Feral Page 28: The inquisition's manual (Patreon)

Originally published on October 3, 2007. Reworked version posted on ComicFury on July 4, 2017. 

Like the previous page, this one is changed in comparison to the original only in that it is partly recolored, but the recoloring brings with it a change in interpretation. In the original version, the Brewmaster's as-yet-unnamed daughter has a very light skin tone. But on later pages, she had a darker skin tone than most of the characters. Clearly I'd remembered that she didn't look the same as the other characters, but misremembered the way in which her appearance differed. So that had to be straightened out. But which skin tone to choose?

Confession time: when I started Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan as a callow youth in 1991, I still assumed that Northern Europe around the year 1000 was very ethnically homogenous - that people in one area of one country would at the very least all look the same and as a rare exception, they might encounter someone from Denmark or Finland, but not further away. This was clearly untenable on multiple levels. First, because as I learned more about the region's history it was clear that individuals and entire populations traveled far and wide at about any time in history. Second, because ROCR has dragons and faeries and what not in it, so whatever location or era it is set in, it is not exactly medieval Europe, but a fantasy version of it. Realism is not required and the choice of what I want people to look like is entirely that, a choice. But with that choice comes social responsibility. What worldview do I want this comic to support? And who do I want in my readership?

Several years ago, while looking through my referrals, I spotted a referral from a forum that was decidedly not the readership I wanted to cultivate: a forum devoted to 'Volkishness', which is basically the idea that nations should be homogenous ethno-states. It's not quite informative to equate this concept with racism; while it is a racist idea, it differs from other forms of racism such as racist ideologies that dictate that one race should dominate or eliminate others.  Not that that makes me any less uncomfortable with it. Luckily, the forum posters seemed to mostly believe that ROCR was not a Volkish comic. I agree, and want to make it clearer that I do not support ideas like that.

At the same time, I'm kinda stuck with the well-established cast that the comic has had in over a quarter-century looking the way they do. There is a lot of inertia in ROCR, which is one reason why I'm keen to wrap the series up. However, the choice of which color variant to use for a newish character that was already inconsistently drawn was easy. She gets the darker variant. And more new characters will be more diverse as well, for as long as the comic lasts. If that causes racists to reject the comic, this is a good thing.