Thursday, October 19, 2006

"Scalped" creator discusses Native American comic book

We (Indigenous People) Should Tell Our Stories

"Scalped" is a new comic book line from Vertigo (part of the DC family). While the series creator, Jason Aaron, has the right idea about how presenting Indigenous characters within popular media (i.e., attempting to break racial stereotypes and present some dramatic action), I still maintain that we Native people should be creating the very comic books that represent us.

However, Aaron's mindset and heart might be in the right place. "Scalped" is due out in JAN '07.
Comic Book Resources - CBR News - The Comic Wire

Native Artist Effects Change in Online Artist Representation

Art and Culture

It is refreshing to see a Native American artists taking progressive steps with today's technology. It is true: do any search on "Native Art" and there are many websites that pop up...only some of which are actual Indigenous artists.

Perhaps it is time that Oklahoma Native Artists come together - digitally speaking, of course - to form an online clearing house for Internet users to view art and be assured that it is truly "Native" (and completely free of the "made in {insert Asian country here}" stickers that are sometimes seen on "Native American" art).
IR // News // Artist seeks to redefine genre

Monday, October 09, 2006

The Norman Transcript - Recent OU grad seeks to shatter stereotypes about Native American art

In The News

It's nice to get a little good press these days. This piece appeared in Pop magazine over the past weekend.
The Norman Transcript - Recent OU grad seeks to shatter stereotypes about Native American art

Excite News - 'Second Life' 3-D Digital World Grows

Life in 3D

While 2nd Life (yes, I know I am spelling it wrong) has been around for quite some time, it has only recently caught the attention of mainstream media. Perhaps this is due to it everygrowing popularity...more likely, it is due to the fact people make actual money inside this virtual world. Anytime there is money to be made, the news media is not far behind.

Not that there is anything wrong with making money.

However, as this article mentions, there are other important aspects to 2nd Life such as academic and simulation training. Given that 2nd Life is free (for basic membership), this can be a very cost effective forst step for individuals seeking advantages in simulation-based training scenarios.
...Or they could just hire me to create the virtual world for them. I'm cheap.
:)
Excite News - 'Second Life' 3-D Digital World Grows

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Chickasaw Adventures

Comic Book with Chickasaw Characters

This is a GREAT idea...and the art is well done.

This is a comic book that not only showcases a particular Native American culture (Chickasaw), but also demonstrates our "continuance" into modern times. In addition, members of the Chickasaw Nation were involved in the creation process to ensure authenticity within the images.

Every tribal nation should develop popular media such as this...just make sure the artist is on par with Tom Lyle's (artist for this comic book).
Chickasaw Adventures

Native Americans in Video Games

 

Native American Protagonists

There have been too few Indigenous characters in video games. Off the cuff, there are only a few video games with Native American characters that come to mind: Nightwolf from "Mortal Kombat 3", Chief Thunder from "Killer Instinct", T. Hawk from "Street Fighter", War Wolf from NES's "Werewolf", and Turok from (of course) "Turok".

Out of all those, Turok was the only one that depicted a Native central protagonist (main character)...and that was way back in the late 1990s.

We can now add one more title to this list.
PREY is the new kid on the video game block and it features an Indigenous central character at the helm. It is a first-person shooter (FPS) game with a lot of very sweet special effects and really big guns (RBGs) to use.

Indigenous Talent

Oh, one more thing... PREY goes one step further and uses actual Native Americans for its Native American parts. It is sad that this is a novel idea, but in video game media, this is a novel idea. Tommy, Prey's central character, is voiced by Michael Greyeyes, a Native actor, teacher, and dancer. In addition, he is joined by Crystle Lightning, who provides the voice of Jen, Tommy's girlfriend.

It's about time a video game with Indigenous people came out...I am getting tired of playing my same old version of Turok this whole time. We Native people need all the heroes we can get...it's good to see one prominently displayed in such a popular media as the video game industry.