All will be sent for free, and there may be more added the longer I clean/arrange my apartment.

Comics:
Birds of Prey #105, 109, 144
Venus Wars II #1-5, 7, 9
Ultraman Tiga #3 (no cover)
Legend of Mother Sarah: City of Angels #4

CD:
Watashi Wa, "Eager Seas"

Books: See BookMooch list.

In "News I Did Not Expect to Hear," Disney is buying out Marvel Entertainment.

Mickey + Spiderman = Profit??? I may lack a magic 8 ball, but I sense that the answer is "Ask again later."

So, it was brought to my attention that Tony Bedard has seen my post on the Great Ten and responded.

(If it wasn't clear: I am a white American, born and raised in the US.)

( Rebuttal. )

Without meaning to, this post basically became a long-form essay on Western cultural appropriation of Eastern Asia sphere cultures in American comics, the nature of costumed superheroes as a media commodity, and why exactly I hate the Great Ten and what they represent.

( 'It’s like English-Chinese food, take away the spices and add sweet-sour flavour.' )

Things which are hot: Anne Hathaway in drag for her part as Viola in Twelfth Night, more examples to be found in the NYT slide show.

I bought new comics today for the first time in forever, and they were thankfully money well-spent. ( Thoughts on 'Tec 854, The Unwritten 1 & 2, and The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard. )

It's no secret I love Saint Oniisan. What's better than Buddha and Jesus living together as poor roommates in Tokyo?

Buddha and Jesus as secret toku-style superheroes fighting against the forces of evil.

Evil being supervillains trying to forcibly join social networks.

Fuck. Yes.

Jesus?

Watches Kamen Rider.

A Note: There will be two posts made based on thoughts which resulted from reading my reading Samuel "Chip" Delany's essay "Politics of Paraliterary Criticism" for my SFRA paper: one on the SFRA filter dealing with Engineering the Future and the current politics of Science Fiction and its production (i.e. Libertarianism), and another public post looking at the comics industry, its ongoing struggle with fitting and creating for itself a definition, and how all of this ties into the dislike, in some fannish corners, of the existing editorial teams.

This is the comics post.

( That Childish Pop Culture Trash! Or is it...Art? )

I do not promise coherency. This is maybe four posts, compiled into one big "I need to sleep but I need to post" post. I promise post-finals I will scan in Mr. T and the T Force!

arionhunter: *just bought a book on the making of camp* I cannot wait for finals to be over
das_dingsi: *hug* stressful?
arionhunter: Yeah, and irritating because I have books! And I want to read them now.
das_dingsi: i know that feeling. it's like getting chocolate for easter and being expected to NOT eat it right away
arionhunter: Exactly!
I have a book on rhetoric and argumentation that takes on street preachers!
I know that's not sexy to everyone, but I'd hit it with a ten-foot pole.
das_dingsi: hah! I can see why

-

Things comics have given us that are questionable - the series "Lynch Mob." (man in the middle with the glowy fist is Lynch). The main character may or may not be a man of color whose codename is "Lynch." I do not have the time to take scans, but in the first issue Lynch's skintone considerably is darker than the white people he stands next to. The writer never clarifies Lynch's ethnicity, as they're all too busy fighting a hot anthropomorphized female computer AI in a bikini.

Then again, this imprint also gave comics "Smiley the Psychotic Button," whose first issue ends with Smiley realizing he, as a button, has no penis so he can't have dream-sex with Lady Death.

-

My first cat macro starring Cat.

-

( Summer reading list, mainly for personal reference. )

Ah, Free Comic Book Day. I scored rather mightily this round, as the shop was having 'Fill a Shortbox for $30' sale. Thus, I raided the old longboxes with a vengeance. I now own:

( A rather sizable list. )

As you can tell, I got rather...cracky at the end. I also hit up the Library Discards store, which netted me a few books, among them Erotic Tales of the Victorian Age.

My favorite bit so far: ( 'Wally, in the name of social justice it is bounden upon you to fuck that poor girl immediately.' )

----

( Word for the day: gamahuche. )

So, I *should* have been writing up my SFRA proposal or doing any other number of useful things. Instead I...read comics and watched shows.

( Comics - Gankutsuou, Incognegro, Yokaiden, Pride of Baghdad, Janes in Love )

( Shows - Moribito, Shinkenger, KS7 (Now With Polls!) )

In other news: Though I love her, katarik's fannish magpie tendencies can be...taxing. Mainly because she never finishes anything. Case in point, we watch Den-O Climax Deka, which sparks her interest in Kiva. So we start Kiva, me knowing full well she's never going to finish the bloody thing.

And then she says she's also thinking about feeding Kiva to her girlfriend on the strengths of "strong women in leather" and "competent knifefighting" - after I had to engineer the showing of Garo, which she had been talking about to said girlfriend for months but not actually, y'know, showing.

To think, she's baffled by the fact I hate re-watching series I've finished.

Batman, in a desperate grab at relevance, decided it was time to embrace some new fashion trends.

( Just one of millions inspired by the Queen's crown. )

(Alternately, "New Astro Boy Guaranteed To Not Fight Like A Girl.")

All post title hyperbole aside, let me say that this article has done much to extinguish my already dampened hopes for the Astro Boy movie.

So, new Astro's rear end isn't big enough for the Tezuka estate. That Imagi shrunk it isn't shocking, given traditional American issues with male superhero buttocks. But then it just gets silly.

"“He has really big eyes and curly lashes and we had to make him less feminine in some way,” explained Mr Cheung."

Apparently even child superheroes can't escape gay spandex panic, as a shirt has also been added to the originally bare-chested icon. Of course, this all also has an 'inevitable' side effect - "That the beloved Japanese icon now looks more Caucasian was never intentional. It was a byproduct of ageing him and tweaking his looks."

Oh, that's just too cute! I could almost believe you, Imagi, except for the part where I find your excuse just about as believable as the Avatar movie casting.

• Chinese artist Coco Wang, best known on the internet for her post-earthquake mini-comics, now has a blog up republishing chapters of her tuwen book, Coco Wang Goes to Study In England. Also, Paul Gravett has a fantastic interview with her on her work, manhua in general, working in an "Big Post-Production System" economy, and the future of Chinese comics.


• Reading Andrew Lorenzi's penrod_pulaski slice-of-life comics.


• Reading Chii's Sweet Home, also known as The Adventures of a LOLkitten in manga form


• Wanting to marry Timothy Egan - On Joe the Plumber's new book deal: The idea that someone who stumbled into a sound bite can be published, and charge $24.95 for said words, makes so many real writers think the world is unfair.


• Reading Roger Ebert's blog, which I did not know about! As a lover of Ebert mostly (except when he decides to be a clueless white straight male liberal), his blog should be enlightening.


• Rewatching Sarah Haskin's Target Women videos. The best humor is that which never gets old.

There is nothing quite like listening to Jesus Loves Me in Chinese sung over rock guitar, complete with air-guitarable solo.

Since there seems to have been enough interest among the people I talked to while writing the behemoth to post said paper. All internet-based citations are linked. Sadly, this has yet to see an editor. (In the interest of disclosure: I voted for Barack Obama and am not a very big fan of Superman.)

Only In America: Barack Obama, Superman, and the (De)Construction of an American Myth

( The paper )

Yes, I did just do that. My geekiness, it does not know these bounds you speak of.

This has been a long week and the next one is looking to be even longer. So in light of falling asleep at random intervals (body, I do not enjoy nodding off at 8 pm to wake up at 1 am and find out nothing is done), now I retreat briefly into Things That Make Me Happy.

- Picked up a "chapter preview" book as Crisis-Con with this fantastic description from pagan thriller-horror author M.R. Sellers:

"Miranda is a Dominatrix whose penchant for abusing men becomes an unquenchable thirst the moment she begins practicing her own bastardized version of Voodoo. The problem is, the sadistic spirit she chooses to worship--and moreover, allows to share her corporeal body--views the act of inflicting pain as mere prelude to her own greater physical pleasures. For her victims, what begins as consensual play can only end in murder...for Miranda is neither safe nor sane, and her unearthly climax can only be reached by torturing them to death."

Aren't you just dying to watch the trailer now?

- Kamen Rider Agito may finally be growing on me. I've stopped right at the cusp of Shōichi remembering his past, and the fact I haven't come down from the climax of the arc gnaws at my "need to finish." Agito, by far, has some of the best writing/acting until Hibiki--and if you know how much I positively adore Hibiki, that's a fairly big compliment. Agito will never be a favorite series of mine, I think, but I can recognize the quality talent that's gone into it.

- Now onto something rare, a brain-dump on Characters I Really Like, which is not something I do very often. (I blame reading ilyena_sylph's Slade essay.)

( Specifically, Marc Spector/Moon Knight. )

I have come to a conclusion: I think the badness of ASBAR is blinding everyone to the gleeful madness that is Judd Winick's Titans (edited by Dan Didio!). Characterization, logic, or good art are all too high-brow for this book. Instead, we need to aim for more Dick and Kory fucking in the home of a recently murdered women! Gratuitous ass-in-the-air posing! Impossible-to-follow panel setups! Raven in daisy dukes! Fucking up long-established character's names!

me: http://pics.livejournal.com/drsevarius/pic/0001784b
Horrify Kat, or horrify Kat?
Betty: eh, wot? It's Gar stuck in bizarro superboy?
me: No, it's "Joesph Slade!"
Betty: ...
I guess Slade's last name is Slade! Slade Slade, they call him. The man so nice, they named him twice!

It's like the 90s after distilling out all of the good bits. Winick couldn't write a crappier book if he tried.

First off, thank you to everyone for being nice, understanding, and giving hugs. My father clearly doesn't know enough to start to ask more questions, given the name Avery has yet to come up again. Eventually, when I can make myself, I'm going to do some lockdown of my personal info and change some plans, but until then I'm just going to let myself recover.

Linkage: Second Art Et Cetera Auction Now Open! Bid on awesome stuff and support Girl-Wonder.org!

Rachel Edidin is looking for comics-related coming out stories and/or favorite coming out scenes in comics. I strongly urge you to share either with her.

And since now I get to have a little bit of a life again, things I have been reading/watching:

- Keitai Sousakan 7: I have no idea what on earth is going on in Mamoru Oshii's two-parter, but the sheer level of random hides that fact fairly well. Talking dog cutouts, a man-plane, Seven hitting himself in the back of the head with a bouncy ball...I can give that a pass. This is, after all, a show about walking sentient cellphones who solve crime. Ep. 21's a flashback, so it's eh like most flashbacks. My one comment is the overwhelming femininity of Second and Fourth really bothered me in my, "I want to enjoy you, show. Please stop it with the stereotypes." place.

I have to admit, though, I'm surprised a show primarily aimed at children is so often discussing suicide. First they have an episode focused on it, including Nagasawa Nao's character mentioning the death of her best friend, 01's insanity being caused in part by the suicide of a buddy--I am curious as to what Miike is aiming for here. He's got 30 more episodes to fit it in, though, so I'm sure it'll be suitably Miike.

- Casshern Sins: It's pretty? That's really all one can substantively say about it after the first episode. The plot is unclear, all the men look like they just left the pages of Chojin Locke, and Madhouse took a hint from Gainax and decided sketchy motion lines are the newest awesome trend. I'll keep watching this because it's a 70s superhero adaption and I'm a sucker for those, but I don't expect mind-shattering brilliance out of this, just pretty.

- Chou Ninja Tai Inazuma/Inazuma SPARK!: Why was I behind the awesometrain on this? The fact I was makes me sad, because it's a great little loving send-up of tokusatsu series by primarily tokusatsu actors. Also, Sainei Ryuji can act in it! This is nothing short of a miracle.

- Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger/Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: ♥, though more ♥ for Gao. Hurricanger's gonna take a little while to grow on me.

- Rose of Versailles: I'm slowly following the Lillicious scanslation. I can see why McCloud holds up Ikeda as the early Japanese master of impressionistic backgrounds, but these background are frankly quite a bit less helpful in practice half of the time. Mostly due to the insane level of shojo sparkles she's given to adding to a frame-less splash page.

- Zetman: I will continue to read you for the art, but I am very soon going to have to drop you for the sheer sexism. I love me some superheroes, but I don't love your inclination to objectification.

- Kamen Rider Spirits: The little kids have Super-1 hats! Cutest thing ever.

- One Day: And now that I have time to sit down and read it, I am blown away by Benjamin Bin Zhang's work. Below the cut is a selection of my favorite pages from Chapter 2 of One Day, his short work collection released in 2000. All of Zhang's art is created digitally; he does no traditional work.

This short story, "A Flower That Lives Not In Summer," follows a manhua artist who silently watches the relationship between his next-door neighbor and his girlfriend fall apart. The artist is captivated by the girl, but says nothing. However, she spends his entire advance on his last book on a flight to the North Pole just to get her a bouquet of flowers.

The story ends with her realizing she has inspired his latest work.

( 9 images. )

And finally:
Poll #1276432 Establishing an important precedent in literature
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

Gilgamesh: The First Ex-Gay?

So, I was reading The 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs earlier today. It's a pretty comprehensive list, no doubt, and I really do agree with some of the points. Jack Chick comics? A Selection of Comics That Interest You That You Can't Explain To Anyone Else? I'm definitely well-equipped to fill out those few categories.

As to the rest, I have deep ambivalence. The list leans somewhat heavily indie and focuses on older DC/Marvel creators, and that's to be expected. But with each point, I found myself twitching and being reminded of the attitude that I seem to pick up every time someone shares comicsholars listserv drama with me.

It's about being more, elitist, arty, and enlightened than the rest--but it's an acceptably artsy. The kind of "artsy" people talk about being artsy. Great LGBT creators from the days of Gay Comix like Roberta Gregory rarely make an appearance on these lists. And when it comes to manga, Tezuka is a must, but the great creators that came within 10-15 years after him (Shotaro Ishinomori, Riyoko Ikeda, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, countless others) are rarely included. Manhua and Manhwa are nonexistent; I'm of the opinion that everyone should read a decently translated volume of Ma Wing Shing's Chinese Hero from back in the Jademan days and have at least seen some of Benjamin Zhang Bin's work.

And admittedly, some of the things I mention are just hard to find and own period. But when one of the categories is "One Run of A Comic Strip That You Yourself Have Clipped," the slack I'm giving this list is in very limited supply.

Addendum: I'll readily admit to any glass houses and stones comparisons, because I can be a collection snob. I will seek out things that are considered "great" just because they are. But I also seek them out because I think they'll hold something to interest me.

Because I feel the need to impress upon people just how gorgeous Yasuhiko's work is, here's 3 of my favorite pages from Joan, Vol III. They quality isn't the best because I refuse to ruin the binding of this book.

( Images. )