When I first saw the Miss Representation trailer about the mis/under-representation of women and girls in contemporary media, I was taken by the comment “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

It made me think that women aren’t the only people misrepresented in the media… I thought about what it must be like for my gay friends to watch mainstream TV dramas, or for my Lil’wat Nation neighbours to pick up the local paper or regional magazines that specialise in profiling “mountain culture”.

Shared on Fast Company this week, classic comic book superheroes get a Pacific Northwest makeover, in the hands of artist Jeffrey Veregge. When I saw the story, I thought, hell yes.

Veregge’s webpage introduces himself:

“It’s not who I am underneath,
but what I do that defines me.”

— Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins

My origins are not supernatural, nor have they been enhanced by radioactive spiders. I am simply a Native American artist and writer, whose creative mantra in best summed up with a word from my tribe’s own language as: “taʔčaʔx̣ʷéʔtəŋ” which means “get into trouble”.

A member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, I was raised and spent a majority of my life on our reservation known locally as Little Boston, which is located near Kingston, Washington. Although I am enrolled there, I am also both of Suquamish and Duwamish tribal ancestry.

I am a honor graduate from the Art Institute of Seattle, and I have had the privilege to study with Tsimshian master carver David Boxley for a short time learning the basics of Salish form-line design. For the past 10 years I have been employed as Lead Designer/Studio Manager for a media agency that specializes in Non-Profits.

This site, the work that is seen on it is a reflection of a lifetime love affair with comic books, toys, TV and film. Taking my passions and blending them with my Native perspective, artistic background and the desire to simply be me. Basically I am just trying to have fun and get back to that kid that went to art school to begin with, wanting to create artwork that I want to see and make just for the hell of it.

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Fast Company wrote: “Jeffrey Veregge, an artist and member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (located just outside of Seattle), depicted Batman alongside Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Flash through traditional Coast Salish design. Coast Salish is an art form unique to the Pacific Northwest, known for depicting the earth, sky, and its animals in distinctive, swooshing silhouettes.

“I want people get a chance to relate to an art form that has been used primarily to tell the tales of my people and heritage,” Veregge tells Co.Design. “I want to give other people an opportunity to see Native art tell the stories that many of us have grown up with, stories that transcend any single culture and can be embraced by all as their own.”

Now most of you will recognize Veregge’s superheroes, but what of their intricate lines? To understand the shapes behind Coast Salish, know that its best, grounding metaphor is that of dropping a pebble in calm water. With that framework in mind, you can recognize the prominent circles in the work, rippling out in half-moon crescents and trigons (shark-tooth-like abstract spears with three tips).

It just so happens that the Coast Salish visual framework works superbly for superheroes, as the trigons fire your eyes across the forms like arrows midflight. So Batman’s cape seems to swoop him downward to an unsuspecting victim, while Flash appears to explode forth from his hips and shoulders.

The effect is dynamic enough to make you crave a whole comic drawn in Coastal Salish, but you’ll have to settle for Veregge’s prints, which are available from time to time, in limited edition, 50-print runs. He’ll also be making new works for EMP Museum in Seattle.”

And we say HELL YES to the suggestion that Veregge do an entire comic drawn in Coastal Salish.

Why shouldn’t ALL our local kids grow up believing they can be a hero?