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I have to admit, I always thought the Southern Knights series was an Australian production, but it turns out to be a superhero team from the southern United States. With the context of our contemporary problems, one might be able to see how that could go very wrong. But it doesn't. At least, not in those ways.
Our featured artist today is Joe Phillips, who cut his teeth on this series before moving over the Marvel and DC and gaining some mainstream success. But more importantly, to me at least, is that he also regularly contributes to queer comics publications, as Mr. Phillips himself is gay. *Gasp* A gay black man working in comics?!? But yes, it's true, and he's awesome. Today's issue is a very early example of his work, but if you have a look at his official site, linked there under his name, you'll see some more mature (in a couple of senses of the word) examples of his art, and it's beautiful. His "Pride" gallery is particularly lovely.
The stories in this issue bear a little individual consideration. The first, illustrated by Mr. Phillips is titled "Boys' Night Out." The two primary male-identifying members of the team are out on patrol and stop a woman from being assaulted. One thing I find very off-putting about some comics from the 70s and 80s is how cavalierly they used the threat of rape as a jumping off point for a story. It's not quite fridging, but it's definitely on the chilly side. And, literally, the woman is saved in the first two pages and disappears. But as the heroes depart, a Black man walking alone is attacked by a group of racists who almost beat him to death before Dragon and Electrode intervene. But then...in a twist that I think is wonderful and highly appropriate, the assaulted man asks that he be able to fight his attackers from a more even standpoint, and he ends up beating them down. As one of the racists tries to flee, claiming he doesn't want to fight, the heroes tell him he doesn't have the choice - much as our unnamed Black victim didn't have a choice. Dragon also threatens to eat the women who accompany the racists if they won't stop cheering their hateful companions. It's startling, the n-word being deployed liberally, but this 6-page story outlines so much of the toxic white masculinity that appears to run our society, and the way in which, I think, a superhero needs to respond to such things.
The second story, "Girls' Night Out," is a bit insulting. The boys combat sexual assault and bigotry. The girls go to a bar and learn how to flirt. *sigh*
The third story is about two assassins who are the only villains to elude the Southern Knights because they're so plain that no one ever notices them. Honestly, these are the characters I'm most invested in, and the reason I might track down more of the series.
Okay - it's June 17 today, and though I know the uprisings are still happening and still immanent, it's also Pride month and Mr. Phillips is the first queer artist I've highlighted this month. I think for the rest of the month, I'm going to spotlight more queer creators, and then I'll bounce back to Black creators for a while in July. I've also put together some cool reading lists of other POC creators, as well as a fair lot of comics by female-identifying creators. Much as I admire a lot of the white dudes who have produced amazing pieces of comics fiction, we've had our day, and it's time to make room for some of the other incredible stories that have been written, and are waiting to be written, by our visible, and not-so-visible, minority comrades.
More to follow.
Further Reading and Related Posts
I read one other piece by Mr. Phillips for the project which you can read about here.
And here's another comic from the same publisher, and interestingly I address in today's post one of the things I found concerning during the last. It's interesting how different posts in the project speak to each other.
