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This Makes Sense

The Late Dwayne McDuffie on Writing Minority Characters in Comics

by Susana Polo | 5:57 pm, May 24th

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Though Dwayne McDuffie died only early this year, the legacy of the characters he created and wrote in the DC  and Marvel universes remains dismal. A tribute issue created by many of the people who worked most closely with him will reach shelves next Wednesday, and I’ll certainly be giving DC my money for it not least because I enjoyed much of McDuffie’s writing in the DC Animated Universe and on the Static Shock show but only learned about his inspiring career after his death. He certainly knew a thing or two about how to write characters who weren’t white or male.

Static, arguably McDuffie’s most famous original character, though he exists in the DC universe, has not been used as a character for some years. An new ongoing Static series was announced in 2010, but delayed, and, post McDuffie’s death, canceled.

(via DC Women Kicking Ass.)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/annepackrat Anne Packrat Mathews

    I got to meet him at a con and talking with him was very cool.  I actually talked with him at length since it was essentially an anime con and few people were interested in the comic book guests.  Mr. McDuffie seemed amused by the whole thing.

  • Anonymous

    Damn. I really miss Dwayne. 

  • http://www.extremelydissatisfied.wordpress.com Adam R. Charpentier

    In this video, particularly, you can see how frustrated he was by the current trends in superhero comics, but he handles the subject with grace and a sense of humor. And he was so young!

  • Anonymous

    That’s my dude right there. He’s been my hero since I was picking up Milestone books. There was a really nice memorial for him at Golden Apple Comics days after he passed at what was supposed to be a signing with him. It was nice to be able to remember him with all the old Milestone creators and other black comic creators he touched. His absence is already apparent, though. He’ll be missed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=631195556 Erica Violet Lee

    It’s great to read this article and learn about his ideas. I’m just getting into comic book culture, and it was getting depressing already, seeing that every lead character is a white male and every female sidekick has a 2D personality with 3DDD boobs. Thank you, Dwayne, for lending a sister a hand.

  • Paco Taylor

    Thanks for posting this. I was reading “Black Panther” when Reginald Hudlin was writing it, and was really excited to learn that the X-Men’s Storm was going to be matched up against Thor in issue #25. The direction the story ultimately took, however, seemed like a complete cop-out, and disappointed me greatly me as a reader. Here McDuffie did a really great job of explaining not only the limitations faced by himself and his comic book writing peers, but how this culture’s race-dictated limitations play out heavily in fictional comic book worlds as well.