Comics Pull List 2.18

Comics pull list - I need to cut this down

So, I need to spend less on comics. I also think this is probably a good exercise for me to figure out whether there are books that, while I really enjoy them, I could live without getting on a monthly basis. Here’s the current list:

Archie Comics

Afterlife with Archie

DC Comics

Action Comics

Batman

Forever Evil

Justice League

Superman Unchained

Superman/Wonder Woman

Teen Titans Go!

Image Comics

Black Science

Deadly Class

East of West

Five Ghosts

Ghosted

Jupiter’s Legacy

Lazarus

Manhattan Projects

Nowhere Men

Pretty Deadly

Rat Queens

Saga

Secret

Sex Criminals

Sheltered

Velvet

Zero

Marvel

Avengers

Avengers World

Black Widow

Daredevil

Hawkeye

New Avengers

Superior Foes of Spider-Man

Uncanny Avengers

Oni Press

Letter 44

Vertigo

Astro City

FBP

The Wake

Trillium

I know a number of people on Twitter who pull far more books than this on a monthly basis, but for me, I need to cut it down. I’ll post a revised list once I figure it out.

Close reading of Misogyny

So I wasn't going to write anymore about this particular subject, until I saw Tony Harris' follow-up comments regarding the whole situation, and that made me realize that I can't just leave bad enough alone.   So, I'm going to undertake, for the first time, a Fire Joe Morgan-style close textual reading of Harris' comments. We'll see how it goes.

               I cant remember if Ive said this before, but Im gonna say it anyway. I dont give a crap.

Don't give a crap about punctuation?

I appreciate a pretty Gal as much as the next Hetero Male. 

You hear that everyone, he's straight! Get it?  Straight. Not one of the gays. Ok, got it.

Sometimes I even go in for some racy type stuff ( keeping the comments PG for my Ladies sake) but dammit, dammit, dammit I am so sick and tired of the whole COSPLAY-Chiks. 

And spelling, too. Three dammits - he must really be perturbed about something!

I know a few who are actually pretty cool-and BIG Shocker, love and read Comics.

Don't worry, I'm not a sexist, a few of my lady friends are actual, honest-to-goodness comics readers. Wait, to whom is this shocking?

So as in all things, they are the exception to the rule. Heres the statement I wanna make, based on THE RULE: 

Here we go.  The rule. Never go in against a Sicilian where death is concerned? Never get into a card game with a guy who has a state as his first name? 

"Hey! Quasi-Pretty-NOT-Hot-Girl, you are more pathetic than the REAL Nerds, who YOU secretly think are REALLY PATHETIC. 

Oh. That's the rule. You can tell he means it BECAUSE OF THE SERIOUS ALL CAPS.  THAT'S RIGHT LADIES TONY HAS YOU ALL FIGURED OUT BECAUSE HE CAN SEE INTO YOUR BLACK VILE HEARTS AND MINDS.

But we are onto you. 

You gotta get up pretty early in the morning to hoodwink Mr. Tony.

Some of us are aware that you are ever so average on an everyday basis. 

Wait, you're not actually going to go into some sort of diatribe about women's appearances, are you?

But you have a couple of things going your way. 

A love of comics and access to materials to make costumes?

You are willing to become almost completely Naked in public, and yer either skinny( Well, some or most of you, THINK you are ) or you have Big Boobies. Notice I didnt say GREAT Boobies? 

Oh. Not the stuff I mentioned.  Please don't go off on a description of the difference between "big" and "great" in this instance, please please please don't do that.

You are what I refer to as "CON-HOT". 

Ok, so we dodged a bullet on that one. But, again, Tony is on to you.  You're not really hot. You just go to comic conventions and magically appear to be hot. Wow, that is a super power. Ladies, if any of you has actual super powers, please use them for good and not eeee-vil.

Well not by my estimation, but according to a LOT of average Comic Book Fans who either RARELY speak to, or NEVER speak to girls. 

I can see you crying over there ladies. Tony doesn't think you're hot. Sorry.  I know, you're thinking, but why did I go through all this effort if he doesn't think I'm hot. Tough cookies.  Also, pretty sure he just described his fellow fans as a bunch of losers.

Some Virgins, ALL unconfident when it comes to girls, and the ONE thing they all have in common? The are being preyed on by YOU. 

Harlots! Hussies! You are the predator, with your fake hot looks and your big but not great boobies. You are like the great white shark of comic conventions.  

You have this really awful need for attention, for people to tell you your pretty, or Hot, and the thought of guys pleasuring themselves to the memory of you hanging on them with your glossy open lips, promising them the Moon and the Stars of pleasure, just makes your head vibrate. 

Yuck. Just, yuck.  Tony has seen into your minds and souls, and it ain't pretty.

After many years of watching this shit go down every 3 seconds around or in front of my booth or table at ANY given Con in the country, I put this together. Well not just me. We are LEGION. 

He apparently speaks for the "silent majority" on this one. Wait. LEGION? Like the Legion of Super Heroes? Because I've tried a bunch of times to read those books and I just don't find them interesting.

And here it is, THE REASON WHY ALL THAT, sickens us: BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT COMICS, BEYOND WHATEVER GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH YOU DID TO GET REF ON THE MOST MAINSTREAM CHARACTER WITH THE MOST REVEALING COSTUME EVER. 

He knows this because he distributed a quiz on comics knowledge and trivia to all the women doing cosplay at conventions. He has assessed your comics knowledge, and found it wanting.  I'm sure he did this for all the men wearing costumes too - oh, wait. He didn't? So he's only making these assumptions about women? Huh. Weird.

And also, if ANY of these guys that you hang on tried to talk to you out of that Con? You wouldnt give them the fucking time of day. 

I'm not going to suggest he knows from personal experience because as he's told us he's a family man (which is of course the awesomest way to justify misogyny, by using the women in your life as a human shield), so presumably he is omniscient and has seen all the ways you harlots and hussies, you comic poseurs, interact with these poor innocent schlubs outside of the comic book world.  Tony Harris is Uatu.

Shut up you damned liar, no you would not. 

Wait, who did he just tell to shut up. Me? I'm not even a woman, and I've never dressed up in a costume except on Halloween and Purim. 

Lying, Liar Face. 

What's a liar face? 

Yer not Comics. 

Comics are books or floppy periodicals that are drawn and written and can be sold in physical form or electronically. So, point to you, you're right.  They're not comics.

Your just the thing that all the Comic Book, AND mainstream press flock to at Cons. 

Damn you, fake comic women fan horrible people, for taking attention away from me! Huh. I see what this might be about now.

And the real reason for the Con, and the damned costumes yer parading around in? That would be Comic Book Artists, and Comic Book Writers who make all that shit up.

Right.  Got it Tony, thanks.

Misogyny and Elitism in Comics

So... this happened today and, not surprisingly, the comics twitterverse was all aflutter.  I was going to write all about it but folks have already done excellent writeups of the situation.  Nevertheless, I wanted to weigh in a little.  Tony Harris is a fantastic artist. But he expressed some loathsome opinions today.  Here's his opinion, unedited:

"I cant remember if Ive said this before, but Im gonna say it anyway. I dont give a crap.I appreciate a pretty Gal as much as the next Hetero Male. Sometimes I even go in for some racy type stuff ( keeping the comments PG for my Ladies sake) but dammit, dammit, dammit I am so sick and tired of the whole COSPLAY-Chiks. I know a few who are actually pretty cool-and BIG Shocker, love and read Comics.So as in all things, they are the exception to the rule. Heres the statement I wanna make, based on THE RULE: "Hey! Quasi-Pretty-NOT-Hot-Girl, you are more pathetic than the REAL Nerds, who YOU secretly think are REALLY PATHETIC. But we are onto you. Some of us are aware that you are ever so average on an everyday basis. But you have a couple of things going your way. You are willing to become almost completely Naked in public, and yer either skinny( Well, some or most of you, THINK you are ) or you have Big Boobies. Notice I didnt say GREAT Boobies? You are what I refer to as "CON-HOT". Well not by my estimation, but according to a LOT of average Comic Book Fans who either RARELY speak to, or NEVER speak to girls. Some Virgins, ALL unconfident when it comes to girls, and the ONE thing they all have in common? The are being preyed on by YOU. You have this really awful need for attention, for people to tell you your pretty, or Hot, and the thought of guys pleasuring themselves to the memory of you hanging on them with your glossy open lips, promising them the Moon and the Stars of pleasure, just makes your head vibrate. After many years of watching this shit go down every 3 seconds around or in front of my booth or table at ANY given Con in the country, I put this together. Well not just me. We are LEGION. And here it is, THE REASON WHY ALL THAT, sickens us: BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT COMICS, BEYOND WHATEVER GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH YOU DID TO GET REF ON THE MOST MAINSTREAM CHARACTER WITH THE MOST REVEALING COSTUME EVER. And also, if ANY of these guys that you hang on tried to talk to you out of that Con? You wouldnt give them the fucking time of day. Shut up you damned liar, no you would not. Lying, Liar Face. Yer not Comics. Your just the thing that all the Comic Book, AND mainstream press flock to at Cons. And the real reason for the Con, and the damned costumes yer parading around in? That would be Comic Book Artists, and Comic Book Writers who make all that shit up."

So, the reaction on Twitter and elsewhere was severe, and deservedly so.  Anything critical that someone wants to say about this opinion, I will echo that sentiment.  On a more personal level for me though, reading this makes me think about a few questions:

• Can I continue to support Tony Harris as an artist?  I think the answer is no. I loved his work on Ex Machina and elsewhere, but I have a finite amount of $ and I think I'd rather spend it supporting artists and writers who aren't raging misogynist elitist ass-clowns.
• It's not just the loathsome sexism/misogyny on display here.  It's the idea that he can tell who the "poseurs" are at a comic convention, and that he is the self-appointed sheriff of comic geekdom, deciding who is at a comic convention for pure reasons, and whose motivations are base and low.
• This seems to be an attitude shared by many others as well, as demonstrated by the many supportive tweets he received.  Somehow people have this idea that anyone who wants to be a part of their subculture can't possibly be as legitimate as them, and so they appoint themselves arbiters over who is a true geek and who is not. This kind of elitism is loathsome to me.  I have no right to tell someone that they're not a true fan, and neither does anyone else. 
• I don't do cosplay.  Just not my thing.  But who am I, and who is anyone else, to tell a person that they're not a legitimate fan just because they don't know what year a character was first introduced, when they first had a team-up with Green Lantern, and other minutiae about the character?

What about the sexism?  The misogyny?  This is a whole other issue for me.  I've been reading comics for a long time and I have two little girls (7 and 4) that I'm introducing to comics and comic characters.  My older daughter, in particular, has developed my enthusiasm for super heroes.  Her favorite is Batgirl.  She loves the idea of a strong female character out there, doing good, fighting crime.  And so do I. But I'm embarassed by the comics world.  I'm embarrassed by the comics artists that insist on drawing female characters with dimensions that make them look like porn stars, in sexy poses, wearing essentially nothing.  I'm embarrassed by the male fans that make asses of themselves at conventions towards the women dressed up in costumes.  I'm embarrassed by the fact that when we look at pictures of super heroes and super hero teams, my daughter asks me, "where are all the girl super heroes?". 

BTW, I know there are some out there, but not nearly enough.  Not to mention the fact that there are so few comics that are actually appropriate for me to give to my kids.  Not to sound like a complete old fuddy-duddy, but look at DC's "New 52" initiative.  I read the first issue of every one of those comics, and I subscribed to a number of them. Many of them I wouldn't want to have anywhere near my kids.  Red Hood and the Outlaws?  Forget it - they turned Starfire into a zombie sexbot.  Green Lantern Corps? Never mind, I'll do without all the dismemberments. There's kid comics, but those are in their own little kid comic ghetto.  I don't think it's too much to ask that the comics creators put out some comics that are genuinely appropriate and enjoyable for all ages.

So, comics industry and comics creators and comics geeks.  If you want to grow your industry and business, (i) figure out ways to grow your market (and not alienate huge groups of potential fans), (ii) get the loathsome attitudes in check, and (iii) (for you geeks out there) stop trying to prove how much more legit your comics geekery is than anyone else's.  It just makes you look like a dumbass.

Yes, artist guy, Comic Books are Actually Art

I was at the library a few weeks ago looking at the stacks of graphic novels hoping to find some new stuff (I'm an avid library user when it comes to comics), and this middle-aged guy comes over and starts talking to me. He's an artist, and he asks me if I am a comic book writer as he'd be interested in working with a writer.

First off I'm not a comic writer, though I've tried it a little bit. At this point I'm just an avid reader (maybe he just assumed that a grown man wouldn't read comics unless he was also a writer? I don't know - odd set of assumptions).

Anyway, I start talking to him and he explains that he's an artist and can do all sorts of kinds of art, and would be interested in working with a writer.  So, I decide to engage with him. I ask him if he's worked on any graphic novels or comics before and who are his favorite artists.  His response is something along the lines of (I can't remember it verbatim) "Well, I prefer Matisse and Picasso".

Ugh.

I talk with him a little bit more, I point him so some interesting stuff I've read recently (like Asterios Polyp) and I go on my way.  But the more I think about that conversation, the more it annoys me and I wished I had said something different.  Here's why:

• First, the assumption that as an "artist" he can just pick up drawing comic book as if it was easy. I've read some books that were beautifully drawn, and some that were more workmanlike in their art.  But all the artists featured in books I've read have an understanding of certain fundamentals. Among many other characteristics, you need to be able to convincingly portray action and motion, and you need to be able to portray the same characters, rooms, landscapes, etc., the exact same way, in scene after scene.  Otherwise your audience will lose track of the action. You also need to be able to draw and illustrate based on someone else's script (unless you're the writer/artist). That kind of collaboration takes substantial skill. So, chief, just because you may be good at drawing landscapes or abstract works, does not mean you can somehow automatically become a comic book artist.
• Secondly, if you're trying to get work as a comic artist, and someone asks you "well, who are your favorite artists/what artists inspire you, etc", don't say "I prefer Matisse and Picasso". It's incredibly insulting to what comic book artists do, and makes you look like a pretentious twit.  If you're actually serious about working in this field, you had better have a legitimate understanding of what's out there, and get to know some names like Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, John Romita, or more recent artists like Dave Mazzuchelli, Steve Dillon, Dave Gibbons, Alex Ross, Frank Quitely, Tim Sale, Gary Frank, Bryan Hitch (and of course there are so many others, but these are some of the ones that quickly come to mind).  

Read comics (superhero or not), look at what's out there, and try to develop a style that works for you (or multiple styles, depending on the project).  But when you tell someone you're interested in illustrating comic books and a person asks you what artists you like, don't tell them Matisse.  It shows that you have no respect or appreciation for the value of comic books as art, which they are.

This.

https://twitter.com/shkennedy/status/253852205872988160/photo/1

The Debate

Yes, Romney appears to have "won" the debate.  The President appears to have been kind of listless, not that engaged, and not very aggressive at challenging Romney's untrue statements or defending his administration.  I had, as other had, hoped that Obama was just playing rope-a-dope, but eventually you have to fight back.  But still, team Obama is still left with a lot of points that they can use going forward.  As I said years ago, Romney will never pass up a cheap and easy way to score political points, and the "fire Big Bird" thing is exactly that.  Neil Tyson perfectly explains why it's one of those typical, symbolic, meaningless statements that Romney excels at. So, Obama still has plenty of time to recover, and hopefully he can do so.

Man this guy was prescient

Letter to the editor to the Boston Globe, 1/4/07

RECENT ARTICLES regarding outgoing Governor Romney's flurry of last-minute court and political appointments (Page A1, Jan. 3; City & Region, Dec. 21) make more and more clear Romney's true nature. He leaves Massachusetts as a typical 11th-hour political hack, despite his opposition to patronage.

Governor Romney leaves with no real record of accomplishment, despite his frequent claims to the contrary. He never met a promise he couldn't break or forget about, he never met an easy and cheap way to score political points he couldn't pass up (see the gay marriage issue, the toll booth issue, and his frequent out-of-state mockery of Massachusetts), and he never held a personal belief he couldn't cast aside when it became politically convenient (see abortion, stem cell research, and - again - gay marriage).

Governor Romney could be announcing his presidential candidacy soon. I hope that most Americans will come to see what we in Massachusetts have known for a while: Mitt Romney is a political con-artist.

JAMES KAPLAN

Watertown

Credit: Boston Globe

Health Care, Limbaugh, Breitbart

Thankfully, the Blunt Amendment was voted down.  Unfortunately a lot of people voted in favor of it.  Can we just be clear that the "Blunt Amendment" was never about religious liberty? It wasn't even about contraception? It was a Trojan horse to gut health care reform and sour people's opinion on the program. After all, if any employer can deny coverage based on "moral" grounds", then what's to stop all employers from coming up with all sorts of "moral grounds" upon which to deny coverage for services.  What if your employer is Christian Scientist?  Well, one can only imagine after a few years of that people will say "oh, Obamacare is terrible, we should repeal it".  Which is precisely the GOP goal.

The main thing this ridiculous situation has further illustrated to me is how stupid it is to link access to health care with employment status.  Seriously, other than the fact that it is a historical accident, why should your employment status have anything to do with access to health care?  Why should the identity of your employer have any connection with the sorts of services you can receive?  Why should your employer have any say at all in your health care?  I've yet to hear a good answer to this.

On the Rush Limbaugh front, I'm enjoying a tremendous amount of schadenfreude regarding the hot water into which he's gotten himself.   He's such a repugnant character, and gutless too - once he started getting pressure from advertisers, he retreated (pursuant to a pathetic non-apology) to his "I'm just an entertainer" line.  Pathetic.   Also, ill informed.

On the death of Andrew Breitbart, I would just say that this is a man who said the following about ted Kennedy when he passed away. Wow.  Classy. So, I'm sorry for his family (and I'm sure he was nice to have dinner with, good to his mama, loved kittens, etc.), but I won't begrudge anyone who has nasty things to say about the guy.