Comic Variants and the South Carolina situation

DrunkWooky writes for www.comicsheatingup.net

Sometimes people react to horrifying circumstances with truly admirable compassion. The comic book industry has displayed these attributes in light of the recent Charleston church shootings. First, Jason Latour minced no words while conveying his opinion of the confederate flag on a special Southern Bastards variant cover. This decision was further backed by Jetpack Comics. Second, Four Color Grails chose to weigh the sensitive nature of current events more heavily than the economic benefits of social media advertising.

You may or may not have seen the news that Jason Latour has produced a special “Death to the Flag, Long Live the South” Southern Bastards #10 cover. The proceeds from the cover are going to the victims of the recent Charleston, South Carolina church shooting.

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Throwing their own support behind the campaign, Jetpack Comics has promised a free copy of the cover to anybody donating to the Charleston Shooting victims.

Well, another company recently came head-on with this sensitive state of affairs. There has been a great deal of impatience online with the subscription box company, Four Color Grails, over the past week and a half as they failed to update their website, twitter, tumblr, or facebook with their anticipated fourth monthly exclusive variant reveal. The company usually reveals an exclusive variant cover once a week throughout the month as the order cut-off countdown timer ticks along. There was some speculation out there that the company was not releasing a cover because bleedingcool scooped their reveal with its Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War variant cover story. This seemed somewhat unlikely because of Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War has a July 8 release date.

I shrugged the speculation off because, personally, I thought the Green Lantern symbol on that cover was askiew anyway and preferred it not arriving with my subscription box. The Star trek/Green Lantern variant cover is now posted as the first variant in Four Color Grails’ July box.

ST-GL01-covREP-4CG

As it turned out, however, Four Color Grails ended up “revealing” their fourth June variant rather quietly via Facebook on June 29th. I put “revealing” in quotation marks because the facebook post consisted of little more than the title graphic for Mark Waid’s Strange Fruit, a blank white cover, the Four Color Grails logo, and a barcode. This is the normal blank sketch back cover to every Four Color Grail variant.

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Four Color Grails’ Facebook post had the following to say about the un-revealed cover:

“The cover as illustrated by Toby Cypress, though artistically brave;
may not be suitable for all audiences.

The imagery portrayed depicts a very powerful scene in relation to the social atrocities during an era of ignorance.

We feel it absolutely mandatory to refrain from sharing the image publicly out of consideration and respect, in light of current events.

If you would like to preview the image, or just want to talk about the cover, email us at hello@fourcolorgrails.com.”

Mark Waid’s Strange Fruit is a story of rising flood waters and racial tensions in the South during the 1920s.

Whatever the cover depicts, we probably won’t be able to find out until subscribers unbox their June variants later this July. I emailed Four Color Grails asking to see the cover and received no response. If I had seen it, I imagine I would have made the choice not to attempt to post it elsewhere either out of respect for their admirable and compassionate choice.

It is probably inappropriate to speculate for monetary gain based on the current events and the mystery of this unrevealed cover. However, I can’t help but mentally speculate until my copy of Strange Fruit arrives. If anything gets a comic book geek more interested in a book, it is placing it inside an opaque polybag-real or virtual. ”

-DrunkWooky

32 thoughts on “Comic Variants and the South Carolina situation”

  3. In my opinion I don’t understand why people made the whole confederate flag into a big deal. It’s part of history and with out it, we wouldn’t be where we r today and the US would be a different place. It just goes to show you how ignorant people are. I mean yeah it sucks what happened in Charleston and yeah they should of put the flag down to pay there respects but ignorant people will be ignorant. Where I live, blacks and mexicans die everyday where it is on the streets or in churches and no respect is ever given, but because the shooting happened in a white state people go all crazy over a flag, come one people there is crazier things going on then a flag. Well that’s just my opinion. Thanks for letting me ventilate lol.

    1. Its all this PC that makes me roll my eyes. Any flag including the USA flag has and will be used by sick people doing bad things. This censoring has gone way out of proportion, now the flag is being written out of existence by no longer being around, sold, for anyone to see. I just saw a article TV Land has cancelled re-runs of Dukes of Hazard over this mess. That show wasn’t racist and neither is the flag that is now banned. People need push back against this censoring because one day the “experts” will ban something you might like.

      1. I don’t like the flag, and I’m glad they’re banning it for whatever circumstances…it hasn’t made sense since the south lost the war! These issues no longer apply to just the US. This is a global problem, and the only way is to educate people. So looks like I’ll be picking up the Southern Bastards Mother Emmanuel Hope Fund variant!
        I noticed that Four Color Grails variant myself the other day. I’m looking forward to this series, and have preorderd all covers so far, minus the Jackpot variant!

      2. The flag isn’t racist, people dragged it into their racism. Just like most wars aren’t actually over religion yet religion gets dragged into it to justify the war, etc.

        I’m with Tweed though, that flag did represent a part of America that supported slavery in our past, which is not part of our society now. So it’s fine to keep it in the history books but to raise it up on a flag pole for people to idol and admire, I don’t think so. Take it down, fold it up and tuck it away as it no longer represents Americans as a whole.

        Could you imagine if Germany insisted on keeping the Nazi flag on it’s flag poles? The Confederate flag I think is in the same situation, we don’t need a reminder that we had a bunch of slave owners in America just like Jewish people don’t need to be reminded of what Hitler and his Nazi’s did to them.

        Now cancelling Dukes of Hazard.. that’s just absurd. People don’t have to watch that if they don’t want to see quick glimpses of the flag. It’s totally different when it’s government property waving the flag around which is just out of place in today’s world.

        As for the Southern Bastards variant.. I’m gonna try to buy as many as I can if they truly are sending all proceeds to the victims.

      3. Now I will say that I think this flag controversy is just a distraction from the real issue. It’s a way for our politicians and media to not have to cover the actual issue at hand, the sick individual who thought it was okay to walk into a building and start shooting people only because of their skin color. Just all so very sad..

  4. This is going to be a sensitive topic. I ask that the conversation remain civil. DrunkWooky and I talked about it before running the piece that people might get offended by the topic itself. We at CHU do not try to offend anyone (seriously, ever). Not out of being PC but I want the site to be a safe place anyone can come to. But the fact remains that there are now at least two comics being affected by it.

    1. As a point of discussion though,the football team in Southern Bastards is called the Running Rebs. Aka Rebels. The Rebels were the confederate army’s nickname. Is this offensive since it is also a throw back to the same period that the flag comes from? I am in Maryland which was a southern state. The Mason Dixon Line is about an hour from my house. I have never considered myself a southerner though.

      1. For the story of Southern Bastards, the Rebels is a perfect stereotype mascot for the school. For the offense, it’s to who it concerns…some “southerner’s” are attached to the tradition, but some traditions are just outdated. It personally wouldn’t offend me, but to some it may…thats why we do have PC. I’m from Texas, and also mixed race/nationality, I don’t know what I consider myself these days… 🙂

      2. Tweed, you’re a human from planet earth. That’s what I consider all humans nowadays.. I’m tired of the imaginary borders and races based on hereditary genes that make you look darker or lighter.. we all humans, I wish we could just leave it at that.. 🙂

    1. Exactly. But it is a good time to be flipping the Dukes of Hazzard “General Lee” car…..

  6. If that stupid murdering kid hadn’t waved his little flag as he committed these atrocities, this wouldn’t even be a discussion. If he carried a nazi flag we’d be having a talk about WW2.
    What if the next maniac goes in there wearing a Superman tshirt or a Game of Thrones shirt? Will we be banning those or calling for a boycott?
    I agree the Confederate flag should not be flying proudly over a government building that represents all people of a state. Removing it from Civil War reenactment a, historical sites, and Dukes of Hazzard reruns is wrong and reactionist. Instead of using the situation to create meaningful discussion and historical teaching, it becomes a political statement.
    I guess we’ll also never be seeing a revival of DC’s Haunted Tank series either, whose crew featured an heroic black character and addressed racism on a number of occasions.

    1. The Dukes of Hazard getting yanked is just dumb if you ask me though. We might as well ban most of the Indiana Jones movies since there’s Nazi propaganda and flags in those.. remove the damn flags from government buildings and property but beyond that, it’s just people sidetracking the real issue I think.

  7. All of the killings in the name of Islam, but we’re told that the religion has nothing to do with it

    1. “Good people can do good and bad people can do evil. But for good people to do evil — that takes religion.” -Steven Weinberg

      😉

  8. The debate is interesting. Some people who read my comic book posts might be surprised to learn that I have a law degree and read quite a bit about first amendment issues. It certainly is not at all against any sort of constitutional principle to wave whatever flag you please whether it be in hand or on a state flag pole. Quite to the contrary, the constitution protects that right. In fact, if southern states began passing laws prohibiting the confederate flag in certain contexts it would likely be found that those prohibitive laws are unconstitutional.

    However, this isn’t necessarily a matter of legal right and wrong. I have the right to say any number of inflammatory things to anybody I choose to. I can go out and be as derogatory, racist, and generally mean-spirited as a like to just about whoever I please. The point is, though, that legal rights are not the only thing we should consider. Prudent people would consider that while they don’t necessarily have a sensitivity to certain subject matter, others do. I don’t watch horror films much anymore because my wife is squeamish and hates them. That is a tame example, but the point is the same.

    While many proud southerners may have the legal right to wave their flag, they should not at all be surprised by the social blow back that they receive. Freedom of speech rights exist in Germany to this day that allow the usage of certain nationalistic symbols and the Nazi party in fact still exists. When forming their new constitution, the Germans thought it would be ironic to outlaw the Nazi party because that is the very thing the Nazi party did to other political groups. However, the inevitable social and political blow back in Germany when nationalists march should come as no surprise to any of the marchers involved.

    I would argue that prudent social sensitivity is what Rafael Albuqurque was engaging in when he made his own volitional decision to pull his own Joker Variant for Batgirl. Yes, the infamous “agency-stripping” portrait of Barbara being held captive by the Joker. He didn’t need to pull it. From what I gathered, DC was willing to stand behind his artistic decisions. However, it seems he saw that there were greater considerations than just his own will to express himself. Was is a business decision? Maybe. Was it prudent? Probably.

    Interesting turns of events at any rate.

    3. Good points are being made here I would just like to add a few ideas. The next time some crack pot decided to shoot people with a USA flag behind them, then what? Are we going to ban everything we don’t like? I look at the confederate flag which originally was created as the battle flag or virginia and supporters of the flag view it as a symbol of heritage and the freedom of the distinct cultural tradition of the South from the oppression of Northern government. I honestly have a problem with banning things like this because of this very important reason. Out of sight out of mind. That flag is a reminder just how much sacrifice soldiers on both sides sacrificed for the country they loved. It averages out to around 500 soldier deaths per day for 4 years. Families that are from direct lines to these soldiers deserve to have more respect than the media is giving.

      1. It’s true that some people view the confederate flag as a symbol of their heritage and southern tradition, but unfortunately a big part of that tradition was about white supremacy and owning other human beings, which was and is completely disgusting.

  9. Side note, is there anyway to actually buy this variant or is showing your donation receipt to jetpack the only way to get it?

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