Episode 7.01
– Black and White? Isn’t Ghost Kiss supposed to be in color? Okay, so here’s what happened:
In mid-August I was working on a script for a different Ghost Kiss story (which you’ll see next episode) when Charlottesville happened. Alt-Right demonstrators in Charlottesville dispelled any pretense that they weren’t outright white supremacists, waving Nazi and Confederate flags, chanting Nazi slogans, shouting racist and homophobic slurs and carrying torches as they rallied around a Confederate monument. Before it was all over they savagely beat a man named DeAndre Harris with pipes. They murdered a woman named Heather Heyer and wounded over a dozen others by driving a car into a crowd of protesters. I’m sure you all remember this. I was stunned and devastated (and still am, months later). It felt like everything ugly and wrong with my country had finally broken through to the surface. It had always been there, but now finally everyone could see it.
I felt absolutely defeated. I was also furious. If you follow me on social media or know me personally you probably remember. Only a few weeks earlier an Alt-Right white supremacist had murdered 2 men here in Portland and wounded a 3rd. The man had been harassing a pair of young women riding home on the train. and when other riders tried to stop him he pulled out a knife and stabbed them. I used to ride that train every day. The stop where it happened was in my old neighborhood. I’ve been the person who got between some angry, racist asshole and a person just trying to mind their own business on that train before too. A few times. After that and after Charlottesville I was devastated and furious.
I decided to put my current Ghost Kiss story on hold to write something that addressed how I felt. Thats what this comic is. I don’t know what to think of it and I don’t know what you’ll think of it. Since this is only the first page of a 10 page comic I guess you can’t think much of it at all. After scripting and doing the initial layouts I had to put the comic on hold to work on another project. I had hoped I’d be able to release this comic in September, but by the time I actually started drawing it was already the middle of October. Finishing up the inking and the lettering this week has been strange. Typing “Fuck you, fag!” a half dozen times was actually upsetting. Not as upsetting as hearing Alt-Right garbage in Charlottesville proudly and unashamedly chanting it on national tv, but still unsettling. Studying photos of those demonstrators so I could match their outfits, tactical gear, torches and flags was also unsettling. The hatred, contempt and ugliness of these people is plain to see even in candid photos.
Half way through drawing this episode I realized I was never going to have time to color it if I wanted to be finished before the end of October. Black and white felt fitting for this story, even though it wasn’t intentional. I decided to dress Ghost Kiss and her friends in black so they’d easily stand out against the crowds. They’re not meant to be Black Bloc, although it did occur to me that some readers might think that. Inking this story has actually been pretty satisfying, despite the troubling subject matter and the labor intensive crowd scenes. Sometimes getting stuck in and giving yourself over to hard work is what it takes to get through anger and frustration.
I’m still finishing the last two pages, and I imagine I’ll ahve more to say about this comic once its all up for you to read.
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One of the most annoying Bullshit arguments against “black lives mater” I heard was that it was racism for not saying white lives matered. All just because “Black lives mater too” was shortened by one word for signs and chanting.
Yeah, I’ve always hated that. And the people who willingly and knowingly misconstrue it to mean “only” black lives matter.
Also, obvious first-generation immigrants and their supporters chanting “Nazis go home” to people whose parents and probably, grandparents were born in the USA…. like it or not, fascism was a reaction to the stresses of war and resulting economic failure and mass unemployment in the 1920s and 1930s.
Ben, what is the point of this comment?
Interesting to see they are protesting from the side who has taken up pretty much every fascist and racial/cultural/belief system segregation idiocy talking point and action ever made by the real nazis, fascists, racists, general idiots and more of the past.
Conservative America is not against blacks, gays or whatever. They are against people who feel they deserve special privilege for never having done anything special or outstandingly positive themselves for the community nor have taken up our American culture and way of life that uphold what this country was founded for and made great by.
Conservative American is also not who goes around destroying other people’s property and disrespecting everyone in their own country who does not agree with them when they don’t get their way either.
Conservative America is not who are against true free speech and are not who are pushing for segregation of people based on dumb superficial wants. Wants of things that have not been an issue in our country for more than two generations now or that have zero rational justifications in American culture anywhere for any reason.
Conservative America is also who has not destroyed the socio economic systems of a state that has a economic system that is the 6th largest in the world. Nor have they destroyed the same socio economic systems of other nations, states and cities they have taken over either.
Conservative American does not care what your gender, sexual preference, or racial and or ethical backgrounds are unless you think you deserve special privilege for them at the expense of everyone else who is not like you.
Conservative America does not believe that just because you went to school that actually makes you smart, educated or knowledgeable anymore.
Conservative America does not blame you for the past actions of your ancestors let alone unfoundedly perceived ancestry and expect you to pay them reparations while ignoring what your ancestors or perceived ancestors have done.
Conservative America does not believe that emotional wants and majority rule invalidates scientific and fact of reality or proper and fair management over who can do and say what and why.
Conservative America doesn’t want the values, goals,history and national pride for who we are and how we came to be of destroyed because it makes someone feel bad and does not cater to the ignorant, unworthy, lazy, illegal and criminal who wish to parasitically live off of and control others.
Conservative America does not constantly get caught in lying deceit after lying deceit over its agendas and then blame those who caught them and called them out for doing the real bad and illegal actions against the greater good and culture of what America stands for.
Conservative America does not measure ones worth by the level and scope of rhetoric, apathy for goodness, honesty and hard work and dislike for American work ethic and values one displays but for the good and honest true work and actions one does to better themselves while bettering their society, culture and nation.
So yea, I’m having a real hard time here understanding how our superheros could be standing in the crowd they are in and supporting them. (unless they are undercover and doing resonance work, which I highly doubt.)
Wow.
Are you actually a real person, or just some bot that spews ridiculous alt-right talking points? In either case, go away. You’re awful.
Literally every single item custodian listed is an outright stereotype, a self-serving lie the right tells themselves to justify their bigotry.
I was very specific not to use “conservative” in this comic, because while I disagree with a LOT of conservative policies and ideas, I by no mean think that all Conservatives (or even most) are bigots, and I know a lot of Conservatives are horrified by this stuff and dismayed by the direction that the extreme right has taken. That said, Custodians post does highlight a lot of the bullshit that Conservatives have been telling themselves for decades, and if you read it in the right voice it almost sounds like a sarcastic poem.
Wow, the comic already has a hate comment huh. Anyway, this has even been very unsettling for me and I live in another country. Why are these people so hateful and why are the authorities protecting them. Not to say my country isn’t in disarray as well. Anyway, I love the comic and will be checking back again.
Thanks!
I was at a protest against an Alt-Right rally last summer where things got pretty heated. No real overt violence, but LOTS of cans and similar stuff being thrown by both sides. It was really disheartening to see the police protecting the Alt-Right demonstrators (many of whom were loudly and visibly proclaiming their racism) but doing nothing to protect the people who were protesting them. The Alt-Right people would throw a can or a rock into the protesters and the police would do nothing at all. Protesters would do the same back and the police would tackle them, knock them down and arrest them. It became very, very clear that the police were there to protect the Alt-Right people and didn’t care about the protesters at all. I saw multiple instances of police just ignoring Alt-Right people throwing stuff or threatening people with weapons. It was pretty scary. No one should have been throwing stuff or causing trouble, but it was disheartening to see the police blatantly protecting one side while taking opportunities to attack the other side. And attack is the right word. Police had no problem knocking down, hitting and cuffing entire groups of strangers when they thought one person may have thrown something.
Even scarier, there were uniformed men on the Alt-Right side who you could easily mistake for Police. They were wearing the same kind of outfits and gear and were taking authority, telling protesters that they needed to move or leave or they’d be in trouble.
To actually be at one of those must be horrifying. Wow. But people gotta be there to counterprotest. Rough :/
Is that Modest in the far right of the crowd on Panel 2 and 3? Lol. Would love such an easter egg.
It isn’t. But Jake is in the left side of panel 3.
I… don’t like where this is going.