A black cartoonist, illustrator, and comic artist is reimagining mainstream cartoons as they would be if they properly represented black communities, and there are two polar opposite reactions. Some people are fans and want the cartoons to be turned into animated series and brought to life, while others are calling it racist. Let’s take a look.

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The Artist

Tyron Handy (@studiototalonyx) is the man behind the polarizing art and is a cartoonist, illustrator and comic artist from Philadelphia. He started making his cartoon reimagining about two years ago, a project he runs on the side of his weekly comic, Apple Dapple Tactics. His comic is based around the life of the main character, Ty, and his complicated relationships. He works as a systems engineer for Coca-Cola, even though his mama insists he doesn’t have a real job. His comic features some of his black cartoons in the background.

BuzzFeed asked Tyron what inspired him to start focusing on black cartoon characters, and his answer couldn’t have been more wholesome. He hopes to inspire the next generation of black artists through representation.

“There weren’t a log of cartoons that I felt represented me much growing up – most black cartoon characters and tv shows were stereotypical, slightly racial discriminating side characters and the best friend of the white main character. Black kids need to be able to see more representation of themselves in media.”

The art isn’t destined to stay on paper, however, as Handy has much bigger dreams.

“I hope that one day I can run my own animation studio. I want to create more cartoons with black lead characters that will better represent the black experience.”

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The Reimagined Cartoons

Reimagining cartoons in different forms is by no means new, but doing it well is a different story. Handy has managed to give famous cartoons black characters that look authentic and are still recognisable in their own art styles.

“Most recreations that I see are just people putting designer clothes and jewellery onto the characters and changing their skin colour. My recreations really look like they could be parallel versions of the characters.”

Handy has reimagined some of pop culture’s favourite cartoons with black characters:

• RugRats
• The Simpsons – The Blacksons
• Hey Arnold! – Hey Andre!
• Family Guy
• Rick and Morty
• Max and Roxanne
• Ed, Edd n Eddy
• The Powerpuff Girls
• Wonder Woman
• Batman and Robin – The Fresh Prince of Gotham

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The Response

There have been some pretty polarized responses to Handy’s work, with most people sitting either on the side of support or the side of calling him racist.

• “and this is how you keep racism ALIVE.”
• “This is wrong and racist. It is wrong to blackface. Same with turning cartoons black. It’s the same as if a white person painted their face black.”
• “Do you want to see more black characters, make your own, don’t steal…”

Luckily it seems more people are in his corner than against him.

• “It’s pretty gross how people can’t even mention black without it making a bunch of people freak out and say “this is how you keep racism going”. So basically you’re telling me black people either need to be segregated, OR we can be treated equal, but can never mention our colour ever again? Those are the only options?”
• “This guy wants to go bigger and create mainstream cartoons – imagine how many kids he could influence. I hope he gets there because he’s right: there’s no representation for people who aren’t white. The supporting characters don’t count.”
• “wow, he NAILED the art styles for those shows.”
• “Marge afro hair finally fits in the character.”
• “I swear this reminds me of my own family.”

Representation in media, cartoons and on TV is really important for young kids, so people fighting this need to check their priorities. I personally can’t wait to see what this comic artist does next.

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Are you for or against Tyron Handy’s work? Would you like to see these cartoons with black characters adapted for TV?

People Are Getting Triggered By These 10 Black Cartoons Renditions Written by Megan Oosthuizen for Fortress of Solitude