I don’t know… DeSanto, written like that, doesn’t look much like portuguese to me. Maybe if it was De Santo or Dos Santos.
I always thought it sounded like itallian too.
Well, off-topic is off-topic and a perfect reason to remove a political rant.
However, I disagree that this website is not the place for such things. If the website has presented a cartoon that opens a political topic, then that website should invite your political rants. For a comic to be funny or poignant it must provoke–poke the reader. It would be bad form to make provocation and then make commentary unwelcome. In short, this website is the perfect place to make political rants, when appropriate.
But this strip isn’t generically about the Tea Party, or even about the Tea Party at all. If it were answered with a rant about Hispanics in media and how people respond to them, then it woulda been fine. Just being about politics in general isn’t enough on mark. It was a tangent and, I felt, drew attention away from the actual subject.
Here’s hoping mi hermano Esquivel is more Jaime Reyes than Jose Jimenez. Or, y’know, Jaime back when he had his own book and not the current caricature in Whitest Day.
Heh. When you said “Jaime Reyes”, the first thing that came to mind was the doctor from Deus Ex. (Probably because I’ve been replaying it after it was on sale from Steam recently. Also KotOR 1. Yay!)
Wait, they’re annoyed by the ancestry of the human characters? I thought he meant one of the alien robots had a hispanic name. Which would be certainly have potential for poor execution (if writers made them a zany ethnic stereotype on that basis), and people would be justified protesting against IMO. But objecting that one of the Earthpeople comes from somewhere on Earth is just dumb.
Ironically, but not going out and socialising you are reventing the racists from getting opposing points of view, therefore making their powers even stronger!
Oh I do go out and try to socialize, and my job lets me see people from all over the world spending more money than even the Collection DX level of toy collector with even less to show for it at the end. (Except its more socially acceptable form of money wasting.)
I just keep running into hordes of hateful, bigoted people. They even have their own network now…
The only thing I disliked about carlos in Armada is how remarkably thick his thought process was.
The Atlantis Episode is the best example because he’s got a crush on the atlantian hologram guide and for some reason when the place is flooding he wants to go back and rescue her. Watch the episode there is no emotion from the guide at all, minicons were more animated.
He was probably just thrilled that something female-shaped that wasn’t his mom or Rad’s tsundere was talking to him. You kinda got the feeling that didn’t happen to the Armada kids very often.
Wait, are you saying this has ONLY happened with Armada and Prime? What the hell about Transformers Animated? With a middle-Eastern (Indian I think) main character/father?
People didn’t complain about Alexis? Cos I mean, I thought she sucked. But, she was an Armada kid so that’s like a given. Plus, me thinking she sucked had nothing to do with ethnicity, as in the context of the English dub, she seems every bit as white as Rad, and no last name is given. I mean, I’m only just now finding out she’s Asian. I got no problem with Verity or Lori, though.
I find it very amusing that in most anime Japanese and American characters look damn near identical; you’ll never know if they’re supposed to be white or asian unless they tell you. However, any Chinese characters who show up will look distinctly different from the other two. What’s up with that?
I have a couple of interesting essays on this very topic! It basically boils down to – draw a stick figure, you assume it’s male. Draw a bow on its head, then it becomes female. It has to do with how any one culture will consider themselves the norm, and without any signifiers of otherness, someone looking at a representation of a person will assume it conforms to their norm. So, in anime, there are no racial signifiers for Japanse, because its the norm. (To western eyes, that gets us confused) Chinese characters are given racial signifiers like clothes, hairstyles and different eye shapes, because they are the other. Signifiers of whiteness are used too, but we don’t often notice them because they’re things that only Japanese people would recognise as part of their perception of the western other.
In Mobile Police Patlabor (about giant robot police in Tokyo, with a cast of all-Japanese characters), the only overtly “Asian”-design character was the token American. Even the nominally Chinese character looked like a squinty honky.
That’s a fascinating essay. I’m curious what you think of Final Fantasy X’s depiction of its characters. If you didn’t know, the character models during gameplay and most cut scenes look like your description of “oneness”; perhaps Asian or white depending on your viewpoint. However the CG cut scenes are a different beast. Suddenly the characters look very Asian, as if they’ve been replaced by Japanese cosplayers dressed as the characters. It’s rather jarring.
That’s an interesting essay. I’d say it boils down to the fact that the core of cartooning is caricature, and caricature is the art of exaggerating distinctive features and simplifying or glossing over details you can assume are there. If most of the characters are Japanese, there’s no need to exaggerate the features that would make them distinct in a majority-caucasian population.
Well, some of Robin’s genes are of SOME kind of illegal alien, at least. The kind that tries to KILL ALL HUMANS! And I thought DeSanto was Italian, too. Go figure.
Oh, wait…if the alien that contributed genes to Robin and Mike and the rest of the SEMME team was born in the US, that’d make that alien an anchor baby alien, and not illegal…ok, color me confused…
Worse, he’s stupid anime crap! We won’t describe what’s anime-like about him that’s any different from any other cartoon character since Japan discovered animation.
Now I’m trying to compose a mental list of recurring cartoon characters that *are* of mainly english descent. I guess there’s, um, some of GI JOE, a small percentage of characters in TF (humans, mainly), *one* character in He-Man, one in Smurfs (Gargy), Some in x-men, none in Thundercats, none in flintstones, a few in Powerpuff girls (not the main chars), a couple in Totally Spies…
Out of my characters… let’s see.
Billie (Billingsworth is like the Englishest last name)
Danny (Wilcox is English)
Jason, of course. Plus Jason’s parents, Penny, all of the Britjas…
Mike (Warner is English)
Walky and Sal are both part English, but also Scottish (mother’s maiden name is Mitchell) and African (Dad is mixed black/English).
And has been called Bruno Diaz since the sixties in most media in all Spanish speaking countries, no kidding. The name seems to fit him pretty well, actually.
But then you have to remember that English ancestry comes from all over Europe. The Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Normans and Romans being the most famous.
So is anyone really ‘English’?
Well, as a mexican, you Kinda get used to the fact that hispanic cultures are and shall always be misrepresented in almost every cartoon where they appear. However, I didn’t know it bothered someone besides those portrayed, and that character being just a human.
BTW, holy frijoles? c’mon, why didn’t he go for burritos or something, or “santos frijoles” if going for a bean refference, none of which, of course could sound any further from any real expression from any hispanic culture I’ve known of.
Anyhoo, my last name is De Santos, though I couldn’t really tell where “DeSanto” comes from
First time posting a comment on shortpacked, woohoo!
Ouch, dude. I said I was sorry. I thought he was the -only- human character.
Anyway there’s nothing wrong with the race (or any race), it’s the CULTURE (and every culture) that tends to cause problems.
I appreciate you removing the Tea Party statement. This comic has nothing to do with that, and the organization itself is not the type of group that would say or advocate this (despite the hyped media propaganda that pretends it is).
Although Racism has been thrown around too much lately, when it has been BS or unfounded… In cases like this, it really is ignorant. If it was an established character turned hispanic it would be one thing, but theres nothing wrong with new human characters being anything.
Anyone got a link to one of these message board convos? I don’t frequent the boards, so I don’t know where to look. But I do love to watch bigots freak out over minor things.
Speaking of Armada and old boardies, anyone know where Torsten B. Abel (aka Nevermore) is? Guy just disappeared into thin air.
Um, yeah about “Prime.” I’m not too into the Movie thing. Movie Bumblebee is the poster boy for this. I heard rumor he might be the leader of the Autobot team. At least there’s hope for the Cons with Welker coming back. They need more guys on their side other than 2 others and troopers. And MORE ENERGON!
Don’t forget the “racist” robots in the Revenge of the Fallen. One of whom was voiced by a black guy, and were intended to be wiggers. It was probably a bad idea to do that, given the whole “they killed the black Autobot!” thing in the first film.
It’s “Frijol” when it’s in singular , not frijole. we tend to add the es in the plural because we tend to like writing things exactly as we hear them (try to pronounce “frijols” and see what I mean)
I always asumed robin was an at least 1st generation american, over here we don’t tend to name kids names like robin unless there is huge fan of batman and no one to restrain him/her.
It’s nice to have Robin reacting to the crazy Transformers fans for a change- we’re used to Ethan’s sarcasm and Amber’s complete lack of a reaction, but Robin’s over-the-topness really drives home how dumb these guys are being.
Dear God! She’s been assimilated!
Heh, people get so worked up over the silliest things. I love those people, they’re entertaining.
Somehow, I always assumed Robin DeSanto was of Italian extraction. Both are Romance languages, I suppose…
I’d always thought of her as being of Portuguese descent…
I don’t know… DeSanto, written like that, doesn’t look much like portuguese to me. Maybe if it was De Santo or Dos Santos.
I always thought it sounded like itallian too.
Surely David named her after Power Ranger Rocky DeSanto! (Who is hispanic.)
Yeah, no way DeSanto is portuguese. Dos Santos totally, De Santo i’ve never really seen… (i’m portuguese)
I’m not 100% on this but I think the Italian form of her name would be DiSanto.
You are correct. DeSanto is spanish. Italian would be as you mentioned, and portuguese would be DoSanto (most likely Do Santo).
haha gotta love Robin
la hola es mia…la hola es mia…
Holy crap, is this a reference to Airborne?
“You don’t have to fight the shark … to fight for the wave.”
I wonder how those people reconcile the fact the Autobots are illegal immigrants in most continuities.
Blackrock’s passing them fuel under the counter, and they don’t even pay taxes!
Yay, Blackrock!
I want to see J.B. fistfight Tony Stark.
Sorry. Teabaggers have been getting on my nerves lately. Felt it was appropriate to vent in this thread.
I don’t disagree with you, but I thought it was a bit off-topic, so I removed it.
It’s all good. Your website isn’t a place for my personal political rants.
If only there were more of you.
Well, off-topic is off-topic and a perfect reason to remove a political rant.
However, I disagree that this website is not the place for such things. If the website has presented a cartoon that opens a political topic, then that website should invite your political rants. For a comic to be funny or poignant it must provoke–poke the reader. It would be bad form to make provocation and then make commentary unwelcome. In short, this website is the perfect place to make political rants, when appropriate.
But this strip isn’t generically about the Tea Party, or even about the Tea Party at all. If it were answered with a rant about Hispanics in media and how people respond to them, then it woulda been fine. Just being about politics in general isn’t enough on mark. It was a tangent and, I felt, drew attention away from the actual subject.
Yes. You already said Samuel’s post was off-topic. I never doubted that.
That statement is so good to be true I read it as sarcasm the first few times.
That was in response to Samuel’s comment, by the way. Dunno why my comment got shoved down here.
Seems to be a glitch caused by the deletion of Samuel’s original comment.
Yeah don’t you just hate it when someone does that to your testicles like that, Samuel?
Oh…you mean the Tea Party. Oops, sorry, my bad.
Wait, Robin’s Hispanic?
What, Robin deSanto? Nah.
The racist ginger in the strip looks like Ronald McDonald.
I thought so too.
Holy Frijoles, Inspector!
I had to read the first two panels twice before I realized that he had a red beard, and wasn’t just so worked up he was shouting REALLY LOUD.
Helped explain why his ‘tongue’ looked so weird…
I had the same problem, lol.
When I was a kid I thought Diglet’s nose was a mouth in perpetual open-mouthed surprise…
I know it’s a nose but I still cannot un-see it. o__o
Slow.
Clap.
Here’s hoping mi hermano Esquivel is more Jaime Reyes than Jose Jimenez. Or, y’know, Jaime back when he had his own book and not the current caricature in Whitest Day.
Heh. When you said “Jaime Reyes”, the first thing that came to mind was the doctor from Deus Ex. (Probably because I’ve been replaying it after it was on sale from Steam recently. Also KotOR 1. Yay!)
I miss Blue Beetle.
its actually Generation Lost (which was awesome) but thats not the point
hola amigos como estamos
*checks Wiki*
Wait, they’re annoyed by the ancestry of the human characters? I thought he meant one of the alien robots had a hispanic name. Which would be certainly have potential for poor execution (if writers made them a zany ethnic stereotype on that basis), and people would be justified protesting against IMO. But objecting that one of the Earthpeople comes from somewhere on Earth is just dumb.
Rapido is hispanic and he is awesome
Ay caramba.
You mean this is based on reality? Have we fallen so far as to be offended by a not white person in a damned cartoon toy robots?
I mean I know the US has plenty of racists but..
THIS IS REAL?
No wonder I don’t go out and socialize much.
Its too depressing to have my utter lack of faith in humanity reinforced by such scum.
Ironically, but not going out and socialising you are reventing the racists from getting opposing points of view, therefore making their powers even stronger!
although to be fair, if you went and provided the racists with opposing views, you probably wouldn’t get anywhere anyway.
Oh I do go out and try to socialize, and my job lets me see people from all over the world spending more money than even the Collection DX level of toy collector with even less to show for it at the end. (Except its more socially acceptable form of money wasting.)
I just keep running into hordes of hateful, bigoted people. They even have their own network now…
I’d swear Robin said he was Brazilian..
To be fair, you haven’t seemed to notice that Robin’s female either.
Good to see the site back up after Willis’s experimentations with an anti-drama equation…
The only thing I disliked about carlos in Armada is how remarkably thick his thought process was.
The Atlantis Episode is the best example because he’s got a crush on the atlantian hologram guide and for some reason when the place is flooding he wants to go back and rescue her. Watch the episode there is no emotion from the guide at all, minicons were more animated.
He was probably just thrilled that something female-shaped that wasn’t his mom or Rad’s tsundere was talking to him. You kinda got the feeling that didn’t happen to the Armada kids very often.
One of my beloved Phillies is Hispanic, but you would never know it by listening to him talk His name is Raúl Ibáñez.
Now that, my friend, is one heroically Latin name…
Raúl Javier Ibáñez is of Cuban descent, but was born & raised in New York City.
Oops – I just learned that Ibáñez attended high school and college in Miami, FL.
Wait, are you saying this has ONLY happened with Armada and Prime? What the hell about Transformers Animated? With a middle-Eastern (Indian I think) main character/father?
Also once again I am reminded why I love Robin. Shame I can’t say the same about Roz.
People don’t care when they’re girls. Nobody ever complained about Alexis, and nobody’s currently complaining about Miko. See, girls are hot.
In fairness, you could watch every episode of Armada and never know Alexis is supposed to be Vietnamese.
whatthefuck Alexis is Vietnamese?!
Where was this established?
Mostly Japanese materials. Read the Notes at the bottom: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Alexis_Thi_Dang
Transformers: Prime gives us the same ethnic arrangement as Armada, incidentally. Asian female, WASP male, and Hispanic male.
People didn’t complain about Alexis? Cos I mean, I thought she sucked. But, she was an Armada kid so that’s like a given. Plus, me thinking she sucked had nothing to do with ethnicity, as in the context of the English dub, she seems every bit as white as Rad, and no last name is given. I mean, I’m only just now finding out she’s Asian. I got no problem with Verity or Lori, though.
Everyone loved Alexis. She was the best of the three. But then, geeks love tsunderes.
I find it very amusing that in most anime Japanese and American characters look damn near identical; you’ll never know if they’re supposed to be white or asian unless they tell you. However, any Chinese characters who show up will look distinctly different from the other two. What’s up with that?
Racism, that’s what!
I have a couple of interesting essays on this very topic! It basically boils down to – draw a stick figure, you assume it’s male. Draw a bow on its head, then it becomes female. It has to do with how any one culture will consider themselves the norm, and without any signifiers of otherness, someone looking at a representation of a person will assume it conforms to their norm. So, in anime, there are no racial signifiers for Japanse, because its the norm. (To western eyes, that gets us confused) Chinese characters are given racial signifiers like clothes, hairstyles and different eye shapes, because they are the other. Signifiers of whiteness are used too, but we don’t often notice them because they’re things that only Japanese people would recognise as part of their perception of the western other.
Read this for an overview! http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html
In Mobile Police Patlabor (about giant robot police in Tokyo, with a cast of all-Japanese characters), the only overtly “Asian”-design character was the token American. Even the nominally Chinese character looked like a squinty honky.
That’s a fascinating essay. I’m curious what you think of Final Fantasy X’s depiction of its characters. If you didn’t know, the character models during gameplay and most cut scenes look like your description of “oneness”; perhaps Asian or white depending on your viewpoint. However the CG cut scenes are a different beast. Suddenly the characters look very Asian, as if they’ve been replaced by Japanese cosplayers dressed as the characters. It’s rather jarring.
That’s an interesting essay. I’d say it boils down to the fact that the core of cartooning is caricature, and caricature is the art of exaggerating distinctive features and simplifying or glossing over details you can assume are there. If most of the characters are Japanese, there’s no need to exaggerate the features that would make them distinct in a majority-caucasian population.
Well, some of Robin’s genes are of SOME kind of illegal alien, at least. The kind that tries to KILL ALL HUMANS! And I thought DeSanto was Italian, too. Go figure.
Oh, wait…if the alien that contributed genes to Robin and Mike and the rest of the SEMME team was born in the US, that’d make that alien an anchor baby alien, and not illegal…ok, color me confused…
Worse, he’s stupid anime crap! We won’t describe what’s anime-like about him that’s any different from any other cartoon character since Japan discovered animation.
Recommended viewing: Armada Latina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jPPEBR00LQ
And this hasn’t been made into an AMV about Carlos why?
Willis, Willis, Willis.
I just came back from reading an experimental comic written by a kid and a clever deconstruction of the hero’s journey tropes.
And what cleverness does this my cartoonist give me? People barfing into each other’s face.
What I’m saying is that you really should be trying a little harder, man.
Axe Cop?
Wow, you’re not a pretentious dick at all.
a+++++ would be trolled by again
Quick! We have to do something to show the SPANISH people we hate them!
DESTROY THE TACOS!!1!
Only if digestion is a form of destruction.
It’s tapas you’re after.
I’m happy how we’re being more noticed in the media
woah, where did my comment go? >.>
Now I’m trying to compose a mental list of recurring cartoon characters that *are* of mainly english descent. I guess there’s, um, some of GI JOE, a small percentage of characters in TF (humans, mainly), *one* character in He-Man, one in Smurfs (Gargy), Some in x-men, none in Thundercats, none in flintstones, a few in Powerpuff girls (not the main chars), a couple in Totally Spies…
Say, what’s Batman’s ancestry?
Bruce Wayne’s ancestry comes from Scotland.
Out of my characters… let’s see.
Billie (Billingsworth is like the Englishest last name)
Danny (Wilcox is English)
Jason, of course. Plus Jason’s parents, Penny, all of the Britjas…
Mike (Warner is English)
Walky and Sal are both part English, but also Scottish (mother’s maiden name is Mitchell) and African (Dad is mixed black/English).
And probably some folks I’m forgetting.
And if you go far enough back… Norway. (He’s got Viking artifacts passed down by his family for 1000 years.)
And has been called Bruno Diaz since the sixties in most media in all Spanish speaking countries, no kidding. The name seems to fit him pretty well, actually.
But then you have to remember that English ancestry comes from all over Europe. The Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Normans and Romans being the most famous.
So is anyone really ‘English’?
The more inbred kinds of Welsh.
That’s about it, I think.
Butthurt Ginger is just angry that the only Ginger in TF fiction is a Jew.
*pours gasoline on the fire*
Hey, now, Josie Beller was a ginger at least once!
And for some reason, Armada was dubbed in Venezuela, the least Hispanic sounding place to dub a cartoon, next to Argentina.
Oh shit we have been discoreved! :O Our evil plans must not be stopped!!!!
*Romanticide laughs so hard she falls from her chair*
If they can’t handle a hispanic Transformer then how will they handle Omega Supreme’s latino brother “Taco Supreme!”
I have decided that this is an awesome idea. *Goes to kitbash Omega Supreme a little sombrero*
While you’re making him the hat, put a Sarape on him as well (colorful blanket like garb that typically goes along with the hat).
We should really start thinking about colour schemes, while we’re at it. And is replacing his finger/thumb-things with tacos too far?
It’s clear that the “blanket”, itself, should actually be a painted taco shell
Good call, sir. I’m still holding out on the whole “taco-fingers” thing though….
Well, as a mexican, you Kinda get used to the fact that hispanic cultures are and shall always be misrepresented in almost every cartoon where they appear. However, I didn’t know it bothered someone besides those portrayed, and that character being just a human.
BTW, holy frijoles? c’mon, why didn’t he go for burritos or something, or “santos frijoles” if going for a bean refference, none of which, of course could sound any further from any real expression from any hispanic culture I’ve known of.
Anyhoo, my last name is De Santos, though I couldn’t really tell where “DeSanto” comes from
First time posting a comment on shortpacked, woohoo!
“Burrito” does not rhyme with “Holy”.
You might as well ask why Billy Batson sanctifies moles instead of some other burrowing mammal.
Flinstones-esque beard fail is most heinous. Uggh. So hateful to look upon.
We gotta get some painters in there and lighten him up a little.
i always known robin was hispanic/mexican heck i’m mexican and yet i look white.
i fooled white ppl before. once i was mistaken for a jew. XD
Ouch, dude. I said I was sorry. I thought he was the -only- human character.
Anyway there’s nothing wrong with the race (or any race), it’s the CULTURE (and every culture) that tends to cause problems.
Today’s comic wasn’t really in response to you in particular. However, I don’t see any problem with the only human character being Hispanic, either.
I appreciate you removing the Tea Party statement. This comic has nothing to do with that, and the organization itself is not the type of group that would say or advocate this (despite the hyped media propaganda that pretends it is).
Although Racism has been thrown around too much lately, when it has been BS or unfounded… In cases like this, it really is ignorant. If it was an established character turned hispanic it would be one thing, but theres nothing wrong with new human characters being anything.
While we’re discussing “what this strip is about’…what exactly IS the substance of the complaint about this Hispanic robophile?
Did something occur on a message somewhere of which I am unaware of?
Can’t help but think that she is making fun of him…
With Robin, it could really go either way.
Yeah, that’s true.
You sure got a lot of hispanics attention in this comic. You should tell someday from where Robin is. Is she a Mexican?
Anyone got a link to one of these message board convos? I don’t frequent the boards, so I don’t know where to look. But I do love to watch bigots freak out over minor things.
Speaking of Armada and old boardies, anyone know where Torsten B. Abel (aka Nevermore) is? Guy just disappeared into thin air.
Um, yeah about “Prime.” I’m not too into the Movie thing. Movie Bumblebee is the poster boy for this. I heard rumor he might be the leader of the Autobot team. At least there’s hope for the Cons with Welker coming back. They need more guys on their side other than 2 others and troopers. And MORE ENERGON!
He’s around.
Don’t forget the “racist” robots in the Revenge of the Fallen. One of whom was voiced by a black guy, and were intended to be wiggers. It was probably a bad idea to do that, given the whole “they killed the black Autobot!” thing in the first film.
I’m a latino taking over the comments! Jajajaja! (that’s a laughter. It sounds like hahahaha, not yayayaya. Just like Frijoles or Coj… you got it…).
Ud. Caballero/dama acaba de hacer mi día
It’s “Frijol” when it’s in singular , not frijole. we tend to add the es in the plural because we tend to like writing things exactly as we hear them (try to pronounce “frijols” and see what I mean)
I always asumed robin was an at least 1st generation american, over here we don’t tend to name kids names like robin unless there is huge fan of batman and no one to restrain him/her.
Y aknow, seeing as She’s Hispanic…Does she know spanish? O.o
not being a jerk, just really curious
It’s nice to have Robin reacting to the crazy Transformers fans for a change- we’re used to Ethan’s sarcasm and Amber’s complete lack of a reaction, but Robin’s over-the-topness really drives home how dumb these guys are being.