> Any MORE thoughts?
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> The idea of forcing an artist, be he a cartoonist or otherwise, to include certain characters in his strip in order to be published is just odious to me. I know that it's not the way things work in this politically correct world we live in, but I think an artist's work should be judged on its merits, not on how "racially equal" it is. Hampering creative freedoms like that is just one of many smalls steps that would eventually lead to an Orwellian society like that depicted in "1984".
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> It also seems pretty stupid to force someone to write about or draw characters that he may know nothing about! Many cartoonists base their strips on their own lives and experiences. (A very good example of this would be "For Better or For Worse.") How can you expect a cartoonist to suddenly throw in, say, a New Zealander into their comic strip, citing a need for racial equality, when that artist knows nothing about New Zealand's people and culture? That character is going to seem forced and stereotypical to say the least.
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> There's nothing wrong with an artist *studying* up on a new people and culture if he wants to add some diversity to his work. But it should be something that the artist *wants* to do, and it should make sense as part of his storyline. He shouldn't be forced into creating a contrived character by his publisher in order to be "PC".
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> Gri"wow, I didn't know I had that rant in me!"shny

Well said. I had been thinking mostly about simple appearances-- Coloring a character so they looked like they were from a different culture. For example, with the Dilbert sunday strips, they are not colored by Scott Adams, and the people who do color them add racial diversity at random (but only to random characters, never to established cast memebers.) I remember in particular Scott Adams complaining about a strip where his editors added black skin tone to a random night watchman-- who was portrayed in the strip as going "cubicle shopping" with the janitor. This resulted in several complaint letters... "You haven't had a black character in weeks and now you have one and he's a THIEF?!?!?" et cetera.

The issue you raise is much more valid, though. To be TRULY multicultural in a strip would require some knowledge. I agree with you here-- it seems contrived to force an artist to do a bunch of research simply to make his strip more PC. I think Boondocks is an excellent strip, too, and I doubt many people ever complain about the general lack of non-blacks in it. Writing what you know is FAR batter than giving in to stereotypes, which will often only make the problem WORSE.

Finally, as for judging the artist on the strip's merits rather than forcing him to adapt, I completely disagree. I think that the potential for anger and resentment among minority communit-- Wait, what am I talking about? I agree with you here as well.

Don "Tired and weird. Four hours of sleep will do that" Monkey