Disney To Accquire Marvel Entertainment

Woke up.

Saw this.

Here is the link.

Cue Slightly Hysterical Vengeful (slightly Jokerlike) Laughter: "Hahahaha hahahaha ahahahahaha ha heee huuu haaa hahahahahah haha."

Disney vs Warner Brothers, now, will it? Those titans of whitopia.

How fitting.

Characters Of Colour? Where?

If I wrote an open letter right now I don't know who I'd address it to; The Creator(s) of The 99 wherein I beg them not to make deals with DC? Or would I, should I bother with an open letter to DC telling them to take their pudgy, imperialistic, white supremist hands off all properties involving non-white (and non America focused) characters?

The White Man Lies - But That Ain't New. Milestone Characters Dropped Like Rocks And Other Tales Of "But We Have No Current Plans For Anyone Who Ain't White".

Who knows, maybe they figured using Milestone characters would upset the Birthers who're a prominent subset in their demographic.

Hmm. I guess I'm leaning towards writing a letter to beg the creators of The 99 to run far, far away from DC. I still have issues to buy to catch up. Reading still makes me smile. Seeing heroes, brown heroes, from all over the globe still brings me to tears (of joy).

At least now I have it confirmed that my aversion to reading anything by authors I don't know is me not wanting to deal with anymore majority white worlds anywhere; where the author's skanky race issues can surprise and accost me, hanging there, all gross off their naked butts.

Manga, The 99 and a couple of web comics. Alright then.

And for an actual opinion rather than just my tired disgust, see 4th Letter.

Wow, Static in Teen Titans, and a manga based off the white washed characters in the live action movie version of The Last AirRacebender - all this attention to beloved non white mythic and heroic icons, it's enough to make me flush, flutter, faint and fall over. [/ sarcasm]

Everyone Survives To The 31st Century

There is an individual who has altered an issue of League of Superheroes to be more chromatic. Reading it, made me feel comfortable. It felt like I was reading The 99 and then I checked the comparison pages and the pure whiteness of the future....

Shameful Damn, People. WHITE FILLED SHAMEFUL DAMN.

I'd like to promote this project, but I don't actually want to see it taken down because DC posts a cease and desist showing our blatant racism.

So I'm willing to DM on Twitter or Email the link to those who contact me. Because it should be seen. (Maybe there's a way to zipfile it and upload it somewhere, though that is less demonstrative/fair use that way).

Meanwhile I'm going to keep contributing to manga annihilating Western American comics in bookstores and other places where good storytelling as well as sequential art are bought and I'm going to keep supporting The 99.

Question & Observations

The Question: When did Monica Rambeau become Photon again? I may have asked this before but likely no one answered. I remember she gave up Captain Marvel, to a Marvel guy. And she gave up Photon to another guy.

So did that second guy croak and Monica scooped back up her second codename?

Cause I had no idea why male Photon was supposed to be part of Marvel Divas and then I found out it wasn't that Marvel was throwing a flamboyant gay man in there with a bunch of female characters, they were just throwing a different kind of token - the black chick.

Personal Note: I would so love to see Monica and Misty team up together and FIGHT CRIME. Two hot, fierce, powerhouse black women. One enormously satisfying ass beat down. No waiting.

*sighs - ponders fanfic*


In the Observation news: Wowio Parent Company, Platinum Publishing Can. Not. Pay. Their. Rent. Misfiles comics creator is just never going to get his money, since Platinum was dealing with 30k a month for 12,400 Square Feet of office space.

Also, they seem to spend a lot of money dealing with legal issues, several lawsuits against them and threatening journalists in their spare time.

Why people keep acting like providing the public with digital comics they can download and move between various devices is like trying to build a low orbiting space station around Venus - I'll never know. I do know it's not rocket science though.

In personal news - My life's currently exploding in slow motion, 0.0001 frames a minute. And I'm just waiting for the aftermath so I can pick myself up. Ugh.

ETA: If Wowio wasn't bought with money, btw, but instead was bought with shares in Platinum, did the people who sold Wowio actually make any money? Or did they just stop leaking debt?

At This Point, Bitter Is A Specialty Flavour

I didn't do a damn thing for today being Free Comic Book Day. Actually, truth is I checked out the offerings online and there wasn't a damn thing I wanted to see. Not even a new comic story of Harry Dresden had enough pull to get me to go traipsing to a comic book store.

If someone would like to prove me wrong by pointing out where the diversity is in the Free Comic Book Day offerings, without making Love & Rockets multi-task for token status; for girls, for lesbians; for brown and black girls, possibly for brown and black boys; Then I'm all ears.

Meanwhile I saw books for white people who like horror, and books for white people who like superheroes and books for white people who like slice of life and books for white people who like comedy and books for white people who are kids, books for white people who like urban fantasy, books for white people who like space fantasy, and books for white people who like robots.

Oh wait, maybe I should go back and strike out all those 'for white people' and replace them with 'the assumed default'. Or maybe not.

So while various folk are crowing about what they scored for FCBD, I'm going to keep hunting down non-white webcomic artists on the web.

To Which I Say

Word.

Authors Behaving Badly - 09 (Continued)

ETA: So rejecting a whole bunch of anonymous comments to my last post without reading them (how very PAD of me), after the first accuses me of wishing PAD evil, as if I have the magical power to do anything to him at all, I mean talk about magical thinking. I state here 1) I'm objecting to PAD's conduct on one thread, that I read, regarding the term DIAF, 2) I'm objecting to PAD's skanky ass race issues exposed on his blog. Authors behaving badly seems to be a theme of 2009.

If he had anything whatsoever to do with a community closing down, it's but the cherry on top of him finding ways to show his ass.

I'm not the poster he had issues with, which would be apparent if y'know the comm still existed. I'd also be able to link to the thread in question, making my original post more clear - if the comm still existed. But it doesn't. Maybe the suspension will be lifted, however, and I'll be able to clear that up. But who knows.

I am curious, however, if the emphasis of the comments that are pro PAD are all about 'not showing bits of a copyrighted work without the author's permission' at all, vs perhaps people having a looser definition of fair use than the law might apparently be; then I'm guessing that a community where people write up full summaries of what's happened in various books, with notes on the art (for comic books) and prompting discussion about the ridiculousness of plot points or 'surprises' or how gloriously cool a particular a bit of character depiction was, or how the author is obviously on special fairy crack, would such a comm also be counted as a group of people purposely setting out to hurt an author?

Because if I'm to be vilified for whether or not I participated in such a group - I'd like to be vilified for something I actually do - by an author (or their fans) I actually mock.

Of course, when I say I'm curious, it doesn't mean I want to have a conversation with a legion of 'pro fans' who can't imagine that in order to stay sane I regularly imagine a ton of people (particularly white people) roasting in a fire.

Funny isn't it, how easily the term entitlement gets thrown around when it comes to some things, and yet the moment someone brings up white privilege aka white entitlement a whole bunch of white people turn stupid, cock their heads to the side and go 'But privilege? Entitlement? What is that? Huh....?'.

PS: If I've got the magical ability to wish PAD actual ill by the way, with the phrase DIAF, then the political cartoonist at the NY Post, and his depiction of a murdered simian quite obviously was about wishing harm on the POTUS. Or do only white folks get to determine what their words/actions/art actually mean?

PPS: Also, all you anonymous folks that like to tell people to go get ass raped or like to tell female comic fans to go get raped? I suggest you have a moment of pause.

Hmm Smells Like Cripsy Asshole

Ahh, looks like people are going to have to be real persuasive here next time I ask about webcomics, but specifically comics - indie or otherwise, cause me being pointed to things like Rainbow Wars or The Kitty Red Lantern of Rage? Not happening anymore.

Scans_Daily helped me get back into comics and now, well, Peter David got emo brainhurt and now Scans_Daily rests with the fishes.

Is there anyone who writes in mainstream superhero comics who isn't a ginormous, ego stroking asshole?

Dear Peter David,

When I tell you 'Die In A Fire', I do so because I don't want to use sex as an insult or phrase revolving around my disgust and anger with you. Fucking is fun, and it shouldn't be used to tell people to go deflate their heads. Also, rape is serious and also shouldn't be used to go tell people to deflate their heads.


Now I'm going to imagine you happily roasting to bits in a fire (LIKE BACON)- cause really, my personal fantasy tv, isn't something you can censor (though you can complain). Much like I can complain, but can't censor your skanky race and gender issues.

___

Note:Peter David + Reporting To Marvel + Scans Daily Goes Poof. I do not know if he was directly or indirectly responsible (or responsible at all).... I just smell bacon. Oh the power of my imagination. I don't even know what the asshole looks like, but in my mind? Oh the sickly sweet scent of burning flesh.

Hello Neo

This was originally posted in my personal journal, but some recent entries by various people on their blogs nudged my thinking that it should be reposted here. And I know I want at least one person in particular to see it.

Remember the Dove Evolution ad? Go on, youtube the words and you'll find it. Well I remember that it clued me in to the exact details of how models don't look anything like themselves in the final product. I had always had a general sense and then a bit more when it came time for me to do my own dabblings in photoshop, but this made it specific for me.

Then last night came PhotoshopDisasters. The next time I hear my sister mention working herself to the bone to exercise and stay fit and not be fat (she's taken after our mother in a serious way and is very petite but worries because Mom, is well, Mom) I'm going to point her to this site. Because it made me realize that as a whole, we the general public, myself included, no longer know what a real human body looks like. Specifically we don't know what a real female body looks like.

I caught some of the touchups after a few moments. But how often do people really stare at advertisements for several minutes? I tend to flick by them very quickly in magazines etc, unless something in particular has caught my eye. And I soon realized as I flipped through the site that if I wasn't already prepared, if I didn't already know things were screwy, I might have missed so many things. Which means in my head, I've begun to see the most distorted things as representative of the female form EVEN WHILE THINKING I WAS AWARE OF THE BIGGER DISTORTIONS.

It's been a revelation. Too skinny long arms, a little waist creation, body parts missing, everyone's wrinkles and sun lines and laugh lines (wrinkles of any sort) faded out, breasts the size of the model's head(Which came first? This feature in comics? Or comics copying photoreferences ? Who set the standard for this screw up?), plastic faces, something called 'monoass' where the asscrack has disappeared, bobble heads, impossible heights and more.

The link with the touched up faces but the untouched up reflections hit home to me just how much isn't done anymore with good lighting, good makeup and good angles. They don't seem to try and find people's good sides anymore, they instead create them. It blew my mind. A little created waist, change a face shape, remove shadows, remove life. One woman there had what I call in my head the 'hearty, healthy, slightly horsey British woman' look - that was completely morphed into smooth faced Hollywood leading lady, if not starlet. She looked like her own younger and less outdoor inclined younger sister (who happened to be born when their Mom & Dad could afford braces).

The whole thing, especially the stuff it took me a while to notice just started me thinking of when they do the photoshopping well and we, consumers, the audience, don't notice. And all of a sudden the phrase 'impossible standards of beauty' take on a whole new and deeper meaning. I remember growing up and realizing that it took hairstylists and professional make up artists, and someone picking out your clothes and good lighting and choosing the best angle to accent your best features, along with a photographer who knew what he or she was doing in order to look as perfectly laid out as possible. And even knowing all that, even being told that by women in my family, everyone still wanted to hope that they'd have a good day on that special occasion and get the perfect picture from the perfect angle and get to see themselves looking not just well, but radiant.

And even if they never reached their personal goal of dazzling, they still looked wonderful. I've had my moments where I thought I looked beautiful. Those were when I was younger. As I've gotten older, even though I'm comfortable with aging (it's a miracle to me I'm still alive and kicking), I feel beautiful less and less often. And I think that has to do with the fact that I'm not seeing people (particularly women - even more specific the few black women around) with character in their faces, caught in a way where you see their eyes glow and the soft curve of a lip and it all comes together to be attractive. That's more something I find myself doing as I walk along the street now, noting how someone's characteristics make them all of a piece. In the media there's just this soft focused perfection.

It's startling to realize that today they'd photoshop Nichelle Nichols. NICHELLE NICHOLS! Unhura the HOTTNESS herself. A woman who is still kicking ass in the beauty department today, would be fixed. You know how people talk about how Marilyn Monroe would be called a lard ass by today's standards? It goes deeper than that. Forget about mere photo 'retouching', Joan Crawford's nose and chin would get fixed today, virtual plastic surgery. Instead of being a commanding presence, who knows what role she'd get slotted into.

I can remember being disappointed when Isabella Rossilini was removed as the face of LANCOME. I'd grown up with her as such. I couldn't imagine any other spokesperson. And stubborn little me, never bought myself or my mother LANCOME again. Luckily, Mom felt the same way. Isabella Rossilini is a beautiful woman but of course she can't compete with younger models being molded like clay in post. They're even doing it with the men. No one's safe at all from this Barbie Plastic Perception of Perfection.

It occurs to me that my personal inability to see myself as a whole, may have been influenced by a culture that sees and promotes people as an assemblage of parts. If I'm unconsciously spending time trying to assemble the images I see into a whole person - it's no wonder I look at myself and try to assemble things in my head using the same process. And heaven help me because my limbs are never going to look that impossibly long, nor my waist or bust match the other impossible designations. Seriously if only people who have eating disorders are being made aware of just how BAD this crap has gotten - it's a damn shame. Because the rest of us are getting fucked over too.

And I haven't even begun to mention the erasures. One shot in particular, this one, for GAP I believe, caught my attention. The young black model? She was originally in the midst of the group, now she's solo, singular, out in the cold. This one is blatant. Other erasures are subtle in that one's eyes are likely to more easily believe a limb connects to the closest body even if that body already has all relevant parts. Some badly done erasures are freaky. But again, I'm thinking about the ones not on the site. The ones done well where we'll never know if the old man with the flowers had a WoC Wife, or a male partner for that matter. Where we never realize important officials really WERE at certain meetings and photographs were taken - they were just edited out for whatever reasons...

It kind of hit me the whole:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

We create our own reality

Just who is we? And what is it that 'we' is creating?

I don't think these are idle questions. They relate to so much, as much about fashion and self esteem and body image as politics and gender equality and gender and sexuality rights. What else beside real bodies do you and I no longer know how to recognize? If the game of the day is 'We Create Our Own Reality' - then doesn't it add a sinister shade to the original push against Prop 8? And doesn't it make the Yes on 8 folk seem that much smarter? They created a reality for others to vote against, and a reality under attack - even though neither one was the actual reality.

Who is We? And just what reality have they created? Just how different is it from what many of us experience every single day in our lives? Who's been getting airbrushed out? Who's been getting slipped in? Once upon a time wasn't it the accepted practice of a fascist regime, a fascist reality, to create reality? To dictate that things didn't happen the way the public remembered them happening? To decide that someone's name would be crossed out and their picture erased and the public was never to mention it or discuss it again? Isn't that going on now?

And please, don't go 'OBAMA'. This is the machinery he's been left to work with, with little rats burrowing in the corners holding tools, specifically wrenches, to gum up the works.

There's a man in Iowa, currently on trial for having manga the government deems objectionable. Some if it may be lolicon. Some of it may be yaoi. What's known for sure is that out of everything seized in a raid - a raid created because a postal worker decided that the markings on Christopher Hadley's mail were objectionable to his reality - Hadley now faces up to 20 yrs in prison for only a few images.

over 1,200 manga books or publications; and hundreds of DVDs, VHS tapes, laser disks; seven computers, and other documents.

Hundreds upon hundreds of images - but he could face prison time as a private collector for just a few. And his case has to fight not just the unjustness of everything that happened, but the reality being presented that there's no way police and law enforcement officials would arrest someone over comics, so there must have been something icky like child porn or worse.

He could go to jail because someone (not just the prosecutor) is creating an image of a reality, one that threatens the ideal vision of the community he, and Hadley and the jury are part of and he's pointing Hadley out as the threat to that ideal, as the weed to be plucked out to make everything better again. It's all smoke and illusions and bullshit, but a finger's pointing. A scapegoat has been chosen. Why think?

To add a touch more relevance to this because this is my sequential art blog, I've a thought on NuMarvel and Joe-Q and The New Marvel Reality sparked by this entry on PostModernBarney.

The contention arising among comics fans, and the discomfort people are feeling because of Quesada and NuMarvel (and possibly NuDC) is it because they're changing the reality of what Superhero Comics ARE. So on the surface it seems like old timers complaining who should just STFU and women whining, and OMG do black people ever shut up about racism. But it's all more than that. It's more than a partiality to stories of old or heroes of old. It's more than wanting comics to be BETTER. It's perhaps not wanting them to de-evolve. It's being able to remember, to recognize what superhero comics used to be and what they are now; what they're becoming.

Continuity is more than just keeping a record of the stories in some order. It's remembering and recognizing the REALITY of said stories; how the universe works.

But reality is being dictated and we are to accept the status quo, because we've been told that this IS the status quo - don't question it. So Norman Osborn in a group that includes Doom, Namor and Loki, is in charge because it has been commanded that this reality is the status quo. Love is war. Marriage is worth less than a Deal With The Devil. Badass is a man who seduced a teenage girl and impregnated her. Tigra is weak. The Hood is a good A-list villain.

Because they have Weapons of Mass Destruction.

It's not art, it's porn. It's icky porn with ties to no community standards.

Missing limbs and photshopped bizzarro anatomy in fashion and consumer ads is beauty.

Holy crap. Wasn't the Matrix supposed to come with a messiah and cool powers?

While I Was Watching Vixen

Uhm, so I asked people before I made this post. And they told me that Connor Hawke is still supposed to be multiracial. Superboy Prime did not punch the non-white out of him.

And yet....This doesn't look even biracial to me. This doesn't look like the artist had one idea and the colourist had no idea how to blend things. That looks like a tanned surfer dude.

In all honesty I cannot remember which races make up Connor's biracial identity. My memory of seeing him for the first time involved blonde hair which suggests Caucasian (White) and dark skin which suggests, being Black or South Asian. And I'm fairly certain his eyes used to be drawn without a fold. So at the very least, my first impression was he was multiracial with traits from his parents and his grandparents.

But what part of the previous image or this image brings that multiracial identity to mind? Hell in this pic he looks more like Ollie's son than anything else. Which leaves what? A heavily tanned surfer dude who also slings arrows but is into Zen. A Californian, maybe even San Francican. [Writing Edit: Just been told he doesn't do archery anymore - so just a surfer then?]

I'm asking honestly now - When Superboy Prime punched the black off of Vixen, and the pants off Wonder Woman and we were watching in horrified shock, did he knock Connor Hawke into Aryan purity?

It's a question that's got to be asked, don't you think?

DC lost me a while ago. Everytime I check back, however, I find less and less reason to regret walking away. Sort of like Marvel (with Dazzler and my newest love, Shulkie) but that's a rant for another day - or maybe not. I've already stated Marvel doesn't care about people like me. And I bet pretty soon Mr. Terrific will drop from Third to Seventh most intelligent man in DCverse and DC will be more obviously forcing & shoving people like me away.

Yeah, good thing for webcomics and indies and the occasional manga. But I'm still rapidly becoming A GIRL WHO DOESN'T READ SUPERHERO COMICS.

It's sad.

*attempts not to feel beat down, rib kicked and depressed aka Tigra Bendisized*

Wowio Says To Comic Creator "Bend Over Deeper"

Right, so Wowio owes Chris, creator/artist of webcomic Misfile, about 7k dollars. And it's over due 105 days and counting. And they've already paid out 3rd quarter orders.

I was feeling a little - "You don't give people second chances, Willow. Is that always wise?" For a while there. Since I've not gone back to cruise Wowio since...wow, since AUGUST apparently. I've just directed my attentions elsewhere.

Now I'm really glad I haven't been giving them even click per visitor money. But at the same time I'm pissed that they're adding to the fuck-ups on models of digital comics accessed/purchased online. Their failure is going to be another useless bump in the road that bigger studios/corporations will look at to say 'Digital Comics Is A Lost Cause' and that saddens and ticks me off.

I don't have a lot of money right now, but even on a budget - Blue Beetle is something I'd have paid money for if I could get a digital copy. Maybe I'm a new brand of collector. But I don't want things in boxes taking up space, needing dusting that I have to worry about evaluating for insurance for fire or flood. Give me digital comics I can have on my computer, on disk and saved online/off site. Make my comics accessible and durable in an e-reader. I would actually buy a comics e-reader even if it didn't let me read regular prose books as long as all the comics I like, from webcomic favourites to indies could be updated on it.

It's effing lonely on the digital frontier and then an idiot in assless chaps (Wowio) walks in, smelling of stale air and ego and expects me to be grateful.

Marvel Doesn't Care About Gay People

Just Like George W. Bush Doesn't Care About Black People


I have been quiet recently because I'm trying to get control of my blood pressure. It's been doing somewhat scary things and my doctors and I need to figure out if it's additional stress, my body just being in a state of disrepair or if something else is going on chemically.

Right now I'm feeling like it's a serious combination of factors. Because WHAT THE FUCK, MARVEL?!!!!.

Guggenheim said a lot of people who aren't reading Spider-Man or refuse to read Spider-Man are judging it based on misunderstandings. "Part of the problem with the controversy behind One More Day is the understanding of what was retconned overstates the extent of what was done," he said. "Everything that happened in the last twenty plus years of comic book history happened! The only difference is that Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson weren't married. They still dated. They still lived together. They still love each other. They just weren't married. Judging from the letters and death threats we received, I think some people were confused. It all still happened."

"Here's my attitude, if anyone is upset about the marriage going away, then they must all be pro gay marriage," he continued. Because if you're pro gay marriage, you understand the distinction between a marriage and a civil union -- that a civil union is not equal to a marriage. We downgraded Mary Jane and Peter to a civil union. If that bothers you, then you're pro gay marriage."

For the record you know I have this shit screencapped.

I think I now understand why Marvel's Civil War resulted in a fascist Tony Stark, a dead Captain America, a mob brutalized Tigra and Misty Knight getting skin lightening. Marvel's become the FOX NEWS of Comics; pro Republican, Pro American Family Association, pro - White Privilege, anti-gays, anti-blacks and obviously anti-women.

FUCK YOU MARVBL

That whole last paragraph, what the fuck is that? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! I'd almost think they were trying to say something positive about marriage vs civil unions except that 'IF IT BOTHERS YOU, THEN'....

No. No I refuse to attempt to not hate these people. It's not going to happen.

"Hi, we're Marvel. We used A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL to DOWNGRADE A HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE into a MERE CIVIL UNION, Y'KNOW THAT THING THE QUEERS GET."

FUCK.

YOU.

MARVEL.

More outrage via LurkerWithout and Kirk of Box In The Box.

PS: Marvel? You really need to teach your people some PR so to spin your bullshit better, because YOUR ASS IS SHOWING AND YOU NEED TO WIPE!

Watching The Story In Your Head / BYOS

I've recently been engaged in conversation about Watching The Story In Your Head and When You Can't Watch Your Story Anymore. A recent comment by Heavy Armour made me realize that while I'd engaged in wrestling with and discussing television and movies, I hadn't applied any of that careful pinpointing to comics; that is I hadn't broken down why I continue to read some things and why I ran fleeing from others and I haven't put the question to anyone reading me here.

The whole conversation started around the realization for me that I could not deny the accusations of poor story telling, reliance on stereotypes and tropes and possibly cheap methods of getting viewers to connect with the protagonist in Memoirs of a Geisha. I struggled for a while trying to define the difference between "Watching The Story In Your Head" and privilege. Both involve not seeing what's happening to some extent.

What I realized as it was pointed out to me is that "Watching The Story In Your Head", even though it can happen simultaneously to viewing is often a response to things gone wrong and if someone points out the things that went wrong, I will have my alternate version but I won't deny they saw what they saw or that I see it too when they point the finger.

It took a while though, because it seemed so dangerous to be creating an alternate story on the fly - that is until I realized that such a creation/viewing/interpretation in itself was efense mechanism against the wrong. I'd have stopped enjoying what I was viewing if I couldn't change it. In some cases I'd even have walked away in disgust, story unfinished.

The flipside, "When You Can't Watch Your Story Anymore" was revealed as I thought about it and wrote about it, to be almost a two stage process. First there's the story, then there's the story I'm watching, this usually kicks in as things happen on screen/in the plotline that I disagree with, don't like or am offended by. Then there's the point in which I can no longer make a mental shift in order to enjoy what I'm viewing - there's just too much to change. I might as well make a clean break of it and find something fresh and original to wrap my mind around or write something my own damn self.

When I put these thoughts to comics now, it seems clear to me that comic readers do this ALL THE TIME. Readers follow their version of the canon; their version of a character's history; their version of a character's backstory. They make up reasons for certain actions by characters they love. They try to work around varied writers and artists who have different interpretations of said characters than what they themselves particularly love. Comic book readers are SKILLED at following 'their story'.

It makes me wonder if comic book executives don't take advantage of that fact to some extent. They're aware, especially in these days where they were fans themselves. The figure they may lose some, but eventually they'll get them back because something will hook into the story those fans like to see. But that immediately makes me think of Joe Quesada and BND. Hear me out, take a deep breath and hear me out *smile*, I know some of you are tired of this particular topic.

Joey Q has his story, the one he likes the best for Spiderman. And he's gained a position in order to make his story THE TRUE STORY. Except that in doing so, many many fans believe he's forgotten an intrinsict part of comic book reading which essentially is BRING YOUR OWN STORY. The readers who're upset with him? The fans darting his face in bars and basements? He just invalidated their stories in a media that's generally all about BRING YOUR OWN STORY. It's made the arguments "But there's nothing in the stories of BND that needed MJ gone" take on a new meaning for me. MJ could just as easily not be in panel for those who don't like her there, but be a presence that's on tour with a musical, or doing an indie movie shooting on location somewhere and contacting Peter primarily through email and phone. New incarnations of old enemies could still have happened etc...

In the end, Joey Q's personal need to have Aunt May around forever, because she's apprently such an intrinsict part of his Spiderman story, meant that everyone who isn't him (and isn't reliant on him for a paycheck) is now going "But what the fuck??!"

Which is kind of where I am when it comes to Characters of Colour now and the Big Two. It's been one thing to bring my own story when it comes to said characters, it's another to try to do so when the characters no longer look like they belong in my story. And comics being a visual art media, makes it impossible for me move on from that. It's one thing to view a show or a comic or a movie that has no characters of colour in it. That's a different gripe about say, The Devil Wears Prada existing in an NYC with no black people, no non American cab drivers, no Asian folk, no models of color, etc. But all comic artists have to do is draw the already existing characters - the battle for more is on another front.

Women who read comics? They can't bring their own story to the panels if they're forced to include moments for the heroines to pick their thongs out of their asses, or add more doublesided tape to their corset/bathing suits. And if they never get to see the characters being forces to be recconed with, then they can't Bring Their Own Super Hero Fantasy.

I realize I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before. But it is new for me to realize that while I stumbled in understanding this when it came to live-action; it was all unconscious and absorbed and understood when it came to comics. How many times have I heard. "That's not my superheroX" followed by. "So I guess I have to wait for a better writer before I pick it up again.". How many times had I said it? Done it? And all the while I was fully aware of why.

I'm going to end with random (created) examples of such while my brain 'reintegrates'.

- That's not my Supergirl.

- He'd better be writing my Hal Jordon.

- Please, like that's Gotham?

- For the love of Peter, Paul, Mary & Joseph why can't anyone ever write an X-men book without writing a love story/triangle? I want action not a soap opera!!

- I don't know what's so hard about writing Wonder Woman. I've got her story clear in my head.

- Ex Machina, now there's a superhero story.

- Cosmic Marvel. I'm telling you! Lose Yourself In The Space Opera!!!

- If I wrote Civil War...

- If I were writing Final Crisis...

- The only person I'm following is X, his is the only story making any damn sense!

- In my story, Tigra cuts a bitch! WTH? What's wrong with Bendis???!

- TDK movie, finally someone told an actual BATMAN story on film.



PS: It might go without saying, but I'm not going to risk it, that I've realized my favourite stories in sequential art are the ones where the writer and artist are the ones doing all the work. I don't have to bring anything (not even store bought potato salad or humus). All I have to do is read, enjoy and be curious as to what happens next. So it leads me back to Shadowgirls and Claymore and HACK/SLASH etc...

Figuring Out What Universal Means

In the midst of 'rarrrr' over Wowio, I scrambled to check out Shadowgirls and was happily surprised to search and find that it's a web comic.

Shadowgirls reminds me strongly of Hack/Slash (Devil's Due Publishing). I want to talk about that resemblance and the fact that I like these stories / these comics, with their strong, white, female protagonists.

There are times, like I mentioned in Flipsides last night, where it doesn't take much at all to imagine most of the main cast of a given comic or book as being PoC. But there are other times when who the character is and what their experiences are and how they've been formed and how they react to any given stimuli is very informed by what they look like, what their skin colour is, what their life experience is - as white; Hack/Slash and Shadowgirls are such two comics for me.

I've spoken of Cassie before; daughter of a school lunch lady who then becomes a serial killer and then an immortal horror film serial killer. Being so close to being able to conform but internally - mentally and emotionally - being so far away from 'normal' is part of what makes Cassie dynamic to me. Her mother's status as being border-line and having things push her over the edge is another part. And on top of all of that - being percieved as 'poor white trash' - I've found the themes universal. Shadowgirls really made me think about why I think of such themes as universal while at the same time acknowledging the fact I don't think the storylines could work with PoC.

Be warned, I have no idea if I'm going to be able to explain myself properly.

Shadowgirls involves a woman, Charon, who goes missing / is deemed a runaway when she's in 10th grade (that's around 14/15 in the US I think). She's found again some months later, but she's pregnant and apparently suffering through a psychotic episode. Years later the plot kicks it up when her daughter, Beka, is now a teenager.

The plot's set in a small town, Innsmouth. Small town politics and social mores are all over everything. How a small town reacts when a teenager shows up pregnant; how they teach their children to respond to the 'bastard child'; how they treat the unwed mother; how they think about themselves. The undercurrents that bind a small town together from family power plays to highschool dynamics that never mature - it's all there. And I found myself nodding with comprehension as I read.

Now maybe it's a case that PoC in the US (and elsewhere) have to understand white life and white dynamics because it's everywhere and we have to learn to navigate it (from whence comes the code switching). So maybe what I think I'm seeing as universal, isn't and is really only universal in so far that if you're white or have been deemed white in the last fifty years, it's something you could relate to.

Yet I don't think that's it - I hope that's not it. The suffocation of a small town seems similar to the possible suffocation in a small village or any other small self supporting population area. The weight of traditions and social maneuverings seems universal to me. I mean, a girl goes missing and the only one who cares what happens to her when she comes back is her grandmother. To everyone else she's a slut who got what's coming to her...

[ Remind me at some other point in time to discuss/'think out loud' the conflict in the anti-choice argument where a child is both precious and to be protected while simultaneously being a punishment to women and an anchor meant to hold her down. It might explain why they tend not to give a damn about the child once it's born. Because when s/he can breathe on their own, they're now the albatross to be hung around the neck of the mother; who shouldn't get any help because THIS IS WHAT SHE DESERVES!]

Where was I? Oh yeah. Small town shunning. Charon and Becka have managed to carve out an existence for themselves, or rather Charon has carved out an existence for her daughter - even while she seems to teeter on a self destructive edge. And mothers putting one foot in front of the other purely for their children; mothers who refuse to have their mistakes or perceived mistakes reflect on their children? I can understand that. I think that's universal. The fact that there are supernatural influences in everything that's happened so far, with a touch of small town conspiracy (public and possibly also private) only adds to that.

Hack/Slash has Cassie's origins as similar. A small town. The school lunch lady. A disappearing father. A picked on daughter. And then things get weird and bloody.

I suppose Cassie and Charon are similar to me in that Cassie is trying not to let who her mother was define her, even as it so obviously does - but at least she's dealing with it in an active manner. Whereas Charon doesn't care anymore if the town tries to define her but she refuses to let them define her daughter because of who her mother is and what they think she's done and what they think that says about her (Charon) and thus consequently Becka.

But I haven't gotten into the whole 'But why did you bring up race in the first place, Willow?'.

I also read Scar Tissue last night. And it was meh - ok, I guess. Maybe a 4 on a scale of 1-10. Not horrible, but it had enough things that distracted me that it didn't get a higher score. And what distracted me? The fact that there was nothing in the story as it was laid out, that meant the characters had to be white.

If Cassie or Charon were WoC, the undercurrent (in a well done comic at least) of racism and how that played into how people treated them; how that gave people the mental impression that they had some sort of right to treat them as inferior or only worthy of mockery and bullying; that would change the story and change the tone. Cassie and Charon would already be set up as OTHER and any supernatural entanglement in their lives would only make them even more OTHER. And people would still feel they had the right to have treated them the way they did because see - there's the proof of the other.

Scar Tissue on the other hand is a story about a sickly boy who gets a needed heart transplant. But his organ donor is a bad guy; a super powered bad guy. And the powers begin to seep into his body and possibly take over his life.

All the while reading it, I was very aware of the fact that the group of brothers, could have been Black or Chinese or Japanese or Latino. They could have been African immigrants or from the Caribbean or from South East Asia. They could have been second generation or third of East Indian parentage. They could have been NDN/First Nations. Changing the race of the characters wouldn't change the story at all. There would still be a protective older brother, a bit of a wastrel, if well meaning middle brother and the younger brother they're determined to protect. And then there's a girlfriend involved in the storyline and she could have been any number of backgrounds as well and it also wouldn't have changed a thing to the storyline. She'd still want to protect this family of brothers because they're part of her chosen family.

The only reason they're white, is because white is so often the default.

Now I'm well aware that Cassie and Charon (and Becka) are more than likely white because it's considered the default as well. It's possible in Shadowgirls that despite a moment where one individual is picked on because she's half Japanese (I believe) the concept of Charon and Becka as anything but white didn't cross their minds. But there is the fact that changing the race of those characters would change the path of the story.

Now I feel like I'm repeating myself and not saying anything.

But I guess I did make part of my point last night. The fact that it's so easy for me to see the characters in Scar Tissue as characters who could have been PoC says something about how I view the world. And the fact that white is the default for so many creators says something about their world view. Because I don't want to pick on the creators of Scar Tissue. I'm not calling them racist. I'm not even calling them blind. They had a vision and in their vision - everyone looked just like them; except for the token WoC in the superhero team that shows up near the end - y'know, for the traditional diversity.

But there is something going on when a creator's story could be universal - three brothers trying to look out for one another - and they're white, the people they interact with are white, the doctors are white, the people in the street are white, the police and FBI are white.....

Maybe it's not that these stories aren't universal the way Shadowgirls and Hack/Slash are. Maybe it's that the universal themes are muddied by privilege. Maybe the two comics that move me so much, move me because I can't imagine the heroines as being anything else but what they are. And since I can't, I can pay attention to the universal themes. Whereas most of the time I read a comic and I'm just very, painfully aware of a void.

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.

The Romans brought devastation, but they called it peace

Following links surrounding the "BUT YOU CAN'T PUBLISH MY RACIST REJECTION LETTER!", I came across a beautiful gem from Betty Candy on The Hathor Legacy.

The essay is entitled; Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test. Wikipedia 'Bechdel Test' with 'Dykes to Watch Out For' if you need a definition. This essay is simply beautiful, simply brilliant but not for the obvious reason. You see this essay exemplifies to me the mentality of dominant comic book industry powers. And it's summed up beautifully in this part of the final paragraph.

There was no way Hollywood really believed what it was saying about boys who’d grown up with Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor as action heroes, and so there was no way to change the system from within. I concluded Hollywood was was dominated by perpetual pre-adolescent boys making the movies they wanted to see, and using the “target audience” - a construct based on partial truths and twisted math - to perpetuate their own desires. Having never grown up, they still saw women the way Peter Pan saw Wendy: a fascinating Other to be captured, treasured and stuffed into a gilded cage. Where we didn’t talk. To each other. About anything other than men.

Why does Dust's niqāb and modest dress, incorrectly referred to in panels as a burqa, have to tug at her body to show the round fullness of her breasts against the black cloth, or pull against the curve of her ass or drape tightly near her waist?

Because Dust is an exotic female other.

Why do female superheroines wear bathing suits without even a modest skirt flap, or not wear pants, or like Misty Knight are portrayed as bra-less with ample bosoms drawn bouncing (despite her level of physical activity, her having been a former cop, or the pull against the flesh her bionic arm would have on her pectoral muscles)?

Because they might be heroes but they're secondary and they should be a bit of decoration and titillation while the real heroes, the white male heroes are getting things done.

Inconvenient and useless peepholes to the navel or chest? Fighting THONGS despite the factual reality of gravity and ride ups? Apparently male heroes think ahead enough to wear a cup to protect themselves in battle. But Wonder Woman, among others, has to stop mid-fight to pick her thong out of her genital cracks or misplace a kicking blow because something just pulled very uncomfortably around her nether lips.

More distasteful and painful for me, within this beautifully rounded theory is the realization that when these men were growing up, there WERE NO minority characters in prominence. So their continued fantasies don't include PoC, or homosexuals, transexuals or the disabled and certainly not anyone over a certain age. These are the fantasies of youth!

Batman Beyond was more ground breaking than I realized when I was watching it on Saturday mornings. Bruce was old but still extremely vital. As was Barbara Gordon! Max was black and female and a genius! Even if she was underused. Dana was Japanese. And even if I couldn't stand her - interracial relationship right there! And Epilogue shows she stayed with Terry to the end (quite possibly life became easier once he told/or she learned of the truth).

So it's not all of this old guard filled with perpetual Peter Pans. But it is enough. Enough that Vixen can't be dark skinned because dark skinned women were never in the youthful sexual fantasies of those now in power. And there's no need for them to pay attention to the message they're sending of "All black men look alike", when they make all the black male heroes bald and only discernible via their costume/colours. Because only politics is forcing them to include black male characters into their power fantasies as other than comic relief and lackeys. So black heroes get stuck in the background as scenery so they don't intrude into the fantasy any more than is absolutely necessary.

Gays? Nonexistent. They never fantasied about queers.

The disabled? Matt Murdock can see via other senses and Barbara Gordon used to be a librarian so she's used to sitting on her ass all day. Do note too that Barbara in a wheel chair didn't come alive as a three dimensional character until Gail Simone ¹ because her childhood fantasies sure as hell included a whip-smart woman and a whip smart woman wouldn't let her still functioning brain go to waste.

Transexuals? Please. They're only good for odd bodyswitching arcs for a good laugh. Cause 'eeewh'.

Polynesians? uhmmm What?

East Asians? Hey, we have kungfu masters! Ok, kung fu master who teach white guys! But they're there doing their job, giving the Western world a mystical edge!

South Asians? ...? What's a South Asian?

Middle Easterners? Aren't they always the enemy? We've got plenty of bad sheiks.

North Africans? Say what? Huh, Egypt's in Africa?? Well I guess we have a couple mystical Egyptian powers somewhere, granted to white folk. But that's all mummy's and crap. Oh, Morocco is in North Africa? They have all those women in the mysterious sexy clothing. Total scene background.

South Africans? This isn't a political comic.

Over at K-Box in the Box, Kirk's been keeping track of the sales of Brand New Day. They're not good. And there's talk pooled in corners of the blogsphere about the division growing in Spidey fans because one man got the chance to re-create from scratch his adolescent fantasy about his hero.

In a follow up essay, Betty Candy goes on in another brilliant piece of layered out thinking to discuss the perpetuation of biases and promotion of pro Anglo Westernism and how laziness and stubbornness prevents industry from mining profit from disenfranchised groups.

Laziness and stubbornness .... put them in a pot, stir them around what do you get? Fear of change.

I had someone anonymously comment to one of my recent posts that 'being PC is thought control and changes language by cutting out and forgetting words and phrases'. I'm summarizing, mind you because they sure as hell aren't getting a direct c/p for such tripe. Tripe, because languages change! English wouldn't exist if German and Latin hadn't changed, if Greek hadn't changed. Dutch wouldn't exist if German hadn't changed. The languages that don't change, DIE. Languages also die, because the people who speak it were ignored or killed. A living language often means a living people, non-stagnant, a growing, evolving civilization.

The language of film is stagnant at the core, around the edges, in independents and minority supported festivals it's changed and so lives and grows.

The language of comics is also stagnant at the core. Around its edges are small supported projects, trickles, where there's growth and diverging pathways, where new words are discovered and shared and with it new ways of seeing the world.

I can't help thinking about the fact that Rome fell. It didn't fall in a day. But fall it did and now we have what's left after the ravages of the Dark Ages took their due. There are monuments and clues and hints as to this great civilization and the amazing thought they had at the time. But then they stagnated; they dismissed and tried to ignore others, the need to change, the fact that some words, some concepts would need to be put aside in order for new growth,like a plant that needs pruning, Change was smothered; and while it struggled for breath, it was maybe even laughed at.

The world is changing. The audiences are changing and becoming more global. Film should change. Publishing should change. Comics, should change. They should expand and incorporate. They should be more than the old glory dreams of a priviledged few, who fiddle while it all burns around them.

_____

1. I am corrected by LurkerWithout, who's been corrected by Elayne   Re: Simone & Ostrander / ie Kim Yale (Ostrander).

I <3 my readership! I<3 that I have readership.

Untitled (cause it would be cuss words)

Dear World,

WHAT IN HELL'S FIVE BLEEDING BUTT HOLES IS THIS SHITE?

This shite right here

Dazzler is the only, only, reason I give even a little damn for Marvel. Everything that I want to read about Misty Knight has already been published. Dazzler is the only Marvel news I will tolerate.

But what in Beezlebub's non virgin arse is that shite? The 80's poofy hair. The unnecessary I'm in the Matrix and need to be connected to the machines via my fricking navel peep hole in the fucking costume??

I've heard flickerings that Marvel's been taking two heaping steps backwards for every mincing toe nudge forwards. But WHAT THE FUCK?

Why a new look? WHY?

Why a new costume that's more ridiculous than the original?

But Willow, you might be saying in your head right now, mentally constructing a reply. Consider the source, you might be thinking.

To which I pre-emptively reply: "Do I look rational to you, bub?" I gave up on Misty. I gave up on Monica. I gave up on consistency with Scott 'gotta love him' Summers. I gave up on the X-Men making ANY Deity Dammned Sense At ALL. And now there's this shite?

THIS SHITE?

Oh yeah, and as if to rub my nose in it and spank my ass like I was some collared and naughty puppy-girl. Here. Is. Storm.

Yes, Storm, Ororo Monroe, Queen of Wakanda, Goddess of Weather has a fricking peek-a-boo navel bearing hole in this updated exoskeleton regurgitation of a costume. I suppose she's lucky though; They gave the easy access porno crotch flap to the white chick.

The one reason I wasn't printing off pictures of the Marvel Execs and buying a dart board - (as satisfying as going postal but without the jail time) - is now gone, just gone just like that.

Shit. Of all the fuckwit titles to bring her back for too. Shit.

Well there goes any reason I have at all for paying attention to Marvel even a little bit.

Shit.

WTF happened to Allison and Excalibur?

Shit. Fuck. Damn. Asssucker. Pirate ball licker. Hairy, inarticulate, mindless capitalistic, automatons of brutal rectal thrusting.

Tokyo Pop Says - Blow Me. Who'll Sign Up?

I seriously, SERIOUSLY, hope that minority creators are too well versed in the history of cultural appropriation, theft, sacred space violations, actual rape, land stealing, slavery, indentured servitude and more - than to sign a contract that cheerfully states they'll be giving up their rights to their creative product.

Why signing a Tokyo Pop Manga Pilot Pact (and/or other of their contracts) IS FOR SUCKERS!

Why a folksy contract is like a folksy President, Prime Minsiiter or Premier and IS FOR SUCKERS!

I'm shouting about minority creators but if anyone, white, black, brown, gold, red, bronze, green, purple signs up for this in a flurried rush of "But I'll MAKE IT BIG AND RENEGOTIATE" I will feel incredible sad for you. Sad and helpless, because you'll have created this mess yourself.

The US dealt with a writer's strike in Hollywood over late last year and early this year. What was it about? RIGHTS! Rights and rights to proper compensation.

Why do unions go on strike? Rights! {yeah yeah, there are those idiots who mess it up for everyone - but I'm talking in general here}

This should get talked about. There are too many young people who tremble and get stupid at the thought of making a career out of something they love to do. HELL, I get all a trembling and dreamy eyes at the thought of bylines and book credits. I'm also cynical and believe in the concept of healthy selfishness.

Many people point out that this 'Pact' smells like a clone from the recording industry - y'know those people who sue their customers. I know nothing about how it works in present day or what the twists are for rap vs R&B vs NeoSoul (and yes rap gets a small r. Sometimes it's all cause I say so). I do know that I've read enough books and articles and have enough friends who were thoroughly and disgustingly all things boyband to know that crap and shit contracts have happened and do happen in pop and rock. I know N*SYNC (is the star fucking right?) was one.

All I have left to say right now is:

MOTOWN.

JERRY SIEGEL & JOE SHUSTER

BILL (bless him) FINGER

Heard of them?

Heard of Prince? Ever wonder why he changed his name? (The Artist Formerly Known As)

Haven't? Then Wikipedia is your friend.

Go forth, learn, educate. Don't be a sucker.

Goodbye Cruel - Nah, Just Taking A Break

I started this post two days ago, before real offline life interrupted. I was typing out a post to request that people no longer deliberately send me images of Marvel and DC cocking up horrendously on issues of race - if I stumble over it, that's on me. But I don't need my pressure skyrocketing up like someone's trying to win a Carnival prize, no matter what their original intent was in showing me the image.

I never finished the post.

I was suddenly hit with this mental whirlpool.

There I was, comparing mainstream comics to the mainstream public feminisphere and there was this correlation of becoming what you hate the moment you have even a little bit of power - and my brain just spasmed.

The word cockslapped came to mind. As in, have I been raising my voice and fist for the dubious honor of being cockslapped? Considering how gross I find penises, the mental image was quite disruptive.

From the original non-published post:

Mainstream comics and mainstream (or at least prominent) feminism (oh so white) have a serious amount in common. Comics won't listen to the women won't listen to the minorities.

On and on the message goes "This is not for you. This is for everyone (male/the sisterhood). Why are you making so much noise? Can't you see what we're doing? Why don't you just have your own?

"Put aside your blackness for this cause, put aside your womanness for that step up. Are you more interested in having JL covers with frequent women on the cover? Or frequent minorities. Pick a side. We hold the power and we'll dribble and dole it out."

The honor of being cockslapped...

When mainstream comics decides to promote a character of colour; but said character is bleached, or made more 'palatable' with more and more white features; lighter skin, different nose, straighter hair. (Don't get me started about Misty and the blue eyes)...

When comics decide to promote a female character but she's busting out of her top, or waving her shiny latex ass to the viewer (Catwoman covers)...

When a prominient self-named feminist notices a problem that affects WoC and PoC and thinks the gratitude for her bringing it forward to attention should negate her lack of pointing out the work that came before - by women of colour...

The link on my blog under the graphic title: PoC MEANIE, leads to a comment thread on livejournal where appeasing white folk, or 'You always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.'is described as:

Also known as "Listen n*****, watch your manners now boy. You be nice to me, and I won't put you in your darkie place like you should be. Why do you presume to attack me. If I want to call your worthless sp** or P*** ass a sp** or p*** I can. It's been used before and it'll be used again. If you want me to change, get down on your knees and suck my big white cock and make me feel good about adjusting my attitude. After all, everyone agrees with me and you're the minority after all.

Yes, that's it... more tongue... now SUCK MY BALLS BITCH, that's putting honey on it. That's sucking away the liberal guilt... now stay still while I come down your throat..

Yes... yes...

There, last drops in your eyes.

Now kiss it and zip me up."

Cocksucking, cocksucker, a term that's flung around as an insult that's used to describe an action with a focus on it being done only by women, or gay men.

Though at the time I was thinking of it more as oral rape. "Please me via the orifice you use to nurture yourself. My cock is out, your mouth should be on it. Pleasure me and receive whatever I give out, be my receptical and then maybe, MAYBE, I'll listen to you"

And please, no one come into my journal to discuss cooercion and rape and what is rape and what isn't. You won't get published for one thing. And I will do something horrible to you, for another.

The sum of it all is power-tripping. Power is a heady thing, especially when you've never had it, and you've been scratching and climbing to get it. The people in charge of mainstream comics right now? They used to be powerless fans, reading week to week and wishing they had the power to change things. Now they do. And they have.

Goodbye MaryJane.

Goodbye Crisis, hello Crisis. And Crisis. And...Crisis.

The femiblogsphere exists and now there are women, white women, who are getting heard and noticed etc, etc, etc,. Who are getting book deals - which I bring up because Marcotte did say that people were only criticizing her because they were jealous and wanted to ruin her career. She got a sniff of power and it was 'SCREW Y'ALL DARK BITCHES'. Though truthfully, given her attitude, she'd probably had that mentality for a very long time before.

In the two days since I started writing the original and likely now forever unpublished post, there have been several incidents like in this ongoing conversation, where I just ended up shaking my head.

If the sex of those self labeled feminists was changed to male and we put them on Newsarama...

Y'know it's ok to love an ideal. I love America the ideal. But at the same time I am not burying my head in the sand, ass up, ignoring the things America, the country, government, citizenry is doing and have done in the past that go against the ideal of what this country could be.

But apparently when it comes to feminism, when it comes to comics, specifically the big two superhero universe comics, that's exactly what their proponents are doing. To point out what is wrong, is to attack, is to not really care about it in the first place, is to have no love for it at all. To point out what is wrong and to get fed up with explaining over and over again and with spoon feeding over and over again is to be an irrational and angry NOT TRUE FAN.

And damn, if using that term doesn't make me think of Laurell K Hamilton Troobies who will defend to the end an adventure series turned plotless and extremely bad written porno. Now I realized that that the Troobies identify with the books so much and that the books may have helped them explore areas wherein they felt shy and lost and had no where to start looking, that criticism of the books feels like an attack on them personally. But I don't believe every comics fan is some basement dwelling mouth breather who has no self identity other than through comics. And it's a ridiculous image to have about white women (and others) and feminism - no matter what their actions say.

It's just plain. Power. Tripping.

And I'm fed up with it.

My calling out the big two specifically has always been about equality. I want to see everyone get a power fantasy, hopefully at least three. I want said power fantasies to have flush support casts and interesting backgrounds. I want those universes to reflect the diversity of the world. I want equality.

And I'm calling out comics because popular culture reaches a large group of people. Popular culture can TEACH and expand minds. It's why I think movies and tv should be held accountable for misrepresenting cultures and peoples. Without preaching, popular culture can show you a different world, tilt your mind about a concept.

Popular culture IS the real world. It's the slang you speak, the clothes you wear, the products you buy, the concepts you integrate into your sense of self and your place in and around the world!

But don't talk to me about the big two unless it has something to do with DAZZLER. I'm going to take a break and explore other universes, other characters. It hurts, because these two universes were what I cut my teeth on, what I learned to read on, how I associated the concept of a punch with Batman sending a villain back three steps to smack up against a brick wall.

It hurts.

But there are other universes, other characters I could be pointing out. There are other modern myths I can embrace. So I'm going to do that for a while. It's time to regroup and praise while I figure out what my next step forward will be. Because seeing comics and the feminisphere as equal in their power tripping and ignoring is a big deal for me. I mean feminisarchy is a damn stupid made up word and doesn't even say what I want it to mean. WWS says that (White Woman Syndrome). Seeing a ladder and comics and the feminisphere as one tugging on the leg of the other to be noticed while mashing the hands and heads of anyone trying to climb up alongside is just...

Mind. Blown.

It's like this XKCD Comic except there should be a third panel where the girl stick figure tells a darker male or female stick figure "Wow, PoC suck at Math."

Becoming. What. You. Say. You. Hate.

Note: To anyone who'd been paying attention I'm going to switch FACES OF COLOUR, from the PoC Carnival Blog, to here.

Extra Note: I'll be moderating comments as usual but I don't know if I'll be replying.

In which I rant about Bendis

So apparently Brian effing Michael Bendis is the seedpod and Frank Miller is the grown ass oak.

I'm reading Powers and I have no idea wtf to say other than Bendis has issues. Serious, serious, issues. Reading futher may spoil you and I never learned how to do Blogger's complicated as shite cut. [ the odd ways in which you miss livejournal / or lj clones ]

Anyway...

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Did Bendis have any idea what he was playing into by making the Superheroes as Celebrity Team, Black folk who'd been experimented on by the government and who were considered expendable? Does he know what he did there? Is it supposed to be a commentary on everything from the Tuskegee Airmen to the sterilization of Latinas in the 50's? And more?

And then the Black folk get NO justice? We're supposed to be upset about the white police officer losing his job and getting his life messed up etc, and think he's all noble and shit. But when all is said and done, he gets his job back, and the Black folk are still dead, dead, dead.

Then the little brunette child gets powers that make her BLONDE?? WTF? She grows up blonde?  In order to be this epic legendary hero - there's blondness?

And speaking of legendary heroes What the Unholy FUCK was up with the apes? I flipped through that getting more and more pissed off. I mean, Proto-man discovers his great powers and destiny because he's fighting for some TAIL??? It's all about the fucking poontang who then dies? Talk about a fucking refrigerator.

I had to flip through the rest of that backstory shite where an evolved from an ape Whiteman (and yet it's funny how they don't get called porchmonkeys) goes somewhere in Asia to learn mystifcal fucking secrets cause y'know,that's what Asians are for; throw up the yellow poontang and teach you fu.  Though there's a convinient white girl there.

And Deena. I liked the whole 'touched by powers, will eventually get powers' angle. Except the guy she kills, it turns out NOT to be the jackhole who kidnapped her (yet another African Descended Villian btw) but some loser, stalker boyfriend who can't let her go and thus tries to kill her ass???!

Her big ass secret comes about because a moron stabs her in the back. A MORON. STABS HIS EX GIRLFRIEND, the COP, in the effing back.

I am not even getting into the fact that she doesn't arrest his ass the first time and write him up and have it on record. Because I will just spew cuss words for several paragraphs about that piece of shitty writing.

But now our heroine/protagonist has crossed a line, because a loser, fucking, coward stabs her in the back. And I think he called her a cunt while he did it.

Yeah, I think I should really believe that Bendis doesn't know wtf went wrong with Tigra, when this is the kind of shit he does on his fucking own.