Miscellaneous Mondays: ECCC Round-up Part 2

“This year, the geek community’s strained relationship with diversity came to a head. Conflicts over exclusion, identity politics, and what makes a “real” geek have exploded into the mainstream media. Creators, curators, community leaders, and critics on the front lines examine the fight over geek identity and barriers to diversity in geek communities and media; and propose concrete steps toward a diverse and inclusive geek culture. Join industry leaders Rachel Edidin, David Brothers, Andy Khouri, Regina Buenaobra, Sarah Kuhn, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, and Kate Welch, as they discuss this hot-button issue.”

This is the description for the ECCC 2013 panel, “Looking Past the Target Audience.” I was there. It was awesome. It was not recorded and streamed for the at-home viewer. I was not amused.

However, I was prepared, so I can share with you a transcript of that discussion, as well as a link to the Tumblr where the panel will continue.

I love that ECCC is giving these kinds of events the opportunity to exist. I love that they booked hours of time for a film festival featuring short films made by women (that never happened, although that was in no way ECCC’s fault), not because it would be popular (based on the size of the group gathered, it decidedly wasn’t), but because such an event should be part of Comicon. I love that “From Victim to Hero” is available for me to view again and again. I do not love the fact that “Looking Past the Target Audience,” an important conversation that needs to be had at a pivotal time in comics history, is relegated to a Tumblr askbox.