Black Cartoons Matter

So my ability to focus on the stated mission of this blog has kind of been stifled by recent events. But I still want to use this tiny platform as a productive outlet!

I figured I'd highlight some of my favorite Black animators and producers. Cartoons offer a way to open yourself up to different points of view, and I really believe that something special happens in your brain when you give your empathy to a drawing. I think it can help children and adults practice empathy in the real world!

But I should acknowledge that this post is mostly for myself. Engaging in the effort to compose this helps me stay conscious in what I hope is a productive way. And it's just fun to sort through the social media of all these people whose work I admire and see the amazing art they draw in their free time (and the activism they're doing!!).

Anyway, celebrating and promoting Black people in the industry at all levels, from story boarders and revisionists to showrunners to executives, will open up opportunities to tell more rich and sensitive stories centered around Black people. And I think that's one important step to dismantling systemic racism. So if nothing else (but hopefully also A LOT else), follow some Black artists on Instagram and Twitter and wherever they post!

But first, if you want a much bigger and more organized resource for finding Black artists, check out Annabelle Hayford's #drawingwhileblack directory.

Anyway, here's my little list of creators I like -

Ian Jones-Quartey

He's just great! He's worked on some of my absolute favorite series -- The Venture Bros., Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. He's also the creator of OK KO! Let's Be Heroes!, which wrapped up last fall.

 

I also learned today that Ian's grandmother, Theodosia Okoh, designed Ghana's national flag!! She partially inspired the character Nanefua Pizza on Steven Universe. Amazing. <3 #nanefua2020

Twitter

LeSean Thomas

He's done so much it's hard to even summarize, but you should watch the opening sequence to his Netflix original Cannon Busters!! Tell me you don't get chills! The song alone is such a bop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPY1PjEo5M

See also - The Boondocks, Black Dynamite, and Legend of Korra

Instagram

Twitter (which is suspended at this time for some reason but I swear it was up just yesterday...)

Aaron McGruder

Speaking of The Boondocks, this is the guy who created the original comics and the animated series!! It's great stuff. I first watched it when I was way too young (and too holed up in my white community) to get it, but it really stuck in my mind so it had to be something special. Watched it again in college and am planning to re-watch it again soon. It's also getting a reboot on HBO Max which is supposed to air in fall 2020! 

Aaron's not really active on social media... so just watch The Boondocks!!

Peter Ramsey

Did you see Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse?? You gotta see it!!! This guy co-directed it! This movie is not only a revolution in animation, but also just incredible storytelling at its core. Please please watch it!

Twitter

Chase Conley

I feel like people haven't been talking nearly enough about Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts on Netflix. It's so good and fun and sweet!! I'm still not over the Newton Wolves Rap (ft. GZA). 

Anyway, Chase Conley directed about half the episodes in season 1! Season 2 is premiering on June 12th, so get caught up ASAP!!

By the way, I just discovered that he's also working on the Boondocks reboot so that's fun. :) And his art on social media is particularly cool.

Twitter

Instagram

Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver

Director/Writer and Co-Producer of Hair Love!!! Did you watch it??? Go watch it!

Matthew's Twitter (very active and very good)

Karen's Instagram

Najja Porter and Dashawn Mahone

Story boarders on Craig of the Creek!! Highly suggest watching this show - it's cute and imaginative and feels very grounded in love. <3 Meet Craig's family here! I definitely didn't cry the first time I watched that. 

Also you can see a ~behind-the-scenes~ conversation with them and Head Writer Jeff Trammel here!

I particularly love Najja's personal projects. Check it out!

Najja's Instagram

Najja's Twitter

Dashawn's Twitter

Dashawn's Instagram

Lamar Abrams

Very talented story boarder for Steven Universe and Craig of the Creek!! Also the voice of Buck Dewey on SU -  an icon. I don't really have much to say except check out his work plz.

Twitter

OKAY! This is by far the most effort I've put into any post yet and I didn't even dig very deep. But to sum up, here are some shows and movies I think you should watch that are centered around Black characters and created by Black people.

- Hair Love

- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

- Craig of the Creek

- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

- The Boondocks

- Cannon Busters

Thanks for reading! And let me know if you enjoy any of these recommendations. :) I'll probably publish another list like this again soon, because like I said - I barely scratched the surface here.

change of plans - we're gonna talk about grief today

    I'm lucky to have only experienced a few significant instances of loss in my life.

    The first was probably in my sophomore year of college, when a student who was very close to some of my best friends died by suicide. His was the fourth suicide on campus in one year. I would hate to diminish the personal grief that the people who knew him well experienced, but it really felt like the whole community was grieving, too. I remember barely sleeping for a couple days straight, and walking over to my friend's dorm in the middle of the night to hold each other and cry.

    The second happened about a year later, when my wonderful friend and former roommate, Anne, died in a car accident. She had just graduated, and was biking across the country with a group that fundraised for/built affordable housing. She and another rider were hit by a car in Idaho. It really sucked, and I think about her all the time.

    Our family dog, Reba, just passed away this spring. We got to spend over a decade with her. Right around the same time, my grandpa's health started to decline significantly. He passed away early this morning. (By the way, I've always called him Paw Paw so that's what you'll see from here on out.)

    There's lots of media that talks about grief in really meaningful ways, but The Midnight Gospel immediately comes to mind -- especially because I just watched it last week. If you haven't checked it out yet, I'd recommend starting from episode 4. If you feel confused and overwhelmed, that's how you'd feel for the first 3 episodes, too, so don't worry about it. But anyway, the basic conceit of the show is that much of the audio is lifted from co-creator Duncan Trussel's podcast interviews, with Pendleton Ward and his team animating another, somewhat related story on top of that. It all feels pretty disjointed for a while, but the show eventually fleshes out its main character and his world; then it gets SO INTROSPECTIVE and SO GOOD. Here's a trailer!

    The last episode is a conversation between Duncan and his mother, Deena, recorded in 2013. At the time, she was dying from stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. I'll let you know now -- I was sobbing for about half the episode (but trying to be quiet about it so my brother sitting right next to me could still enjoy the show lol). It honestly touched me so much that it's hard to organize my thoughts around it, but that's why we're here so I will try to push through!!

     I guess the moments that I keep coming back to as I think about Paw Paw are these:

  

image source

    Duncan and his mom are discussing her death, and she points out that if you look at the world around you, things appear and disappear all the time. I read this as talking about other organisms, too, but also like mountains, rivers, entire planets, stars, what have you. But she says that we, as humans with egos, personalize that. We like to believe that we're special exceptions, but we're just a part of that whole, and everything that makes us up will be transfigured into something new when we're gone. Then -- I'll just quote the show directly:

    Duncan: No, I know there's transfigur-, I know, I know, I know, but come on. There's no way                    to stop the heartbreak. How do you... What do you do about that?

    Deena: You cry! You cry.

I've done a lot of crying in the past day.

image source

    Shortly after, the two transform from humans into mostly amorphous beams of light, drifting through space together. They talk about how death is an encounter with truth. It breaks us out of our usual "automatic" way of thinking, where we tend to assume that everything is stable, and awakens us to the reality that we discussed earlier - that the world around us is always changing and we are a part of that.

    They say that the truth - it breaks your heart open. And it hurts. But when you inquire into that hurt, you find that it's love ("the real deal", as Deena says.) It's there because you love others deeply, and because you love life.

    I really believe that. I think it's somewhat common to think about living for the dead after their gone, and to honor their memory by carrying some of their best qualities in yourself. And I think that's healthy and good, but I also think that the hurt you feel - and the love you feel - means that you were already carrying them with you to begin with. And just trying your best to keep living with your heart open is all you need to do.

    Not sure if that all made sense, but it felt right to me.

    I love you, Paw Paw. <3

stolen from my brother's very good blog

it's my brain!

Okay. Hi! 

    I wanted to start this blog because, basically, I've had mental health issues in my past and present. I haven't really said much about those experiences outside of talking to professionals and some of the people I'm closest to. I thought maybe writing on paper (or computer, as it were) might help me process some of those issues. And it might help make some other people who struggle with these same issues feel less alone.

    But anyway, I didn't just wanna write down "when I was 17 I realized I was really depressed and then when I was 19 I got depressed again (and again and again at many ages) and also I'm socially anxious all the time!!11!" I want to look at how I've learned to navigate my brain and am starting to cope better through cartoons! 

source

    I think the visual language of cartoons and the emotional honesty that often comes along with kids' programming has been really helpful for me (and could be valuable for other people, too). So I'm going to be using this space to explore my favorite cartoons and how they've helped me understand my own brain. And maybe I'll help some people recognize feelings in themselves that are hard to understand!

    I'm going to start with the most recent season of Steven Universe -- Steven Universe Future -- because while watching it, I was really reminded of how I felt when I was 16 or 17, and getting ready to "be an adult". Essentially, that's where our story begins, so look forward to that coming soon!

    If no one reads this, that'd be fine, but hopefully some people will read it and I'll get some nice feedback. Also, maybe people will learn some stuff about me that they didn't know before. I've been very ashamed of some of the things that I've been through and hid a lot of it. So I hope you'll come along on this adventure in overcoming shame!

Cool.