And Wonder Woman fans collectively breathe a sigh of relief

It's official, Gail's in:

Newsarama: First off Gail, how long has this been in the works? Has this been something that was out there along with the relaunch, or was this all kind of sudden?

Gail Simone: To my knowledge, it was pretty sudden, for my part. Dan Didio called me into his office when I visited New York City (and the DC offices) for the first time during the New York Comic Con. So it was, stay in the beautiful Parker Meridien hotel overlooking Central Park, see three Broadway shows, attend a really fun convention, get VIP seats for David Letterman (thanks, Mike Carlin!) and get offered Wonder Woman all in the same week.

It’s gonna take a lot to top that week, for me, actually.

So to answer your question, it might’ve been in Dan’s head for some time, but it was pretty recent stuff on this end, which is great, because if I’d had to wait months before starting writing on it, I think I would have burst at the seams from excitement.

It’s just a book I want to write. I’m dying to do it. When I first started in comics, it was the one book I really made it clear I didn’t think I should take, partly because of fear of typecasting, but also because it’s just such a huge, important character. The superheroine, not just in comics, but in all media, period.

But I got over the stage fright, and got to write her a few times, in Birds of Prey and JLA: Classified, and I realized, DAMMIT, I love this character! I mean, it was just an amazing feeling. That feeling some writers get when they write Batman or whomever, that’s me with Diana, except times ten and covered with sprinkles.

She'll be in starting issue #13 and "for the foreseeable future."

Now, this is a huge relief after the last couple issues, but I've still got a lingering worry. That's because I'm a neurotic person. My naturally high-strung state was just amplified by my day at work. It started out very nice, I was thinking about an old boyfriend. Nice memories, actually. But then I walked into work today and got word that Alpha Boss wanted to hold a huge meeting a half-hour after my shift ended, very late at night. Because he was worried about how the night shift missed all the meetings. And that, since all the people who normally do such things work on days, they wanted me to do the presentation coordination of this last-minute meeting. Oh, and Mark wasn't there, and neither was Latasha, and Rebecca's fucking useless, so I had to run the shift even though I missed turnover while I was talking to the beta bosses about how to do the presentation the Alpha Boss wanted to do. And then, soon as I thought I was situated, every jet on the airfield (and a few in the air) seemed to simultaneously break. And not just with my system! With systems that needed my system running to fix them! Oh, and at lunch (which had to wait until after the LCS closed, because I needed to wait for Latasha to get to work) I had a traffic accident. And got a traffic ticket on the way home from the super-late meeting, the one after which all of middle management got yelled at by Ranking Beta Boss. I'm suspicious of anything right now, especially something that sounds so good.

Anyway, I like Simone, I like Simone's writing, I'm happy for her, but I can't shake the worry she's getting pegged as the "chick writer." It underscores that we really need more women to break into the business.

Okay, now that that's voiced...

YAY!!!

Finally, an action writer on Wonder Woman!!!

Anger, Angst and Anticipation

I didn't get my comics today, but just skimming the blogosphere I can tell that Wonder Woman would probably make me angry.

The question is, what kind of angry?

There are many kinds of anger. There's anger that floats on top of your heart and seeps into the front of your throat from there. There's anger that forms in the pit of your stomach and hovers stiffly around your collarbone. There's even that special kind of anger that in addition to the other effects also charges the bottom of your feet and settles below your intestines, that anger that gathers there until you get out of your seat and make some kind of movement. That's good anger. That's anger that energizes you. That's anger that makes you do something. It makes you write, it makes you rant, it makes you go to the gym and run or beat the stuffing out of the punching bag. Its anger you can taste, anger that you breathe. It ranges from mildly annoyed to fully outraged but no matter the severity its always a living anger, that can be channeled into incredibly productive actions if cultivated and handled properly.

Mixed with vicious dark humor, it can be very fun!

I like to think of it as Larsen Anger.

On the other hand, there's dead anger. This doesn't float on top of your heart. It lays on top of your heart like lead. Its solid in the pit of your stomach, but still manages to churn with the liquid there. It collects in every muscle of your body and when it seeps into your throat it forms a lump. Its heavy anger, that you can't do anything with. It'll turn to fear, disgust and depression almost immediately.

The sad thing is, that if you stop channeling your living anger into something productive, it tends to turn into dead anger and weigh on anything you do. After a while of holding back that rant (or working and getting no results!), you just get disgusted with the whole thing and can't muster the energy to react anymore.

Ever heard anyone say they were "all out of outrage"?

Yeah, that's the feeling.

I haven't named it yet, but I've been toying with "Reis Heartbreak" after the guy who designed Star Sapphire's current costume. I held back from ranting about the Arisia costume constantly for a week, but Star Sapphire just depressed me.

I'm worried Wonder Woman #7 will just depress me too.

I hate to skip it this week, partially out of curiosity, but mostly because I already trimmed my pull-list at the shop and Steve orders these books thinking he has a sure sale. Seems a waste to trim the list again when I'll just be adding this book again for the next writer.

Maybe this is one of those points where I expect something so bad I'm pleasantly surprised.

Maybe not.

Links

Pink Raygun's Guide to Recognizing Your Zombies:

Your complete zombie arsenal should include at least one basic garden tool, a Molotov cocktail kit, a lighter and some tampons. You laugh, but they’re very useful. They’re absorbent; soak one is gasoline and light it for an instant mini-fire bomb. They’re sterile; in a pinch you can tape one over a gaping wound to absorb the blood. So, next time your girlfriend or wife asks you to get her a box of Tampax on your beer run, don’t roll your eyes and conveniently “forget”. One of those tampons might just save your life.

This monologue by Sherin the Orange made me smile today as well.

A Sign This Blogging Thing is Not Working

Had a conversation at work today about gamers telling random strangers about details that happened in their games. I contributed a story about my encounter with a Werewolf: The Apocalypse player at a comic book store, which made another technician, McElroy, scratch his chin awkwardly.

"Uhh.. To be fair, whenever someone mentions superheroes or comics, they get a 20 minute rant from you."

The little rat had a point, but I wasn't about to let it stick.

"Well, here's the thing," I argued, "You all know me. You know mentioning Superman or Wonder Woman will get a three hour explanation of what's pissing me off this month in the world of comics. I'm actually surprised you haven't sent the unsuspecting new guys into that trap."

"Oh yeah," he answers, "that's why I brought up Captain America that one day. I've been trying to get the new guys to do it, but no one will take the bait."

It all reminded me of Spanish class, when we tried to get the teacher to talk about sociology to distract from the actual learning. (It was amazing how often her tangents tied back to Nazis.) We were remarkably successful, as evidenced by my utter lack of any Spanish language skills.

This blog, however, has been a failure. At least in one of its original objectives, which was to give me a place to rant and rave about comics without driving my co-workers completely insane. I now rant and rave here and at work (and on dates), and my coworkers are driven quite up the wall. (And if I'm not talking comics, I'm talking religion or politics and nobody wants to discuss those here, at work, or on a date.)

In my defense, there's really no time to blog at work and things can't always wait until I get home. Especially when the Wonder Woman writer pisses me off.

The Kincaid Effect in Comics

The Hathor Legacy has a post and comment thread about female characters on TV that start off absolutely wonderful, but change their personalities after a point as they get romantically involved with a male character they wouldn't normally be with and you end up with a character you despise. Betacandy calls it the Kincaid Effect, after the Law and Order character.

Its probably something to do with a changing writing team and cast, which of course makes me think of how comic book character personalities change as the creative team changes. Often with the female characters, you get the Kincaid Effect where a once-likable female character is suddenly the embodiment of every feminine stereotype you hate and coupled with a male character she shouldn't look twice at.

I've seen this happen in comics. It seems a common thing in team books, and outside of team books it can be very, very abrupt. I think the Kincaid Effect happened to both Jade and Donna Troy when they got paired off with Kyle Rayner.

Funny how the opposite effect happened with Guy Gardner when he got paired off with Ice in JLI. You'd think Ice would have to be changed to get with him, but really it was Guy's personality that was altered to fit her. Resulting in a much more likable Guy Gardner. (I'd call that skill on Keith Giffen's part. He could probably make me like Jade or Donna.)

This bears some thought.

Happy Easter

Its Easter Sunday and the blogiverse (all of the parts I frequent, at least) is filled with blasphemous Zombie Jesus jokes, and adorable Peeps links. So, here's a change of pace:



(My sister tells me that's actually a fun movie.)

Anyway, you'll get no Easter Zombie post from me until someone puts this song to footage from King of Kings.

Early Fall? Sooner than I expected, in that case.

From Heinberg's blog:

In order for DC's AMAZONS ATTACK event to ship on schedule, DC has temporarily asked Terry and Rachel Dodson to stop working on WHO IS WONDER WOMAN?, PART 5, so they can draw and ink WONDER WOMAN #8 and #9 (scripted by Jodi Picoult). At that point, the Dodsons will return to our story, but that means, WHO IS WONDER WOMAN?, PART 5 probably won't ship until early fall. Sad news on the scheduling front, to be sure, but -- from the pages I've already seen -- it will be more than worth the wait.

The good news is that the extraordinary Gary Frank (SUPREME POWER) is currently drawing a 14-page NEMESIS back-up story I've written for the issue, which recaps the secret origins of Wonder Woman, Donna Troy, Wonder Girl, Sarge Steel, and Nemesis. Like the Dodsons, Mr. Frank is a brilliant genius-person, a generous and kind collaborator, and one of my all-time favorite graphic storytellers. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to work with him.

Friday Night Fights, Round 4

I'm not about to let Bahlactus get away with an open-handed slap here!

More Dresden Files Posting

After hearing a number of people complain about the sexism in Storm Front, I was planning to post about why it didn't cause me to drop the books, but Amy beat me to it:

I was a reluctant Harry fan in the beginning. The first few books make it difficult to distinguish between Harry’s innate chauvinism and the attitude of the book. But as I kept reading, I realized that Harry’s chauvinism, his continuous desire to Save Women From Themselves, was in fact a *huge* character flaw, and therefore Quite The Interesting Character Flaw Indeed! I’ve met other readers who had similar reactions, both male and female alike, and even Mr. Reads, upon handing me the first Dresden novel, told me to give it a book or two before I made judgment.

Some book series suffer from extension. Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, for example, and undeniably Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series (which This Humble Author stopped reading at least six or seven books back). But the Dresden Files, on the other hand, get more interesting, more in depth, and *better written* every book. You can’t say that often, and when you can, you revel in it, just a bit.

I complained about some sexist attitudes expressed in the X-Men 3 movie a while ago. Someone answered that they were expressions of the character and not the theme of the story. This is a valid argument when discussing dialogue in a story. The problem I have is when a sexist attitude is expressed ("Hell hath no fury...") and then holds true in the narrative.

Its overwhelming at first because the books are written in first-person from Harry's perspective, and he has seriously idiotic opinions about women early on. As the books progress, these opinions drop off because these opinions keep being proven false. I think its a sign Harry is growing that the attitude surfaces less and less. Certainly, all of the characters in the book series grow and change like real people and when Butcher gets a chance to flesh out a minor character (like housewife Charity, or the background mortician Butters) he can really surprise you (Charity went from unnoticeable to extremely kickass in a single chapter, for example).

Anyway, in the Dresden Files, Harry's chauvinism is characterization and doesn't hold true to the plot. I can understand why a lot of people would like to spare themselves the reading anyway, but I actually like to see a stupid character learn his lessons in a story. Its fantasy, after all.

Spontaneous Dresden Files/King Arthur Comparison

So Kalinara was reading White Night (while online) and laughed at a joke. In this manner, she poked my brain. I realized that that was exactly the sort of joke that would have meaning later on in a series like this and remarked upon it, then realized tow other things. Then it hit me how dense I'd been for 9 books.

I mean, I'm a huge King Arthur buff. I call myself Ragnell the Foul. I know who Morchades is. I know the story with Obie and Obilot. So how in the hell did I miss the insanely obvious Arthurian symbolism in not just the last couple books, but the series as a whole? I mean, not just the outright stated stuff, but there's like a whole Arthurian shadow mythos forming here.

Very Minor Spoilers so I'm not hiding this. Just skim past if you're a wuss.

Now, I have to reread the whole series to be sure and I'll probably post something more in-depth later, but right now I'm seeing:
Harry Dresden = Merlin (Repeatedly suggested, we can be pretty sure that stupid umbrella stand is analogous to the stone that held the sword and that this parallel will materialize in multiple, fiery, dangerous ways.)
Margaret "Le Fay" = Morgan (I still think Le Fay is a pseudonym, but its freaking obvious)
Michael Carpenter = Arthur (the sword implies this, at the end of Proven Guilty I believe)
Carlos Ramirez = Galahad (Dropped as a joke in White Night, but in a way that makes me sure it'll be an important parallel later -- this is what Kali reminded me of)
Elaine Mallory = Nimue (That spell that binds Harry in Summer Knight is a dead giveaway)
Charity Carpenter = Lady of the Lake (Proven Guilty reveals that she makes armor and weapons for Michael)

No evidence, but I'm guessing from personalities we'll see references linking either Thomas Raith or Karrin Murphy to Lancelot, Lara Raith to Morgause, Molly Carpenter to Mordred, Morgan the Warden to Kay, and either Karrin Murphy or her partner to Gawain.

I'm also seeing a few possible parallels to that demon and that nun who were Merlin's parents.

I'm not saying I can predict the series based on loose affiliation with the Arthur stories, but its becoming increasingly likely that the Holy Grail will enter play soon.

Anyone who's read the books see anything I've ommitted?

Blog Against Sexual Violence Day

Its Blog Against Sexual Violence Day, and I'm without a long thoughtful post.

So even though it is probably linked on fifty trillion blogs today, I'm linking this news article about the waitress and the bartender who prevented a rape because they were paying attention.

Then, go to abyss2hope's linklist and read.

Link

"And did you see Romeo and Juliet? Total rehash of La Celestina! Did this guy ever have an original thought?"

Now, what's freaky about that parody is how true to life it is. The Taming of the Shew comment is almost sentence for sentence my reaction to reading that play in 6th grade. Except I called it crap rather than an anti-diversity agenda.

Either way, Mr. Frazier was not amused.

I've been a feminist a long damned time.

Submission Call: 13th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

Where: Words from the Center, Words from the Edge
When: May 3rd, 2007
Deadline: April 29th, 2007.
Announcement:

I would really like to get submissions from people who haven’t been featured in the carnival before (but repeat submitters are of course welcome!) Also since the Hugo’s are in Nippon this year I think it would be great to get at least a few non-Western feminist views on Science-Fiction & Fantasy (though of course everyone is welcome!). Also looking for posts that discuss the intersection of race/class/sexuality/ableism/etc. within SF from a feminist perspective (but again and I cannot stress this enough all articles about SF from a Feminist perspective are welcome!). Hope to hear from you all soon.

Contact: 13thFeministSFCarnival[AT]gmail[DOT]com or submission form.

No Post Today/No Comics Today.

Busy re-reading, as its really unusual to have a book series that I like better with each progressive book. Usually they jump the shark before the 9th one comes out.



I'd comment on it, but Kalinara hasn't read it yet and is begging for clues. I'm really just writing this post to tease her.

(I will say that its weird that Jim Butcher's Murphy description is overpowered by a mental picture of Valerie Cruz, but you get used to it. Oh, and Carlos may have replaced Kyle in my fannish heart.)

I'll get to the comics eventually

Next to my regular blog-wandering, the huge book on pre-Christian Teutonic religion I just got in the mail, and the new Dresden Files book out later today, there's two massive geek-femme offerings on the internet that I must completely devour:

Yes, the 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans is up at Pen-Elayne on the Web. Go. Read. And when you're done there, check out the April Sequential Tart.

Also, I find myself completely without a host for lucky 13. Please mail me if interested.

White Ethnic Blogs

Claire has realized that all those white blogs she's been reading really do count as ethnic blogs:

Now that I've had the realization, I feel differently about these white blogs. Everyone has a right--nearly a mandate, almost an imperative--to explore his or her home or group culture, to examine it, to illuminate it, to critique it. I love this about black, brown, and yellow ethnic blogs, and now I love this about white ethnic blogs as well. I no longer need them to change. I no longer have to fight down long emails to each blogger telling them how white they are and that they need to be more inclusive. They don't need to be more inclusive, any more than Cute Overload needs to blog about Iraq.

All they need to do is acknowledge that they are blogs written by white people from a white perspective about white culture. All they need to do is admit that they are white ethnic blogs.

Sounds reasonable. I can't exactly be blogging from a nonwhite perspective here, can I? Let's try it.

This is a white ethnic blog. -- No, no, that doesn't sound right.

This is a blog about comics from a white perspective. -- Okay, technically true but--Ugh! Who wants to get lumped in with "white power" (can't wait to see what kind of asshole finds my blog from that phrase) imbeciles? Also, really don't want to scare off nonwhite readers with this.

This is a blog about comics from a white perspective, but not a white power perspective. -- Okay, that's just pathetic. Let's try dropping the perspective stuff.

This is a blog about comics, by an American white girl-- Ick. White girl.

White woman doesn't sound much better.

I am absolutely certain I'm not the only one reacting like this. No one likes to identify as white. I've heard people say its boring, and I used to think (being raised to identify as Italian-American before white) that the whole default white culture thing gets on my nerves because it mashes Anglo-Saxon and Celtic and Greek and Polish and German and Italian and Scandinavian into one big white Euro-mess. We lose a little bit of cultural identity when we do that. Except, most of white American culture is one big white Euro-mess anymore and ethnicities like Irish and Italian are variations on that. Assimilation. Our parents and grandparents could manage it, so they did. I don't know shit about any other country, but some regions in the US have a long history of "I'm whiter than you" cultures hating the new guy until they could lose enough of their European culture to blend in. It works like the Borg. A big white Borg cube.

Nobody likes to say that because it implies all white Americans think alike, which they don't, but white American culture does absorb and adapt new cultures into the cultural collective. Reminds me of a conversation I had at work the other day about American food versus European food, and how much better European food was. Why? Because we take new foods and Americanize them and they lose all their ethnic flavor. Much as we do with immigrant cultures.

We Americanize to fit in. It comes down to "who's normal" and if you identify as your skin color, suddenly you're admitting that your skin color is not necessarily normal. And that's part of why very few white people blog about race. You can't really not know anything about race or ethnicity. Everyone has race and ethnicity. Its just uncomfortable to admit which side of racism you happen to be on, so if you're lucky enough to be on the side that benefits from racism you ignore it.

That's what that white privilege stuff is talking about.

Which might be why it looks so stupid when I type it out. Because it feels stupid to admit I'm not necessarily normal and I shouldn't be getting all the little perks from a wrong situation. Which is the biggest alarm bell that says Claire has a point about ethnic blogs and admitting you have an ethnic blog.

So we'll go with a white ethnic blog and leave it at that.

Okay, who went to Emerald City ComiCon?

If you did, please tell me there is truth to this livejournal post:

Yes, the rumor is true; based on Gail Simone's very broad "hints" at Emerald City, she is going to be the next Wonder Woman writer.

That's a mean rumor to spread if there isn't, especially given the last issue.

So, what did she say?

Most importantly, did she say it on April 1st?

Fan or Fanatic?

In my more serious moments, I like to read about religion (and not just my own). I'm a sucker for most articles on religion, and will usually go through the comment lists unless it descends into nothing but fifty pages of "Hitler!" "Stalin!" which happens more often than you think). It gets to the point sometimes where my interest in religion overpowers my fannishness and I neglect to read my comics for several weeks in a row. It makes me wonder where I stand when it comes to this. Am I more a fan or a fanatic? While it may be more respectable in some circles to be a religious fanatic neither subject is exactly grounded in reality and both completely absorb me at times.

I never really connected the two until I read Salon's article on the Gospel of Judas and saw this comment:

Since there is absolutely not one shred of evidence that a God (let alone a God of the Bible) exists- this article is no more meaningful than discussing the rehabilitation of the Joker in a Batman comic.

Since my initial reaction to this was to be outraged that he saw no point to discussing the Joker's rehabilitation, I think we can safely say I'm a fan and not a fanatic.

Happy Pranksgiving Everyone

I wanted to do a nice big prank on the blogosphere, or at least post a joke but the Renfaire was this weekend and I forgot.

So I'd just like to state that I owe you all a practical joke.

(Please note that when I post my theory that Frank Miller is homosexual but severely in denial, that will not be a joke.)

Wonder Woman #6

Yes, every bad review you've read is true. She treats the character like a complete fish out of water even though Diana's been underground pretending to be a regular person for an entire year, and before that had been around for years and gotten her lumps in during Perez and Messner-Loebs runs.

Beyond that, she's being vain and petty and existential and it makes me roll my eyes. Why does Wonder Woman give a flying fuck about being "cool"?

And why is Nemesis suddenly acting like Xander Harris?

It might be the first comparison, the milkshake replacement with a Black Canary milkshake, bothered me and set the tone wrong. Even though Diana didn't display overt jealousy, using the Black Canary replacement (and then driving it home with a mention by Nemesis) implied competition. Diana's from Themiscyra, where women can excel without tearing each other down. It also smacked of the Black Canary replacing Wonder Woman in the post-Crisis JLA recon, which irked me.

Still, even taking that into account, the plot was a stock plot (And the art seemed rushed. Drew Johnson is better than this) and the characters were too far off-base to make up for that. Diana's still supposed to be savvier, Tom's supposed to be more competent. This is a fresh off the boat story for an entrenched character.

I've read a lot of stuff that I've been iffy about on the first reading. I've read stuff that was entertaining but not particularly good on the second reading. I've read stuff that was mediocre but still had charm. I've read stuff that was decently plotted and timed but relied on cliched characterization and stereotypes, and therefore ruined my experience.

This issue was just plain bad, and I don't say that about a lot of things.

Cover Cliches

I did it again. I bought an issue based solely on the cover. It wasn't a series I was reading, or had heard about. It was actually the 3rd issue of a 6-issue miniseries. Silent War #3.

Like the last issue I bought just for the cover (the issue of New Avengers with the Scarlet Witch on the cover), it made me sad. I don't know why I'm such a big fan of Magneto's kids, but I always have been. I'm a sucker for any appearance they make. I scanned reprints of early Uncanny X-Men for them. I pick up random issues of Avengers when one of them is prominent on the cover (this is how I have the trade paperback of The Morgan Conquest). The first set of back issues I picked up when I was done with BMT and living on my own for the first time was the first two issues of the Amazing X-Men miniseries that tied into the Age of Apocalypse crossover. It was my favorite, because that was the one where Pietro was leading the X-Men. I have every issue PAD wrote of X-Factor and beyond that. Hell, I even own some of the 1997 Quicksilver series (I have the Heroes For Hire crossover).

So I've had issues with Marvel, or rather I've avoided buying issues from Marvel, since Wanda flipped out. It seems to have soured me on 98% of the Marvel universe and I dropped every Marvel book I read after Disassembled. It was such a wasteful stupid thing to do to a character.

Then I nosed around and picked up the first half of House of M, because I thought they might fix it. I dropped it when they revealed Pietro was the antagonist.

Then I picked up Son of M, just in case they fixed at least one twin. No such luck. Unlike the crossovers where Wanda was featured as insane, Son of M was a wonderful series. It was wonderful comic miniseries in the same way that The Last Sherlock Holmes Story is a wonderful book. Its skillful and engaging, and everything fits as they go through it. this somehow makes it more sickening than when the hero is completely mischaracterized, because the writer draws you into the story and its like a perfect horror picture. You empathize with the main character. That character is your hero. And you watch, helplessly, as they act completely within their nature and destroy their own sanity.

(If only Wanda's story could have been so good.)

Still, it was very depressing and I rationalized buying this because maybe, just maybe, it could get fixed.

It isn't.

But at least I still have this cover.



Isn't that beautiful? Crystal looks strong and protective and powerful here. Looking at the cover makes me forget a little bit about losing Wanda, mainly because I've never seen Wanda get to display such a presence. Not many female characters do. That's probably why I got out of my way for covers like this and like the Spirit #4. Its an image you can just look at and feel strong.

Last week, I saw a picture that looked much the same. It was on a T-Shirt in a souvenir shop and showed a classic poster of Luke and Leia for Star Wars. It was a little different from the ones I'd seen before, because rather than posing at his feet and holding a gun, Leia was wrapped around Luke's leg. It was the first time I'd seen that poster, but it didn't really make an impact on me. I thought at the time that it was the familiarity of the pose. Then I saw this cover.

I wonder if the artists understand what they convey when they do a role reversal like this. As a woman, I'm expected to empathize with the male characters as well as female characters (the whole "if boys will read it, girls will too; so make it for boys" mentality that the Entertainment industry displays) but that doesn't change the fact that when I see a man and a woman on a cover, I tend to identify with the female character.

So a picture of the traditional version, where the man is standing and radiating power while the woman is on her knees clinging to his leg can be offputting because at first glance my mind wants to identify with the female position. But the male character is the stronger in such a picture. He's the one we're meant to empathize with while the girl is the throwaway. So there's a little bit of distancing that has to happen. I have to ignore the gender difference to identify with the stronger character. Something is lost, and I see the art through a filter. I've seen tons of poses like this, with the woman wrapped around the man's leg, and they've never struck me as a good pose.

But looking at this cover the power hit me right away. There was no distance, there was no filter between me as a viewer and the stronger character. I got the full effect of the picture.

Its hard to describe, but when I saw it my heart felt a little lighter in my chest, my cheeks felt warmer and the corners of my mouth turned up in a smile. I think I may have stood a little taller in the store.

Now (because I know some poor soul who's cursed with apathy is misreading this feeling as a comment on the general state of my life) that's not to say that poses like this are as great as finding the cure for cancer, or my first taste of butter pecan ice cream, or that that's the most wonderful feeling I've ever had in my life. It was good enough to shell out the three bucks for a book that featured characters I liked. I've just lovingly detailed the experience so I can ask you all one thing:

Is that what it feels like for men when they see the typical pose?

And now, a meme.

Okay, if I still have any readers left, I did a real entry for Jake's meme.


Yeah, its an old Kevin Smith reference. Best I could do.

Warning: This post contains snobbery, social ranking and unrepentant judgment.

I was going to post a pretty cover, but I ended up getting into a fight in the comments of Kalinara's blog instead. I was a real asshat too (especially at the end there), but that's not what I'm going to discuss here.

Instead, I'm going to be even more of an asshat. I want to pick on this little paragraph of this little comment:

Oh, and I deleted the other post because I had a much better argument to make. You might want to follow example once your a Cass fan.

Let's repeat that last part.

You might want to follow example once your a Cass fan.

Again, so it sinks in.

You might want to follow example once your a Cass fan.

Now, dreadful grammar/spelling (on both our parts) aside, this made me cackle with derision. The statement implies that being a fan of Cassandra-Batgirl carries a higher standard than not being a fan of Cassandra-Batgirl. This of course goes against everything I've learned in all my years of superhero fandom.

Cass-fans are a minor subclass of Batfans. Now what I'm about to explain in no way says that Batfans are the losers of superhero fandom or anything like that. I know Batfans with wonderful taste. But being a Batfan is so common that it is practically a pre-requisite to being a superhero fan at all. Within the Batfan class are subclasses of Robinfans, Babsfans, Cassfans, CommisionerGordonfans, SilverAgeBatfans, GoldenAgeBatfans, MillerBatfans, Catfans, Jokerfans, Villainfans, Alfredfans but all are part of the general Gotham experience. All are members of the Batfamily and all fall under the umbrella of Batfans.

I always pictured superhero fandom as a pyramid. At the base are your wide-appeal franchises like Batman and X-Men. Nearly everyone enters the fandom through one of those classes. (There's a Marvel side and a DC side) Some people remain at the base and divide into little subclasses and have little sub-class wars, while others move on to other wide-appeal (but not quite so large) franchises such as Superman and Spiderman, up to the lesser known but still popular franchises like Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League, Avengers, Captain America, Hulk. Lesser known solo characters like Daredevil, Thor, Firestorm are a step above that. As they move up, they still remain Batfans and keep their cherished memories of brooding lonely RotDK Bruce or a car battery being thrown at a villain, but they expand to be fans of other settings as well.

Above the current character followers you have writer-followers, and art followers, and historians. Those fans of comics that were published before they first started reading comics, Bronze and Silver Age fans who had Modern Age childhoods are a bit higher than those fans who insist that everything be as they first started reading, but both are lower on the hierarchy than the people who go out of their way to track down the Golden Age stories that started it all. A cut above the current writer/artist followers are the ones who follow classic creators like Gil Kane, and Carmen Infantino and Gardner Fox, and at the very top of the pyramid you find your Kirby fans.

Because a fan of Jack Kirby obviously has impeccable taste.

While there's no reason to roll your eyes because someone is a fan of Batman or one of his many spinoffs, there's no reason to be impressed. Everyone has been to Gotham in one way or another. I'm probably going to laugh when someone tells me about the exacting social standards of CassandraCain-fandom. I'm probably also very likely to make fun of them. But when someone who owns Hunger Dogs and has read all of the necessary Adventures of Jimmy Olsen issues talks about what's necessary to be a Kirby fan, that's another situation entirely.


(What? Its not like I'm the only one to ever put cliche dialogue to a Kirby panel. Besides, I needed something for Jake's meme.)

While I Was Out

Yeesh, the stuff you miss while you're on vacation. Among characters I liked I saw resurrection, a death, and a promotion. Plus there was a teamup where Supergirl was actually fun to read and a cover with a setup I love.



In case anyone hasn't noticed, I really like images where there's a woman carrying a man. Its sweet. If I can find enough I might put a gallery together online.

Anyway, finally caught up on my blog reading. The IRIS Network (for female gamers) launched, which is of interest to me as an old tabletop gamer. Also, missed round two of Friday Night Fights.

Out of all of this week's blog posts (and I can be reasonably certain that I monitor a good section of the comics blogosphere through my Bloglines) I think Dear Comics gets the prize. And I don't think I saw anyone point to it which surprised me because its a beautiful piece of writing.

An Open Letter to Ron Marz that Spoils the Events of Ion #12

Dear Mr. Marz,

This is getting out of hand.

Seriously, that's the fourth time you've killed that particular character. I was pretty annoyed with you the second time you killed that character to give Kyle a shot of angst, now I'm rolling my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I love Kyle. I enjoy reading him but really this is getting old and he's an entertaining enough character without the curse.

This isn't like his girlfriends where a different writer killed each one. No, this is you killing this character each time. You didn't even do any proper resurrections the first couple of times. You just seem to change your mind about her death each time so you can bring her in and kill her again.

Come on now. Even South Park got tired of the Kenny thing after a while.

Plus, its just downright creepy that every woman who comes in contact with Kyle Rayner dies, except for Donna. As it is, she's the only possible love interest because she's the only one popular enough to survive the relationship and go on to die in her own storyline. Why don't you kill a male character next time? Just for a change of pace.

How about his Dad? His Dad never died. He went from being quasi-villainous to super-spy, but he never died. Why don't you kill him? You can knock off both the thin version from the Green Arrow/Green Lantern crossover and the fat guy from Winick's run. Then you can change your mind and kill one of them again. Mix it up and alternate for a while.

It'll be different at least.

Regarding Birds of Prey #104

Oh... my... god...

So help me Simone, if this is a trick I will...

I'll...

I'll...

Yeesh, there's really no way to take down an evil writer, is there?

(On the other hand, if this isn't a trick its one hell of a wonderful story to return to. Maybe if I go on vacation again I can get my other fondest comics wish.)

I'm Back

5 different amusement parks (run by two different companies) over 5 days. I think I may be more tired than when I left. I believe my sister and mother are quality-timed out.


I had a wonderful time. I also got a picture with Cyclops, and yes, I did get mouse ears at the other park.



(That's me and my sister -- who comments as Sinspired -- by the way. I fully expect anyone who mocks either picture to comment in the comments, by the way.)

Predictably, Tower of Terror and Space Mountain were among the best rides at Disney, but I was surprised that Men in Black topped out Universal's rides. (I did personally like the Jaws boat ride, though).

I'd advise you to avoid reading and asking about anything before you do Tower of Terror, though. Part of the fun is in not expecting what they do.

We also got to taste the original recipe for Alfredo sauce at Epcot. They have a branch from Alfredo's in Rome in their Italy section, the restaurant founded by the guy who invented Alfredo sauce.

Epcot's little World Showcase section was a bit surreal, though. There was a sign in the bathroom saying the baby care center was in Mexico. Mexico was right next to Norway which bordered China which Germany which bordered Italy and so on. All of the salesmen and waiters were from whatever country they represented, which made me wonder if there's some sort of amusement park employee exchange program. Are there people from the US in Japan or Norway wearing cowboy hats and doing rope tricks to replace all those people in the folk costumes?

Anyway, I think I need to recover from vacation now.

Did I miss anything big this week?

Friday Night Fights

Friday Night's just passed in my timezone, but Bahlactus demands I represent:

With that burst of violence, I leave for vacation. This blog is closed for a week.

Unless you'd like to brawl in the comments, in which case feel free.

The Sound of Meme-ing.

While I was trying to think of something for Dorian's Batman picture, the infamous Dave Campbell posted a panel I couldn't resist. (I hope its readable, I don't have a good image editor.)


This, of course, led to my nonsensical answer to Dorian's meme.


Yeah, that's all I've got tonight.

(Chris wanted another post about him, but he can take his rage out on Gordon.)

Once you think of the joke, you can't leave it alone.

Always Remember...


Heaven have mercy on us all.

(Blame both this and this.)

Missed some things.

I had a crummy week, and ended up missing Blog Against Sexism Day on Thursday, which was also International Women's Day.

We don't do much on IWD in the US, so really no one offline reminded me of it. I found out when Chris, of all people, asked me when "Mighty Uterus Day" was. (I'm suggesting sometime in May).

Anyway, some good posts at the linked blogs (I can't seem to find the direct link to the theme posts, though), and I found one other neat thing through Feministe.

It seems that there is finally a Feminism 101 Blog. Its called Finally, a Feminism 101 Blog.

I thought some of you might be interested.

I'll always have DC...

Even though I'm sure it will be undone, seeing the lengths Marvel will go to to get attention depresses me. They've stooped low enough I don't really care what happens in the Marvel Universe anymore. Considering that I'm still a loyal DC reader after Infinite Crisis, that's quite a feat.

At times like this I turn to my trusty trade paperback/back issue collection to cheer me up. It rarely disappoints.


The beauty of Doom Patrol is that in context this panel makes both more and less sense than it does on its own.

How long will this last?

Since the news of Captain America #25 has reached even the underside of my rock, I feel I can safely assume we're beyond spoiler warnings by this point. (At least, I am, since someone at work read it off of CNN before I had a chance to run to the store.) If not, this poll is pretty vague anyway.

[Poll Closed. Results.]

I have an idea of what this and Civil War probably symbolizes, and what happens next based on that idea, but I think I'll spare you because its absurd to postulate that a story centering on Captain America is necessarily about the United States. That sort of absurd self-centeredness is why people hate Americans, after all.

Returning to sanity...

That was fun.

Now, before I get into this, let me thank all the thoughtful people who disagreed and agreed and conversed about propaganda. The majority of the responses.

To the rest of you, I'd like to mention a few things:

1) Despite the fact that I prefaced and ended the post pointing out that I, even possessing the opinion, knew that the opinion was batshit insane, there were a few commenters who felt it was necessary to point out that it was batshit insane. I appreciate your concern.

2) It feels weird to be accused of being overly Americentric because I saw a US-related metaphor in a project involving known Americentric propagandist Frank Miller. (This goes for the person who thought my opinion it would be homophobic and misogynistic was unethical. I've read enough Frank Miller stories to know what to expect, thank you.)

3) Its always fun to see responses to expressing an aversion to seeing a movie based on the marketing for the movie complain about how someone is judging the movie based on the marketing for the movie. You know, the stuff designed to make us want to see the movie. This really fits the mood of the comics-reading community, where we spend hours commiserating about editorial decisions about comic books that we dropped months ago. (And comparing the war in Iraq to my decision not to see a movie was an interesting analogy. Plus the 3 blind men story is cliche, overrated, and quite probably offensive to blind people.)

4) Not a criticism, but its oddly gratifying to find out that people in Iran are having much the same debate.

(Also, this response thread was fun to read, it made me imagine what archaeologists and historians three thousand years from now will say about the 21st Century world. That made me laugh myself silly.)

I've heard he says he writes strong women too...

Okay, everyone has their own crazy idea. I spend all of my time mocking the crazy ideas I find across the internet.

Well, now its time to reveal my own special insanity. The idea that is so strange that I know it will probably make the entire internet sit up, blink, and ask when I went so insane.

I won't watch The 300 because the trailer makes it look like Anti-American propaganda.

Okay, hear me out here. Yes, I know what Frank Miller has said about his patriotism and that, in all likelihood, this movie was meant as war propaganda in the USA's favor, but every time I see the trailer I get this little creeping feeling in my stomach that its not going to show that way.

What makes me think this?

Because the premise is a group of 300 poorly armed men against the greatest fighting force in the known world. The voice-over refers to the "thousand nations of the Persian Empire" and shows an ethnically diverse group of people in power positions who are obviously villains. The Spartans, vastly outnumbered and overpowered, are all the same race, gender, and religion.

I'm absolutely certain that the US parallels better to the Persians, and I do not want to watch two hours of such an obvious US-parallel getting the Frank Miller-villain treatment.

There it is, Internet. My seemingly batshit crazy aversion to The 300. That's right, I'm not thrown by the misogyny and homophobia that is guaranteed to be contained within or any of the already stated reasons to not want to see this movie, but I'm obsessed with the unpleasant political parallels that so very few people have pointed out.

And I wonder who Frank Miller thinks he's fooling.

I await your reaction.

(ETA: See, I'm not alone!)

Submission Call for the 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

Elayne Riggs will be hosting the 12th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans.

Deadline: March 29th
Contact: elayne[dot]riggs[at]gmail[dot]com or submission form.
Carnival Date:March 31st.
Guidelines

If anyone is interested in the 13th, email ragnellthefoul[at]hotmail[dot]com to volunteer.

Digital Lantern

Remember a while back when we had the suggestion that Barbara Gordon be a Green Lantern, and Kalinara argued against it? Well, the idea that the ultimate Green Lantern would have be a computer programmer still persists in some circles, and I have to say, as presented, it bothers me for one main reason.

The logic is that a computer programmer would use his or her technological knowledge to take Oan technology to a level previously unimagined.

That's arrogant as hell.

With Oa, we are talking about the race so advanced, that knows the nuts and bolts of the DC Universe so well, that their technology is indistinguishable from sorcery. Abara Kadabra is a picker by comparison. Coluans look at their artificial intelligence system and wish they could come up with something so beautifully advanced.

Hacking a Green Lantern ring using your 21st century human computer knowledge is akin to tapping a fiber optic line using your l33t skillz at the electric telegraph.

No, that's too generous. Its like tapping a fiber optic line using your l33t skillz at semaphore flag signals.

Either way, its not going to happen.

I'm not ragging on the engineers and the physicists here. They're brilliant. We've come an amazing way as a species and our technology is awesome. But to think that we don't have an immense way to go is simply delusional. Actually, to think that we have figured out how the universe works and only have to refine it from there shows a distinct lack of imagination.

No one is saying that a computer programmer, by nature of the job itself, would not make a good lantern. However, they would have the type of person who learns very quickly that they don't know as much about how the universe is put together as they think they do or else they'll find themselves limited by their assumptions. In short, they need their imagination much more than they need their technological knowledge.

Its a story I'd love to read, on reflection. But not for the same reasons I've been hearing from the people who suggest it.

I'm sorry.

To Christopher Sims, Humorist/Comics Blogger,

I lost the banner you made for me when I updated my blog template. I am a truly horrible person, unworthy of your friendship. Please Forgive me.

Guilt-fully,
Ragnell the Foul, Ranter/Comics Blogger

Guess who has a blog.

(I was planning to totally ignore the guy, but Kalinara showed me this post and it was so funny I had to play with it.)

Fifteen Absolutely Absurd Things Dave Sim Seems to Believe Wholeheartedly

1. A father who works a full-time job and delegates to a woman the raising of his children twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week does just as good a job as a father who hand-rears his children full time.

2. It makes great sense for a full-time waitress to have to pay 10 to 15,000 dollars a year to fund a daycare space for a child so its divorced father - who pays no child support and spends no time at home - can be free of any responsibility.

3. A man or a doctor has more of a valid claim on the contents of a uterus than does the woman to whom that uterus is a part of her body.

4. So long as a father makes a decision in favor of the potential life, he is incapable of making an unethical choice.

5. Two people work in exactly the same manner as a single automobile so there is no reason for marriage to be an equal partnership.

6. There is no reason for women to be allowed to join or participate fully in any gathering place for men, just as it is absolutely necessary that men never be excluded from a female-only environment.

7. Because it requires that women be actually considered for a job that could otherwise go to a less qualified man, affirmative action is a terrible injustice.

8. Women are incapable of using a gun or driving a firetruck because none of them can even bench press the bar.

9. Affirmative action at colleges and universities needs to be destroyed because now that more women than men are being enrolled, there is absolutely no chance that the majority white male academic boards will start favoring white male applicants ever again.

10. Because a woman told me I was a asshole for saying any of the above, there is a feminist conspiracy to eliminate my constituional right to be an asshole without being called on it.

11. Paying a few hundred dollars a month is far more of a hardship than carrying a child to term, squeezing it out your vagina, and offering it love, attention, and support for eighteen years on your own.

12. An untrained woman who married a man and let her education and career lapse in order to supoport his dreams deserves to starve and live on the street once he strikes it rich and decides to find a younger wife.

13. A man who takes no personal involvement in raising a child aside from throwing money at it knows more about what that child needs than a woman who dedicates the majority of her life to that child.

14. Despite the fact that every man is a unique individual, and each man relates to women differently, saying that one man is being an asshole to a woman automatically means you think all men are assholes all the time.

15. Disagreeing with any of these statements makes you a hairy-legged man-hating lesbian separatist.

(Yeah, I know, this was too easy. But I was trying to relax this weekend.)

11th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

The 11th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans is up at But Can She Spin? An excellent selection of February's Feminist fan writing for an afternoon's reading.

Unfortunately, we now find ourselves without a twelfth host. Guidelines here. Please email if interested.

Yay!

Dorian links news from Marc Andreyko about Manhunter:

anyway, more good news: we get OBSIDIAN back!!!!!!!!!

Sweet! Andreyko's writing is the first time I've liked the character.

Hopefully, though, he does remain in Justice Society as well as be a regular in Manhunter, because he should be a member of the team his father co-founded.

Where She-Hulk Lost Me.

I already linked an essay and added some thoughts on the direction of She-Hulk but I forgot to add something. When the Eros storyline started I got really irritated by the idea that Slott was retconning a rape into Jennifer's past.

Then, as the storyline went on, it did turn out to be a misunderstanding. That should have eased all that irritation.

It didn't, because the whole context of the storyline was that Eros was on trial for rape when the idea that she might be a victim occurred to She-Hulk. When the resolution came and it was revealed She-Hulk was a misunderstanding, so was the woman who originally filed charge.

Which means we have another fake rape accusation in the pop culture consciousness. In a culture where it already so damned hard to bring a rape to trial because so many people that women are just waiting to make an accusation at the slightest offense. Where I can get into a 45 minute argument at work with men who think that there is actually some sort of gain in going to the police to report a rape, which goes the exact opposite of every statistic and anecdote I've ever heard about it.

This doesn't make anything better. It doesn't make anything better at all.

He should've just left Starfox the fuck alone.

New Frontier Voice-Casting Rumors.

David Boreanez in Justice League: The New Frontier

David Boreanaz is providing the voice of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in Justice League: The New Frontier, the direct-to-DVD animated movie from Warner Bros, The Continuum has learned.

Boreanaz, 37, is currently playing Agent Seeley Booth on the Fox series Bones. He is probably best known as Angel, a role that began in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and extended into its own series on The WB.

Boreanaz was also featured in 2005's The Crow: Wicked Prayer. He next stars opposite Anne Heche in the independent black comedy, Suffering Man's Charity.

The Continuum has also learned that Brooke Shields will be providing the voice of Carol Ferris in the film, based on the comics series created by Darwyn Cooke.

Shields just last weekend was featured as the voice of the Riddler's girlfriend in Kids' WB!'s The Batman. Shields has dozens of TV and movie credits, including starring in Suddenly Susan and most recently on FX's Nip/Tuck.

According to a representative, Warner Bros. Animation is not currently confirming voice talent for any of the DC direct-to-DVD projects. A panel is scheduled for next week's WonderCon in San Francisco.

(Thanks, Racy!)

She-Hulk

I've been thinking about posting on this, but someone beat me to the punch. Rhy posted a theory about She-Hulk on the Comic Fangirls community:

The writer then got the Thing solo series. Which I also started to read. Ever read a comic by a person who loved the character so much that they sucked at writing them? Er, yeah. After a few issues of Slott fanboying Ben Grimm the series was cancelled. At which point, the tone of She-Hulk started to change.

At first, I attributed it to a sort of corny Eros plot- Jen the attorney, drawing hearts and flowers all over her legal pad during a court proceding and needing her male counterpart to basically cover for her... it made me go mrrr? Yet it worked with that plot and I was like okay. That was dumb, but I get it. Few more issues go by and it gets progressively worse.

Now we are to the point where in the last two issues: (Ones which by the way carry the Banner Planet without a Hulk)

•She-Hulk had to call Doc Samson in the middle of a fight because she couldn't figure out how to get into the guys head on her own. Um... She's an attorney and she needs help arguing?

•This month not only did she need Wolverine to tell her how they are going to win the fight against the Wendigo, she was so distracted by his "nice tight little buttcheeks" that it appears she is more interested in laying Logan than actually doing her job. Then she makes a pass at him and when he turns her down because he "doesn't want Juggernaut's sloppy seconds" rather than being insulted at being described in such a way... she whines, "Why does everyone think I slept with him...." Um wait a damn minute.

First of all since when does She-Hulk, who in Avengers Disassembled, damn near kicked Cap's ass need help from a guy to hold her own in a fight- any fight? Second, what a blatant example of the "if a guy sleeps around he is a stud... but a woman with more than partner in her past is an utter slut." Hell, this makes it look like Jen is so sexually degraded she can't even be honest about her behavior. She has to lie about it.

These aren't the only examples of Slott being blatantly obnoxious toward women- Agent Cheesecake still has me gagging.... I suppose what bothers me the most about this book isn't just the fact that it is so blatant it's that I feel like the tone has changed so dramatically. What started out as a pretty cute, tongue in cheek book that I really like now has the tone of something sort of ugly and it's very disappointing.

I'm not whether to add or respond to this because to tell the truth, this series has simply lost my attention since the Eros storyline. I've been reading (the store owner orders the books based on our lists), but I've lost so much interest I crossed it off my pull-list last visit. I'm not sure if that has to do with the cited examples or if he just lost me with the Eros plot.

Either way, I still want to see a movie (I love the character) and I love my Essentials collection, but I don't really want to read Slott's book anymore. Whatever happened to Slott, I miss what I started reading.

Final Call for Submissions: 11th FSF Carnival

The deadline for the 11th Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans has been extended to February 27th for a March 1st Carnival at But Can She Spin?

Sometimes things can work out nicely.

A few days ago after a decidedly bad day (which I downplayed into the post for comedic effect), I found a post online that surprised me in its stupidity. Rather than rant about my job (the company would not appreciate me complaining about the details of that on a public internet site), I focused my irritation into a rant about the post, and added some exaggeration for entertainment purposes. Even if you agree, there's no point in reading a stream of relentless sarcastic bile unless there's some entertainment value.

There was one joke in the rant that made me pause before I clicked on "Publish."

Her picture is on her site. If anyone sees her at NYCC, please please tape a sign to her back that says something embarrassing, and take a picture for me. I have nothing to reward you with except my laughter. But you get bragging rights.

I read and re-read it, it seemed like something no one reading my blog would actually do. People with the same social agenda as I have a tendancy to stew online and maybe write a letter to an editor. Very few actually speak up during a panel, and if given that chance would rather indulge fannish wishes than ask the please question. Really, if people listened to my rantings, then Judd Winick wouldn't be able to walk into a con without meeting a line of protesters. The DC Panels would be filled with nothing but Green Lantern questions. Quesada's car would have "Turn Wanda Back!" spraypainted in red (Note: Do not actually do this). None of this has happened, so I have a reasonable basis for believing that asking for someone put a sign on the back of an idiot would most likely result in people rolling their eyes when they see her, but no one approaching.

A friend, however, has pointed out that I do ask for letter campaigns, so while its still delusional in the extreme to imagine a massive army at my command, there is the possibility that someone might take me up on this challenge.

This bothered me, and made me think that maybe I shouldn't have posted it at all. I'm thinking about going back and editing in a (Note: Do not actually do this) after the joke. And I was really beginning to think that there was nothing entertaining that could possibly result from it.

Until I saw this:

On the other hand, psychotic hate-laden tirades about such, especially that culminate in solicitations to bodily assault, are indeed something that nearly any of us could justifiably be alarmed about.

I'm not quite at the point where I'm going to start referring to Ragnell as the Ann Coulter/Michelle Malkin of female comics fandom, but she's getting me there.

Now, this is it. I'm tired of repeating myself, so I'm giving notice -- the next member of the Ragnell Revenge Squad who shows up here and talks about how there is no difference between Ragnell's post and mine, or who in any way defends Ragnell's post while continuing to ignore the deeply disturbing and irrefutable fact that she just specifically requested the public humiliation, degradation, and embarrassment of someone she does not know, who has not committed anything remotely like an offensive action against Ragnell or anyone else... well, I will read what you have to say when Blogger forwards it to me, but I've cluttered this comment thread up with enough of that bullshit. I will not continue to do so after this point.

I'm thinking of putting that quote on my sidebar.

Aww...

From an earlier writeup that I missed:

JSA Hippolyta with the JSA? Didio and crew answered, “No…she’s still dead.”

DC, you bums.

Minx at NYCC

From the Minx Panel:

With Carillo were Minx’s founding editor Shelly Bond, as well as writer Cecil Castellucci and artist Jim Rugg of the debut book The Plain Janes.

Discussing the origins of the Minx line, Bond told the audience that three to fours years ago, she “was very inspired” by the numbers of young girls she saw reading manga in the local bookstores, and she wondered what material those girls would have to read when they became young adults. After many discussions inside DC, Minx was created to capture the teenage girls who are looking for “edgy, evocative, fearless plotlines about modern teenagers dealing with modern issues.”

Bond noted that in order to brand Minx, all of the books will be a uniform size, the art will be black and white with graytones, and all titles will be 176 pages. As a bonus, each book will preview upcoming books, and to keep the titles appealing to the budget-strapped young audience, everything will be priced under $10.

Goes into details about The Plain Janes, and mentions in the beginning the main character saved someone's life during a terrorist attack, so we get some heroics I hope.

Also, she answered the complaints about having so few female writers:

Bond confirmed that there will be one book per month until November, and all the titles stand alone, and will be the same price.

When asked why there are not more females creators working on books aimed at female readers, Bond explained that she wanted to get more female contributors, specifically young adult fiction writers like Castellucci. However, at the end of the day, she “bought the material that best represented the intent of the line.” She added that all of the men involved with Minx are known for writing strong female characters, concluding “great writing comes from many different points of view.” Later in the panel, she added that “four female novelists will be working on new Minx books soon.”

Bond also took a moment to give public thanks to Robbin Brosterman, DC’s Senior Art Director, for the beautiful design of the Minx books. All of the books are designed and formatted to be standard mass market paperbacks that will appeal in form and price to what young female readers are already reading.

I'd really like to see this take off (I'm flirting with the idea of pitching story ideas to them). I wonder if we'll see ads for mainstream DC books in the backs of these. It seems like the way to get the Minx target audience interested in the superhero staples at DC.

Still catching up from the last couple days.

Just read about the DC NYCC panel. Petinent facts to people who share my interests:

# After a fan expressed support of the idea of Superman crying, Didio asked the fan to come up and turn the second overturned picture over, revealing a picture of Mary Marvel (the image was split in half) with the caption: "Seduction of the Innocent"

# Dini said that in Countdown, Mary Marvel will go on her heroes journey and some of the connections she makes will be surprising.

# Again talking about scheduling, Didio stressed that they are doing everything they can to pull them back on schedule, especially due to Countdown.

# Didio stopped the questions to note that they've had a change of heart on something - and turned it over to Wayne, who announced that DC will continue to publish Manhunter.

# Asked if some titles in the DCU are not happening in the same universe or timeline, Didio joked, "I wish that was the case" referring to an assortment of continuity glitches and gaffes.

# Didio said that before he left for the convention today, he signed off on issues #5 and #6 of Wonder Woman, and issue #7 is on track, in answer to a question about Wonder Woman's scheduling. Continuing, he said that replacing issue #5 with a story by Will Pfeifer was a hard direction, but one they felt was for the best to get the book back on track.

# Speaking about World War III, editor Pete Tomasi, who was in the audience, said that many of the issues surrounding Supergirl will be handled in the World War III specials.

# Question from a fan - Will there be something like 18 ties in issues with Countdown each month? : Didio: "Nah, you're confusing us with the other guys."

# Didio asked a Flash fan to flip the final picture, revealing "Unto Man Shall Come a Great Disaster" showing Darkseid's head.

Didio asked Dini what Darkseid is doing on the image? "He's looking evil!" Dini replied.

# Will we see Animal Man in his own project coming back from space? Didio: His story in 52 isn't over.

# Who's writing Wonder Woman after Jodi Picoult? Didio: Not allowed to say it yet.

# Plans for Steel? Giffen: "We're going to kill him."

# Is Kyle Rayner dying in Countdown? Dini: No.

# Will Monitors be involved in Countdown? Dini: Yeah.

# Didio confirmed what Allan Heinberg said about his final issue of Wonder Woman - it will be a special issue coming out in the future.

# Asked what DC's commitment to adding characters of diverse races in the DCU is, Giffen deadpanned off-the-cuff but in obvious jest to all attending, "White folk hate it”.

# Will we see Linda Danvers again? Didio: No.

From a different website:

* DiDio said there won't be Teen Titans versions of Green Lantern and Hawkman because those characters are basically members of police forces.

* DiDio on Flash: "It's not as directionless as it seems."

* DiDio went to editors in the crowd when asked about Supergirl. Janine Schafer said that writer Joe Kelly is trying to break down the character before building her up and Peter Tomasi said Supergirl will be in the third issue of World War III.

Search Word Post

We interrupt your regular reading to bring you the last 8 searches which brought people to this blog.

italian female mob
convent school scans porn
eureka 7's characters
supergirl remake
giantess breasts
kyle rayner donna troy
jim balent wedding pictures
depressing tv shows list

In case you are wondering, "giantess breasts" is my most common referral search, those exact words bringing at least one hit per day for over a year now. It appears that there is a whole sub-fetish of breast-seekers who are interested in giantesses. I can only wonder how they react when they find this blog, which as of this posting is number 3 on Google for that term.

This is annoying.

So, someone desperate comes up with a unique idea to get a date:

But really, Comic Book Conventions should be a great place to meet guys. We're talking about a virtually untapped market. In theory: for a smart, (somewhat) attractive girl, getting a date should be like shooting fish in a barrel, no? Thousands of men are gathered in one place (granted, some of them are taken; some are gay; some, undoubtedly, live in their mothers' basements) with a very small proportion of available women around. The statistics alone would lead us to believe there have got to be a few good men in this crowd.

Gee, thanks for perpetuating the stereotype that women only pretend to like "guy things" in order to meet guys. I can tell you that I and my fellow real comic book fans so enjoy being hit on by guys when we're just trying to find our comics, because they think an unescorted woman can't possibly be there to actually buy the Green Lantern statue. We also adore being ignored in comics shops because they assume the guy who walked in after us is the comic-reading boyfriend, not to mention having such a hard time finding female-friendly superhero comics because our presence is minimized by such assumptions. Its a real fucking blast!

Sarcasm aside, the last con I went to, WizardWorld Chicago 2006 and I noticed a lot of women at the panels I attended. My sister counted at one of the Writer's Workshops and concluded at least 25%. I could swear the DC panels were half and half. So, surely someone will set her straight on her misconceptions about Geekdom, right?

Well, let's look at the comments:

You'll be surrounded, consistently cloaked by a nebula of men and stink that, while not leaving you alone to peruse the offerings, won't really be able to muster the courage to speak with you either. You'll be hidden in the midst of a dense thicket of confused nerds unable to ascertain just why it is you're there, but effusively (far too effusively!) happy that you are! What's more, they'll be convinced that the fact of your attendance indicates that the best way to "land" you will be to demonstrate an inappropriately plumbed and reworked body of knowledge, criticism and theory on...that's right...COMIC BOOKS!

I went to the Wizard World Chicago 2005 comic con to see what it is like and I have some bad news. There are actually some very beautiful women at these. You see, the major comic book dealers have booths, big expensive booths. At these booths they hawk their wares to customers, retailers and even distributers. They have also realized they're surrounded by loads of geeky men and capitalized upon it through the use of individuals affectionately known as "booth babes".

I predict success. A lot of comic book guys I know are decent looking, but very shy. They don't have much of an idea about how to talk to women. If you initiate the conversation and work just a little bit to get them out of their shell, you'll meet some great guys. I suggest going after the artists and writers there to get jobs or sell their work. Artists would be super easy to meet. All you have to do is ask to see their work.

I think you may be opening yourself up to a world of hurt in advertising this whole concept. This article has now appeared on the frontpage of Digg, so now I suspect the unwashed masses of geek-dom will be on the lookout for you. Hopefully you don't get inundated with propositions. I wish you luck in your search. Finding a good geeky woman is a task onto itself, so I'm sure you'll do alright.

That's as far as I got before I was overwhelmed with disgust for the outside world.

Bad enough she thinks all the men are troglodytes and the women are nonexistent, but everyone there insists on validating her idiocy.

Oh thank you, Elayne, for linking this and destroying my once peaceful mood.

Everyone else: Her picture is on her site. If anyone sees her at NYCC, please please tape a sign to her back that says something embarrassing, and take a picture for me. I have nothing to reward you with except my laughter. But you get bragging rights. (Note: Do not actually do this)

Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be under my rock.

Off-TopicUrban Legend

(ETA: Commenters debunked this)

(Via) A "Black" Man, A Moor, John Hanson, was the First President of the United States! 1781-1782 A.D.

Site Note: Blogroll

Umm... There's a slight issue when I upgraded my blogroll. Sorry about the people who got dropped, I'll try and get it back the way it was soon.

I added the people I meant to, though. :)

If anyone hasn't been to Kevin's yet...

Otter Prime has returned.

The 12 Levels of Comic Book Fan Agreement

Now, I know we all vary on this list depending on the combination of personalities and series discusses, but it would be nice to understand how easily people get on each others nerves when discussing their favorite series. Just knowing what level you're at could be a great help in avoiding (and finding!) fights.

To that end, I propose the following 12 Levels of Comic Book Fan Agreement:

I. Your favorite series is my favorite series, for much the same reasons. -- This is the friendliest you can get. People on this level of agreement in geekdom tend to spend their days trading theories (in essay or fiction form), making series-pertinent jokes, and teaming up during arguments to overpower someone from a different level of agreement.

II. I like your favorite series, but for a different reason. -- There is a divergence, but its still friendly and in addition to all of the above activities, two fans on this level of agreement will debate their favorite aspects of the series, and try to win each other over.

III. Your favorite series is fun, but would be better this way -- There's potential for insult here, but as there is still a common ground between the two fans so this is a friendly level of agreement. This is the first level where the presence of fanfiction about the series becomes a modifier on the fan relationship, depending on how the new idea is presented and received. If the idea isn't well-received to begin with, presenting the change in fiction form can be an even greater irritant (conversely, if well-done it can win the other over). Since there's still a lot of common ground and goodwill, it tends to be only a mild irritation if its an irritation at all.

IV. I don't get your favorite series at all/I dislike your favorite series for my own perfectly valid reasons. -- While on the surface a perfectly viable argument, it can still hurts a fan a little bit when someone doesn't share her tastes. Its stupid to take it personally, but we are all fanatics. Different common ground can easily make up for this.

V. I like your favorite series, but only for a reason that grates on your nerves. -- This is where friendliness starts to break down, as every discussion of the series in question brings up the one part of that series that one person can not stand. They start to associate the other person with that one little annoyance, which leads to a foul relationship.

VI. I like your favorite series, but only for a reason that really grates on your nerves, and I write fanfiction based entirely on that reason. -- There's a chance that a well-written story can turn around someone's ideas on a concept, but in my experience that's pretty rare. Usually it just makes things much worse, and the two fans on this level should avoid each other.

VII. I don't like your favorite series, because I think it would be better this way, and I won't even bother to try it at all unless someone makes it that way. -- A reasonable disinterest or aversion after reading one issue/hearing the concept is one thing, but this is insulting because it insists on changing something that a person enjoys very much, just to suit someone's personal tastes. The problem here is that, if it were to be changed to suit one person, what the other person loved about it would be gone. Two fans who find themselves at this level of agreement had best find another subject to discuss.

VIII. I don't like or understand the basic premise of your favorite series, I've never read it, and I won't be bothered to actually read it, but I write fanfiction about it anyway. -- This should be self-explanatory, but here goes. If you enjoy something very much, and someone comes along with this attitude, insists they know better than you, and writes their desires in a fictional format (which, as we're discussing fictional series, only makes those ideas clearer and more solid to the reader) and has absolutely no idea what makes it desirable to you, it might get on your nerves more than someone saying "I think it might be better this way," "It doesn't interest me" or simply writing a "what if" fanfiction story that diverges greatly from the concept you love, but still has a basic love for what your loved.

IX. I don't get your favorite series at all/I dislike your favorite series for my own perfectly valid reasons, and you're a fucking idiot for disagreeing with me. -- Anytime someone gets snotty, things are much worse.

X. I think your favorite series would be better this way, I won't even look at it until its changed to be that way, and you're a fucking idiot for disagreeing with me. -- See the unfortunate mixture?

XI. I think your favorite series would be better this way, I won't even look at it until its changed to be that way, you're a fucking idiot for disagreeing with me, and I write fanfiction to demonstrate the rightness of my way. -- Stubbornness, snottiness, and those ideas made concrete by a fiction format. Bad combination.

XII. I think your favorite series would be better this way, I won't even look at it until its changed to be that way, you're a fucking idiot for disagreeing with me, and I write terrible fanfiction to demonstrate the rightness of my way with a thinly veiled self-insertion character, and a character from another series that I felt was fucked up unless written my way too. Oh, and if you think my fanfic is bad/un-entertaining/uninteresting/not as good as your favorite series, you must personally hate me and everyone who shares my interests. -- I think you all get the picture.

Now, did I leave anything out?

Look what I miss when I take a weekend off...

The Ormes Society went live.

The Ormes Society, named after the legendary pioneering cartoonist of color Jackie Ormes, is an organization dedicated to supporting black female comic creators and promoting the inclusion of black women in the comics industry as creators, characters and consumers.

Congratulations, Cheryl!

I DEMAND THIS STORY!

From Jesse's Livejournal:

I think it's pretty clear that Lois Lane, written up to her best and not as a marriage-obsessed ninny, is honest and fearless. (Frankly, I believe the fearlessness is amply demonstrated by the amazing number of building collapses, floods and explosions Lois has been in- she's been through all that and she can still leave the house. I couldn't.)

"Honest and fearless" are the primary job prerequisites for being a Green Lantern. (For anyone reading this not into the whole comics thing, a Green Lantern is a space cop with a magic ring that can do anything, as long as it's colored green. It's a cool gig.)

Damn! He's right! Why haven't I thought of this one? She's honest! She's fearless! And most importantly, she's stupid!! She's absolutely perfect for the Green Lantern Corps!

Come on, DC, we all know those Elseworlds are coming back. This is an ideal story idea. Even without them, there's the return of the Multiverse, dream sequences, drugged hallucinations, Lex Luthor, Dr. Destiny and all sorts of crazy ways to make this happen. Just ten pages and I will love you forever! (Or until I see her in an Ivan Reis costume.)

About Fucking Time.

Newsarama:

WONDER WOMAN #5 (JAN070319), which was previously slated to feature the final chapter of the 5-part story "Who Is Wonder Woman," will feature a new story when it arrives in stores on March 14.

This new story is by Will Pfeifer (CATWOMAN, AMAZONS ATTACK), with art by Jean Diaz, Geraldo Borges and Wellington Diaz and a cover by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson. In it, Wonder Woman learns that a new women's movement has begun, inspired by her killing of Max Lord - and leaving Diana torn between the good intentions of the movement and the validation it gives her violent act. Worse yet, she's ordered to investigate a possible connection between Wonder Woman and this movement by Sarge Steel and the department of Metahuman Affairs!

Chapter five of "Who Is Wonder Woman" will be rescheduled at a future date.

Retailers may adjust orders on WONDER WOMAN #5 (JAN070319) now through its final order cutoff date of Thursday, February 22.

Also, orders for the WONDER WOMAN: WHO IS WONDER WOMAN? HC (FEB070299) have been cancelled. This title will be resolicited at a future date.

A step in the right direction, at least. Actually getting the damned book out!

The article says issue 4 is due out on February 21st. If that gets delayed they should do a two page recap and print the last two issues as flashbacks or a story told by the characters. It'll look bad and sloppy, but honestly, this has gone on too damned long.