More Wowio Blues

So far I've had the end of one comic and the whole of another be completely unreadable - nothing but mangled blurs and lines in black and white.

There's also a quality drop that I don't remember experiencing before. I'm looking at HELIOS #1 right now and page 6 has some serious quality issues. The page is blurry and the limited size adjusters (zoom regular, medium or large) do nothing at all to help.

I've also discovered that every time you close the Wowio Reader, it loses your preferences. So while it can apparently remember which page you closed out on, it can't remember to keep a two-page spread at medium.

On top of those discoveries, Ad Block Plus bars the ads on the reader. I've always had Ad Block Plus disabled on Wowio.com in support of their text ads, which I clicked. But those ads were not the intrusive, flashing, blinking, too colourful and distracting not to mention sometimes apparently page distorting ads now on the Wowio Reader.

How exactly do the artists get the best possible deal out of ads people can find ways around? It felt like one thing to have ads in the beginning and end and maybe even in the middle of the comics. That's relatively close to the experience with an actual copy (non trade) in one's hands. But this constantly rotating, blinking, mess?

On the one hand I can look at more comics, peruse first issues and figure out if I'd really enjoy them. But that could have been done with using the Wowio Reader as a previewer. Considering I had to trust Wowio with my credit card info in order to gain membership (1cent charge then refunded at the time), I don't appreciate being treated as some kind of pre-criminal with COPYRIGHTED material all over the Wowio Reader.

I was so excited about Wowio's return. I counted down the days and minutes. I was there within minutes of the site going live again. I didn't bother to wait for notification (which never came via the mail, by the way). And now after a month and more of waiting....

Ugh.

Transcriptase

The authors who wished to distance their work from William Sanders and HELIX magazine have created an archive site for their stories.

I encourage everyone to stop by Transcriptase. I've also added a link to my sidebar.

Damn it to pus spewing blood curdling hell

WOWIO.COM is back, but my first reaction isn't very happy. It looks like Platinum Publishing did buy it and are changing it.

What exactly does WOWIO membership get me right now?

How is my WOWIO experienced changed since the new status quo?

What are the creators even paid by WOWIO right now?

Those questions I can't answer completely and neither can Wowio it seems as those questions aren't answered in their FAQ or ABOUT.

What I can say is that I can no longer download Neotopia, which I was in the process of collecting. It's a read online only title now. Worse for me is that Neotopia isn't licensed, apparently, for purchase. So I can't buy it at all to have a digital copy.

I was really enjoying having digital comics at my finger-tips. I'd begun to look at the Asus EEE PC (among other Mobile Devices) and putting aside money to save up to buy the Surf model come Christmas (when it'd more than likely be cheaper) so I could have easy, portable PDF, digital comics I enjoy reading.

I'm admitting to selfishness. I really don't care if now anyone in the world can read these books / download books if I can't have what I want. And what I want I was more than willing to pay for too. But nada.

Also, some publishers that used to be on Wowio are now missing - like Ronin who did Razor Kid, which I talked about in a Faces of Colour column. The Imaginaries, however are on there, read online or download each issue for 99cents. I'd suggest not paying to have the main protagonists ethnicity changed from Asian (Japanese) to white and just buying the first three. But that's me.

It seems I was also lucky to get Artesia when I did because it's not for download either.

And it looks like the web-comics that were offering downloadable books of their archives via WOWIO are either missing, or are for online reading only. If I wanted to read their archives online, I'd read their archives not use Wowio. Eff damn it all!

The occasional sponsored lottery to make some things downloadable isn't a good offset / counter at all!

I am really disappointed that I no longer have the option of having these comics portable for me, for free or via purchase. I am really disappointed that going global means I lose out on certain publishers and titles. I'm really pissed that I didn't get a chance to grab the comics I wanted the most / there wasn't any warning that this was coming.

This is all within my first half hour on the re-opened site. But I'm not sure I'll be pushing Wowio so hard on everyone the way I was before. Especially with some comics being priced at 3$. I don't want to collect a bunch of flimsy issues nor do I want certain things in trades. But for people who do collect, I don't see any impetus for them to spend any money in WOWIO when they'd get a hard-copy for the same price.

I'm sure there are people who'll ask me if this isn't what I'd wanted from Marvel and DC - easy access online to back issue comics. But here's the thing, Wowio and the publishers it was using weren't and aren't Marvel or DC. What it had been offering me was access to comics I couldn't find or get anywhere else. Not everyone can get to, or even lives near a LCS. Now what I have access to is an online library (which is what they changed the name of the queue to by the way) but I have no way to be a consumer of the things I want, which is what I'd been hoping for.

More-over, not all the world has high speed internet. Downloading a comic can be much easier than trying to get it to load page by page on the internet.

And the ads on the WOWIO reader/view online pages are fairly distracting. As is the lack of custom zooming that was offered by one's PDF reader.

Fuck damn, Wowio. What an effing disappointment.

ETA: Links discussing Wowio's new business plan:

1. D.J. Coffman & The New Wowio Contract aka, why I'm not likely to be asking comic creators I love to sign up to Wowio, despite Gerry's (in comments) polite request.



2. Comics Worth Reading's - Goodbye Wowio. I have not and do not always agreed with Johanna and in fact I've disagreed strenuously, loudly and occasionally pompously. But what my growing time online and involved with comic blogging has brought me is a growing respect of what she has to say and of her perspective. Including the bitter realization that Marvel and DC would eventually drive me crazy if I let them. Though I'm still a superhero comic girl through and through, even walking away from 'the big Two'.

PoC Carnival - Issue 11 (parts 1 & 2)

The 11th People of Colour in Sci Fi & Fantasy Blog Carnival had part one up on July 2nd; The Eye of the Beholder. It was a discussion that went on for a few days about things PoC see as representative of themselves that all too often are used in SF worlds to represent the alien. There's a bit near the end about characters coded as black or who could be interpreted as black. Honestly, I would have loved to get more information on characters that are coded NDN, or Asian (East or South) among other groups.

Part two of the Carnival is out. It's quieter and much much smaller than the discussion that preceded it. But it speaks of that unique, sometimes warped visibility as well, with a piece by Ciderpress of Livejournal who gives one voice to the set that was missing. Ciderpress talks of degrees of othering and alienation.

... there are times when *everything* I do is regarded as exotic, as 'foreign', as East Asian for a given value of "East Asian". And it's not just the stuff I do that's not "default" or "normal" for society at large, it's the normal stuff I do that lots of white people in society do, too.

Part two of the 11th Carnival also involves links to STEAMFASHION and a member there who discusses his interpretation of the fashion and the genre and how he tries to pull in aspects of imperialism and colonialism and the native cultures lost or dominated by them. So seriously check out the piece by lj user Anachronaut. His costuming is beautiful and provocative and thoughtful and his comments in threads at the link are just as insightful.

And finally there's Bibliophile Stalker on WordPress about The Philippines In Western Speculative Fiction.

11th PoC in SF Carnival - Part 2

Check it out.

But to the Carnival I'd like to add a few links

Debunking White Fantasy by Bankuei. His entry brought up aspects I hadn't realized I'd absorbed when it came to PoC representation on SF. Which is that all too often the PoC characters or the nation representing them are ghettoized/marginalized into having cultural markers, stereotypical markers, that say 'this is what a PoC culture is' / 'this is who PoC are' no matter what. Whereas white characters aren't limited to being from mock Northen European cultures. They can come from anywhere and be anything.

Complimentary to that entry is one by Naamen, Terminology - Savagification! I think the title itself is the best summary as to what that's about. Combined with Naamen's other essay Hollywood Stop Whitening Characters! No Really! Stop It! and in particular the link and quotes within it regarding Neil Gaiman's Anasi Boys.

Can you see the picture being drawn? About how PoC in SF, if represented at all among the 'normal' Northern European background and characters; they are Other, Exotic and quite often Savage (as in the savage enemy).

Next: IBARW & The WoC & Beauty Carnival. The PoC in SF Carnival will return in September.

Open Letter: To The Occasional Superheroine

Dear Valerie D’Orazio,

I thought I could not say something. But it turns out I can't stay quiet. Whether we really want to or not, Fans of Colour, Fans of Cloak & Dagger are watching you.

I know you don't stop talking about the issues of agency for female heroines in the big two and the issues of agency for female writers, artists, inkers and colourists. But you are not someone who immediately comes to my mind when I think of Ally to People of Colour. And all the hype surrounding your love of Tyrone quite frankly scares me.

Tyrone already is a quiet, mysterious, dangerously powerful, black man, attached forever to a petite blonde, white woman. The opportunities for you to trip and fall flat on your face in a pile of privilege and unintentional but still incredibly painful racism is HUGE.

This is Marvel, the company that's done missteps with Misty Knight / Heroes for Hire / getting Black Hair right and/or bothering to give a damn. I don't see you getting any help or caring from that direction not to fall on your face.

And while it's true, comics being what they are and have been becoming, a Cloak & Dagger mini series can be ignored and attempted to be forgotten far easier than if you were writing the sequel to a book long since gone out of print - it doesn't make the stakes any less big.

Please don't screw up.

Yeah, I actually said please.

Just Call Me Big 'Low

http://heidischnakenberg.blogspot.com/ - That is Heidi Schnakenberg's blog is now readable by invitation only.

Wow don't I feel dangerous and threatening with my bad WoC Self.

Well Spoken Blacks - We're Gonna Get You!

Ami?

I guess we know now why a certain 'Becky' can't dare risk signing on with an actual email or a link to her blog. Well Spoken Asians might Get Her!

WWS - Now In New Ultra Conservative Fear Flavour!

I feel like I need a cane, or at least more muscles and a white suit like movieverse Kingpin.

But why can't I have this kind of influence on comics creato - oh, yeah, I'm not going anywhere near the filthpool boards they swim in; smells like old gym socks.

ETA: Apparently a scary well spoken black woman just can't win. Schnakenberg is back. No cane, no theme music, no high tech toaster for me. Damn it. I am so behind in my scary, black person creds.

Notes on Exhaustion

When Wowio.Com comes back, I'm going to drown myself in good, easily accessible, makes me want a tablet pc comics. Because without Wowio giving me goodies on demand every day, I'm noticing too much bullshit and depressing stuff.

It's wearying.

I miss being able to enthuse. I miss Faces of Colour.

My Anger Is Valid, Your Running Away Isn't

There's a woman whose first name is Heidi who wrote an article about Feminism that was full of shit, in my opinion. This entry is not about her. It is somewhat about me going to her blogsite today because I came across a link that claimed she'd tried to clarify what she'd meant in her original article. Clarification #2. But there was also a clarification #0. So that's three entries to clarify an editorial put up on a news site. But this post also isn't talking about that.


The Point:

There's a community on LJ called feminist. On said community a certain bittercat posted a one-liner concerning Ms Heidi Schnakenberg's article. Her one liner was: "I thought this was a very good article on race and feminism". That's all she said.

Given that said article ended up needing three separate posts (not on the original news site even) to clarify itself, one would think that bittercat would have more to say about the issues, especially when people commented asking her what she meant by that. And was she planning to elaborate or did she NOT see the racism and classicism and a whole bunch of other mess going on in the article.

Two pages of discussion and bittercat only posted three times. Once to say thank you to someone else who'd written a long nuanced comment about what they thought the original writer of the article might have been trying to say and what they got out of it. bittercat's second comment, was a response to someone asking why she hadn't written, tried to write/explain herself along the lines of the commenter she was thanking. In that comment she made the claim she was in a hurry and she's not eloquent or a college level scholar and that she didn't respond sooner because she doesn't like to contribute to nurturing hostility. So even though people were clamoring for her to explain herself, she viewed their anger and upset and confusion as hostility.

She told folks to 'have a good day' and she left the community.

Which leads us to today. And me going to read Clarification #3. And scrolling to find Clarification #2 and see if it's the entry that I'd read before. And I saw someone responding to Schnakenberg as if they were indeed bittercat and this is what they had to say:

It was a LOT of women, and I don't know if they were WOC or not. I just know they were very angry.

I ended up leaving that community over that. Not because I am a coward, but because I was overwhelmed by the sheer negativity that came out of my post. I am very sensitive and don't react well to such hatred. I also, like yourself, did not know about the particular events--which your friend so kindly posted about--that led up to the current divisiveness.(Have not had time to read those links, but I am going to.)

I just can't be a part of a "Feminist" community that is so...hostile. I can't stomach the idea that, because I am white, to some women, my oppression does not exist. For me, all women's oppression exists, so the divisions along race lines are just foreign to me. I was not raised that way, and I will not play into it now.

I have linked to your blog from mine, because no matter how much I read on the subject of interesectionality [sic]--what it has become--I STILL agree with you.

I am an I-Feminist and an Eco-Feminist. We tend to--on the one hand--see every individual woman's struggles as equally valid--and on the Eco side, we tend to see the big picture--the global implications of the oppression of women and girls. Those philosophies are just not amenable to nor compatible with this "new" intersectionality. In EcoFeminism, intersectionality (the traditional meaning) is a given.

Bless you.
~Cyber_Hippie

If Cyber Hippie is not bittercat and is someone else from another community who posted the article and received a huge outcry in return; Then I feel a bit better about the state of things on the internet that somewhere else there was a huge outcry.

But if Cyber Hippie is bittercat then I'm wondering if it's perfectly functional for her brain and sensibilities to write out her thoughts and beliefs if a) she finds herself in a position of agreement, or b) she knows the person reading and replying to her is not a Woman of Colour.

I won't link to Schnakenberg's response to that comment. It's easy enough to erase up until the .html and read the entry and all the comments. But I do find myself wanting to say this:

"Calling something divisiveness and hostility doesn't mean you're not claiming reverse discrimination. And it certainly isn't being inclusive of all women when there's mutual patting on the back and indulging in WWS.

All women are NOT delicate snowflakes who've never faced opposition of any other sort in their life and can have the privilege of not engaging because it would nurture hostility. And this 'divisiveness'? It's not recent. Even in #2 (entry 3) of her clarification Schnakenberg does not bring up the WoC First and Second Wave Feminists she left out of her original article.

More importantly, maybe most importantly; The discomfort of white women when faced with the reality of WoC dealing with multiple oppressions is not more important than those oppressions. The fear of white women is ALSO NOT more important than those oppressions. Because what else could be it but fear to feel the need to pop up and declaim every ten seconds "But White Women Are Oppressed Too!" as if WoC will somehow leave White Women standing on the corner as they move forward to tackle said oppressions. We are the ones who got left by the wayside in all the beginnings. We aren't the ones who throw a problem overboard in order to get just what we want. We aren't you."

========
Steel Magnolia Note: Karen Healey's Post on the lack of WoC/CoC in Buffyverse? The ass showing in her forums was truly reprehensible. Karen and Betty might have missed some things but they fully recognized excuses, racist tropes and lack of critical thinking when they saw it.

Privilege and Passive Racism In My Comics

Remember this jackass? I mentioned him back in March; Tom Brazleton of Theater Hopper. Apparently he's since pulled that page down on his lj feed. He's the one that didn't see what the big deal was about black face in current movies.

Well it seems like he has a web comic twin or possibly a fan in racist stupidity; Chris Daily of Striptease.

I was enjoying Questionable Content as I ate and tried to feel better (a/c apparently tricks your brain into thinking you don't need water. But oh you so do otherwise you end up feeling like crap). Questionable Content had a guest artist today.

So apparently the iPhone's best possible anthropomorphization, the best personality in a comic strip for this phone is as a - what was that? Was that a rich black thug? Or a rich black thug, rapper/musician?

"Call me 3G" + lack of conjugation of the verb 'to be' + misogyny.

WHAT THE FUCK?!

WHAT THE FUCK, Chris Daily??? It's not enough that when checking the cast of your comic, we find the hypersexualized Asian female and the magical sexualized gay negro (who opened some white chick's eyes to 'possibilities') - Jezebel much? And the lone black male - one Tommy - holy shit did you even think about that name? Though I'm calling Tommy black based on his goatee and baldness. He might be meant to be white. There aren't any other real signifiers on the cast page.

It's not enough, Chris Daily, that you have stereotypes and token minorities in your strip. You have to go contaminate Questionable Content? You have an otherwise bright spot in my day be one more instance of OTHERING?

~*~
I actually like Questionable Content and its regular writer/artist. Yes it's basically like F.R.I.E.N.D.S only more interesting, with music instead of coffee and the city has actual people of colour. Granted the PoC's seem to be mostly East Indian or of East Indian Descent; a drummer, a forensic doctor. But they just are. There's no big deal made about them. They don't get very special strips.

And the women in the comic kick ass. As well as the handling of several major traumatic/psychological issues. It treats sex well. It treats relationships between women well - it so passes the Bendel test and then some.
~*~

But unholy living shit this guest comic is just so full of racist failure. It's not funny. It's not cutting edge. It's not savvy. And it sure as hell isn't satire - unless 3G, a product made by Apple, which is owned by rich white men is the technological slave for said white men - oh wait. That wouldn't really be satire would it.

And then there's Windslow, in a tie, getting to look down at the hip, new, uncouth bit of technology.

DIF, Chris Daily. Just die in fire already.

ETA: And damn you, Jeph Jacques for thinking it was actually funny and letting it get posted.

__

eta: Amir the drummer might be of ME Decent.

Ami's Rant

The link's been changed in Dear Feminisphere, PUT ON SOME DAMN PANTS . But here too is a link to Ami's Rant On: My sexuality, gender identity and ethnicity are NOT accessories that come with the Ami doll! >:|

Or as Ami and I have said in comments here on Seeking Avalon, non white peoples, non cisgendered peoples, non abled bodied, non heterosexual peoples DO NOT WANT to be white, able bodied, hetero and cisgendered deep down inside.

We are not Mr. & Mrs Potato Head Figures, with our ethnicity, sexuality, gender and functionality clipped and pasted on, ala plastic lips and hair.