#mainstream comics

[dragonmadeofcookies]

The problem I have with mainstream comics is that I don’t like the comics themselves but I love the characters. It’s just so hard to get into them when styles change, plots get retconned, awful writing, cancelations, not to mention I have an overpowering need to start at the beginning and that’s a problem when characters like Batman have been a thing since the 1940′s

[comicsandqueers-blog]

"But, reader; I worry. These characters are currently enjoying a moment in the spotlight, but what if it’s only a passing beat? What if these characters — and their lesbian and bisexual cohort — only exist as a temporary corrective to the medium’s, the genre’s and the publisher’s past shortcomings? What if the desire to make that correction passes, and the gay characters fade away? What if it’s just a phase?" Would be interested in hearing opinions on this from Marvel fans now that a few years have passed. Still anything of concern, or are queer characters (or at least gay/lesbian/bi characters - because let's be real, there's still an overwhelming shortage of representation beyond that) accepted enough in mainstream media/culture that we can feel like they're here to stay?

[gh0sthoodie]

I want to try to begin to articulate something that concerns me a bit with Marvel comics (and those few DC comics which I’ve actually read). These thoughts have probably already been explored in more depth and with more sophistication than this.

One big issue I have with a lot of comics -including some of my favorite series’ -is the ways in which they play into -either blatantly or passively -the idea of a sort of American exceptionalism: American (and Americanized) heroes, often working completely outside the law, decide the fates of cities and countries and worlds because they are the only ones Strong Enough or Smart Enough to do so. The text rarely gives their nationality as the SOURCE of their power (with some obvious exceptions) but the subtext is clear: the center of the superhero world is America. The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, Spiderman, the Justice League, the Bat Family, etc are all based in the United States and made up almost entirely of American heroes, and the best-known African, Asian and European heroes all operate, full or part-time, within American organizations. 

The idea that these heroes should or could be subject to any kind of regulation by Normal People is dismissed as fascist (Civil War) or racist (the registration storyline in the X-Men movies), and while I can understand and appreciate things like the Holocaust and Civil Rights metaphors upon which the X-Men series was founded, anti-regulation storylines mostly serve to reinforce the idea that the powerful should not have their power(s) questioned so long as they are The Right Kind of People (ie Americans or Americanized others working in service of a distinctly American brand of freedom and democracy). They are trusted to use their powers for good in exactly the way that most American liberals do NOT trust gun owners to always use their weapons for good (obviously this metaphor is complicated by the fact that superpowers are rarely the heroes “choice” and cannot be “put away”). And they don’t just use them for issues that affect their country or community.

American heroes go into space to represent Earth to entire worlds and galactic organizations. American heroes lend their power to militaristic organizations like SWORD and SHIELD, and as such end up complicit with a glamorized, superpowered version of our real-life military-industrial complex. American heroes fight destructive battles across the globe, often with devastating consequences for populations in other countries.

And I love Marvel comics. And not all comics do this. There are “international” characters whose storylines play with and occasionally subvert American Hero Hegemony (or whatever we’re gonna call it). There are writers who present their characters as the opposite of exceptional, as unpowered people navigating an unexpected place of power (ex: a position within the Avengers) in a superpowered world, or a complete lack of power (ex: as runaway teens) in a dangerous and untrustworthy world. It’s just that enough comics do follow the Exceptional Americans model that it has become a clear blueprint for the genre.

I don’t think that simply diversifying our heroes is the answer (though it can be a very strong first step). I think that superhero narratives themselves need to be diversified, in a way that presents an option other than Organized American Vigilantism(TM) or Gritty Loner American Vigilantism(TM). I wonder if it’s possible, given the corporate nature of the Big Two.

This is just sort of a collection of thoughts at a nascent stage. If anyone would like to (politely) engage with this I’d be grateful to hear other opinions. I am going to tag a handful of comics creators that I really respect and see if perhaps one of them might want to add something to this argument (whether it be agreement or disagreement). Obviously I understand that busy people with real jobs probs won’t have time for half-thought-out ramblings, and I’m sorry if this is an unwelcome interruption to anyone’s Tumblring.

kellysue mattfractionblog kierongillen mingdoyle interpunkt @missveryvery

[gogearfree]

Interesting comics this week.

Slowly making it through some of the titles I picked up and saw stuff that might be interesting.  In the premier of Justice League United(#0) they got the nu52 Lobo showing up participating in some manner of abduction scheme. It sounds like there might be a fight next issue, but so far it looks like it might have potential.

Second bit is the anniversary issue of Guardians of the Galaxy(#14). Setting up the plot for some missing heroes with a new member having getting added to the team. I dug the canceled Venom series with Flash Thompson taking on the parasite. Hopefully they'll get a couple of good uses out of him.  Some good b-sides to the issue with a little bit of back story to Groot and a great callback for the hardcore Guardians fans.

Also checked out the interesting slow burn Magneto solo(#2) with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(#33) and Forever Evil(#6) left to read in the next day or so.

[cerulean-spork-blog]

i feel so sorry for everyone NOT in pacific rim fandom

like i said, i hardly ever leave it any more, the Tumblr part at least (sorry ao3 is still scary, not just bc they dont laugh at my jokes either lol, i just dont get wanting to turn PR grimdark now w extra grim & dark wtf asdfjl; flail:: )

but i do poke my head out sometimes

-- the WW movie battle is still raging fierce & hot

-- costume redesign clashes are everywhere

-- guys freakin out over the very IDEA that we cld be lookin at their bods or wld want to, plus

-- depowering female charas & linking it to their sexuality

-- depowering characters of color to further the white guys narratives (we need a shorter for "furthering someone elses narrative rly)

-- rewriting characters w mobility issues to make them "normal" again like they did w Oracle

-- paying lip service to the concept that smarts are sexy too but only showing only muscly perfectly fit charas as heroes

-- not drawing / knowing how to draw women w muscles

-- redrawing plus size characters to be skinny the way they did to Amanda Waller

-- rewriting / drawing older charas to be young like they did w Spiderman & a bunch of ppl in the DCU

-- making sure everyone knows every important chara is straight w v few exceptns

-- making all the good charas DARK and /or the stories NOW W SUPER EXTRA GRIMDARK FOR YR 90s VIEWER NOSTALGIA TRIP

-- fake geek girl & make me a sammich & worse abuse

meanwhile over here in the Shatterdome- ok we may all get crunched by skyscraper sized extradimensional Borg dinos trying to conquer the world

or accidently in the course of the fighting in a "friendly smash" incident

or accidently bc you know, heavy machinery & engines & lots of stuff going on & poisonous materials & trucks & stuff make fwd airbases not real safe places compared to the suburbs

( but you can still get hit by a truck in the suburbs, or a tree down, so there you go )

-- but we have comfy wardrobes w sensible boots over here!

-- we have Mako Mori , unpowered warrior princess from a plebeian bkgrnd w a small bust & "boyish" figure

-- we have Lt Kaidanovsky , unpowered warrior queen from a plebeian bkgrnd w a large bust & curvy figure

-- they both have sexual desires & identities AND THIS IS NOT JUST "OKAY",  it is HEARTILY ENDORSED by the film

-- we have a HUGE VARIETY of good lookin guys who are all QUITE AWARE of their appeal & happy to strut their stuff

-- and its not all bishie young dudes, TEAM HOT DADS is an actual thing

-- we have CoCs everywhere, in every level of command & branch of service & NONE OF THEM ARE STEREOTYPES / CARICATURES

-- for this reason we have no ninjas. or geishas. or sexy geisha ninjas

-- we have heroes w mobility issues AND NOBODY CONDESCENDS TO THEM nobody at all

-- we have heroes w psychological issues AND THEY ARE STILL BIG DAMN HEROES

-- we have "power walks" like nobodys business

-- our female heroes get to swagger right next to the male ones

-- nobody will make you strip in public

-- but if you take off yr shirt & shoes no one will judge you either TOO BUSY SAVING THE WORLD FOR THAT JUDGING SHIT

-- here in the PPDC nobody gives 1 fuck abt dieting or what yr personal style is, braid yr hair up, put it in a bun, cut it short, cut it all off, tie it in a scarf, stick it under a hat, bleach it, dye it, wear it natural, wear makeup, dont wear makeup, have visible ink, tweak yr uniform to represent, dont wear a uniform but still represent, be tall / short/ thin / tubby / flat chested / big breasted, wear baggy clothes, wear tight clothes, fancy yr clothes up w safety pins & diy paint jobs  bc all that matters is CAN YOU DO YR JOB WELL w o GETTING IN YR COWORKERS SPACE too much, Y / N ?

-- nobody will skeeze on you at work in the office or the flight deck or the hangar or the gym, its not that kind of atmosphere, WE ARE ALL TOO BUSY SAVING THE WORLD FOR THAT SHIT this is not Transformers / Trek / Tron whatevs

-- its okay to have a thing for / with your coworker tho if you dont let it get in the way of the job TOO BUSY SAVING THE WORLD FOR BS POLICIES

-- sadly since this is a wide release Hollywood movie there are no onscreen GLBT couples but there are charas who leave it EXTREMELY open to interpretation wo any of the MY GIRLFRIEND IN CANADA PROVES IM TOTES STRAIGHT bs, at least as much as Xena ever did

-- did you really, really like it when Aeryn Sun abslutely owned John Creighton, body first then soul ? YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YR MISSING ON OUR SIDE LOL

-- are you tired of watching angsty white guys get away w everything short of murder (sometimes even that ) just bc they sulk nicely, or bc theyre really really rich ? yeaaaaah lol NO just NO (& everyones poor here but we get by w a little help from our friends )

-- are you even more tired of everybody being jerks all the time , even the good guys, when theyre not being alpha assholes or worst of all, DESIGNATED HEROES WHO ARE JUST PROTAGONISTS YOU CAN ONLY TELL FROM THE BAD GUYS COS THEY STUCK A LABEL ON EM? ? ? so are we, you wont find any of that here, even our worst /most dubious cases are better than mainstream "best"

-- our fighters dont act like saving ppl gives them the right to do whatever they want to anybody else

-- our heroes go out of their way and then some to avoid causing bystander casualties

-- ordinary humans arent all helpless sheeple (are you a sheeple even tho you dont have superpowers or billions for equpt & training or a writer in yr corner?)

-- its okay to cry in the Shatterdome

-- we have giant robots

-- yes you can touch them, too

-- our fembot has a sword

GAME OVER WE WIN THERE IS NO CONTEST AT ALL

(even the webcomics i used to hide out in bc mainstream genre was such a minefield, arent as much fun as PR fandom meta & fanart )

WHY WLD ANYONE NOT WANT TO BE IN THIS FANDOM ??

[emotionalmethicillin]

My last post got me thinking

For the past 6 or so years I have had a "box" at a local comic book store. I don't know if this is something many comic book stores do, but it basically means that I give them a certain number of titles that they pull from their shelf for me and I'm responsible for purchasing them. Nothing I read sells out, but I liked that the owner got to know me and recommend things. 

I haven't felt compelled to go and empty my box in weeks mostly because everything I read has gotten so boring and I realized I don't enjoy mainstream comics at all anymore. 

I should really go and buy whatever is hanging out in there and tell them to stop pulling shit for me.

Is it stupid that I feel bad about it? I guess its a part of my life ending but mostly I feel shitty for abandoning a local business. A really nice woman owns the store too.

UGH so torn

[misscoppelia]

Manga is hurting the way that all print media is hurting — but in some ways it's worse, because manga is ill-equipped to adapt to New Media. Like American comic books, manga started out as cheap entertainment for kids, but while American comics faced their dwindling readership by turning into an adult collector's item with color, thicker paper and higher production values, manga magazines (and to a lesser extent, graphic novel collections) still use cheap ink and cheap paper to cram in as much pages-per-yen value possible... Still, maybe the future won't be so different after all; the dominance of scanlations does show that there's a huge audience for poorly scanned, low-res JPEGs of B&W art designed for print. The manga market is still much bigger than the American comic and graphic novel market, so don't count it out yet. While One Piece, Bleach and Naruto stagger along on their creaky geriatric legs, new manga are waiting to step out of their shadows.

Jason Thompson on the decline of manga in the U.S. at io9.

When I first read this post and saw the first paragraph, I thought: "great, another misguided Gawker network post about manga." I ranted to my boyfriend about silly it was to compare Japanese comics publishing to American comics publishing because Japan's top selling comic sells over 3 million copies in a country of 126 million and American's top selling comic sells 200,000-300,000 copies in a country of 313 million. Either way you look at it, the Japanese are selling more books. 

So I was actually really shocked when, after I finished that little rant, I saw the article was written by Jason Thompson, who is a former manga editor, a manga scholar and now writes for ANN on a regular basis.

I feel like this article should be about why the Japanese manga publishers are making it hard for manga to survive in the American market. Some areas of the article do address that, especially the digital section. That first paragraph I've quoted doesn't. It doesn't address the American market at all, seeing how most of the remaining American manga publishers have much higher paper quality, as well as higher production values, and the ones who used cheaper paper are out of business. It doesn't matter what kind of paper the Japanese use, it doesn't really exist in the American market anymore. It is definitely not the reason why manga is doing so poorly in the U.S. (I personally think the reason is because of the glut of titles has left so much lingering confusion among consumers and direct market retailers.)

I think a bigger problem lies in the fact that many Japanese publishers probably think that the demand for Japanese comics all over the world means money they don't have to work for. Thus, they can still ride the emotional high of their past successes without creating the next big thing or paying as much attention to their home market. Sooner or later, this will make their industry crash, but they've got a long way to fall before then.

That will actually be a boon to some of the American manga publishers (or those who are left, assuming such a crash would bring down companies with significant backing from Japanese publishing houses.) They won't have to pay as much for their licenses when that happens, whereas now licensing fees are so ridiculous and readership is lagging so much that American manga publishers have learned how carefully curate their lineups.

Do I think this means the end of manga as we know it? Probably not. The American publishers are stronger innovators, partially in keeping with their mainstream comics counterparts. They have fought hard for digital rights to what they can get, and while it's a war with too many theaters being fought, they've learned how to listen to what their paying readers want. Each step towards that is one less serious wound to them, which will allow them to stay alive until the next big manga boom hits. (Meanwhile, the Japanese are failing to innovate in their home market, as well as making things hard for foreign publishers, which is really going to cost them in the end.)

So, as you can probably figure, I have a lot of problems with where Jason points fingers in this article. It fails to answer basic questions like: Which manga industry is really going to crash? America? Japan? Both? Immediately after reading Jason's article, I'm not sure I could tell you.

Which brings me to the last paragraph, which makes me want to scream since it negates all of Jason's good, totally spot-on points, but also continues this tone of voice which sounds like a guy who hates manga. One of the ones who says: manga will fail because it's not in color. (Which Jason really does say at the beginning.)

Something tells me this is why the comments section is full of people bashing manga for similarly stupid reasons. (My favorite: "There was a time where hanging out in a Borders with a cute girl in a videogame shirt, reading everything, and watching her half speak in mangled Japanese becomes a bit tiresome (particularly when that becomes the extent of her personality). That's a young man's game, and I don't play it anymore.")

[salgood]

Fiona Staples challenges mainstream comics with some Breastfeeding

Cros-post from sequential

It’s not hard to find tits in mainstream comics. Lots and lots of big, round, almost nude tits. On the covers, in the pages, everywhere.

Seldom being used in their primary biological function – feeding babies – but mostly and exploitatively, in their secondary sexual context as eye-grabbers. Attention-getters. Fun bags! Bursting out, all over the place, barely covered at all.

Be it kid-oriented or not, making the most of scantily clad superheroes is just something comics do. It’s enough to make even a straight man puke sometimes.

So, it’s kind of funny – though not surprising to me really – that anyone working in the fandom world would be up in arms over someone “exploiting” Breastfeeding of all things, as depicted in this piece by Calgary artist Fiona Staples for her collaboration with Brian K. Vaughan, “Saga“. I’ve seen bras that cover less than that baby does.

To be fair Dave Dorman is by far one of the more modest and tasteful artists out there. So I won’t push the hypocrisy angle, much. And it seems maybe he agrees or at least has backed away from this complaint because he seems to have taken down the post where he railed about this. But all the same this came from the very same person who enjoyed I’m sure, rendering this [sic].

In his post he was put off it seems by the juxtaposition in the context of some PR material in USA today, of  the image on the left against quotes from Brian K. Vaughan saying…

“I just miss the days when I was a kid where you could pick up a No. 1 comic and it’s not a reboot or a relaunch or something.”

But this assumes

-Brian K. Vaughan put together the promo package, creating the juxtaposition in the first place.

-Vaughan meant for this specific title to be for the very young – rather than as I read it, a new book and not a reboot of something.

-Or that it’s somehow distasteful for young readers to see a woman breast feed!

Context is all, so it’s worth pointing out the quote was followed with…

It’s also a universe that he has been imagining since he was a kid. But it wasn’t until he had his own children that the story of Saga came to life.

“There are a lot of stories about having children, but they’re always comedies,” says Vaughan, 35, father to 1-year-old Alec and 8-month-old Wilhelmina. “It’s like the birth of a child is the end of drama. But I don’t think that’s true.”

If it’s ok for them to fall out of their costumes for charity or be consumed by monsters for thrills, why can’t they feed a child to promote a story about the birth of a child?

There was some joking about a bit of feminist overreach [the woman who can do everything], and swipes at her modesty. Please, part of the reason there are few wallflowers in the superhero world is that we know instinctively modesty does not plausibly go along with being a super heroine most of the time. Modesty and realistic goals are only part of comics as ironic counterpoints to the commonplace outlandish, over the top, and unrealistic expectations. So, sure, let’s have some interesting modest characters. But these are very weak complaints.

By his now-deleted response, clearly he’s amongst those who tend to equate breast feeding with the taboo – to be hidden rather than viewing it in the contemporary context of a symbol of feminine power. He’s probably not alone. Being born in the 70s I have to admit I feel a bit uncomfortable when a woman breast feeds in public around me, even as the child of hippies, I don’t really know what to do with my eyes!

So I avert them by default and admire their liberty and the whole giving life thing without staring. That’s real life and I think the respectful default when in doubt. But not because it’s shameful, because it’s intimate. I don’t ogle couples kissing in public either. But we’re past the point I think where PDAs are widely thought to be immodest. This image challenging the taboo on public acts of motherhood is only exploitative because we’re not quite over that irrational double standard yet, and if there is no substance to it in BKV’s pending comic.

?

This is a book by Brian K. Vaughan? You know, the guy who gave us Y the last man?

Do we really think it’s just a cheap shock value comic cover? Or is it a statement about how he’s going to tell this story?

This is a piece of art – yes a promotional image – meant to establish a fictional mythical character as much as to sell books. So we’re clearly invited to look. Social modesty is forgiven. Grabbing our attention and telling us as much as it can without telling anything at all is the whole goal. So pragmatically why should this image be more taboo than boobs being exploited in all the other ways they are in comics? By even Dave?

This is meant to set the tone for what Brian wants to be seen as an unconventional notion of what it is to be heroic. It’s really quite powerful and if this helps sell the books it will also introduce a more rounded notion of the feminine power myth to comics readers – young and old alike.  If we’re going to have sex in comics - and I think we’re long past the point of that being the conversation – then how about let’s have some nurturing in there along with all the wank-fest matter?

Some other people on the same topic

http://ifanboy.com/articles/dave-dorman-offended-by-vaughan-staples-breastfeeding-saga-cover/

http://fairbourne.tumblr.com/post/15597057333 – more good samples of Dave’s own work, he’s very good you know, funny ideas about breastfeeding aside.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/01/quote-of-the-day-dave-dorman-takes-offense-at-saga-art/

http://unatheblade.tumblr.com/post/15629918327/oh-dave-dorman-you-are-a-silly-fellow-how-is-it