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Ind igeno us Comics in the U nited StatesTony ChavarriaFrom May 2 008 through January 200g, the Museum of Indian Arts and Cu lture in SantaFe, New Mexico, featured the exhibition Com ic Art Indigne: Where Comics and theIndigenous Meet, which considers how storytelling has been used by comics and comic-inspired art to express the contemporary Native A merican experience. The exhibition iscurrently at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. (throughMay ji). The following is adapted from the exhibition materials and presented with thepermission of the Museum of Indian Arts and C ulture.

As an art form, comics are poorly under-stood, underanalyzed, and underutiliied.Created to be disposable yet widely read,comics are often dismissed as primitive and juve-nile. Nevertheless, a generation of Native artistshas embraced comics as an expressive medium.It is only natural that this marginal art appeals tooft-marginalized indigenous people, for both have

been regarded as a primitive and malignant pres-ence on the American landscape.

Like American Indian cultures, comic art isamazingly complex and adaptive. As the firstwidely accessible mass m edium , comics were con-sumed by Indian people as a recognizable form ofstorytellingexpressing cultural sfories throughpictures. Indian artists articulate idenfity, politics.

ABOVE M ar ty T wo BullsSr. (Oglala Lakota). Mr .Diabetes, 2004, ink onboard, courtesy of the a

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Tony Chavarrla is Curatorof Ethnology at Santa Fe'sMuseum of Indian Arts &

Culture (www.miaclab.org), a premier repositoryof Native art and material

culture Ihat tells the storiesof the people of the U.S.

Southwest from prehistorythrough contemporary

art. He was the inauguralgar Fellow a l the Schoolof American Research in

cultural /exhibit consultantfor several universities and

museums.

and culture using the unique dynamics of comicart. This is a new world of American Indian art,full of the brash excitement first seen on new sprinta century agosometimes unrefined, often con-sidered crude , but never sterile.

Shared Aspects of Comicsand Native ArtIn American Indian cultures, art lives in theeveryday, as part of the mund ane and metaphysi-cal. Art tells stories, reinforces beliefs, petitionsthe supernatural, and balances the universe. ThusNative art, without the aid of a written languagein most instances, developed as a unique visualcommunication system; symbols float, merge,separate, and repeat, creating unique layers ofmeaning accessible to individuals, families, clans,and villages, each reading elements within theirown understanding.

Comic art also developed its own uniquedialogue. Figures and backgrounds are reducedto the basics as a result of reproduction on news-print. Word balloons and visual effects such asmotion lines, impact stars, sound effects, andsweat dro ps drive the story in three panels or less.Newspapers and newsstands offered humor andadventure in dazzling color ready to be devouredand discarded. It is an art for the masses, of anyage, gender, or background.

The audiences, messages, and media of com-ics and Native art have contributed to theirstrange aspects. Although at first deposited inethnic or cultural categories, art's unstable mol-ecules smashed superficial boundaries to becomeanthropological texts, social commentary, com-mercial enterprise, and, ultimately, fine art. Theimpact of Native and comic art on Americanculture is fantastic.

Indian Artists Making ComicsAs Native artists began working in "nontradi-tional" mediums such as easel paintings, murals,and works on paper, it was a natural step that

some of these emerging artists would delve intothe medium of comics. Since the 1940s, AmericanIndian artists have worked in all aspects of comicart, including comic strips, single-panel cartoons,editorial cartoons, and comic books.

With few exceptions. Native artists' explo-rations in comic art are still informed by theircultural background. Stories are woven from theindigenous experience in a postcolonial world.Issues of identity, representation, Wellness, andself-determination are constant themes in thework produced by these artists. Using the meth-odology of comics and cartooning, problematictopics can be examined under cover of a quicklaugh or an action-packed adventure.

In Mr. Diabetes {see previous page), Marty TwoBulls offers a vivid statement on the diabetesepidemic in Natve American populations. Theblue marks visible on Mr. Diabetes are from ablue pencil. As blue pencil lines do not reproduc eusing mechanical reproduction, they are used byartists to lay out a piece before inking w ithout theworry of stray lines appearing on the publishedart. The blue pencil also was the tool of choicefor the editor, to the degree that to "blue pencil"something became a synonym for deleting orcensoring.

I V^or[d Literature Today

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PREVIOUS PAGE Douglas Miles (San Carlos Apache /Ak ime l O 'Odham), Speedy Skato, 2006, acry l ic on7-ply map iewood , f rom the Co l le r t ion o f Warne rBros, Consumer Products

THIS PAGE Diego Rom ero (Co chiti Pueblo ), LestTyranny Triumph, 2004, ink on paper, courtesyof the art ist

Comic Art as the SourceContemporary Indian artists have grown up underthe inspirational tutelage of M artinez, Lewis, Can-non, Houser, and Velardejust to name a fewyet they also grew u p absorbing the likes of Kirby,Ditko, Steranko, Crum b, and Los Bros Hernan dez.Native artists recognize the power of culturalsymbols to speak about their past, present, andfuture.

Raised East of the L.A. River, Speedy (Skater)Skato (facing page) lives and thrive s in the concretemetropolis. He is proud of his culture, history,and city. He is able to become one with his envi-rorunent through skateboarding. Pesky cats waiton every comer to escort him off the premises,but this does not deter him in his quest for skatemastery, His battle is threefold: society, whichviews him as a pest; gravity, which would holdhim down; and pesky cats, who try to eat himfor lunch in between doughnut breaks. He is the

best-unknown skater out on the streets (written byDouglas Miles).

In Lest Tyranny Triumph {this page), based ona full-page drawing by Jack Kirby from an issueof The Mighty Thor, Diego Romero's fine exampleof "iilo-drama" blends the art of the Mimbres,the Greeks, and Lee & Kirby into somethingdistinctive.

Just as their ancestors did, Indian artiststoday use tradition as a foundation mixed withoutside influences to comment on their world andlifeways. The works created are not comics, buttheir insidious influence is seen. Using the con-ventions of comic art, such as its hyperdynamismand raw absurdities. Native artists are reclaimingstereotypes of their art, culture, and environ-ment, stretching them beyond recognition andtransforming the standard expectations of what isIndian art. H

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Editorial note: For more this topic, see the reviewMichael Sheyahshe's NaAmericans in Comic Booon page 77 of this issue

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