It’s true, and the only explanation I can give is that I started this comic about 4-5 years ago (I was planning it back in my college years at SCAD.) This is what I was referring to yesterday when I mentioned that poor planning made my characters too homogenous.
Although many other elements of my story were critiqued and edited during my comic scripting class, nobody ever mentioned stuff like, “Don’t you think it’s a bit odd to have an all-white cast?” or “Have you ever thought about actually researching this culture before making a story entirely based on stereotypes?” Which is a real shame, because these questions are important and should have been addressed.
I talk about social justice a lot now, but I hadn’t been exposed to it much until i joined Tumblr only a few years ago. And by the time I realized there was a real lack of racial diversity in “Sister Claire,” it was too late to re-write it, I had already been posting the comic for 2 years. Another part of the problem is that a lot of the cast started as one-shot characters who were homages to something else (mostly anime/manga, which have few people of color). Then these characters became recurring, which resulted in a really white cast.
If I could go back, there are definitely things I would change. Now I have to do the best with what I have, and I am planning to include a lot more varied characters in the next part of the story, which takes the Claire out of the tiny abbey and into the wider world.
In a way, I’m glad that I didn’t include many POC until I started actually educating myself about things like cultural appropriation and whitewashing, because at least now I’m more aware of the issues I need to keep in mind and how to avoid dangerous misrepresentations. (I’ll never be an expert, and I’m sure I WILL still make mistakes, but I’m going to do my best to avoid them and listen when people tell me something is problematic.)
As far as the POC you’re referring to, I assume you mean Sister Jackson. She’s actually going to become a very important character very soon, but I can’t elaborate too much without spoiling. Here’s a little teaser:
Also, I mentioned earlier that there are plans for a Muslim character, who I have particularly enjoyed researching for. She’s going to be pivotal (and a big idol of some of the main characters.) I’m hoping to add a few other Muslim characters as well, but she’ll be the main one.
There are also several characters I’ve designed who I still haven’t worked out exactly HOW they will appear in the comic (they were originally designed for a project that was dropped) but I do plan on bringing them into “Sister Claire.”. These are some concepts that aren’t final, but may eventually be worked into the story:
tl;dr: Yes, I realize my cast is pretty homogenous, it’s the result of bad planning and ignorance on my part when I initially conceived the story. I will be including more POC soon. =)
Also, my other comic project, “Nightingale,” is set in Amsterdam and stars a blind white Dutch girl, her deaf African-American/Dutch cousin, and a Filipina/Dutch popstar. It’s a long ways off from being published (we still have a lot of research to do before we can start it) but I’m really looking forward to working on it. =)
