Miscellaneous Responses

[DarrellR]

I've been terribly behind on my email and have been trying to catch up on
all the digests that I had archived.  I had a few comments on some subjects
that have been mentioned over the past couple of months.  

1)  Female artists - In my humble opinion, anyone who's seen any of Susan
Daigle-Leach's work would never refer to her as "just a colorist".  I
personally like her coloring work on the Ducks, but her other art is also
outstanding!  I'm certainly not a professional art critic, but I know what
I like!!!

2)  Southern dialects and Brer Rabbit, etc. -  I believe it was Rodney that
pointed out that the speech used in the Song of the South wasn't atypical
of older people raised in the Southern U.S., regardless of race.  Having
spent the majority of my life in the Southern part of the U.S.A., I would
concur with this opinion.  I would further add that although it has
declined drastically with time and exposure to radio and television, this
dialect wasn't limited to illiterate people.  I've known many highly
literate individuals born prior to 1910 or so, who spoke in a manner
similar to that illustrated in these stories.  As long as one remembers the
time period in which the stories originated, the speech patterns really
shouldn't cause offense.

3)  Sensitivity to portrayal of Native Americans - I am 5/8 Cherokee, 3/8
Caucasian (that 3/8 descended primarily from English settlers), and a
member of the Western Cherokee Nation...   I appreciated the lists that
some members made of Native Americans in comics, and over the years, have
enjoyed reading stories featuring many of the characters listed.  As long
as a character isn't portrayed as being less valuable or intelligent
strictly because of race, I can appreciate the story (assuming that it's
well done!).  I was very happy to see Don Rosa's War of the Wendigo story
published at the end of Gladstone's run, and I enjoyed it very much.  In
fact, I have a hard time seeing how anyone could be offended by any aspect
of it.  However, I do realize that some Native Americans are more sensitive
than I am, and I think that this just means that there are some
individuals, regardless of race, who are very sensitive about their
background, race, culture, etc.  I'm afraid that it gets back to a point
that Don made several digests ago:  no matter what you do or say, if you
have a large enough audience someone's going to be unhappy with some aspect
of it.   (Please forgive the paraphrasing, Don!)  The folks who get upset
over the naming of sports teams, etc. aren't overly common, in my
experience.  However, they can be very vocal.  I'm just glad that folks
like Don tell the stories that they enjoy, and try not to worry too much
about the reactions of a small faction.   Maybe if Disney had taken the
same attitude, (and been nicer to the folks that were trying to keep their
characters alive in comics) we might still have Disney comics in the US... 
:(

Sorry about the delayed input.  I'd like to say that I'll stay more
current, but I wouldn't bet on it!

Take care and Do'-da-da-go'-hv-i' (Goodbye -  We'll see one another again -
in Cherokee),
Darrell C. Roden
State Road, NC  USA