Scences From A Bibliophile's Life

I had an opportunity to get Minx's PLAIN JANES for free yesterday. I was out with a friend, we were in a bookstore and she was all 'Look Willow, a comic book!'

I went 'Ooooh - oh. It's that'.

Then I put the book back down on the free table and turned to walked away.

When I glanced to see what my friend was doing, she was giving the book the evil eye and backing away slowly.

My raised brow inquiry got her to respond thusly.

"So bad you don't even want it free?"

I thought about that for a second and said. "It could be just me, but I'm not even picking it up to send to someone who might want it."

Her: "So bad you're not even going to encourage a demented collector?"

Me: "Damn right."

Her: "Wow. That's really bad."

Blogger Irks Me - Come I Tell You Why

I think I'm enjoying having blogger. But I'm not sure if I'm enjoying it because I'm enjoying have a really pretty banner and being the hell away from livejournal or if I'm enjoying it for itself. The latter begins to seem more and more unlikely.

I've just discovered that it's a hack to make an expandable post. There is no simple insert this little bit of code here.

WTH?

I'm already dealing with not being able to have one user side client to post entries and edit them - when I try to edit the time gets all messed up when using segmagic.

And re-labelling / re-tagging all my posts is taking a while because I have to do them individually and re-check etc, and blah blah.

*Sighs*

This is grump making, especially when it comes to hosting the PoC Carnival, which tends to be extremely long without cuts.

Suddenly it looks as if I may move again and host SA on Scribblit. Because this is more than my having to learn new skills, this is something that makes it extra effort for me to get my content out the way I'd prefer.

This Just In! Joe Q's An Asshole

I haven't finished reading the article, , part 4 of 5 over at CBR, but Joe Q just compared MJ's ooc jumping to make a deal with the devil, to his mother and breast cancer.

Yes, he compared his mother hiding the fact that she had breast cancer, in order not to stop her husband from buying a family home (which undoubtedly helped keep the family together after her death) to MJ's choice.

Can someone clear up for me whether or not MJ knew she was pregnant? And she couldn't just be expecting to have a fairly good idea - cause morning sickness people?

Can someone clear up for me if Joe Q just said that MJ gave up her unborn child in order to keep her man, Peter Parker, happy and that it was as dramatic as a woman hiding breast cancer?

And they say comic book fans have no scope in reality.

In Other News:

Interviewer: I think, for me, outside of the final moments between MJ and Peter, the biggest emotional impact in the story had to be the moment we discovered the little girl in the story would have been MJ & Peter’s daughter, had they remained together. Any chance this will be touched upon again?

Joe Q: As of this moment, we don’t plan on ever going back to it again. The little girl was again a peek at what Spider-Man books would have been like if we allowed him to continue along the path of growing as if he were a real person. While it’s fun in theory and cool stuff to play with within books that are out of current continuity or in another universe, it’s counterintuitive to what we want our Spider-Man books to be.

And I thought DC had burned me in ways I couldn't begin to express.

Ok, I will admit it. I am The Big Two's abused wife. I keep looking and hoping for a change and just dealing with the fists to my metaphorical face. (Yeah, I say boobies and porn-face, refrigerators and recorded brutal beatings count as fists)

I admit this because I was told last year to look to the indies, and I bristled and I snarled and I spit and hissed. But I can no longer see my hoping as sane. (Sorry I was so pigheaded) Yes, I believe progress is slow and yes I believe blogging and talking and acting and asking questions lays the foundation for the next generation. But how old is Joe Q? Forty something, right? He's got a good twenty years left in comics, let's say. And then there's the men he's directly groomed who have another thirty years for some of them forty years...

Maybe I'm just depressed and thinking of the metapho,r of the abused wife saving up money so the kids can run away to a college out of state, is simply making me darker and more depressed.

Do note I'm not just thinking women in Superhero comics (semi specifically the big Two). I'm thinking lesbians, and people of color and religions other than some general Christianity.

Ok, I need to go read something good, cause damn it, I refuse it to be a white man's fan boy world and me just living in it.

Hi, my name's Delirium, I believe in hope.

(ETA for Mallet: White man fan boy is used as a generic villain phrase to denote someone clueless about their privilege and adamant about comics being a certain way vs having good stories that everyone can enjoy. Your villainy's unique, honey.)

Mephisto's Watching

I just caught two scans amongst the blogsphere going WTF Deal With the Devil?! And I find myelf wondering... Is the revived Harry Osborne really Mephisto in disguise?

Also that interaction between May and Peter - Did he just call his 70something Aunt cute? And kiss her over the shoulder? Is there going to be some weird incestuous thing where Peter keeps responding to May like she's MJ?

If Peter suddenly starts downloading porn with redheads and wanking furiously, maybe the whole storyline will make more sense? Maybe the marriage dissolution ret-con will really be about Peter's Soul.

All that'd be needed next is for May to be a closet painkiller addict (she is old and somewhat fragile).

Everybody fall into vice Dance Now!

ETA: This is gold. Comic Editors are nothing but politicians trying to play all sides down the middle. I still think Aunt May the drug fiend, and Peter Parker the Porno Poker are better ideas though.

Madonna, Whore, Bitch?

A short while ago, in what is now actually last year, Ragnell the Foul posted on her blog about a new 'Nice Guy' letter that was going around, found on Craigslist. (I have no idea why people put up letters like that on a place like Craigslist. I may just not be cool enough or in the scene enough to understand)

I just came across, via a link on my Twitterlist of  what I'm now thinking of as the female version of the Nice Guy Letter. I'm calling it the 'Bitch Blues'.

Gird your loins and go read the link. I'm not asking you to comment, I'm not suggesting you dogpile - and really there's no reason, it's an opinion. But I would like to talk about it, about the warped view of feminism, about how the writer claims to have moved past blaming other people for her problems - and yet she's now blaming women and feminism.

The reason I'm writing about it here is that the essay makes me wonder about women in comics; how they're defined, how they're perceived and why it is when female consumers start to talk our voices come across as so much Charlie Brown 'wah wah wah wah'.

Modern comics to me are modern mythology. The Ancient Greeks had Heracles, Athena,  Hebe and Odysseus. I had / have Batman, Black Canary, Dazzler and Storm.

But that essay, the concepts in that essay as if it's somehow an insider's look at the inner life of a real empowered woman (it's not), just makes me think about the storylines given to female heroines and the excuses given about it.

In the tv show Heroes, the character Claire who has Wolverine's powers, is stalked by a seeming 'Nice Guy' who wants everything to be about him, but it's not portrayed as stalking and abusive. You're supposed to cheer for Mr. Nice Teenage Stalker Guy. You're supposed to think it romantic. You're supposed to think he'll make everything better for Claire.

You know that pause when you read a story and you wonder what crack the writer was smoking and why on earth he (usually but not always) thought that the word's he'd written and the plot he'd created was the reality of the modern woman ?

That essay makes me think that that type of stuff is what they're reading. It's no longer two dimensional concepts for women - The Madonna or The Whore, there's now The Bitch, someone competent until it all starts to fall apart, someone who seems to want to strive to be the Madonna on the outside, while being the Whore now and again on the inside and all around is bitterly unhappy because there's no white picket fence, fluffy dress, adoring and taking care of her husband.

What. The. Hell ?

If you read all the way through to her deciding to let her sons 'be men' and stop nagging them about feelings and sensitivity - maybe you'll see what I'm talking about when I say I read this essay and think about the ideas being formed about women and how that's reflected in our modern myths of comics and...

Well, it's worrying.

I've seen far too many blogs talking about the call for equality somehow being the cry of entitlement. I had no idea where those opinions were coming from and how they could be formed. Now I have a better idea and it's sad.

Quote from comments on the page: The truth is feminists are nothing more than wh0res and goldiggers who use intellectualism and large-scale manipulation, as opposed to the much more honest(relatively speaking) approach of the typical, street wh0re. And feminists are not at all averse to secretly using the trade of sex for status/power/money either, as evidenced in this woman's story here. At least the street wh0re is honest and upfront about who/what she is to herself - which is much more than we can say for our typical feminist/modern woman

Look Ma', it's Frank Miller's Spawn. He's not alone.

Scary.

PS: As a gay woman, don't even get me started at how the lesbian in her story is represented.

oh comic world

Come home from holiday visiting and get told that it's official - Spiderman has been Un-Married and probably Un-Teachered and Un-Fired from the Bugle.

I hadn't known it was more than one thing wherein there'd be a rollback. It made my first thought something along the lines of: Why are the Execs at Marvel, insisting that lesiure suits with wide lapels and seafoam green are oh so cool? Why are they do determined that everything must be as it was when they were growing up? Can't they see they've become old men stuck in a time warp?

Apparently not.

It's sad. It was so cool that Peter Parker grew up with me.

First off I have to admit to loving the Spiderman Live Action TV Series. And after that, I followed his cartoon adventures - Spiderman & Friends with Iceman and Firestar, and the 90's series and the one where he was dealing with the High Evolutionary (that's one of my favs) and I squeed with joy at the New Animated Series, the cgi one.

Still, once I got past the wtf, with the clones and the dreams and the space opera / horror adventures, it WAS pretty damn cool that Spidey was growing up. Same snark, same quips, bigger support base, different problems. Spiderman as a teacher in the NYC school system? That seemed just perfect.

And now...

I guess that's why I couldn't get into Ultimate Spiderman no matter how many recs it got given. I've seen/heard/done the Spidey in school, Spidey with girl problems, Spidey trying to figure out up from down.

(Why wasn't Ultimate enough? He's brand new, looking at things differently etc...)

Hmm, maybe every year is a bad year to get back into comics.

And now I'm having what feels like blasephemous thoughts concerning the fact that comics don't seem to want to grow.

A hideous thing was tainted by the rest

Ever notice how when you start talking to a friend, all the ire you have inside of you comes bubbling out and you go - whoa, I didn't know I felt that much about it.

Well more coming to you about what happens to Dazzler (and the rest of Excalibur) in issues 16-24. BUT FIRST...

ShadowLine imprint of Image Comics has a contest. Who Wants To Create a Superheroine

I am about to get frank, ugly, accusatory, bitchy and a whole lot of other unpleasantness right now. So, grab popcorn.

Have you looked at Franchesco's art?  I saw in his gallery a picture of a proud, gritty, Moon Knight. But all his images of female characters are the kind of things that immediately turn me off investigating a comic; overly large breasts, odd body compositions and unnecessary crotch shots.

And Franchesco, because he will be defining the character's look (with input from the writer) will own 50% of the creation. There went any idea, any thought, any possible urge I had of entering the contest. 

Can they be serious about wanting a strong heroine when the artist they choose for the project is one with that kind of style? The blurb mentions them wanting a strong heroine as a counter balance to Bomb Queen, their most popular title.

Bomb Queen by the way is a villianess who wears pants that barely cover her mons, thus showing off her thong; who has a reckless disregard for human life and who controls a town wherein apparently schoolchildren can buy guns and television hostess appear nude on camera. In fact there's quite a lot of  live live girls, nude nude! going on in the city with several touches of female paedophiliacs.

Frankly if there's an underlying equality for the sexes message in the whole thing, it's lost on me. I'm too busy being skeezed by the associations of wild out of control woman + crazy sexuality mesh child abuse. And there was a scene discussing their crazy version of survivor showing an afro-ed black woman, petting the hair of a bondaged blonde girl-child that just scratched nails down my metaphorical spine. If you don't know why that image might upset me, I suggest you find a website somewhere on the internet and get schooled about racism, and stereotypes. It might explain why I wasn't enjoying the weak black man as mayor either.

Now all this to do more than say that Bomb Queen is not my cup of tea. It's obvious I shan't be buying it.

But Bomb Queen's mention does leave me thinking if this contest is nothing but a PR stunt because they do realize some of the inadvertent messages in their most popular comic.

They've also stressed that the less dark the better. So they want a bright, upbeat, non-gritty super-heroine. But when I combine what they seem to want with the artist they chose, my first thought is fluff piece.

Now granted a character doesn't have to be (or stay if so originally created) a bit of fluff heroine. And sparkles and kindness and joy and modesty do not a fluffy heroine make - necessarily. Heck if I thought Franchesco could draw a black woman without making her look like an ape, I'd probably sit down and think more about possibilities.

But strong heroine and breasts bulging all over the fucking place aren't connected associations in my head. I've seen his art-up of Diana / Wonder Woman.  Waists smaller than a woman's head does not speak 'Strong ass kicking savior of the female persuasion' to me. Check out his art-piece labelled 'Frankie' I think that's Glactucus in the corner, but I'm too busy going 'What the fuck Bukkake ?' It's all part of why I think the man would draw  African Descendeds as a type of 'black face' while also not knowing what to do with actual booty - besides sticking a thong up in it.

I sigh - I really do like the fact that Image made Invincible available to the general public (more thoughts on why was it the Asian girl who's a sex fiend a bit later)

Oh and yes, my title is from a Cranberries song.

Is Wanda Just A Running Gag?

Someone showed me an image tonight of Wiccan and Speed, and it jarred some thoughts out of me.

I'm not sure about Speed, but Wiccan at least has met SW, right? And I believe Wiccan and Speed currently know that they are somehow - - -

1) Holders of part of (or the whole and mingled) souls of her twins

2) Magically her sons brought to this time and place

3) Some variation of that.

Why then, if her babies are right fucking THERE, is Wanda going crazy attacking people and needing folk to think about putting her down like fucking Cujo?

Can someone please explain this to me? I am willing to follow some a to b logic on this. Lay down the lines, use baby words if you have to, but I'd like to fucking understand this.

Because without understanding this, I'm left to think that Wanda's mental health and her explainable survivor's guilt and mother's grief over the loss of her children is some of kind of Marvel punching bag joke. Or some kind of seeming fucking balance for some one deciding to give her the power to shift and shape reality.

I love Wanda. I guess maybe I'm a little like Wiccan in my admiration. She's overcome a shady troubled past. She's moved beyond being Magneto's daughter to being a hero in her own right. (At least in theory when writers aren't dicking her around at least). She married whom she wanted to and started a family and found her purpose all while staying close to her twin.

Why the fucking hell does she need to be an emotional wreck every fucking twenty-five issues because she lost her children?

Now I wouldn't be happy if part of her madness is because she looks like her mother and Magnus got incestuously close on the emotional level and that warped some things. It would also be taking away from her strength, but it'd be new. Original. Though seriously, after fucking saving the world, that bit of her past wouldn't have the same impact.

So no. I take it back.

Is Marvel purposely keeping the Rom down? Is this some combination of put the ethnic overly emotional think she can be a hero woman in her place? What? What the fuck is it?

Carol Danvers, blonde hair and blue eyes gets her life/memories/powers stolen from her, gets humongo power, loses it, has alcohol problems and RECOVERS but dark haired, dark eyed, dark skinned, likely descended from wandering ancient East Indians, among others, Wanda is still hung up over her children to the point of madness?

Wolverine has been effing mind raped, mind violated, memory jacked, mind fucked, has like far too many dead love interests but he gets to move forward. Why not Wanda?

What? Jean Grey is officially dead and they can't make her evil anymore so their new punching bag to shake things up is Wanda? (I'll rant about Jean another time)

Damn it there's just so much possibility with Wanda (far less combined with Wiccan and Speed). There's magic adventures to be had; rescue operations, urban tales. If Wanda has to have a profile of the perpetually grieving mother, why can't she have adventures steming from working with parents groups or other mothers. Where the hell was she during Civil War btw? I actually don't know.

I can see Wanda as a detective, hunting down rings that exploit children for dark purposes of magic or y'know, just regular atrocities like modern slavery - from camel jockeys to sex toys.

If Wanda can manipulate reality why isn't she working WITH Dr.Strange? Why isn't she an anchor-point against things that want to cross dimensions and twist reality to their own means? Wanda kicking the ass of Chaos Demons. How cool would that be? Very.

So WTF is it always "MY BABIES!" and now "Daddy, No More Mutants!"

I mean, geeze, look at the shit she's put her brother through. And hello, her children were mutants.

I sigh. I sigh a whole fucking lot.

(this is the second time blogger has messed up the time. this time marking it 4 hours later first it was 7:50AM when the real time was 2:50AM and now it's 12:50PM and who knows what it'll be when I finish editing here now.)

I'm with the Superheroine

Why does Dinah look like she's

a) Taking it up the butt

b) Not so secretly a motorcycle driving blow up doll made specifically so Ollie can shoot arrows?

In other news: Marvel Girl or DC Girl ? No. Superheroine Girl! That is me!

I really should discuss how much I enjoyed Manhunter up to Issue 19#, instead of just saying I'm going to discuss it. It was gritty and real. Though using those two words, makes me feel like I'm just spitting out buzz words.

It was a realistic look at the DCverse; strife and grit, pain, blood, sweat, tears and piss. I love the fact that it's based in LA. I love the concept of their being parts of the world where, for some reason, metas and villians and supers just don't seem to go. I loved Manhunter as 'The Sheriff' of LA. And I loved the weaving arc to make sense of past history. Also I feel like I learned more about bloody OMAC than I have, trying to read issues, blogs and look the damn thing up in Wikipedia.

I haven't moved past the first issue where it's One Year Later yet, because I'm confused as eff over how things changed. Also, I think I've found a hefty dose of personal 'WTF is this shit!' over the concept of OYL.

Also also? I want to read about The Rainbow Wars of GLCorps. But I'm having a hard time shifting gears from general excitement to must follow.

Why are comic such a love/hate situation? Why is it you get in the groove and then the writer changes or the artist changes and...

Which reminds me - Must rant about No More Photorealistic Art. Oh yeah. Ranty coming up. All bright and shiny and spiky.

And then they had to go and ruin the ride....

Ok, who the hell did Issue ! 16? And why are there a complete ass? Like in white yeast ringed asshole! The art's too grooved, too dark, too sharp and edgy for the tone of the book. And on page three, I've got girl ass in the face!

For the past 15 issues, yeah, Alli's wearing a cropped t-shirt and TJ's showing belly button and blue cleavage and Sage is a dominatrix librarian. But aside from one panel where Sage's breasts were as big as her HEAD - I was focused on the story; story, characters, action. I was all over that. As can be attested to by my squee.

Now in Issue #16 (yeah, I don't watch tv and I'm staying up late) - Alison's ass is in my face.

So suddenly we go from Pete Pantazis and his AMAZING colour and Rick Ketcham's inking. And me going - Yay! Who ever you are artist, your art is COOL! And then I end up having to hunt down his name (Micahel Ryan) because in Issue 16 I've got ass in the face from some not!Michael.

What, they thought fans wouldn't notice?

Also suddenly Dazzler's chaps are shiny pvc fetish pleather... and why is Noctune's hair so long? Also why doesn't she seem to be wearing a bra? Why is her shirt peekaboo maybe she'll jump high enough and show breast?

And JUGGY?

JUGG ficking Y?

15 issues of Caine or Juggernaut and then Juggy?

[ Alison Blaire can't match her teammate's phenomenal fighting skill. She has other assets ] And then there's a shot of her glowing ASS! And it looks nude or nude stocking! WTF?

I waited and waited to see the sword. And it's with this horrible photo-realistic fuck art. And people's hairstyles changing ever panel? I'd almost think it was Greg fucking Land!

And ok, since when does Talia have braids? And is of African decent but with blue skin? Look I want black superheroes like whoa. But the Scarlett Witch? Not black. And Kurt Wagner? Not black. He's blue with European features (and fur). So Talia shouldn't be looking like Lauryn (the lovely) Hill! And why does Sage look like some odd cross between Jessica Alba and Angelia Jolie? And why in Issue 18 does she look like Torri Spelling?

Oh god this inker (and in the issue before) makes everyone look like they have a viral case of road rash. And Cain looks like Cro-magnon man!

And now Dazzler looks like Pink! And they're rehashing storyline info blurb from at least seven issues ago. And then claiming 'My god, I never thought of it'.

Man - this is fucked up. I got so excited and then I discovered - well, it's comic books, eventually they'll fuck it up. This bites.

Also, are all issue comics filled with so many damn ads? Marvel Purified Water - wtf?!

Oh Marvel. Oh Marvel. Marvel. Marvel - you misguided fool. Not only are you making mistakes of the regular sort, with not matching continuity in writers and artists and in not trusting to the intelligence of your audience - but you're selling people newsprint at 3-5$ a pop filled with ads and then complaining you don't understand how Manga attracts.

Guess I won't be buying New Excalibur after all. (Hmm, maybe there're trades up to Ep 15.)

PS: These last issues also contain scenes of Dazzler being totally brilliant (as in pretty) kickass and possibly FLYING and I really can't give too much of a fuck, because it's stopped being enjoyable. In fact if I wasn't staying up with a friend, I'd have stopped reading it - just like I stopped reading Manhunter when it skipped to one year later (and yeah, I should be posting about that soon)