURE:

Ch1Cover_promo

PART 2:

On Free Comic Book Day (May 3rd) this year, I will be speaking and showing off my work at the Apache Junction Public Library in Phoenix, AZ! It’s part of their celebration of Comic Book Day, so bring your family along! It’s an all-ages event featuring superheroes and local artists and lots and lots of books.

They asked me to make the flyer for this year, so start looking forward to some work-in-progress previews as I work on it.

PART 3:

The Legend of Jamie Roberts‘ script is almost finished. I was hoping to have it completely done two days ago, but no such luck. At least it’s 80% of the way there, so with much cracking of my fingers, I’m hoping to get it completely finished by April 14th.

With all of that said, The Legend of Jamie Roberts should be online by the end of June. I would launch at the beginning of June, but that’s Phoenix Comicon (another event I’m going to this year), so I’ll be doing convention-related work around that time.

Charlie & Clow is coming along pretty nicely, even though I need to change up the first few pages. It’ll be easy to tweak though.

There’s going to be a new story arc coming up in Johnson & Sir! And also, expect a new print sometime in the next month, inspired by this sketch:

JohnsonandSir_Sketch7_frozen.jpg

You can also reblog the sketch on Tumblr if you want to show it off to your followers (which you totally should).

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

P.S. I’m going to dare the biggest dare on myself and update my blog every day for the month of April. And no, none of the above is an April Fool’s Joke. I already pulled a joke on Johnson & Sir today. I’m joked out.

P.P.S. Actually I won’t be able to update everyday because for a few days in April I’m going to be in San Diego. Psych!

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang: A Review

Image courtesy of MTV-Geek News

 

Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers is a fantastic read.

This volume (which is paired with Saints) follows Little Bao, a dreamer of a boy who is eventually drawn into rebellion against foreign forces, who seek to bring Christianity to China (among other things). The events that follow are a retelling of the Boxer Rebellion, a significant historical event.

With subject matter like this, it can be pretty easy to be historical and dry, or have artwork that’s dark, sinister, or brutal. Yang’s work is none of that.

The art is vibrant and the colors are well-chosen: in the story, the commoners who join the Big Sword Society are possessed by the spirits of China. The spirits are colorful and vibrant while the peasants are in dull, muted colors. The character designs are delightfully simple but unique to each and every character. While the landscape of the story is simple, that’s fine – the focus is on the characters, as it should be. In stories about war, it’s important to know the people that fought in them, even if they’re not big names.

The pacing throughout is brilliant. There can be several pages to a slow and thoughtful scene, but when the action happens, everything is bold and fast. The design of the panels is simple enough that you can read the story easily and not get lost (which is important to note, because there are an awful lot of comic artists that try layouts to be artistic – Marvel’s SIEGE, I’m looking at you – and instead it becomes an artistic mess. Boxers is not that work).

Ok, so obviously the artwork is great, but what about the writing?

It. Shines.

The art is simple and classy to let the writing shine through.

This story is still posing deep and thoughtful questions in me three days after I’ve finished it. Questions like, What is worth fighting for? What would you sacrifice for the future? Love? Others’ lives? The concept of yourself as an individual? What is fundamentalism and how does it transform people?

If you haven’t read this yet, you should. Go get it on Amazon.com or at your local library (that’s where I got mine. I have no shame).

P.S. I have yet to read Saints, the companion book to Boxers. That review will be coming up soon!

Jamie Roberts, Vlogs, and Graphic Novels

Welcome to another week!

Last week there was Validation, Johnson & Sir, and The Women Warriors Project galore.

For the past two days I’ve been writing the script for The Legend of Jamie Roberts like a madwoman. The odds are high that I can finally have the whole script finished before the end of this month! And then I can start making the art, and it will be glorious.

I’ve also been mulling over the vlog. It’ll start back up again this week since I have some videos recorded already. It’ll be back to updating every Friday.

Sometimes this week, expect a review of Boxers by Gene Luen Yang. I finished reading this marvelous graphic novel yesterday and I’m polishing my thoughts about the work.

Speaking of reviews, I am open to reviewing graphic novels, comics, webcomics, or even novels! If you would like me to review your work or any particular piece of work, shoot me an email at kelcidcrawford@gmail.com.

Expect more updates later this week!

Status Report!

Unexpected post is unexpected.

So what’s been going on lately? Well Validation and Johnson & Sir are still chugging along.

Last week was the launch of a NEW project, The Women Warriors Project! I wrote all about it in a previous blog post, which you can read here.

I’ve been posting some Johnson & Sir sketches over on my Tumblr. Here’s a few for you:

johnson_and_sir_spanish_sketch_by_kelcid-d79o6jp tumblr_n2e66kFhrW1s278nuo1_500

That last one is actually an in-joke on a Validation strip I did before, because half of the audience on Validation’s Facebook page saw this strip and went “I want Rubber Duck The Reckoning to be a thing!”

I want it to be a thing, too! We’re figuring it out ;D

I’m still writing The Legend of Jamie Roberts. With any luck the script will be done by March 30th.

I haven’t been working on Charlie and Clow as much as I should be. I need to fix that. And I hope to get the first 6 or so pages online once they’re done. I’ll let you know when that happens!

And I just might be making a new short story for an anthology soon…