As a kid growing up in Detroit, MI, I was exposed to a lot of things that I would not be able to process until I got much older. While I both witnessed and experienced poverty, I also experienced wealth and privilege. No, my Mother and I were not rich, but we did not struggle financially without my father. Due to the culture in my family, I had a diverse group of caretakers. I had grandparents from Spain, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Mississippi, and Arkansas. I grew up just across the river from Canada and traveled there frequently as I came of age. The church I eventually settled into was non-denominational and accepted anyone who wanted the spiritual message. I was very passionate about science, which is the first time I experienced and began to understand why I might be alienated from other kids. This passion got me involved in Environmental Science, where I could study nature. While I spent a great deal of time making up my own stories and acting them out, my goal was to become a zoologist.
I did not directly experience racism, on a personal level, until I asked my crush to prom. She was Polish-American, and her father had a rule that she couldn’t date Black guys. Because of this rule, she couldn’t go to prom with me. After that, I encountered racism again when a guest of an Anglo-American roommate (another Anglo-American) referred to our Vietnamese roommate as “Charlie”. Once again, I witnessed racism on the Greyhound bus, during a Spring Break trip, when a Muslim woman and her autistic daughter were thrown off of a bus for refusing to sit in the back. There also came the inevitable word, “Nigger”, that would be spoken in my presence as Anglo-American boys surrounded me at a party on more than one occasion, but by then, I was an English major and had a way with words. I learned more about the racial disparities in our society during my stay in New York, in an impoverished area of uptown Manhattan with a high concentration of Latinos. I was taught that Blacks and Latinos were in the same boat, politically, but there was a beef they had with some Morenos from Harlem so I should be careful. Finally, Pres. Obama was elected, “City Hare” was created and one of the only Black friends I had was profiled by police in East Lansing. Thus began the anti-establishment rhetoric in “City Hare”.
While living in New York, I ran into an old graffiti artist named CASH, who used to run with a crew called the Spanish Bomb Squad. We spent a lot of time watching movies he’d told me were classics. I’d always sketched or been into art, but his influence would take that love and appreciation to a higher level. After graduating from college, I realized that I was an artist. The trouble was that I had no discipline and no formal education aside from what CASH taught me. My education in English Literature, however, had shown me that literature…the arts were designed to be aesthetically pleasing to the dominating culture and it was this culture that determined what was good/high-brow vs. bad/low brow. Comic books, an industry heavily influenced by Jewish immigrants and graffiti, an art form heavily dominated by Blacks, Latinos and poor Whites were considered low brow.
During my travels around the country, I would have several run ins with law enforcement and White supremacists. The history of social injustice in this country stayed fresh in my mind as I maneuvered my way around law enforcement and tried desperately to focus on my work and not got to jail. I wasn’t afraid of being shot. In fact, I wanted them to shoot me. For some reason, they never did. I was either encouraged to focus on my artwork or saved by another cop on the force who didn’t believe I’d done anything wrong. I caught a lot of breaks, whether I was breaking the law or not, but there were a lot of others whom were wrongly accused, executed, enslaved and assassinated for no other reason but the fact that they were considered less important than a White male.
Blank Komix was born out of this. It is a part of a long tradition of anti-establishment protests, dating all the way back to the days when we painted on cave walls as we fought for survival in the outdoors. It comes from the graffito you see on columns in Rome, in the bathrooms of hole-in-the-wall bars. Blank Komix could be anywhere at any time. It survives, uncensored to represent any grievances the people may have with powers that be, or any reverence you may have for life and death.
However, when, despite our peaceful protests, we are still jailed or gunned down in the street we must make a decision. We work with anyone who will enforce our Human Rights. If you are working to improve the Human Condition, then we are allies. Our only goal is the progression of humankind and humankind cannot progress if the environment is degraded. This not only applies to our physical environment, but our psychological environment as well. The trauma of unjust persecution, of imperialism and tyranny is what always leads to the fall of any great empire. If our nation is weak, impoverished and malnourished, we will be ineffective in all of our endeavors.
In other news, we have expanded our platform to Global Comix, where you can now read our comics online. Also, feel free to follow me on instagram: @minkcaruso
As soon as the pandemic has subsided and our stay-at-home orders are lifted completely, we will be able to publish the new issue #1 of “The Planet”. Until then, feast your eyes on this and wait very, very patiently.
MAD STATIK 