Black April

[Cryomancer]

Originally Posted by The Big Bad

Well...yes and no. I've been working on a series of blogposts showcasing her visual evolution across all mediums, and I would say that, even without cherrypicking, a case exists for the argument that she was consistently--if by no means uniformly--depicted as black. To what degree depends on the artist, but I think it's safe to say that the issue #32 reprint is less a fluke than it is the natural conclusion of what various artists had been doing.

These posts are pretty cool, whether you are into this conversation or not. Obviously they are quite interesting in context, but even just as a series of images it's neat as well. I would be interested in seeing a similar timeline for other characters too, like Karai.

Very compelling posts, good stuff.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Newton Gimmick

April isn't black or white... She's a drawing.

I see your pedantry and raise you: She's a black and white drawing.

[rickwj324]

Has Eastman and/or Laird ever gone on record as saying that she was in fact African in any of the comics?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

I see your pedantry and raise you: She's a black and white drawing.

[Parabellum]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

TBH, Mirage April always came across as mixed to me with the way her hair was.

I agree, or Hispanic.

[The Big Bad]

Originally Posted by rickwj324

Has Eastman and/or Laird ever gone on record as saying that she was in fact African in any of the comics?

Nope. Laird has asserted rather emphatically that he always saw her as white, which is debatable--the whole "he originally conceived her as Asian" claim--and doesn't actually confirm or deny what she actually was. Eastman has never confirmed or denied it.

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Regarding April's Hair, I feel it's important to point out that in Issue 4 of Volume 1 she mentions having her hair permed. Her hair isn't that curly naturally, but because she had it done that way at a salon.

I know; I mentioned earlier that there's a distinct visual difference between the usual perm and April's hair--April's hair does not look like the one in Refractive Reflection's post (the first one of those is a wig, by the way). Still, I'd be willing to buy the explanation given as something other than a handwave if other major aspects of her design hadn't also changed along with her hair.

Originally Posted by Newton Gimmick

And there's really no point in making April black. Randomly changing her ethnicity doesn't add anything to the character and serves no point. And if the point is to make a "strong black character" then you need to create one, not randomly change the color of someone. That's just lazy.

And the only medium this would likely ever happen in is film and it seems unlikely that's going to happen anytime soon. So this is just an excessive discussion in nothingness.

Not important to you, perhaps. I guarantee, though, that if in the original cartoon and film had looked like she did in issue #11, it would have been transgressive, original, and radical.

Think Star Trek and Nyota Uhura, a character so important due to being a black woman in a spaceship, that Martin Luther King Jr. stepped in to try and convince Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show. A character, who, in showing black girls that they didn't just have to be servants, and could dare to aspire for more, inspired Whoopi Goldberg--not irrelevant to the turtles--who then inspired Lupita Nyong'o. Black women have been inspired to become astronauts because of her.

This is who April could have been. While she couldn't have exactly broken the same ground Uhura did, having a black female character be the female lead of the biggest cartoon at the time and several hit films would have been no small thing. Even the damsel in distress thing, which is a bad joke when done to a white woman, gains a more positive dimension when applied to a black one: in a society that constantly expects black women to be invulnerable and do everything by themselves, asserting that a black woman can require help, be deserving of it and still be considered worthwhile becomes, again, radical.

[Newton Gimmick]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

I see your pedantry and raise you: She's a black and white drawing.

But of course. Everybody wins.

Originally Posted by The Big Bad

Not important to you, perhaps. I guarantee, though, that if in the original cartoon and film had looked like she did in issue #11, it would have been transgressive, original, and radical.

Think Star Trek and Nyota Uhura, a character so important due to being a black woman in a spaceship, that Martin Luther King Jr. stepped in to try and convince Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show. A character, who, in showing black girls that they didn't just have to be servants, and could dare to aspire for more, inspired Whoopi Goldberg--not irrelevant to the turtles--who then inspired Lupita Nyong'o. Black women have been inspired to become astronauts because of her.

This is who April could have been. While she couldn't have exactly broken the same ground Uhura did, having a black female character be the female lead of the biggest cartoon at the time and several hit films would have been no small thing.

The thing is, that's all speculation and it's a bit of a stretch, IMO. There are so many intangibles there. Not the least of which, being that the Star Trek stuff was in the 1960s and TMNT took the world by storm at the start of the 90s. The impact of having a black lead character was greatly diminished 30 years later, if there would be any impact at all.

And if April had been black, there's no guarantee that the show would have been the hit that it became. If you change something, anything, with the formula at that exact time, it could have changed how popular the show became. The show wasn't a hit because April was white, but the show WAS a hit when April was white. There's no telling what the ramifications would have been if she had been anything else.

I think it's a bit of hyperbole to assume that having a cartoon character be black, would inspire a generation to respect black women or make black women feel empowered. April was largely a pointless plot device and a news reporter, not the equal of Captain Kirk on a futuristic utopia society. By that time, REAL black women were already REAL news reporters. There were plenty of legit black women role models in the era, cartoon characters were hardly going to be landmark anything in contrast.

[Coola Yagami]

Black April? I'd hit that. Even as a child if still be checkin that out if age looked that good in the yellow jumpsuit.

I also like the 'she's a drawing' comment. So... Shredder isn't asian cause he's a drawing?

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I also like the 'she's a drawing' comment. So... Shredder isn't asian cause he's a drawing?

She is literally a drawing. She was not spawned of egg & sperm, but paper & pencil (& crystal). Read volume 4.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Powder

She is literally a drawing. She was not spawned of egg & sperm, but paper & pencil (& crystal). Read volume 4.

True true. Wasn't she a pen or ink drawing though, which explains why she lasted longer than Kirby's pencil drawings?

[Powder]

I dunno, it's been a while since I read it. I'm far more eager to retread Tales issues than I am volume 4.

[Newton Gimmick]

Glad my drawing comment wasn't lost on everyone.

[The Big Bad]

The thing is, that's all speculation and it's a bit of a stretch, IMO. There are so many intangibles there. Not the least of which, being that the Star Trek stuff was in the 1960s and TMNT took the world by storm at the start of the 90s. The impact of having a black lead character was greatly diminished 30 years later, if there would be any impact at all.

Really? Because the only way the impact would be diminished would be if works with black women as their leads had become commonplace, or more commonplace. They had not.

April was largely a pointless plot device and a news reporter

So? The execution of Uhura's character was plenty problematic; that didn't stop her from being important and historic. What's more, April is still the primary female character, the audience identification character, and the baseline for normalcy, roles which black women are still almost never given, even in 2014. And we're not just talking about the old cartoon here. While she being black in the cartoon wouldn't have guaranteed that she wouldn't be whitewashed or excluded elsewhere, there would have also been a better than normal chance that she would have been black elsewhere. The Archie comics for sure. The 4Kids toon, probably.

By that time, REAL black women were already REAL news reporters. There were plenty of legit black women role models in the era, cartoon characters were hardly going to be landmark anything in contrast.

Yes, black women were reporters during the nineties, and earlier. The problem is that mainstream fiction did and continues to do its best to make these women invisible or marginal, which has tangible and detrimental effects. Just how many black women did actually make it to the cartoon as anything other than extras? Heck, how many are there in the Nick cartoon?

[Casey]

Originally Posted by The Big Bad

Nope. Laird has asserted rather emphatically that he always saw her as white, which is debatable--the whole "he originally conceived her as Asian" claim--and doesn't actually confirm or deny what she actually was. Eastman has never confirmed or denied it.



I know; I mentioned earlier that there's a distinct visual difference between the usual perm and April's hair--April's hair does not look like the one in Refractive Reflection's post (the first one of those is a wig, by the way). Still, I'd be willing to buy the explanation given as something other than a handwave if other major aspects of her design hadn't also changed along with her hair.




Not important to you, perhaps. I guarantee, though, that if in the original cartoon and film had looked like she did in issue #11, it would have been transgressive, original, and radical.

Think Star Trek and Nyota Uhura, a character so important due to being a black woman in a spaceship, that Martin Luther King Jr. stepped in to try and convince Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show. A character, who, in showing black girls that they didn't just have to be servants, and could dare to aspire for more, inspired Whoopi Goldberg--not irrelevant to the turtles--who then inspired Lupita Nyong'o. Black women have been inspired to become astronauts because of her.

This is who April could have been. While she couldn't have exactly broken the same ground Uhura did, having a black female character be the female lead of the biggest cartoon at the time and several hit films would have been no small thing. Even the damsel in distress thing, which is a bad joke when done to a white woman, gains a more positive dimension when applied to a black one: in a society that constantly expects black women to be invulnerable and do everything by themselves, asserting that a black woman can require help, be deserving of it and still be considered worthwhile becomes, again, radical.

Yes. Yes. Yes. This.

[Casey]

We should also appreciate Sophie Campbell's fanfic's April:

http://secretsoftheooze.smackjeeves....2270209/april/

[Commenter 42]

Originally Posted by Casey

We should also appreciate Sophie Campbell's fanfic's April:

http://secretsoftheooze.smackjeeves....2270209/april/

Like hell.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Casey

We should also appreciate Sophie Campbell's fanfic's April:

http://secretsoftheooze.smackjeeves....2270209/april/

Done and done!
I love her work.

[thundermaster612]

Who did the coloring in that version? because I have seen an older color comic variant where she is white, perhaps the person was confused or such?

[Mew]

Originally Posted by thundermaster612

Who did the coloring in that version? because I have seen an older color comic variant where she is white, perhaps the person was confused or such?

Care to share what you are talking about?

[Casey]

Originally Posted by thundermaster612

Who did the coloring in that version? because I have seen an older color comic variant where she is white, perhaps the person was confused or such?

I actually think it was a black and white comic. I could be mistaken, but I think it's Mirage Vol 1 Issue 32. And the version in color was a reprint probably Mark Bode or Bill Fitts.