I’ve always been kind of a comic weenie. I’m no alpha nerd or anything, but I’ve read the classics. I remember reading when Tony Stark -- from "Iron Man" (1968-present) -- lost control of his drinking habits and spiraled into depression. I’ve seen everything from spousal abuse to the trials of being a single parent unfold across the pages of comic books. I’m fully aware of the fact that comics can deal with serious topics.
But every once in a while, one surprises me.
Case in point: last week I was browsing one of my favorite websites when some anonymous stranger posted a short fan-comic about a bunch of girls from various Cartoon Network shows going to summer camp. Helga from "Hey Arnold!"(1996-2004), Trixie Tang from "Fairly Oddparents"(2001-present) and Numbuh 5 from "Codename: Kids Next Door"(2002-2008) all playing dodgeball together. That kind of thing.
The story behind this particular fan-comic is pretty cool. It started out as one artist drawing for fun but when his or her schedule became too busy to continue updating regularly, he or she abandoned the comic.
Here’s where it gets interesting: a few people who were reading the comic happened to be artists themselves and decided to continue the story. Since then the comic has existed in a kind of limbo. It doesn’t really have a permanent home. It shows up from time to time on image boards, and people add new pages here and there. It’s become a community effort, growing and changing with every new artist that leaves his or her mark on it. Sometimes it’s a slice-of-life story. A few times it’s kind of pornographic. But it’s always an interesting read.
Now, without going into too much detail, I’d like to discuss one particular artist's take on the story. It's a kind of like a reboot of the original comic concept simply known as "Camp Sherwood." It depicts one of the girls in what I’m going to call an “adult” scenario. I’ve been advised by my legal council (I asked my Mommy) not to go into any more specifics than that, so I’ll just say that our young lady friend is “thinking about” another one of the girls at the camp. And she enjoys it.
Then she bursts into tears. She collapses, tears in her eyes. She’s left confused and scared. All she can bring herself to say is “I’m not like that,” before breaking down and running off.
And then the chapter ends. There’s no happy resolution, no reassurance that everything will be okay, no one to tell her that what she’s feeling is perfectly acceptable. It’s just a very real, very harsh exploration of what this young girl is going through. It is, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, one of the most realistic and emotional explorations of sexuality I have ever encountered in fiction. And it didn’t come from a major publishing company.
It came from a bunch of artists working for no pay.
In the past, the major publishers have been pretty hesitant to discuss sexuality. DC Comics was willing to publish the anarchist manifesto that is "V for Vendetta" (1982-1989), but they still refuse to allow Batwoman and her long-term lesbian lover to get married. (Marvel, however, has a long history of diversity, though that’s most likely just a product of Marvel’s “Let’s try everything imaginable” style of writing. They did make Thor a frog for a few months.)
But this comic also make me feel optimistic. Its existence means that people want to see these issues discussed in comics, and are going out of their way to make that happen. If they keep it up, hopefully the market will follow their example.
Comics are serious business, guys
