Many of the issues reflected in comic books are symptomatic of a wider cultural cancer, as is the case with the worrying spate of murders of young black people by older white men in the US. The white men being almost universally cops and almost universally they don't get charged for the murders is even more troubling. It's also impossible to argue with: if, say, you side with police officer Darren Wilson, who shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown to death? You're a racist. Still, there are people who think that it isn't quite as simple an issue as that, and for some reason one of them is somebody involved in organising San Diego Comic-Con. SDCC has become not only the biggest comics convention in the world but also the place where the majority of the entertainment industry will make its big announcements for the year ahead, with Hollywood and TV execs rubbing shoulders with funnybook folk. All the more troubling, then, that one Comic-Con International volunteer known as Bill in San diego chose to take to Twitter in the light of the Michael Brown murder and post a series of inflammatory and disturbing messages. SDCC have since identified Bill Purcell as someone who's volunteered at the show for over a decade, before quickly distancing themselves from him.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
