Ponctuels, les cas de censure dans l'industrie des super-héros prennent des formes étonnamment variées. Généralement, il s'agira simplement de couvrir la nudité d'un personnage, masculin ou féminin - alors, on accentue les ombrages, on demande au dessinateur de positionner différemment sa bulle de dialogue pour couvrir une partie du corps. Il arrive également que certaines "corrections" plus abjectes soient également commandées par les éditeurs sur la base de curieux principes idéologiques - le cas de la censure de l'homosexualité avait par exemple fait les gros titres l'an dernier, lorsque l'artiste Chad Hardin avait décidé de publier une planche de la série Harley Quinn pour faire état des modifications opérées par DC Comics. L'entreprise avait alors décidé de supprimer un baiser entre l'héroïne et sa partenaire, Poison Ivy.
Un autre cas plus complexe s'est manifesté récemment : le dessinateur Greg Smallwood a évoqué son travail sur l'un des segments de l'anthologie Elektra : Black White & Blood, dans lequel la représentation de plusieurs personnages asiatiques aurait apparemment posé problème au contrôle créatif de l'éditeur Marvel. Soucieux de protéger son image, l'enseigne aurait cherché à minimiser le risque d'accusations de racisme, pour éviter à la série d'être taxée de caricaturer les caractéristiques physiques des populations d'Asie, avec, en ligne de mire, le repli vertical de la peau dans l'intérieur des paupières. C'est à dire : la représentation des yeux bridés.
Sad to say that, without my approval, Marvel attempted to "fix" several panels of my art in issue two of Elektra: Black, White, & Blood before sending it to the printers. They're not huge changes but I really don't like my art being tampered with. pic.twitter.com/08ZnBLqBPa
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
Long story short - 2 months after turning in the finished pages, I was informed by my editor that Marvel's Standards & Practices flagged my art and requested I redraw several panels so that they would be "within tolerance for best representation of Asian characters." pic.twitter.com/QZOgNSddM0
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
Wife and I were expecting our second child the following week and I was racing to finish an issue of HT before the birth so I told Marvel that I didn't have time to make the changes but that I would be perfectly fine with them pulling the story for sensitivity concerns. pic.twitter.com/f6SjoEtyYz
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
I stated very clearly that I didn't want anyone touching my art so I dropped everything I was doing and immediately reworked all of the panels that were flagged.
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
They also attempted to cover up some nudity which just resulted in a muddied mess. Again, something I was willing to fix. pic.twitter.com/Mi49BtA7yG
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
Just wanted you all to know because my name is on that comic but I'm pretty annoyed about how it looks. As a palate cleanser, here's the cover and the first two (also the best) pages, unaltered. pic.twitter.com/DFjiTmgm3Z
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
I've got a newborn, a three-year old, and some tight deadlines to manage right now so this is all I'm saying on the matter. Going back into my hole again.
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 9, 2022
They… made your perfectly representative art look uncomfortably close to a series of racial stereotypes. Not only did they make your work look objectively worse, the end product is actually really upsetting and counterproductive from an “Asian sensitivity” perspective. Sad.
— Jen Bartel (@heyjenbartel) February 9, 2022
So sorry, Greg, we’ll own the mistake here. Had an email miscommunication on my end, like we spoke about yesterday. As we already assured you, we’re using your pages on digital editions and any new printings and collections.
— Devin Lewis (@EDevinLewis) February 9, 2022
Not miscommunication. NO communication. Devin apologized to me yesterday for not being able to respond to my emails concerning the edits (some kind of server error on his end). He was not apologizing for the changes. He assured me yesterday that I would be happy with them. https://t.co/Bb25k2VnSL
— Greg Smallwood (@SavageSmallwood) February 10, 2022
