The Other Ones Are Not Peanuts

D. D. Degg August 15, 2021 1 minute 1 comment

Like many of us in early 2021, Martin Lee was deeply affected by many issues, including COVID, George Floyd, and anti-Asian hate crimes. Finding himself in a self-diagnosed “funk,” he needed refuge and found his way back to the art of his youth.

Little did he know that this diversion would lead to the start of something special and empowering for many. With the help of his younger brother Rich Lee, he launched The Other Ones by Lee, a daily collaborative parody comic strip focusing on social justice and “otherness” issues.

Lee created his first comic, which he refers to as a meme, in February 2021 in response to all the anti-Asian hate crimes that were prevalent in the news.

The day after that, he ran his first comic strip that was based on an event from his childhood and also introduced an Asian character named Diggy who was modeled after his brother. Lee felt that it was crucial to be inclusive of all BIPOC in The Other Ones, which he describes as a parody of Charles Schulz’s long-running Peanuts strip — a comic that he happened to love as a kid.

“Utilizing the massive number of tropes Schulz left behind, I wanted to tell the story of the Other Ones — the BIPOC characters who surely existed in Peanutsville, USA, but were never seen nor heard. What would the Asian character be thinking when they see Peppermint Patty sleeping in class? What would two BIPOC characters at the infamous brick wall be saying or thinking? We all know what Charlie Brown would be thinking, or, at least, have a pretty good idea. But, we have no idea what the BIPOC characters would be thinking or feeling. We were never represented. I wanted to represent us,” said Lee.

AsAm News reports on the Lee Brothers’ comic about Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.