Wanna Get Ficced?

Last night's Wednesday Blog of Awesome centered around Marvel's continued attempts to get female readers to stop calling them sexist by presenting a bunch of single-issue and short-run series about female comic book characters. I'm not against this idea in general, although I do wonder why they won't do more with the female characters in the books they have running now.

But, that aside, a few more things to show you in regards to my feelings on the matter.

First, an interview with Colleen Coover over at Comics Alliance where she talks about working on "Girl Comics" (the only thing in Marvel's "Look! Girly!" arsenal I've enjoyed). I like how Coover comes off in this. She's honest. She loves what she does. She talks about how she kinda sucked at drawing men for awhile. It's a good read.

Second, one of the artists I took to town in my WBoA was Kaare Andrews. Wikipedia informs me that Andrews is a dude. I made a half-assumption on the WBoA that Andrews was a woman, because the first name looks like "Carrie" to me. Man or woman, it doesn't excuse the art he's been throwing around on "Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis," and in that vein, I would like to show you a cover I found:

( cut to save your page )

It's the varient cover for the "Xenogenesis #1." I'm ignoring Storm's hips because there's a similar sort of exaggeration being done to Beast's hands and feet, so I can see where Andrews is going with that. What I can't forgive is the way Andrews chose to design Storm's top. When I found this image the other night, I though maybe I was being slightly over-sensitive to it. Maybe I was seeing stuff that wouldn't bother me so much if I wasn't already planning a WBoA about how Marvel needs to stop being dumbasses. Then, The Husband looked over from playing video games, saw the picture and said:

"Is that underboob?"

Nope. Not just me. Let's not forget that this is the man responsible for four separte shots of Emma Frost's chest in two pages:

( If you need a refresher )

On a side note, Emam's expression in the first picture is possibly the worst facial expression I've ever seen in comics. She looks like someone caught her mid-sneeze.

And finally, because I forgot to put it in the WBoA, I want to show you the full cover for "X-Women" drawn by Milo Manera, who came to Marvel by way of Italian erotica (porn) comics.

( Open your mouth if it looks like you have a dick in your mouth )

I would also like an explanation for what Rogue is doing to that vine. But, before we get into that, let's take a look at the solicit text, shall we:



Save the world and look good doing it!

Name me one time, one, where this kind of language was used in a solicit for a comic aimed at men. I don't give two shits of they look good doing it. I want to see some superheroes beat up some super villains and go home with a busted lip, goddamnit! A vagina does not immediately lead to a need to make sure everything is all pretty-sparkly-unicorn-princess bullshit.

Don't miss this prestige event!

Which is actually a single issue! Not like the other Marvel events which go on for at least four issues and half a dozen books. Oh, no! A single issue of "X-Women" is a prestige event you all! Didn't you know?

Seriously, Marvel just needs to quit trying to pretend like they're not pandering and work on the characters in the books they've currently got running, because Jesus Fucking Christ, this shit is insulting. My superheroes do not require vaginas to make me like them, but a little respect would be really nice.

So, Some author I don't read shit herself over fanfic in the last couple of days. Fandom people are creepy, apparently, and all kinds of fucked up, and how dare they write about her characters having sex, and no, it doesn't count that she's written them having sex and even being raped, and so on and so forth.

Here's the thing: It's not that I can't see where she's coming from a little bit; her copyrighted characters are, in fact, hers. However, fan fiction, when it follows the rules (throw up a disclaimer, don't take in cash for your work), does not violate her copyright. It's not a gray area thing, people. Fan fiction doesn't violate copyright if you make no claims of ownership or make no attempts to make money off the work.

Which brings up the charity thing, and here's where I might make a couple of you roll your eyes. While the fandom charity drives are great for charities and a great way for people in fandom to do something they enjoy to help a cause they believe in, it's still a little murky. There is still someone or something making money from an author's characters when the author has not allowed such things to occur. I do understand the issue with that. Charitable donations through fanfiction are, in fact, a huge gray area for copyright law. Because while the fic author may not be picking up cash for their work, that cash is, in fact, going somewhere. The charities are making money from fic. Whatever good deed those charities do, the money coming in is coming in under some murky circumstances.

However, if you're going to flip shit about people using your characters to make money, you probably shouldn't flip shit when that money goes to stuff like, oh, I don't know, cancer patients or earthquake relief, or any other group that is trying to raise money for a cause that can do good in the world. Because murkiness on the funds or not, you will come off looking like a raving dumbass.

And you certainly shouldn't make broad generalizations about fanfic writers when you flip shit about them. Did you all know that we write mostly self-insert fic? Because I'm pretty sure I don't do that. I'm special that way, I suppose.

Don't want people stealing your characters and making money off of them? Awesome! That's the point of copyright law. But don't be a screaming hose beast about it. Take a tip from the awesome Jim Butcher and put down your own ground rules. I am, in fact, in love with how Butcher's handled it. He doesn't want to see it. He doesn't want to read it. He doesn't want to even imagine it, but hell, the fans have a good time with it, and don't, by massive majority, want a cut of his money from coming up with it, so why the fuck not?

If the world ends, and I ever publish something people want to write porn about, I'll be taking the Butcher approach. Until then, have you read my Harry Potter/Dresden Files (TV) crossover? No porn, but it's Harry/Bob, Harry/Snape, and no, I will never, ever show it to Jim Butcher.

Video games do not make you a sexist or an asshole or neglectful to your partner. If you think they do, then one of two things is going on:

1. You're in a relationship with someone who was an asshole before you came into the picture.
2. You're a fucking idiot.

Or, it's possible, that the asshole nature of your partner was dormant because said partner had not played video games previously. If that's the case, number 1 applies. But if you honestly think that your partner playing video games means your partner will automatically love you and respect you less? You're a fucking MORON.

Get off my planet.

Comics Alliance, a great comics blog, ended their "Girl Week" (in celebration of women in comics as well as the release of Marvel's limited series "Girl Comics," with all female writers/artists) by having a post that is entirely composed of female comic book characters kicking dudes in the junk.

It's GREAT. Seriously, I laughed when I realized the whole post was nothing but nut-shots. It's tongue-in-cheek but still shows that women can kick serious ass.

There are people calling this anti-feminist.

WHAT.

Last I checked, being able to defend myself against an attacker is pretty fucking feminist. And if that means kicking a guy in the nuts, I don't fucking care. Because I will still WIN. And GET AWAY. Seriously, if it comes down to knocking a guy's junk into his teeth or said guy putting hands on me? I'm going to KICK HIS NUTS INTO HIS TEETH.

Is this really a question? Is there actually a reasonable person out there who argues that sac-tapping some guy is MEAN if said guy is trying to HARM ME?

If you say that you think it's mean, you are NOT reasonable.

Also, someone else in the comments mentioned how feminists don't like to be called "girls." Newsflash, person: I am a GIRL. Really. Not only do I have all the parts, but I also self-identify as FEMALE. And females are GIRLS. Are there people who try to use it as a derogatory term? Totally. Yes. No question. But you know what? Some people just use that term to mean FEMALE. In the same way that I use the term "boy" to refer to my guy friends (the boys) or in the same way that Garth Ennis uses it to refer to his superhero-killing team, "The Boys." (Which, incidentally, has a female member.)

If you call me a girl, and you're saying it friendly, I've got no beef with you. I am, in fact, a girl. I am also a woman, a lady, a dame, a broad, a female, and a boob shirt vagina pants (the last one is only allowed if you know me REALLY well). So, if you call me any of those, and you say it friendly, or funny, or nice, we'll be cool.

If you say it with meanness and try to put hands on me? I will kick you in the balls so hard you'll come off the floor (ala Elsa Bloodstone in that first image from the link). And you know why I'll kick you in the balls? Because I'm smart enough to know it'll fucking stop you in your tracks. Because I'm smart enough to be educated about how to stop an attacker. Because I'm a girl who uses my brain and knows that hitting the weak spot is the BEST WAY TO FIGHT.

Because I'm a damned feminist.

Incidentally, if you are a woman, and you call me "girl" in a derogatory tone and try to put hands on me, I will ALSO kick you in the junk. Because it'll stop you cold as well.

In short: Words and actions only have the power we put behind them. If you think it's anti-feminist to show a woman protecting herself from a male attacker by kicking him in the junk, you're putting way more power into that action than you realize and depowering women at the same time by dictating that there's a "nice" way and a "mean" way to keep a guy from attacking her. Same goes for seeing every use of the word "girl" as derogatory. This is how "cunt" got removed from "nice language," people; other people telling us how we should define the meaning of words.

Saw a post in a comm for someone asking for a beta. Said person than said that she/he doesn't want to have to do dozens of rewrites because editing isn't really her/his strong suit.

So, you want a beta, but you want someone who will simply poke you with a stick and check your "grammer" (her/his spelling, not mine) and the chances of you actually checking the grammar and making the edits seems slim to none.

Yeah.

No.

Fuck you. Seriously.

Either sack up and put in the time to write (and edit) something you think is going to be 75,000 words or fuck right off. Seriously. Because you? You are wasting a beta's time.

I stopped reading Green Arrow/Black Canary because it blew goats. The characterizations (especially Dinah) were godawful, and the plots (especially Connor becoming legally-distinct Wolverine and the whole Cupid bullshit) were fucking stupid.

I haven't been reading Cry for Justice because there is literally nothing in that book that intrigued me, and it felt like a huge step back in Hal's characterization to put him back in "Oh, I'm a total cock-monkey who listens to no one" frame of mind.

I dropped Titans a couple of months ago, but #21 ended up in my stack, and I didn't notice when I bought it. It has a new writer (Krul), so I figured I'd give it a read as long as I'd paid for it. The overall story itself was just as dis-interesting as I've found the book lately (hence the droppage), but I did get to grit my teeth and see fucking red. Wanna know why?

THEY CUT OFF ROY'S FUCKING ARM.

Roy Harper. The original Speedy. Arnsenal. RED FUCKING ARROW. Because making him a recovering drug addict, a single father of a daughter whose mother is a villain, and a man who is just finally, finally, FINALLY beginning to find his balance with Ollie again isn't fucking enough.

THEY HAD TO CUT OFF HIS GODDAMNED ARM.

Seriously, DC, what the fuck is your beef with the Arrow-Clan? You're letting Ollie and Dinah get written, respectively as an absolute asshole and an idiot; you've regulated Mia (and Dinah) to a back up in a book they used to headline; you've taken a giant dump on EVERYTHING INTERESTING about Connor, and now you've CUT OFF ROY'S FUCKING ARM.

I will grow a dick, just so you can blow me. You fuckers.

When finishing an event the magnitude of "Captain America: Reborn," get your fucking schedule correct, would you? "Reborn" #5 just came out two weeks ago. "Who Will Wield the Shield" came out last week, and "Reborn" #6 isn't due until the end of January. Plus, you've got Steve popping up everywhere in the Marvel Universe to remind people he's back.

And to make matters worse, it's a really good story, and you're ruining the damned ending by fucking up your scheduling. I'd rather the damned thing be held back than be tangled up in this hot mess.

Your shipment of fail has arrived. Good show.

Can Women Learn to Enjoy Comics?

[Link courtesy of When Fangirls Attack]

Guy writes about how dudes on comic messageboards want to get their girlfriends/wives into comics and how he got his wife into comics by paying attention to her interests to suggest books. Which is good advice; no argument. My problem with the piece is primarily this:

'm lucky, because my wife already had a few comics when we started dating ("The Maxx" and "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac"). When she wanted to read more, I took her interests (horror, dark comedy) into account and suggested the zombie series "The Walking Dead" and the hilariously profane "Preacher." She's been raiding my bookshelves ever since.

Check out that first line: "...my wife already had a few comics when we started dating." So he's not actually getting teaching her to like comics, he's supplying her with a broader source of information so that she can enjoy comics.

Then there's this part:

I once had a huge reading list for her, but over our time together she has read almost all of them. It's gotten to the point where sometimes she'll ask for a new book, and I'll be stumped. What hasn't she read that she might like? Sometimes she gets to read the latest book I've bought before I do, because I'm out of things I think she might like. She's even sought out some books on her own and got me reading them, like "DMZ," an alternate present take on a war-torn Manhattan.

I'm particularly irked at this line: "She's even sought out some books on her own and got me reading them" The way it reads, he's shocked (shocked) that his comic-enjoying wife would go out and find books on her own, as if the only reason she's into comics is because he has them. Which it isn't. Because she was into comics before she met him.

And, once again, there's the usual bit about how women don't like superhero comics because they can't relate to them. I am so goddamned tired of that excuse. Easily 80% of my 30-book a month comic order is superheroes. Women read superhero comics. I promise. And, also, in case this wasn't clear: Women read comics without a man introducing them to them.

You know what I spend some of my time doing? Finding comics that The Husband will like. It's an absolute pain in the ass. He loves sci-fi and dystopian set-ups. I gave him Transmetropolitan and he "meh"'d. He doesn't like to have to read stories in single-issue formats, so I started him on limited series stuff. He loved The Long Halloween and Dark Victory (Batman), and he still occasionally asks me if Fell is going to see any more issues. I tried to get him into Green Arrow via Quiver, but his knowledge of the DCU is worse than Judd Winick's (zing), so that one didn't take. He loves Watchmen and likes The Killing Joke.

So, there, I'm a woman (with a vag and everything), and I'm into comics. Not because The Husband got me into them, but because I like fucking comics.

But what gets me the most about that article, what rankles me like nothing else, is how he's taking credit for teaching his wife how to enjoy comics when she was already enjoying them on her own. Just because she wasn't reading a metric ton of books didn't mean she wasn't interested. She'd read a few; she'd liked him, and had he not come in and "taught" her how to enjoy them, I bet she would have read more.

Women don't learn to like comics. They like them or they don't. Just as much as any other fan.

I saw a rec for a story that was an AU [yay!] and was promised that the writing was good [yay!] and the story was interesting [yay!] and came to find out, after multiple parts, the story was none of the above. The writing wasn't flat-out terrible, but the pacing was iffy, and the final scene was completely OOC for one of the characters, and I hate when that happens. The characterization was half-assed at best, honestly. Both characters are fairly reserved in canon, but in the AU, one of them was an outrageous flirt. It was, of course, because he was hiding super-extra painful childhood memories, and...ugh.

So, blergh on that. I'm gonna go dig up good fic to read after I finish some other work.

My nemesis strikes again.

Megan Fox says she has schizophrenic

A gem, if I may [emphasis mine]:

The Transformers star admits she has struggled with mental health problems since her youth, and, although she hasn’t been officially diagnosed, she is convinced she shows symptoms of the serious psychiatric condition [schizophrenia], which often torments suffers with auditory hallucinations, paranoid delusions and social dysfunction.

And why, exactly, is she not, oh, under a doctor's care? And if she's had problems since her youth, how is she not diagnosed? Oh, wait, it's because she probably hasn't been under a doctor's care.

Brilliant. You know what's worse then celebrities talking about personal issues? Celebrities talking about personal issues that have serious mental health ramifications and doing it with no damned proof.

Oh, and this shit:

On women having the power in a het relationship: “Women hold the power because we have the vaginas. If you’re in a heterosexual relationship and you’re a female, you win.”


Take out the words "woman" and "female" and "vagina" and replace them with "man" and "male" and "penis". Saying a woman has the power because she has a vagina is just as sexist as saying the man has the power because he has a penis. In fact, claiming either gender in a relationship has the power based on something with their gender attached [she has the brains, he has the money, etc.] is sexist.

But at least the rumors of her playing Catwoman in the next Christopher Nolan Batman project were proved false. I still have hope for the world.