The diversity in comics thing is interesting in that I think of the attention the lack of women in comics pretty regularly gets (see all of the articles, blog posts, and comic show panels), but I think about all of the comics shows I have attended and all of the comics creators with whom I am generically familiar, and I think African-Americans might be a more under-represented minority actually! Comics has a good handful of Asian-Americans (Pop Mhan, Jo Chen, and the Luna Brothers are locals, in fact)…there is no shortage of Jewish contributors, at least historically…and the aforementioned Women category continues to show slow but steadily increasing footprint, certainly if you consider alternative and manga publishers. But successful African-Americans seem to be few and far between. Locally, I can only think off the top of my head of Ron Wilson (of the Baltimore area), who was a big creator at Marvel in the 70s. Maybe I’m missing someone, but that topic would probably be an interesting panel all by itself.

Just thinking aloud. Hopefully, I’ll see you kids next time!

I don’t think there’s some big conspiracy to keep women and minorities off panels (especially this one) but I do think with all the women in the audience (and although it was a small audience, it was still fairly ethnically diverse), it was worth noting and I’m glad she did it.

I think even though comics has become more and more open, there’s still a sense it’s a boys’ club, whether it’s true or not. And while I’m not a fan of diversity for diversity’s sake, I do think it’s a good thing to stop and think about why it so often default to white & male with these sorts of things.

And I think the panel was pretty cool — I liked the range of interests and styles on display there. It was absolutely welcoming and comfortable.

The DC Library is going to put the panel up as a podcast at some point.