The Nibbles & Nostalgia

Batwoman in Detective Comics has been attacking me via the nibbles. The imagery seems to pop up everywhere I surf online. Gorgeous art, and Batwoman with the bright red flowing hair. There are several personal reasons for me to be drawn to Batwoman.

Yeah, I'm a lesbian. Big whoop.

Yeah, I'm a Bat fangirl. Straight up hardcore.

But my first non baby doll, was Batwoman. My mother refused to buy me a Barbie. My father refused too. Between the two of them, even though they were separated at the time, Barbie was just not in my future as a child (I didn't get one until was 9 or 10. And that was because my mother saw a black Barbie and black Ken on a visit to the States and that tipped the scales. We won't get into the week of adjustment for my heart not to be broken over the fact she wasn't blonde.

But Batwoman (possibly more Batgirl), with her motorcycle, and secret lair and bright red wig. I loved the show as a child. And I couldn't help falling in love with my action figure, once I got over the fact that she too was not a taller, thiner, blonde Barbie doll. She was definitely cooler, her limbs were more articulated and she and Supergirl could kick doll tail all over the place. I distinctly remember once having them battle the carpet sweeper in my Dad's office. Once I got over not having a Barbie doll to play dress up clothes with and who'd hang around a pool - I think I embraced super hero doll playing whole heartedly.

Batwoman calls out to that little girl, to nostalgia, in ways I can't begin to explain. And as I mention Rucka's take on Wonder Woman all the time, it makes it easy to believe I won't be disappointed. But Rucka's only human. And he's a man, and white - extra spin on human fallacy. So I'll wait. My inner little girl doesn't want things this hard as a regular occurrence. So I'm paying attention. But it is frustrating to realize that DC could very well get my money in a couple months, despite my over all dissatisfaction with them.

PS: I am currently fantasizing about an alternative for the trade paperback, with a comic floopy size backing of art, with a disc placed on it, disc art matching the backing. With single issues as pdfs or cbrs. And possibly some extra art. (yeah, even my fantasies don't think it'd go as wondrously far as behind the scenes/interview with artists etc)

[Comments Allowed]

Second Verse, Same As The First

This is not an entry about sexism, racism, cisgenderism or heterosexism. This is an entry about digital comics. Explicitly, this is Yet Another Digital Comics Post By Willow. YADCPBW - damn, it doesn't make a catchy acronym.

Why another post? Why not.

Mostly though, I'm writing because I'm realizing that just like there are fans who talk about holding a book in their hands, the feel of the paper stock, the good binding, the typeset - for books and I'm sure similar sensations for comics, I want to talk about the sensation of being a digital fan.

Recently I read through the Star Wars: The Old Republic webcomic, available at the massive multiplayer online game site. And it hit me how much I love that moment when you determine if you want to read full screen web-browser, or full screen monitor, or if the art is laid out enough that you can read as is. I love the graphic flip to a second page. I love reading single page style, with two page spreads coming up only if the art cues for it and then bam, wonderful large art, right there. That I can zoom in on to see the fine details done by inker and colourist. I love the preview panels that pop up showing bits of colour and hints of layout. I love knowing ahead of time how many pages a comic is. As much as I'd love to have all these things possible on a portable e-comic reader, I enjoy it as it is on my computer monitor. I enjoy it more than reading prose ebooks.

I've said before that individual comic issues aren't for me. And they aren't. Not the physical individual issues. I have several in my home right now that I rarely go through and read, because they're either old and fragile back issues. Or they're the more modern comics all glossy and ink and if I'm looking at glossy pages I'd prefer a hardcover if I have to have a book at all.

But also, comic art is changing. And while I'm not completely sure I like the change, for example I've not at all enjoyed the way Marvel in particular seems to be swinging to cinematic still shots - a lack of layout and movement I think of as dead art - there are individuals trying to fuse the two. And seeing that lit up on screen feels epic in a way holding something in my hand just wouldn't.

I also don't like how insubstantial floppies feel. Or rather to keep this on positives, I like the way an adobe pdf handles when I'm reading a single issue. I discovered this reading the single issues of The 99. I can get excited about a new installment and not waiting on trades with a PDF. It represents part of a whole, I can eventually burn to disc, write a name on a label (or make a special label for) and have right there for my own enjoyment. Plus it makes the thought of buying the series in trade a choice of a different venue, instead of me feeling like I'm spending money twice, and the second time just for binding it.

Those glossy pages in paper floppy issues make it feel less like waiting for trade and buying is about better paperstock and quality production.

And digital copies to take with me when I leave the house? I loved the chance to share The 99 - Origins with my little brother and father. It's like taking movies with you to share with people, or taking music. Here, join me enjoying this. This is something I might get you for a present / something you should consider buying for yourself. I love the thought of Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman someday being portable. So I could open up a laptop somewhere and go 'Here, this is what I mean'. Or 'I'll bring them for you to read when I come up'.

For the first time I think I buy the concept that there is a Digital Generation. And what's tactile and comforting for said generation will obviously be very different from the generations that came before. But the impulses have the same basis. Digital to me is portable, the way a paperback might be portable for someone else. Yet I thrill to the thought of something the size of a paperback or trade holding 100 of my favourite books - my personal favourite library on hand. I thrill to the thought of having choice when I catch moments to read, to either re-read or read new. I thrill to the thought of never being without a book. I thrill to the thought of one click download of not just ebooks, but comics. All comics. Going to the website of an indie artist, writer and illustrator and boom, I paid my money, I have their work in my hot little hands.

I recently read How Mirka Got Her Sword - it's available in 'dead wood pulp' for $20. I love the style and colours of the story and I realized, something on heavy paper-stock, with that style of print and colour is something I would actually enjoy having and holding in my hands. It says 'book' to me in a very unique way.

Whereas most other comics say digital.

[Comments Allowed]

Wonder Woman's Lacks

Things I am tired of. I am tired of Circe vs Wonder Woman. Yes, I know I stopped reading DC (and Marvel). But something possessed me to look up images of WW on Deviant Art. There was good stuff. There was also an over abundance of softcore porn and raunchiness and abject and total male gaze wherein she looked anything but a strong warrior. I'm not sure if it was just made up to look official or not, but one image had a cover like scene, with her behind Batman.

And that was the blaze to set an explosion, metaphorically, in my mind.

I love Batman, but Diana would not be behind him. Beside him, yes. But not behind.

Which led to me thinking about Diana's enemies. Batman has 'The Joker', like Superman has 'Lex Luthor'. But they both have an entire gallery of ne'er do wells. Diana has Circe and Ares. That's it. That's all I've ever seen. No matter what happens, it all eventually spins back to Circe and Ares.

Perhaps there is some executive decision somewhere that states that Diana, Princess of Thymascaria, The Wonder Woman, cannot have more enemies than Circe and Ares, with Cheetah as some kind of local, C level bonus round.

Clayface, Ras As Gul, Killer Croc, The Riddler, Penguin, Rupert Thorne, various mobsters of Gotham - that's a list straight out of my head as I write this. No checking Wikipedia. That's what hits me when I think of Batman. And yep, I totally forgot Catwoman.

Toyman (is he a shared villain?), Metallo, That 5th Dimension Pest whose name I can't remember to spell, Zod (when he's around), Darksied (when he's alive/around) - I'm trying to remember comic villains and not just Superman: The Animated Series villains. But that's my list, off the top of my head of Superman bad guys that do not include Lex Luthor.

Ok, Ares, Circe, Cheetah, andThe Silver Swan - for Wonder Woman. But I don't think there's been an update on The Silver Swan in a while. But where's the savy business mogul, of perhaps a cosmetics industry or fashion magazine who doesn't like what WW has to say about empowerment and make-up and following the crowd? I mean that's a superficial villain at best, yes. But why hasn't it happened? More than once if it has actually happened.

Why doesn't WW go up against magic consistently? Batman can't do magic. Superman sure as heck is vulnerable to magic. Why isn't that WW's domain as part of the Trinity? Why isn't she dealing with modern manifestations of ancient powers? Why isn't there a nice crossover between her and Batman where she's called to help because Gotham's Gargoyles have come to life (the city's supposed to be heaped on top of malevolent and festering magics, right). And it's ancient power leaked from between the worlds and not something Jason Blood has an easy answer to?

Why doesn't WW fight Monsanto a corporation that's perverting nature while crushing farmers under mountainous debt? Why isn't she using her presence and influence to advocate for investigations into their business practices? Why isn't she showing up unexpectedly and stopping them from harassing farmers, throwing people off land they'd owned for generations?

Why isn't WW helping her universe's version of Fiji and their fight to have fresh water, against corporate interest that bully their government?

Yes, Superman takes a certain tact because he doesn't want to be portrayed as a benevolent alien dictator. But Wonder Woman has/had a mission. She's a product of ancient gods. She's a humanitarian ambassador from a more evolved (philosophically, scientifically, magically) civilization that's NATIVE TO EARTH. Why aren't there WW embassy buildings all over the world?

Why haven't other Amazons joined her cause to help humanity and become staff to those embassies?

Why isn't Wonder Woman a movement?

Why aren't her enemies the political rulers/dictators of various countries? Perhaps in league with shadow councils of their native cultures and gods?

For the record, if Wonder Woman was a movement as well as a person, Amazons Attack - having people barging into women's shelter's would have made a lot more sense. Y'know, if they were Wonder Woman Rehabilitation Centers or Education Clinics etc.

My respect for Kurt Busiek grows and grows, because I've just remembered that's kind of what he did for Winged Victory.

Apparently what I should do is think of a good name for an archetype and write my own damn stories (I'm not giving a damn about traditional avenues of publishing) - because damn, I'm fed up with spits and starts of writers who don't have any idea what to do with her; whether or not their cluelessness is compounded by editorial fiat.

And my Amazing Warrior Princess won't have to pick a thong out of her behind.

PS: I heard about the new status quo vis Gail Simone. You do not want to hear my opinion on it. It gets ugly.

Dear Chris of ISB

I mean, I know that she was originally intended to be female, and then changed because Capcom thought the American SNES-buying audience would be happier with a transvestite hooker than Mike Haggar actually piledriving a woman, and then replaced with two decidedly male characters for the American release, and the whole thing’s way more complex than it ought to be. Even this issue seems to have fun with it, with Cody’s “you’re not much of a lady” and her irate response, which could be taken a couple of ways.

Not that I particularly mind, you understand, but it’d be nice to know which comics I read involved cross-dressing prostitutes. My filing system is oddly specific.

Dear Chris of ISB,

Transvesite, Transexual and Transgender are three separate and individual words. They have three different meanings. They correspond to sexual identity, orientation, gender, civil rights and sexuality and sexual expression. Transvestite is the one that 99.9 percent corresponds to sexuality (the act of being sexual) and sexual expression (how one performs the acts of being sexual).

While I understand in POST RACIAL AMERCIA (which is apparently POST ISM AMERICA), it's all the rage to be a bigot big and bold, your words are incredibly crass and ignorant. I have a difficult time believing that in the comicbook blogsphere, you are unaware of non cisgendered, non heterosexual comic bloggers. Your little 'joke', hurt and aggravated two people I care deeply about and just PLAIN PISSED ME OFF.

It doesn't matter that CapCom has a hole in the corporate brain and a need to appease 'Americans who don't believe in hitting women'. It doesn't matter that the word Futanari (which is basically a third sex in Japanese art) does not translate well. This is Laura Framingham level 'research' and 'caring' here, that you couldn't stop and think of Posion as transgendered.

For the record, She Is. As stated officially by Capcom representatives, her pre or post op status depending on country being inconsequential. An operation doesn't make someone a girl, being a girl makes someone a girl. Just like the fact you have a penis, doesn't make you man, but instead seems to make you an asshole.

99 Reasons...

Below is the bulk, organized portion of an entry I started working on about two weeks ago. I'd titled it.

99 Reasons To Be Happy

I thought I had mentioned before The 99, but now I'm having difficulties finding a reference in the blog. The 99 is

* A superhero universe based on Islamic principles and the 99 names of Allah

* A Muslim X-Men/Xavier's School For Mutants (kinda)

* A superhero universe filled with characters of colour; adults, heroes, teenagers, people on the street.

* Epic.

You can go to the website and learn about Noor Stones, and the history of the creators, and read the bios of many characters. And, I sincerely hope some of you will, buy digital downloads of the comics themselves.

But I just want to talk about my utter excitement. They're currently using Paypal and Paypal Credit Authorization (for those who don't wish to have a paypal account) and you buy by the issue, so I'm no longer confused about what exactly I'm paying for and who I'm paying it too. So that since I discovered information on The 99, last year I think it was, I'm finally holding more than the free Origins issue in my hot little virtual hands.

It is surely no secret at all that I love superhero comics and no further secret that Marvel and DC have disgusted and/or disappointed me - so much so that I've turned away from them, stopped looking up trades, stopped wanting to know much of any damn thing going on with them.

Aside: World of New Krypton aside, which is a Greg Rucka project for the moment, and is thus, as tantalizing to me, as water to a thirsty person.

Here is a world that's giving me what I want, the way I want it, multinational heroes with strengths and weaknesses and needs and friendships and ethics lessons outside of 5 minutes in a summer blockbuster movie.

Then today, I learned The 99 Will be meeting DC's Trinity and my heart sank.

I'd been so excited about The 99, that I couldn't finish writing an entry. I was too busy reading and buying more, talking it up to my siblings and holding on to my joy. And now my heart sinks.

I know business wise this is a big deal. And I have no doubt the creators feel tremendously proud. And that it will undoubtedly introduce The 99 to even more readers. But all I can think about is Milestone Comics and enfolding, and Static as the only character from an entire universe they seem to give a damn about over at DC.

But that's secondary to just plain horror. Just strong no. I don't want The 99 tainted by DC. By the way they let their colourists lighten the skin of Characters of Colour. I don't want something so good tainted by how DC treats non Christian religions. I don't want The 99 tainted by how DC treats women.

I'm so hurt and disappointed and crushed. Those words can't even really describe what I'm feeling.

The 99 is NOT The Great Ten's "Mother of Champions" OR Most Excellent Superbat. They shouldn't be associated with a franchise that treats cultures like that. The 99 shouldn't be associated with Nu'bia, or with Black Adam & Isis, who're occasionally black and predominantly misguided evil.

The idiots who made comments about never supporting a black superhero in 'mainstream comics' as linked to over at 4th Letter, I don't want them seeing The 99. I don't want them talking about my new heroes, flapping their gums and spitting out idiocy. They've got their heroes. White and 'pristine' (and over sexualized) and just for them. Why can't I have my heroes without them having even a dot of input and remarks and ugliness. If they'd never buy a book with a mainstream black hero, are they going to buy books with predominantly brown skinned heroes? With Muslim heroes? I don't want to hear about the filth and mockery and whatever else curdles and rots in their minds that they feel the need to type out on the internet. I don't want that near The 99.

Needless to say, even if I am Batman's girl, I won't be buying the mini-series. I sincerely hope it's not in continuity for The 99, but even if it is, I'll just miss whatever develops during those issues. And I desperately hope that it won't affect the story of The 99, or too much affect the characters I've grown so quickly to care about.

Alien Nation

Recently I've had the gratifying experience of rewatching episodes of a beloved childhood show and finding them dripping in thoughtful examinations and presentation of minority experience, privilege, racism and more.

Newsarama, "If it's news that will rip your heart out and shit in it, while violating your childhood memories with a piece of raw pork, Newsarama will bring it to you" (my personal label for them - which holds even though a friend brought me the news, they were the link). Has brought word that SciFi with it's new stupid ass name, is remaking Alien Nation and Tim Minear of Angel (the series) is driving the show.

I have no words for my fear and disgust and bright tears. It's been bad enough to have so many people convinced racism isn't a problem because hey, it's the future, it's 200something. It's been made fucking worse, to have people go 'Woot! Black President! Post Racial America! Suck it non whites!'

White privilege? WTF is that? I ain't got no stinking privilege you uppity n*gger.

And now a show that's been feeding my soul, and helping me hold on to my love for Non White Futurism and Fantasy, is being exhumed, savaged, and slapped with Contemporary For Our Times, New Interpretation, By Tim Fucking "Sure Joss, Let's Not Have Any Asians In Our Asian Future" Minear.

Thank you, Kenneth Johnson, for the original. For the respect and the effort.

Fuck You. SciFi Channel.

ETA:

The new "Alien Nation" will likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, and will take place about 20 years after the first ship of aliens - who have been banished as slaves - crash lands into Earth.

By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the "newcomers" live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.

"You can take (the original 'Alien Nation') a step forward and really do a show that encompasses the clash of civilizations, and the idea of a ghettoized minority," he said. "You can touch on racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there's room for satire."

Kenneth Johnson did it better the first time. It got recognized and won awards.

WTH Authors?

2009. The Year The Authors Lost It.

Alice Hoffman pulls a screed and apparently joins the flock of authors in desperate need of a publicist to control author contact with the public. Via her Twitter, now since deleted (that link goes to goggle cache) there's a glimpse enough at her responses to make the linked report not seem completely fabricated out of thin air.

And also some guy named Alain de Botton loses it at a reviewer and actually typed these words:

I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.

Heaven's wept people, but apparently authors are going into shock that real people read their words and may not like them. Where did they think their royalty's came from? Royalty fairies?

At least these two don't seem to be going into shock that non white people read their words. But Hoffman did go into Cramer & Sh.tt.r.ly territory by allegedly posting the phone number and other personal contact info of the reviewer. Not exactly an 'outing', but not Ms. Manners behavior either.

Unholy bumbletuck, there's something in the water. There's something in the water. Or we all need tinfoil hats. Ok, maybe not we, but published authors. Tin foil hats and non metallic fillings.

ETA: It's just occurred to me that Twitter might actually have done something about the account (the way they haven't in the pass, re: harassment) and deleted the account.


ETA 2 - A little something extra:

I know I should expect emotional responses to my comics that deal with emotionally charged issues, but I didn't expect the amount of vitriol slung at me by Ms. Sammy. I'm accused of creating "ineffectual holier-than-thou guilt trips", "privileged , clueless pontification" and even racism!

Gotta love that 'An even racism', can you hear it? 'An even baby eating! An even vampirism! And even necrophilia!' - The impossible, absurd, ridiculous!

The review in question by a woman of colour is here at Sequential Tart.

Once again, a PoC sees the history laden baggage and threats and stereotypes of PoC that a white person insists are immaterial and non-existent. Once again a white person gets huffy at having it pointed out it's only their white privilege that allows them to view the world that way.

I find it very telling that someone could care so much about the fate of animals, but not take a moment to see the possibility of stereotypical framing of people. I wonder, if the reviewer had explained things as:

"If someone had done to wolves, what you did to South Asians in your comic, wouldn't you, the professed animal lover be upset? If someone had only portrayed them as vicious killers than man needs to shoot (from planes) and then said the purpose was to raise awareness of the illegal hunting, (from planes) and that they'd done all the research and knew this hunting to be a fact. Wouldn't you still have been upset at the depiction? At the fear of wolves you think people would have walked away with?".

Big Egos and Lack of Empathy, tin foil can't cure that.

PSA: Possible Unsafe Space

Pam's House Blend, a blog I've found pretty helpful and reliable when it came to keeping up with GLBTI issues, has recently developed a policy to ban anyone who uses the term CIS to describe those assigned a gender at birth that doesn't contradict their sense of self. (Whether it is just for one thread or the whole blog is unclear).

Here is more information with some history/context of how the banning came about.

And here is an example, I believe, of the ban hammer coming down.

The moderator responsible is Autumn.

Please stop. (2.50 / 2)

This is going nowhere, and is starting to offend people at The Blend.

And in a post that's theme is about behaving civility, I'm not having any of it.

Public warning in this thread -- next person who uses this thread to make comment defending "cis" terminology gets a trap door drop.

Understand, dyssonance?

-----
~~Autumn~~

As if there were safety in stupidity alone.
--Henry David Thoreau
by: Autumn Sandeen @ Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 21:24:10 PM CDT

No Title Adaquate

 
[Written 2 days ago. Forgot to post]

Insomnia fuels more gaming thoughts - mostly due to poking around The Old Republic, Star Wars site (it's got a webcomic I want to look into - see, relevance, eventually)

But it's not 'ooh pretty' that's spawned this bit of thought. It was clicking on a blog entry where someone was excited about 'three blue drops' in one session.

Aside: Yes she explained stuff enough for me to get context, but I'm not explaining because I don't give a damn.

What struck me was her utter excitement and not only completing a quest that involved killing things and gaining profit from them, but killing this rare creature, before anyone else showed up to claim the kill, and her getting profit from it.

And I was shivery disgusted.

Her excitement pinpointed the conquest for me.

Two clicks before her, I was reading this idiot (from Az), I'm not about to link who was going on about What Would Jesus Drive, and part of his spiel was :

He doesn’t put water jugs out along the border because he believes in upholding secular laws, i.e., rendering unto Caesar. Crossing a scorching hostile land to trespass on a neighbor’s land isn’t the kind of thing he would condone and smacks of putting his father to the test. He would give anyone a drink of water and a lift to the next town, where he would gently turn them over to the proper authorities and say a prayer for their safe return to their family.

As a carpenter, he has built his share of fences to keep things in and keep things out, but he stakes his reputation that having a well-built fence keeps things neighborly. Although he strongly advocates free will, putting boundaries on some things helps people stay on the right path, and even though his father’s prayer contains the words “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us,” he wasn’t talking about that kind of trespassing.

He enjoys his freedom and would give the shirt off his back to a stranger, but he isn’t to be taken advantage of either, stressing that we live in the world we create — for better or worse — we know the basic rules and they do not include coveting our neighbor’s land or property.

The italics are the part I was originally going to quote, the smaller text what I'd reference. But I thought perhaps it needed to be seen all at once, to understand my response of:

Have you checked your answering machine? I’m SURE Jesus called to tell you America’s First Nations AND Mexico want their land and property back, with interest.

Also Africa is holding on his line two, she says “Give me my children back!” -

Between those three, and all their works, blood, sweat and tears you’d be living in a stone hut in Europe somewhere. Maybe. If wars for ‘more’ hadn’t killed off your line generations ago.

Feel lucky China isn’t even bothering with you.

Aside: Yes, sometimes I respond to idiots just because I wouldn't feel right not to and then I never check to see wth blibberblabber they said back.

But let's go back to the excited WoW-er and her 'blue drops', two due to killing some rare creature.

Maybe other folk wouldn't have connected the two and ended up thinking - Conquest For Profit. But I did. And I really don't care that the beings being killed are monsters, because that's too close to savages and that description is too close to what's been used to describe me and mine, and many people I care about; 500 years or not (and sometimes just yesterday).

And suddenly I start to wonder if my subconscious has been dealing with this, as I'm dealing with feeling bored and thinking the game mechanics are pointless.

And I realize that I'm likely never going to look at any game, where there's killing of an indigenous species for points, money, loot/special items, in the same way again.

And then it gets worse.

Because I realize that I already know this, because I love the webcomic GOBLINS which is all about the ingenious species trying to survive against and rebel against a system that sets up their very lives as xp for low level adventurers. That very theme is why I love that comic so much - kill the Goblins, loot their society of precious artifacts is the INSTITUTION being fought against.

And I wonder, how many times a day, a week, a month, I need to forget that fact (and it's facets), in order to enjoy a pastime without my head exploding at the culturally indoctrinated Conquest against those differently technologically enabled; against the minority indigenous.

It's like the Matrix, except you never get out and if you're not careful you can forget you're in the machine and forget why that matters and forget the whole thing's rigged.

And I start thinking about Resident Evil 5 and Reclaiming Africa For The White Protagonist/Forces Of Good and how very many, many people could not why it was explosive and divisive to slot people of African Heritage in place of 'mobs that need killing so something good can happen'.

[Comments so very, very off]

Jenna 6! Free! Whoo Hoo!

Does this count for Juneteenth? I think this should count for Juneteenth!

This link goes to the news of Whee!