One of the reasons this section of the blog went weekly a couple of months ago was as a way to encourage those who could to stay at home in order to help contain the covid-19 pandemic. Now is the time get out again – not to consume, but to protest and demand.
I will continue to post about comics and assorted areas of pop culture for the foreseeable future. Those works can serve as a relaxing distraction, as an emotional catharsis, or even as a gateway to explore and express contradictory ideas about all sorts of issues (this is particularly true with regard to superhero stories). However, like with the folks at one of my favorite podcasts, it is the position of Gotham Calling that supporting escapist entertainment doesn’t preclude actively engaging with the world beyond it, especially when it comes to battling racism and police brutality (two core themes of genre fiction, for better or worse).
With that in mind, at a time of general health, social, political, and economic crisis (including the threat of collapse of much of the comic book industry and distribution system), here is a reminder that comics can be awesome…
Alright, let’s just hope the protests are worth the cost in lives that will come from the virus spreading through the protests.
I’m assuming this will kill more people than police brutality would have in the same period, but whatever.
Let’s hope, indeed. Perhaps ‘in the same period’ (as opposed to the period spanning several generations of violence and fear) it will, unless the authorities start prioritizing access to health care over militarized approaches to law enforcement.