Graphic Policy Radio with Guest David F. Walker LIVE this Monday
Journalist, filmmaker, educator, comic book writer, and author, David F. Walker has had an amazing career and makes his first time appearance as a guest on Graphic Policy Radio. The show airs LIVE this Monday at 10pm ET.
Walker has been nominated for an Eisner Award for his work as the English language writer on the critically acclaimed manga series Tokyo Tribes, he is the author of the Young Adult series The Adventures of Darius Logan, and co-writer of the Dark Horse Comics series Number 13. Walker’s other work in comics includes Cyborg (DC), Shaft (Dynamite), The Army of Dr. Moreau (IDW/Monkeybrain), and The Supernals Experiment (Canon Comics). Next year he will be writing Power Man and Iron Fist for Marvel.
He’s a leading scholar and expert of African-American cinema and taught courses such as documentary filmmaking, writing for comics, and film criticism to youth through the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Northwest Film Center, Documentary Northwest, and Project Youth Doc.
We’ll be talking to Walker about the above and more and want to hear from you! Tweet us your questions @graphicpolicy.
Listen in live this Monday at 10pm ET.
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(sorry this got sorta long) First off I loved the podcast and almost snorted when David Walker mentioned neville (wholehearted agree). Second, I love how since Convergence came out you guys have been slipping the SSVicGar/CyBB into your podcast. I’m honestly really suprised that there was more people even going as far to ask David Walker that there should be a romance between the two.
(I mean like I’m there with the people wanting it but I also want Vic to finally have get with Sarah and have it be… ok? more than anything even especially because whatever history Vic and Gar is lost to the sands of continuinty. )
To answer some of your questions…(Theres a tl:dr at the bottom because i sorta rambled)
Only Garfield was in the Young Justice cartoon as a hero. I don’t think Vic ever was? He was in it but just as a football player. Some people ship it from the first cartoon and can see it in TTGo! (though TTGo! kinda … really messes with vic’s character in a way that veers to close to Racism even if the relationship between him and Garfield can get cute in that show) Though not really a lot?
Like more people seem to be into like SladexRobin than Beast BoyxCyborg? Honestly any Cyborg ship from Teen Titans is rather sorta unpopular since he gets relegated to a one note big brother character a lot from what I’ve sesen with very little focus on him. (When i was 13 I made a group on a fanfiction website to collect all of the good Cyborg fanfiction and like i still check up occasionally and it’s still rather…bleak)
I think a lot of people starting thinking it viable during the 2003-2011 Teen Titans because in it Cyborg and Beast Boy were acting as mentors to a newer group of young heros and it gets into the relationship between them? I mean like that run had it’s problems because … Vic Stone as a character like you guys covered in the podcast rarely gets the kind of writing he deserves and just the concepts applied to him reek of racism whether meaning to or not? Like there was a scene in comics where Vic’s human parts are completely offscreen except his head and the room is just head to toe his mechanichal parts just charging? And just it’s set up as such a unsettling,offputting and dehumanizing scene?
Personally I think for a lot of fans it was the JLA/Titans Technis Imperative was what sealed the deal. I like to joking call it alien robot Tam Lin because it involves a ‘I know you’re in there scene’ between Vic and Gar. (also between Dick and Vic but mainly Vic and Gar) and it’s actually one of the best ‘heros fighting heros’ storyline ive seen overall like… ever. The reasons why the JLA are fighting the Titans make sense, theres a net gain of characters and character relationships instead of an overwhelming net loss, plus it’s just a pretty solid read. There’s a ton of characters though and if you dont know titans and titans history the emotional impact will be less. But then I feel like if you want to start on the titans it might be good because if you see a character that seems interesting you can look into it maybe?
(also convergence caused a resurgence probably even with the ‘no homo full bromo’/’i love him like a brother’ line )
Tl;dr: It was actually the Teen Titans cartoon that might’ve gotten people to ship BBCy, since they didnt know each other in Young Justice. There were some later comics where Gar and Vic were older where mayber there wasn’t subtext exactly but it’s clear that they’re each others #1 in a lot of ways. Jla/Titans was a good book that deals with their relationship in a very heartfelt way.
Thanks for the info. I personally hadn’t watched the cartoons (obviously by the way I asked) so no idea which ones they were on, and they all kind of blend together. I seriously had no idea where it all came from.
And thanks for the kind words and listening!