Saturday, July 25, 2009

Reprazent

For weeks I have been intending to write about the cover of Strange Angels by Lili St Crow, and make a comment about how often cover models don't match the characters inside books. In this case, the tangle-haired Glamazon cover model looks nothing like the fabulously grouchy, dirty, pimply, bruised, tomboyish Dru Anderson that lives inside. But I'm going to let that slide. Because a related brouhaha has arisen over the US cover for Justine Larbalestier's Liar, which features a white girl coyly hiding behind her hair; a strange choice by her publishers when the main character describes herself as nappy-haired and African American. 

There has been a proliferation of blog posts, statements and opinions about the issue of race and book covers, all of which make thought-provoking and important reading. No doubt there are countless PhD's to be written on the subject. Justine Larbalestier's original post is here, and fellow YA author E.Lockhart has also described her own cover struggles, with the conclusion (which I second), that publishers need to be braver. Anecdotally, I think that (white) people's reluctance to buy `ethnic' book covers may be overstated slightly; a good seller at my work is Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson, which I am pleased to see often in the hands of teenage boys who definitely cannot identify themselves on the cover. 

So I'm going to drop my cover discussion, as it is already being discussed rigorously elsewhere, with far more eloquence than I can muster and on far more critical grounds than Glamazon vs. tomboy. But some of the comments made about the Liar cover have made me think about the issue of representation on book shelves. Larbalestier herself made the point that black teens are hardly going to feel welcome in the YA section of a bookstore/library if all the covers feature white teens. 

I've blogged before about Adrian Tomine's work, and how comforting I find it to see Asian faces depicted in his work. I don't need all the books I read to have Asian themes or covers or characters (in fact, I'm used to the majority not being so), but it is nice to stumble across someone who resembles myself occasionally. Everyone likes to see themselves represented on the pages of a novel. It might be their experiences or emotions represented, or it might be their appearance, racial identity or sexual orientation. I think this is particularly important in the teenage years, when identity feels like a very fluid and confusing concept, that needs to be explored, experimented with and in some cases battled.  

I was very interested in JJ's post on the matter (which I stumbled across in a very roundabout fashion via a comment on a Twitpic), not least because she had a slightly different reaction to the cover than others, and because we share a similar ethnic background (half-Asian, raised in a mostly whitebread fashion). JJ feels most drawn to books which are `incidentally' ethnic, and I think my preference falls in line with hers. Which is not to say that there isn't a place for books that place ethnicity and race and racial identity very firmly at the centre of the action. 

The one thing that really discomfited me in Strange Angels was the Eurasian character, Graves. I should be pleased about my kind being in there, right? Yet I felt uncomfortable with the constant references to Grave's appearance and ethnicity. Repeated references to the`epicanthic folds' of his eyes and the `ethnic boy'  just felt plain awkward, and at times, a bit - I struggle for a word here - rude? blunt?  I wondered whether perhaps there's a cultural difference between the words Americans and Australians use to denote race? In any case, writers no doubt constantly visualise their characters and have very clear ideas on appearance and ethnicity. How to indicate that subtly in their prose is a very difficult, and probably quite thankless, task.  

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Hannah


Hannah took Mr Dino and Master Robot to Ulan Bataar to great effect. Robot looks scared to be in Mongolia; Dino just can't wait for that sweet, sweet souvlaki. She certainly did exemplary work with, uh whatever computer program it is that you use to colour in. What technomological prowess!


Genevieve


Genevieve (who I suspect may be related to G-Awesome) presented a very appealing dinosaur in many shades of brown. The addition of various types of body and facial hair (moustache, chest hair, snail trail) added to the realism, and the leopard-print g-string protected the modesty of the aforementioned dino nicely. The robot though, it must be said, looks mighty psychotic. 

Nicci


Nicci wins the award for best use of teal feathered mohawk on a dinosaur. She did some excellent work with paint, glitter, texta and pencil. I'm not sure why we were in the Philippines, but the horny factory robot was a nice touch. As was the spilt martini. As was the poor milk-drinking dinosaur's rejection by the vegan community. An excellent all-round colouring package. 

Anon


Anon demonstrated a strong commitment to a complex visual language of leopard print, cut-out technique, cryptic textual codes - and a complete lack of colouring in. Compelling. Mysterious.

G-Awesome (real name...?)


G-Awesome's entry was a riot of colour and glitter and I believe I can almost smell the martinis on it. Anorexic, psychedelic, apron-wearing, Kiss-tongue-toting dinosaur on a flying carpet, uhhh, tears falling from sky, bow-tied robot, ummm, let's just leave it at that. 

Natasha


Natasha's entry was very firmly in what I call the `trad classic' school of colouring in. Strong use of colour, shading, blending, contrast, and always neatly within the lines. Assured, contained, classic - somewhat like the lady herself. Her canny choice of colours to create a juxtapostion between the living, organic dinosaur, and the metallice, non-organic robot evidences her strong theme of opposition of nature and science. 

Kara (entries x 3, only 1 shown here)


Kara's entries demonstrated the joyous lack of attention span that should be present in all good colouring in. She has a certain got-bored-in-the-middle-of-this-section-and-just-stopped technique. However her entries had liberal application of glitter, stamps, paddlepop sticks, fur, toothpicks, and other accoutrement, testament to a strong artistic vision of `more is definitely more.' 

Emah


Emah displayed a very controlled colouring in technique, and we must be nice to her because she is of no fixed abode. 

I believe she provides the best example of Solid Block of Colour, which is the colouring-innering equivalent of Wall of Sound. 

Esther


The only entrant to work predominantly in paint, Esther's innovative potato stamp technique, created what I thought was very realistic mottled technicolour dinosaur skin. 

Winner of the foot category (no actual prize awarded)


Tim.
The rocket.
Why?

Runner-Up


The runner-up in any competition, especially Miss Universe, occupies the worst position in the placings. So close! So far! At least in this case Hank can cry foul that no one understands his revisionist anarchic colouring-innering style. That the judge clearly felt constrained by the boundaries of conventional colouring-innering, and in fact was AFRAID OF HIS ART.

Hank was low on actual application of solid blocks of colour, but high on crossbones, death trance, peg leg, and a jacket I'd really like to own if only it existed beyond the realm of paper. Very piratey. 

Congratulations Hank! 

And the winner is...


Belinda, who possibly could be disqualified for being a professional artiste, if anyone wishes to file a formal protest, elite-sports-style. 

Belinda's entry demonstrates all the hallmarks of truly masterful colouring-innerering: use of every colour in her pencil case, extreme coverage of surface area, variety of technique, and obsessively compulsive attention to detail. 

Her compelling manifesto: `Won't, want, wank, bank' certainly didn't hurt. 

Congratulations Belinda! 

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Judgement Day

Hello friends,

I have been quite slack, and so have you. Y'all are express posting last-minute colouring in entries to me! And I have failed to judge - yet. But I will be judging all entries this weekend via a rigorous three-stage process, involving multiple criteria and a complex, um, what's that thing you do when you fit scored onto a curve? That thing. And a bottle of whisky. Or at least a few stolen nips of Andrew's whisky. Standby for judgement. 

L