This weekend, I was noodling the notion that unemployment in the Mega-City One (where Judge Dredd lives) is usually cited in the 90% range and that citizens are given what amounts to universal basic income (although I'm pretty sure it's never expressly called that).

I'm curious, though, about the details of how things are set up. I was talking with Jamie Gambell about this on Twitter, and he noted there's some references to people being on welfare in "The Chief Judge's Speech" (in prog #2011 circa 2010) but I'd like to see what details are actually specified in the comics. I haven't really read much Judge Dredd since the 1980s, so I'm definitely rusty in my Dredd knowledge, but I'd appreciate it if any experts can point me to (or even scan!) any stories that talk specifically to how the unemployed citizens of Mega-City One get their income.

Thanks!

Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: If only...

http://ift.tt/2CytcqE

Kleefeld on Comics: On History: Malibu Commercials
http://ift.tt/2lFiNlJ

Kleefeld on Comics: Weekly Comics Links
http://ift.tt/2E11ySQ

FreakSugar: Webcomics Wednesday: You Need Paper?

http://ift.tt/2E05u6b

Kleefeld on Comics: On -isms: Sean's Swap Challenge Redux
http://ift.tt/2CRrNLX

Patreon: MTV Geek Classic: Kleefeld on Webcomics #60: Social Commentary

https://t.co/geK7cq5sNS

Kleefeld on Comics: On Strips: Old School McGruder Interview
http://ift.tt/2EciAxd

I came across a 45 minute Washington Journal interview with Aaron McGruder. What's interesting is that it aired on July 5, 1999, only a little over two months after the strip debuted nationally. So it was well before Boondocks became as popular as it was. McGruder notes that it's only in about 200 papers at the time of this interview (with the caveat he also notes that dailies and Sundays are counted separately). McGruder's does not seem very comfortable speaking on live TV and much of his personal confidence as a well-known cartoonist personality hasn't really developed yet. Just a fascinating time capsule of the environment Boondocks launched in.

Here's an experiment I proposed several years back. I have yet to see anyone take this challenge up, so I thought I'd present it (slightly modified to update contemporary references) here again.

Is there anything in the original Star Wars trilogy that necessitates any given character being a certain race or gender? I can't think of anything. Obi-Wan and Yoda could have been female. Vader could have been Luke's mother. Even the Han/Leia romance could easily be portrayed by either two men or two women. Everything you think of as masculine or feminine in those movies is strictly a social construct, and it would be no problem at all to do color-blind casting since all ties to what we think of as racial identity are effectively null and void in a galaxy far, far away.

That got me thinking about how things are portrayed in comics. (Actually, everything pretty much gets me thinking about comics!) There are a lot of the same types of issues in mainstream comics. So what would happen if you took an existing comic book story -- particularly something really well-known -- and gender/race swapped characters randomly? Any number of fan artists have shown what famous characters might look like if they were gender/race swapped, but that doesn't carry the thought all the way to its natural conclusion.

There have been a number of stories where characters were gender-swapped already. The most famous example I can think of offhand is Archie #636 from several years ago. But, by and large, the writers here (and on the others) were quite conscious of the gender-swapping and specifically wrote the books to that effect. So readers are given a very consciously skewed version of the characters.

That's why I'd be more interested to see some existing stories swapped. Keep the dialogue and layouts and everything exactly as they were done originally, but simply swap the specifics of the illustrations themselves. The Galactus Trilogy, The Dark Phoenix Saga, The Killing Joke, The Death of Superman... what would these stories look like if everything were exactly the same, except characters' races and genders were assigned randomly? Again, exact same dialogue, exact same actions, exact same layouts; just swap out the visuals of the character designs.

I think this would be a fascinating and enlightening experiment. Rather than letting the writer consciously or subconsciously play to stereotypes, this approach would force readers to directly and honestly confront their notions of gender and racial identity. Why does Mrs. Fantastic sound like an utter bitch when Mr. Fantastic just came off as a bit gruff? Is Gene Grey's destruction of the D'Bari less heinous than when Jean Grey did it? Is Commissioner Jane Gordon excessively worried about her son's capture, given that he had already proven himself capable enough to fight alongside Batwoman? Does Superwoman's fight against Doomsday seem needlessly absurd now? (Well... even more needlessly absurd!)

In most race and gender swapping experiments, we're still stuck with preconceptions developed over years, if not decades, of social conditioning of what a person should/shouldn't act like based on their gender or race. Writers and artists, consciously or not, play to those stereotypes and present readers with (typically) one man's idea of what women would be like if they had masculine traits. By eliminating that aspect of the equation, and we pretend the original writer was simply writing from a gender/race neutral position, we can see how those stereotypes are often inadvertently catered to.

So here's my challenge. I would like to see someone go through some famous comic story, and randomly assign a gender and race to each character. Then recreate the story exactly as it was originally presented, but using the newly assigned race/gender for everybody. Yup, it would be a lot of work but it would spark one hell of a discussion, one that we haven't had yet!

• At The Atlantic, Shaan Amin talks about how India's Amar Chitra Katha comics reinforced many forms of intolerance and, despite some changes, continue to do so.
• Over at Huffington Post, Vamsee Juluri disputes several of Amin's fundamental points.
• (And can I just stop a moment to say how amazing it is that we have here two notable American outlets debating Indian comics in public? They're not just talking about comics; they're talking about comics that the vast majority of Americans who like comics have never even heard of!)
  
  

One of the things I used to hear was that television advertising simply didn't work for comics. Between the internet and digital recording, it certainly wouldn't work now, but up through the 1990s at least, there was something of a debate on whether TV spots could help sell more comics. On the one hand, you had people saying there was simply an issue with awareness and commercials would go a long way to letting the viewing public know that comics were still out there and could be found at local comics shops. On the other hand, you had people saying, "Look, Marvel had daily, half-hour, subsidized commercials for G.I.Joe and Transformers (in the guise of cartoons) and those didn't move the needle appreciably. Why would you think a 30 second spot is going to work?"

Malibu Comics tried a few spots anyway when they launched their Ultraverse line. I don't have sales data to show how much these commercials impacted the purchase of Ultraverse comics, but I think "none at all" is a safe bet. But, here, judge how persuasive these are for yourself...

It Was Only A Dream by Winsor McCay circa 1903-05.