Hilarious and thought provoking satire
I really really hope that people do get the point of this. Initially when I saw this title advertised at the bottom of NG in the "today's best" column I was a bit nervous that this was going to be something offensive, but after reading your description I was really interested to see what you put together.
The animation was really fluid and I enjoyed the exaggerated style and expressions. The colouring and shading made things look rather lively, but I really loved how you visualized his powers.
The message behind this was really important to tell. I'm also black ( a canuck whose spent a huge chunk of time in the US as well as Canada) , and can relate to this toon. The scene featuring the white friend panicking about the red-shirted black guy "doing well in school and talking 'white'" is a portion of my life in a nutshell. I've been told to my face that I "act white" "talk white" and even "dress white" (yea, I'm lost on that too.)
And don't even get me started on ages ago in middle school when some (not all, just couple) white kids would try to talk street to me and randomly throw up gang signs in my presence. I think I heard "west siiiiIIIIiiiiide" a couple 100 times. Ugh. Stupid 90s...
I'm a sorta dorky looking comic book geek who listens to ska, electronica, videogame music, country, old school rap, orchestral and cinematic soundtracks and pretty much anything I come along, but to others, this has been a sign of me "not being 'true' to myself." If I've got to fit under some stereotyped vision to belong, how is that being true to myself? I go against the grain not to rebel, that's just simply who and what I am.
Anyways, enough about me, I just wanted to applaud you on tackling a very real problem in our society today through humour. If we're not challenging stereotypes and being afraid to be who we are, we're stagnating as a people.
Thank you and I hope you got an excellent grade and review from your teachers.
I'll be checking out all your other stuff now.
All the best,
Shockdingo