Artist Spotlight: Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand - Part I

Reclaiming Nativeness in the Realm of Nerdom

Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand. Image courtesy of RedLine Contemporary Art Center in Denver, CO where she is a current Artist in Residence.

If asked that age-old question, “what is art?” many would conjure up images of gilt-framed oil paintings or white marble sculptures. Those inclined towards the contemporary might picture more unconventional installations, like a dead shark floating in formaldehyde. But few would think of the glossy pages containing the hero cycles of pop culture’s most famous superheroes. Propelled into mass media during World War II, comic books have steadily expanded beyond their holds of marginalized nerd subculture to become mainstream and, some argue, a fine arts phenomenon. But as this medium gains traction in both popular and fine art circles, its creators must realize that their narratives and characters are not confined to the illustrations in their books but stand as representations of real people who look to the role models within their pages. 

Recently, a positive trend has emerged in comic book art to create heroes who accurately reflect the populations they serve. Alongside Captain America, Superman, and Batman, audiences now see Falcon, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel. Notably absent from this list of comic book superheroes however, until very recently, were Native American protagonists. Today this auspicious list includes figures like Kaui, Kupu, Captain Paiute, Kagagi, and Sanannguagartiit. These characters ensure that comic enthusiasts today have strong representations of Native peoples who have just as much skill, integrity, and power as non-Native protagonists. They educate audiences on Native mythologies and traditions while showing that Native and modern need not be mutually exclusive categories.  

Depictions of Native American peoples in comic books have historically reinforced negative stereotypes. These include Native Americans in pan-Indian dress (i.e. wearing the feathered war bonnets and buckskin shirts of Plains Indian chiefs) and calling upon shamans and mystical medicine men to help the main protagonist out of trouble. In direct response to these harmful stereotypes of the homogeneity of Indigenous peoples, their reduction to side characters in a narrative that barely leaves room for them, and the casting of Indigenous people as inherently evil, Native American comic artists are asserting their identities not in opposition to the powers of good, but as embodiments of them. 

"Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers," a 2016 anthology of nine stories written and illustrated by Native artists documenting historical feats of the Code Talkers from WWI through the Korean War. Image courtesy of Amazon.

Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand exemplifies this assertion of Indigenous voice in her original comic book artwork. Born in Taos, New Mexico, Maldonado Bad Hand is of Lakota and Cherokee heritage. Now a resident of Denver after studying at the Art Institute of Colorado, she describes in an interview with Michael Sheyahshe (author of the definitive guide to Native representation and misrepresentation in comic books) how she grew up going to powwows and sundances, and watching her father write and perform traditional songs. She also grew up learning to draw characters from Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and the X-Men comics, which are some of her favorite pop culture works. 

Although her fanart of popular TV shows gained her success in the comic and fanart world, demand for her art skyrocketed when she began to sell more of her original material rooted in her Lakota and Cherokee background. She acknowledges the double-edged sword that her heritage has been, or at least, its perception among her audiences, when it comes to generating interest in her art. 

I might almost say being Lakota was a good thing - because it is such a popular tribe. We do have to deal with a fair amount of cultural appropriation, but it gets my foot in the door. A lot of the time as soon as I mention that I am Lakota, because there is still that Romanticism about it, people want to know more. People seem to hope that there will be something mystical about me, but that does allow me to talk more. Hopefully they actually listen to me. [1]

A staple of Maldonado Bad Hand’s work is her original comic books, through which she honors Indigenous women and asserts her own voice. She is a co-founder of the Indigenous Comics Narrative and áyA Studios, which promote independent publishing of works by Native artists. In addition to series like Kaui, Bad Hand’s work has been featured in several anthologies of Native stories such as Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, Dreaming in Indian and 24-Hour Fairy Tales. 

In her still-in-progress series appropriately titled Indigenous Fairy Tales, Bad Hand “matches up” various European fairy tales with their Native corollaries or finds an aspect of the story that meshes well with a part of Native traditions. Kupu is a Northwest Coast Inuit version of the Little Mermaid; the stories of the Lakota trickster Iktomi and of Pinocchio will be combined into another tale. Kaui is a modern-day take on Beauty and the Beast set in Hawaii. 

To learn more about how Kaui exemplifies the type of strong Native heroines who are leaping into the pages of modern comic books, click here for Part II!

To see illustrations from these works, visit Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand's portfolio here.

[1] Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand, quoted in Neil Greenway, "Pilla, Kaui, & ayA Studios - An Interview with Rafael & Kristina Maldonado-Bad Hand (DINK 2018)." Nerd Team 30 (July 07, 2018). https://www.nerdteam30.com/creator-conversations/pilla-kaui-aya-studios-an-interview-with-rafael-kristina-maldonado-bad-hand-dink-2018.

Sources and Further Reading

Blume, Anna. “In A Place of Writing.” In Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935: Pages from A Visual History. Edited by Janet Catherine Berlo. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996, 40-44. 

Carlson, Marta. Framed: Native American Representations in Contemporary Visual Mediums, 2013, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Comic Books and American Cultural History: An Anthology. Edited by Matthew Pustz. 2012.

“Comic Book Hero Teaches Safe Carving Practices.” Windspeaker (Edmonton, Alta.), 1993.

Danziger-Russell, Jacqueline. Girls and Their Comics: Finding a Female Voice in Comic Book Narrative. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2013. 

DeMeyer, Trace. “Comic Book Teaches Importance of Tribal Sovereignty.” Ojibwe Akiing (Hayward, Wis.), 1999.

Folkins, Tali. “Comic Book Captures Residential Schools Story.” Anglican Journal 142, no. 4 (2016): 2.

Harvey, Robert C. The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. Studies in Popular Culture (Jackson, Miss.). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996.

James, Lynette. “Children of Change, Not Doom: Indigenous Futurist Heroines in YA.” Extrapolation 57, no. 1 2 (2016): 151-VI.

King, C. Richard. “Alter/native Heroes: Native Americans, Comic Books, and the Struggle for Self-Definition.” Cultural Studies: Critical Methodologies 9, no. 2 (2009): 214-23.

Leggatt, Judith. “Suicide Prevention in Nêhiyawi (Cree) Comic Books.” Bookbird 54, no. 1 (2016): 31-41.

Mckinnon, Matthew. “Graphic Details; Comic Book Artist Doing His Part to Keep Native Language Alive.” Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alta.), 2017.

“Native Americans Tell Their Own Superhero Stories At Indigenous Comic Con.” Weekend All Things Considered (Washington, D.C.), 2017.

Robertson, Paul Lester. “Indians of the Apocalypse: Native Appropriation and Representation in 1980s Dystopic Films and Comic Books.” Journal of Popular Culture 51, no. 1 (2018): 68-90.

Sheyahshe, Michael A. “IPI: Indigenous Peeps in the Industry – 09 Kristina BadHand.” AlterNativemedia. January 24, 2018. https://alter-native-media.com/2015/03/27/ipi-indigenous-peeps-in-the-industry-09/.

Sheyahshe, Michael A. Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2008.

Summerlin, Coley. From Exclusion to Inclusion—A Shift in the Perception of Native and Asian Americans through Graphic Stories: A Comparison of Political Cartoons from the 1800s to Trickster, American Born Chinese, and Level Up, 2015, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection. Edited by Matt Dembicki. Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum Pub., 2010.

Woodall, Lowery, and Campbell, Christopher. The Secret Identity of Race: Exploring Ethnic and Racial Portrayals in Superhero Comic Books, 2010, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.