Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity and Stereotypes

Harleen Singh's documentary centers on Keith Knight, Vishavjit Singh, and Eileen Kaur Alden. A narrator spells out the director’s thesis when he asks, "Can comics, editorial cartooning, and cosplay be a medium for embracing diversity and challenging stereotypes?" Singh's answer is yes. Knight, an African American artist, describes his semi-autobiographical strip K-Chronicles as an attempt to "make a commentary on race without making a commentary on race." In the weekly strip, he takes on police brutality, white supremacy, and other issues. He furthers those ideas in (Th)ink, a single-panel strip, and nationally-syndicated Knight Life. Vishavjit Singh, who grew up in the United States and India, created an online strip called Sikhtoons, which tackles misconceptions about Sikhs. As a performance artist, he also dresses as an anti-hate-crime Captain America-like superhero in a turban. When the character proves a hit on the streets of New York, he travels to other cities to talk to people and document their reactions. Alden writes and co-created the comic book series Super Sikh, which revolves around a Sikh action hero (rather than a superhero). Although Alden isn't a Sikh, she works with an artist who belongs to the faith, and she still sees herself as an outsider, since she's a woman, mother, and member of a mixed-race family. Drawn Together plays more like an introduction than a comprehensive look at diversity in comics, but it's likely to encourage viewers to seek out other artists, such as Saladin Ahmed (Miles Morales: Spider-Man) and G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel), who are doing their part for representation. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)