Much like their fans, comic book characters are becoming increasingly diverse.
Decades since the introduction of Caucasian staples such as Superman and Wonder Woman, the illustrated world now boasts new heroes such as a Sikh and a burqa-clad crime fighter.
On the other end of the pen, artists are taking steps to bridge cultural differences - chief among them is Jakub Mazerant, the man behind the first international, bilingual illustration anthology.
The 34-year-old’s “Pieces” project features more than 200 artists from 26 countries, all collaborating to create an international comic with a single storyline.
Extended interviews with some of the all-star guests at Supanova:
Mazerant told SBS that the main point of the project was to bring together people from different cultures.
“The first idea I had was just to connect artists within my gallery,” he said.
“But I decided it was actually a great thing to do, to invite people from all over the world. It started to become the most important thing to me, to get people from different countries working together on the one project.”
Pieces started with a single panel depicting a group of characters. The panel was then sent to another artist involved in the project, who would create their own addition before passing the project on.
Mazerant drew the first panel himself almost a decade ago, before moving to Australia from his Polish homeland in 2007.
His original work has since been joined by contributions from artists such as Australia’s Reg Mombassa, and has gained fame through its Guinness World Record as “the most contributors to a published comic book”.
The comic is one of the centrepieces of the Supanova event held in Sydney this weekend, but Mazerant said the ground breaking exhibition was more than just a cartoon.
“We can’t really treat it as just a comic book,” he said.
“It’s a huge art experiment.”
‘Art is an international language’
Mazerant said the project echoed the main goal of all his work – “to create artistic platforms of cooperation” between artists from all around the world.
“The main point I have in my mind is to create a dialect between all of us,” he said.
“I think art is an international language and it actually connects people the most. They can relate to something, they understand – we are not being lost in translation. We all understand the graphic language and the way we think.”
The global significance of illustrators’ work came to the fore earlier this year, when armed men killed four cartoonists at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The Islamic attack – which killed a total of 12 people - sparked a worldwide reaction from cartoonists, who flooded the web with drawings in support of the slain cartoonists.
Among them was Australian artist David Pope, whose work now hangs on the walls of the magazine’s Paris office.
The attack also served as inspiration for an international cartoon competition, making fun of Islamic State terrorists.
Hosted by Iran's House of Cartoons, the competition attracted more than 1000 entries from artists worldwide, including Australians.
Held in the predominately Shiite country, the exhibition also saw many artists enter under false names in order to avoid violent retribution from supporters of the Sunni terror group.
‘Our characters are defined not by how they look, but by their actions’
Not all comics have been as controversial in their efforts to unite.
A mild-mannered school teacher has become a symbol of equality in Pakistan, where the animated educator is known as the Burka Avenger.
Jiya is the title character in the country’s first animated superhero series, which follows her alter ego as she uses “books and pens as weapons”.
Creators said the show has a “clear message about female empowerment”, with the use of school equipment as weapons symbolic as well as entertaining.
The show was awarded the International Gender Equity Prize at the Prix Jeunesse International Festival in Germany last year, and also won the George Foster Peabody Award in 2013.
The Burka Avenger is among the growing number of creations giving a fresh perspective on ethnic characters in the illustrated world.
Outside of African-Americans – who have appeared as protagonists in comics as early as 1947 – non-white ethnic groups have been underrepresented in the world of superheroes.
Historically, minorities appeared as racial stereotypes or crude comic relief, offering cheap laughs at accents and over exaggerated features.
The fight against bigotry is also being fought in the traditional comic book form with the introduction of Super Sikh.
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, comic devotees can now follow the adventures of an Elvis loving – and evil hating - secret agent named Deep Singh.
Writing on the comic’s Kickstarter site, the creators said that Sikhs were often misunderstood and subjected to stereotyping.
They wrote that the world of comics needed to be updated, with different characters that reflected the multicultural nature of the modern world.
“Some villains in our series wear a turban - so does our hero,” they write.
“Just as in real life, our characters are defined not by how they look, but by their actions.”
