Ethnic stereotypes in comics (the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in mainstream comic books) have evolved over time, reflecting the changing political climate.
Sociopolitical impact of comics
Throughout history, comics have reflected the sociopolitical attitudes of their writers and readers. In America, early comics consisted primarily of short, humorous comic strips printed in newspapers. In the 1930s, comics evolved into longer, action-oriented storylines and transitioned into the comic medium format. It began addressing important contemporary political issues. For example, some have suggested that the Wonder Woman character and title evolved as a vehicle to communicate pro-American attitudes during World War II.Emad, M.C. "Reading Wonder Woman’s Body: Mythologies of Gender & Nation . The Journal of Popular Culture, 2004 (Author notes: Reading Wonder Woman’s Body: "This is a preprint of an article accepted for publication in The Journal of Popular Culture, copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing). X-Men creator, Stan Lee frequently cited the Civil Rights Movement as the inspiration for his mutant team of superheroes, and has translated many of the tensions of majority-minority race politics into the X-Men title.
Nonetheless, for many years, comic book characters noticeably lacked racial and ethnic diversity. Diversity in comics first started during the 1940s but persisted during the decades. Comics writer and artist Kev F. Sutherland said "...when you look at the shelves and see half the titles on sale are characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man—dammit, these characters weren't even allowed to be Jewish like their creators, let alone be black". Recognizing the influence of comics on popular culture, some members of ethnic and racial communities have focused their attention on stereotypes within comics, and have begun lobbying to change them. This is accomplished in many ways, frequently by either writing new character of color or "trans-racializing" existing characters to become racial or ethnic minorities (e.g. the changing of Karate Kid's race from White to Asian).
Given the recent popularity of injecting characters of color into popular comic titles, a new concern has arisen regarding possible tokenism, and many writers advocate not just the inclusion of characters of color into predominantly White casts of characters, but that these minority characters defy the racial and ethnic stereotypes so prevalent in the history of comics, as well as maintaining the high standard of comic book writing. Daley Osiyemi, creator of Brodie's Law and co-founder of Pulp Theatre Entertainment said, "...we don't just want black characters or superheroes in comics as mere tokens, they have to be strong characters in their own right and have strong stories built around them".
In 2007 the scholarly journal MELUS (publication of The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States) devoted an entire issue to the literary and sociological representations of race and ethnicity in comics. The issue was guest edited by Derek Parker Royal, and it included essays on older graphic narratives (such as Jackie Ormes's Torchy Brown and Miné Okubo's Citizen 13660), more recent graphic novels (Ho Che Anderson's King, Ben Katchor's The Jew of New York, and Mark Kalesniko's Mail Order Bride), as well as various comic book series (Dwayne McDuffie's Deathlok, Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve, and Los Bros Hernandez's Love and Rockets). Gilbert Hernandez illustrated the cover, and the issue included an interview with him as well.
Arabs On the other hand, Jack Shaheen, professor emeritus of mass communications at Southern Illinois University has written extensively on the plight of Arabs in the American mass media. He wrote that due to ignorance, fear, and political beliefs, Arabs are rarely portrayed as anything but villains. Those few positive portrayals are often passive, neither taking the limelight away from the most often Caucasian protagonists, nor overshadowing the active role of the evil Arabs in the book. Examples include Marvel's Fasaud, Apocalypse, Shadow King, Living Monolith, Asp, the Desert Swords, Abdul Alhazred, Saracen, and Arabian Knight, and DC's Ra's al Ghul and Talia al Ghul.
The terrorist As far back as 1953, in an issue of John Wayne Adventure Comics, John Wayne captures an Arab who is attempting to drive American oil companies out by launching a terrorist campaign.Wright, Bradford (2001). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Black An early black character to be incorporated into a syndicated comic strip was Lothar, who appeared in Mandrake the Magician in the 1930s. He was Mandrake's sidekick: the circus strongman, who wore a Tarzan-style costume and was poor, and uneducated. Since the introduction of Lothar, black characters have received a variety of treatments in comics, and not all of them positive.
Physical caricatures Early graphic art of all kinds often depicted Black characters in a stylized fashion, emphasizing certain physical features to form a recognizable racial caricature of Black faces. These features often included long unkempt hair, broad noses, large red-tinted lips, dark skin and ragged clothing reminiscent of those worn by Black slaves. These characters were also depicted as speaking accented English. In the early 20th century United States, these kinds of representations were seen frequently in newspaper comic strips and political cartoons, as well as in later comic magazines, and were also present in early cartoons by Disney and Looney Tunes. In comics, nameless Black bystanders and even some notable heroes and villains were developed in this style, including The Spirit's sidekick Ebony White and Billy Batson's valet Steamboat.
Ebony White Writer-artist Will Eisner is sometimes criticized for his depiction of Ebony White, the young African American sidekick of Eisner's 1940s and 1950s character The Spirit. Eisner later admitted to consciously stereotyping the character, but said he tried to do so with "responsibility", and argued that "at the time humor consisted in our society of bad English and physical difference in identity".Time.com (Sept. 19, 2003): Will Eisner interview The character developed beyond the stereotype as the series progressed, and Eisner also introduced black characters (such as the plain-speaking Detective Grey) who defied popular stereotypes.
In a 1966 New York Herald Tribune feature by his former office manager-turned-journalist, Marilyn Mercer wrote: "Ebony never drew criticism from Negro groups (in fact, Eisner was commended by some for using him), perhaps because, although his speech pattern was early Minstrel Show, he himself derived from another literary tradition: he was a combination of Tom Sawyer and Penrod, with a touch of Horatio Alger hero, and color didn't really come into it".Mercer, Marilyn, "The Only Real Middle-Class Crimefighter", New York (Sunday supplement, New York Herald Tribune), Jan. 9, 1966; reprinted Alter Ego #48
"Savages"
Critics of the portrayal of early Black characters note the frequency with which Black characters were shown as "savages", frequently shown with bones in their ears, noses, and hair, or depicted as cannibals.
Tintin in the Congo The artist Hergé received much criticism for his first comics. Tintin in the Congo, first serialized beginning in 1930, presented the typical colonial view Belgians had about the people in Belgian Congo, including the missionary bringing civilization to the uneducated blacks. According to one reviewer, "the Africans are portrayed as primitive, simple-minded folk".Horiuchi, David. Amazon.com Editorial Review. Retrieved 10 September 2021. Hergé, 23 years old when he began the album, defended himself as being naïve instead of intentionally racist. Nevertheless, the album was not translated into English until 1991—more than 50 years after its initial release—due to those concerns.Farr, Michael (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. London: John Murray. , p. 22.
Animals The historian Ian Gordon, author of Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890–1945, argues that the need for comic strips to appeal to diverse national audiences in the US meant that the outright racial caricatures of minstrelsy did not translate to the comic strips with any commercial success. Instead artists and writers developed "de-raciate" Black stereotypes in the form of funny animal characters the first of which Felix the Cat owed his existence directly to the racialized humor of a strip named "Sambo and His Funny Noises". Other examples of such characters include Krazy Kat, created by George Herriman who was biracial, and Mickey Mouse.
Blaxploitation era
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, several African-American heroes were created in the vein of blaxploitation-era movie protagonists, and seemed to be a direct response to the notable Black Nationalist movement. These (predominantly male) heroes were often martial artists, came from the ghetto, and were politically motivated. They were frequently pitted against White villains, representing the Black struggle against 'The Man': a catch-all phrase popularized during the Civil Rights Movement to represent the White power structure. However, as much as the blaxploitation era superheroes contrasted earlier racial caricatures of Blacks in comics, one attribute remained common—hypersexuality; many Blaxploitation heroes were still highly masculinized, reminiscent of the Mandingo stereotype, and were frequently seen sexually dominating White female characters. Examples of such blaxploitation characters include Luke Cage, Misty Knight, Bronze Tiger and Black Lightning.Griffin, Rupert. Fanzing 32, March 2001: Black Power or Blaxploitation? Accessed 29 June 2006.
Black proteges In the 1970s, several African American heroes were created and paired with established white heroes as sidekicks and black proteges. Black Goliath, for example, became a black and slightly inferior (in terms of scientific ability and combat experience) version of his white mentor.
East Asian Yellow Peril Many Asian characters were pitted against White American protagonists in early American comics, capturing America's real-world frustrations and political distrust of foreign Asian powers. Symbolizing America's "phobia of the "Yellow Peril",Ma, Sheng-Mei. The Deathly Embrace: Orientalism and Asian American Identity, (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) these characters were frequently of foreign nationality (usually Chinese) and often possessed a stereotypically Asian appearance (for example, a long wispy moustache and yellow-tinted skin). They were often highly intelligent or in possession of a powerful, supernatural ability and generally occupied themselves with elaborate plans for world domination, although they were usually thwarted by the American heroes of their time. While usually serious threats, one somewhat humorous Yellow Peril villain was DC's Egg Fu, a giant Communist egg with facial features and a prehensile moustache.
Fu Manchu In the early 20th century, author Sax Rohmer published a series of novels focusing on the wildly popular Chinese villain, Dr. Fu Manchu. Attempting to capitalize on this success, DC Comics and Marvel Comics both published comic books featuring Chinese villains physically resembling Fu Manchu and possessing the same personality, sexual ambiguity, and ambitions for world domination. Because neither publisher possessed a license for the Fu Manchu character, these early Chinese comic book villains were either unnamed or had a different name than Fu Manchu. Examples include DC's Red Dragon and Marvel's Yellow Claw and The Mandarin.