Graphic novel on illegal immigration & extreme response to it - relevant?

[Alan Brash]

I'm writing an American graphic novel called STATE'S EVIDENCE about an ex-con who infiltrates a white supremacist gang to save the son he never knew from the gang's malign influence. While its genre is action/thriller, I've attempted to address issues like tolerance, redemption, loyalty, family and racism in a nuanced and sensitive way.

Are comics/graphic novels a good way to engage young people (or older people!) in a discussion about these issues? Can anyone point me to other examples in this medium? A similar theme was explored in film in American History X - though that dealt more with straight racism. I'd love to hear people's thoughts!

State x27 s Evidence - a crime thriller graphic novel Indiegogo

The first 6 pages are posted on the indiegogo site and the first 10 pages are on my company's facebook page.

The team behind the project is a veritable United Nations of different racial/ethnic backgrounds: I'm from New Zealand (though I was born in the US), our letterer is from Los Angeles, our artist is from Italy and the cover artist is from India!

 

[Rikurzhen]

Why use the cliched boogey-man of white supremacist gang? When does this EVER actually happen in the news? People roll their eyes when this pops up.

Why not a more plausible and more terrible gang like PETA or Earth Liberation Front? They can really screw with people's minds, they're actual terrorist organizations, and your story would at least be safe from charges of cliche.

 

[Rotagilla]

"White supremacists"

I doubt any really exist, according to the definition of the word.
No one in their right mind wants to rule over blacks. Most intelligent white people just want to get AWAY from them.

...but you gotta push what sells...and americans have been conditioned to think that anyone who points out negro dysfunction is a "white supremacist" and "bad".

If you want to make money in entertainment in america, aim low...tailor your material for people with the mentality of a 12 year old...don't confuse them with complexities or nuance.

 

[Alan Brash]

Why use the cliched boogey-man of white supremacist gang? When does this EVER actually happen in the news? People roll their eyes when this pops up.

Why not a more plausible and more terrible gang like PETA or Earth Liberation Front? They can really screw with people's minds, they're actual terrorist organizations, and your story would at least be safe from charges of cliche.

@Rikurzhen Thanks for your thoughts; certainly don't want it to come across cliched. At this stage PETA etc wouldn't really work in the plot. I think it is accurate to state that there have been quasi-vigilante groups who have taken matters into their own hands when it comes to illegal immigrants crossing into the US (a plot point in my story). I guess I'm taking that idea to a more extreme place. And certainly in Europe there's a real upswing in far right political groups gaining traction politically. Not saying they're "white supremacist" as such. But certainly some of them are overtly Neo-Nazi.
Thanks again for your feedback!

 

[Alan Brash]

"White supremacists"

I doubt any really exist, according to the definition of the word.
No one in their right mind wants to rule over blacks. Most intelligent white people just want to get AWAY from them.

...but you gotta push what sells...and americans have been conditioned to think that anyone who points out negro dysfunction is a "white supremacist" and "bad".

If you want to make money in entertainment in america, aim low...tailor your material for people with the mentality of a 12 year old...don't confuse them with complexities or nuance.

@Rotagilla - thanks for your feedback. The issues aren't really around black vs white as much as they're concerned with illegal immigrants and an extreme response to that issue. As I mentioned to the previous poster, there's undoubtedly been an upswing in far right political groups across Europe (including the UK) so I don't think it's that far-fetched - at least in an action/thriller - to suggest that a group of disaffected Americans might turn violent. (For what it's worth, various members of the law enforcement community aren't painted particularly favorably either!) Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts.

 

[Rikurzhen]

Why use the cliched boogey-man of white supremacist gang? When does this EVER actually happen in the news? People roll their eyes when this pops up.

Why not a more plausible and more terrible gang like PETA or Earth Liberation Front? They can really screw with people's minds, they're actual terrorist organizations, and your story would at least be safe from charges of cliche.

@Rikurzhen Thanks for your thoughts; certainly don't want it to come across cliched. At this stage PETA etc wouldn't really work in the plot. I think it is accurate to state that there have been quasi-vigilante groups who have taken matters into their own hands when it comes to illegal immigrants crossing into the US (a plot point in my story). I guess I'm taking that idea to a more extreme place. And certainly in Europe there's a real upswing in far right political groups gaining traction politically. Not saying they're "white supremacist" as such. But certainly some of them are overtly Neo-Nazi.
Thanks again for your feedback!

It just brings to mind the "Sum of All Fears" fiasco where they substituted Euro-Trash white supramacist billionaire Neo-Nazis as the boogeyman in place of the entirely plausible Islamic terrorist group which was central to Clancy's novel. Everyone was groaning and harping on the cliche. Then the same boogey-man with the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

OK, so your story plot line is set. If the issue is illegal infiltrators coming across the border, the Federal Government absolving itself of any responsibility of protecting the borders and citizen militia stepping in to fill the gap, I'm not really seeing how the militia are construed as villains here. How do you make law and order into a bad thing?

If you're set on the illegal immigration angle, then you could have the kid be brainwashed by an extremist traitor group - they believe in a world of No-Borders and they work to ruin the US by helping illegal infiltrators merge into society, they set them up with false papers and jobs, thus harming the American workforce, diluting the culture and subverting respect for the law and the brainwashing is so severe that the kid actually believes that he's on the side of the righteous. The father has to save him from this leftist lunacy and get him to a deprogrammer to help guide him back to normalcy and sanity.

tolerance = patriotism for his own society rather than adhering to multiculturalist, open borders subversive political theory.

redemption= the kid, in sessions with the deprogrammer, comes to realize his crimes and is welcomed back into society after he gives up his fellow multiculturalist, open-borders subversive terrorists.

loyalty = to his people, to his community, to his nation, and to his family. That's loyalty. The kid realizes that theOikophobia he expressed for his own culture and the loyalty he expressed to the multiculturalist cult was misplaced and was leading him down a dangerous path.

family = Family bonds are the glue and the foundation of society. His abandonment of family during his time in the cult was not duplicated by his father and the father risked everything to save him from the multiculturalists and bring him back into the warm, loving embrace of family and community.

"and racism in a nuanced and sensitive way." = The father and son realize that the boy was flirting with real dangerous ideas, that by aiding a multicultural invasion of his own nation he was acting as a traitor to his own nation and to his race as well. For within racial solidarity is found community and high levels of sharing. This is what the son was working to destroy by aiding and abetting the destruction of community in his nation. Love of the other in place of love of one's own is a sickness that needs to be addressed and treated. The father shows his son these ancient truths in a nuanced and sensitive way. He shows him that at no time in history has this multiculturalist experiment ever proved more successful than what is found in unified societies. He explains the horrors of multiculturalist Rwanda and Iraq and compares their fate to homogeneous societies like Iceland and Finland where there exist high degrees of sharing and caring for one's fellow citizen.

The father and son share a bond and realize how close to disaster and personal tragedy they both had come if they father had not been successful in extracting his son from the terrorist multiculturalist cell.

Fin.

 

[Alan Brash]

Don't think we're on the same page. Of course, European/white settlers in America were immigrants once too. There were native Americans living there who probably didn't take too kindly to immigrants coming and stealing not so much their jobs as their land.

 

[Rikurzhen]

Don't think we're on the same page. Of course, European/white settlers in America were immigrants once too. There were native Americans living there who probably didn't take too kindly to immigrants coming and stealing not so much their jobs as their land.

Yeah, but in the space of a few minutes I whipped up an original idea, not a caricature of boogey-men which artists use.

And the native Americans had genocided the pre-clovis cultures which had preceded their arrival from Beringia. So?

My point is this - the literary and artistic marketplace needs new ideas, new perspectives. Cliched villains and predictable stories don't hold the imagination. The reader knows exactly what to expect, what the proper values and lessons are, who the heroes and villains are and most literature and art is boring now because it's so full of lecturing about proper liberal values. It's like storytelling by the numbers. Three follows two, two follows one.

You do have me intrigued with your claim that you want to address racism in a nuanced and sensitive way. Popular YA literature is up to its eyeballs with racism themes. Thank god for school board budgets and liberal purchasing agents, for these stories really don't sell well when people have to put their own bucks on the table. Because we've all been raised with liberal propaganda we all already know the boilerplate bad things about racism, so what are you planning to do to highlight the positive aspects, to give racism a nuanced treatment? Maybe that's your key to avoid cliched and lecturing storytelling. I'm curious.

 

[Rotagilla]

"White supremacists"

I doubt any really exist, according to the definition of the word.
No one in their right mind wants to rule over blacks. Most intelligent white people just want to get AWAY from them.

...but you gotta push what sells...and americans have been conditioned to think that anyone who points out negro dysfunction is a "white supremacist" and "bad".

If you want to make money in entertainment in america, aim low...tailor your material for people with the mentality of a 12 year old...don't confuse them with complexities or nuance.

@Rotagilla - thanks for your feedback. The issues aren't really around black vs white as much as they're concerned with illegal immigrants and an extreme response to that issue. As I mentioned to the previous poster, there's undoubtedly been an upswing in far right political groups across Europe (including the UK) so I don't think it's that far-fetched - at least in an action/thriller - to suggest that a group of disaffected Americans might turn violent. (For what it's worth, various members of the law enforcement community aren't painted particularly favorably either!) Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Thank you for the polite reply.

Here's one thing you said that stood out to me;

....so I don't think it's that far-fetched - at least in an action/thriller - to suggest that a group of disaffected Americans might turn violent.

If you wanted to write a non fiction book that would get people's attention you could easily do it.

Rather than make up a fantasy story about white supremacists becoming violent....etc...take a look at black on white crime.

The FBI, DOJ, BJS and even the CDC have ACCURATE, PROVEN statistics concerning that problem.
Check out the thread in the "Race" forum. "The Plague of Black on White Crime".

There are 30 or 40 cases of REAL black on white crime just there.I add more every day...and there are thousands and thousands more occurring every day in america. Easy enough to find them.

Take 14 minutes of your time and look at REALITY.


I mean if you want to use the premise of a group of disaffected americans turning violent..

..but like I said...aim low and you'll definitely hit your target audience...add fuel to the fire...make up a story using racistrednecknazievilbigotKKKstormfront white people as the "bad guys"

Let me ask you this...since you need a villain in your story, why didn't you make them black panthers or
the black supremacist group 5% Nation for instance?

..but no...you need a white villain because bullshit sells...and money is more important than truth.

 

[Rotagilla]

Don't think we're on the same page. Of course, European/white settlers in America were immigrants once too. There were native Americans living there who probably didn't take too kindly to immigrants coming and stealing not so much their jobs as their land.

Incorrect.
The first settlers were colonists, not immigrants. There is a difference.
The native americans (who ALSO migrated here..from asia) were essentially living in the stone age (and slaughtered each other in intertribal wars) lets stop the "Noble Red Man" BS.
They had no organized system of gvt...no borders, no diplomats or contacts with other nations, no infrastructure, no established laws, and they captured and made slaves of their enemies.
Hate it for you, but in the real world stronger people always subjugate weaker ones...right, wrong..doesn't matter. Save all the hand wringing...That's how the REAL world operates.

"In actual operation, Nature is cruel and merciless to men, as to all other beings. Let a tribe of human animals live a rational life, Nature will smile upon them and their posterity; but let them attempt to organize an unnatural mode of existence, an equality elysium, and they will be punished even to the point of extinction."
~ R. Redbeard ~

The Ottomans colonized Greece
Go tell turkey to get out of Istanbul because they "stole it".
The muslims are colonizing europe right now..Go tell them to get out.
Japan colonized hundreds of islands, parts of China and Korea and nearly wiped out the Ainu
Go tell them to "get out".
The zulus in africa conquered the hottentots.
..etc...etc...etc...
Go look at La Raza and how they are purposely trying to colonize the southwestern u.s.
Read some of their statements and goals.
Go find a black supremacist website and read some of their rantings/threats...

Your selective outrage may fool some but not people who know history.

Why not just say "I'm writing some fiction and need to figure out a way to make white people the bad guys".