I have never heard the word "propagandistic" before. Still and all, is his work really less propaganda-tastic than, oh, the Green Lantern books, which are all about imposing a uniform system of laws and values and moral absolutes on vastly different cultures and societies? I feel like a lot of the time when an author is up front about their politics, people jump straight to "OMG PROPAGANDA", although Tobocman doesn't emphasize his own anarchism very much at all in his work and even makes it a point of talking about the different politics of all the people he meets. Which is more than most mainstream writers do. Think about all the weird sexual politics and shit that are in superhero comics - not to mention the moral absolutism in comics like Batman, the emphasis on American=Good that you get from Superman, and so on, and so on. It's still propaganda, it's just less honest about it.
I guess I get a little defensive of Tobocman's work, admittedly, because I really like it and it spoke to me on a lot of levels. I think that when it comes to the kind of politics that arise out of desperation, of being absolutely dehumanized at every turn like a lot of squatters were and are, you can... well, you can disagree, but it just rings hollow to me, because you don't actually know.
HOLY FUCK TANGENT. Perhaps e-mail would be better! And yay, some issues. There's a specific issue I'm thinking of, but I can't remember what number it was - it doesn't really matter, and we can talk more about it when you've read some because I don't want to completely spoil the series for you. But thanks!
OH, and re: Ostrander, SHIT. I hadn't heard that. That sucks. He's one of the best mainstream comics writers around, and one of the most decent, kind people in comics, period.
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Date: 2009-07-25 04:23 am (UTC)I guess I get a little defensive of Tobocman's work, admittedly, because I really like it and it spoke to me on a lot of levels. I think that when it comes to the kind of politics that arise out of desperation, of being absolutely dehumanized at every turn like a lot of squatters were and are, you can... well, you can disagree, but it just rings hollow to me, because you don't actually know.
HOLY FUCK TANGENT. Perhaps e-mail would be better! And yay, some issues. There's a specific issue I'm thinking of, but I can't remember what number it was - it doesn't really matter, and we can talk more about it when you've read some because I don't want to completely spoil the series for you. But thanks!
OH, and re: Ostrander, SHIT. I hadn't heard that. That sucks. He's one of the best mainstream comics writers around, and one of the most decent, kind people in comics, period.