I’m concerned about HCN running a 10-page comic book as the cover story in the magazine (“Nizhóní Girls”). I have nothing against comic books. When I was a kid, I enjoyed the debut of Spider-Man in 1963. As a young man, I enjoyed the revolutionary underground comic books of the late 1960s and 1970s, such as R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural. Lately, I collect well-done graphic nonfiction books, including The March, a three-volume story of black congressman John Lewis’ life and his role leading the civil rights movement against violent racist resistance in the South in the 1960s. (The third volume won a 2016 National Book Award.) What I see in HCN’s comic book glorifying an all-women Native American rock band is: Almost no storyline, no character development, ultimately no characters at all, no scenes worth remembering, no message, no significance. It seems racist to me, the kind of racism that assumes whatever any Native American does (a rock band or a comic book) is automatically worthwhile. I think it’s the most obvious example of HCN’s editorial drift into political correctness and narcissism in recent years, which other longtime HCN readers have also lamented on this letters page.
Ray Ring
Tucson, Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Editorial drift.
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