A recent pointed superhero cartoon by Mike McCain (hat tip to Tim Evanson):
(#1)
The story of the cartoon, from the Comics Alliance site:
So many of the best Superman moments are truly moments, brief glimpses of the impossible made easy, and the right thing made real. One such glimpse is seen in Mike McCain’s new art print “… And The American Way,” recently made available for purchase in support of a very good cause.
The print is gorgeous in its simplicity; Superman as a lone splash of color, motion and power, smashing a hole through a giant wall, a physical manifestation of injustice and division, so that we might glimpse the better side of the promise of America in the form of the Statue of Liberty. The piece harkens to Superman’s immigrant past, his days as a hero for the dispossessed, and his roots as a champion of the marginalized, who is stronger than every system of oppression that might hold us back.
Superman isn’t real, but the creator of this print is following the character’s best example by donating all proceeds from sales of this print to the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, which fights to defend individual rights and liberties through the US court system, and currently has its hands very full trying to take on executive overreach.
Three pieces of background.
One, the obvious, from Emma Lazarus’s 1883 sonnet “The New Colossus”, on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty (depicted in #1):
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome…With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Two, from Superman: “I’m here to fight for truth, justice, and the American Way”; you can watch him say it in the 1978 film Superman here.
Three, from Frederick Douglass. Black History Month may be over, but Douglass is relevant all year long, and especially now:
(#2)
About the artist, from one of his websites:
Mike is a studio lead and creative director with independent developer Harebrained Schemes in Kirkland, Washington. He directed the studio’s critically-acclaimed cRPG Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and is currently heading up the development of BATTLETECH. He’s also contributed design and art direction for Strikefleet Omega, Shadowrun Returns, and Harebrained’s upcoming action-roguelike Necropolis. In his 7 or so years in the game industry, Mike has painted many things and contributed concept art, illustration, and graphic design work to a range of indie projects. He only has two cats.
He’s mostly a game designer, but he’s also an illustrato, cartoonist, and graphic designer.
Leave a Reply