Comicsgirl

Archive for September, 2003

Girls read manga larger numbers than they read comic books, despite what the two have in common. Some of this is image — manga (and anime) fans tend to be seen as cool, forward-thinking kids, while comic book fans evoke the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons (regardless of the truth of either of these stereotypes). Some it is practical — girls can feel more comfortable going into airy bookstores than navigating scary comic book stores. And some of it is the style — the “cute” factor of manga cannot be ignored. The expressive line work and beautiful characters are much more appealing to women than the testosterone-filled pages of superhero comics.

Granted, all of this is just a surface reading of the reasons why, but ultimately, manga manages to produce series that have plots that are more accessible to women. It may be a shame that girls will read manga that will never touch comics, but in the end, it’s better than these girls reading neither.

Still, shôjo doesn’t get much love in the press covering anime and manga, due to its blatant appeal to women (which isn’t to say boys don’t read it or watch it). Shôjo encompasses a broad range, from romance to horror to action, but it’s too often passed over for fare like Dragonball Z or mecha series (no matter how deep they are).

So it was refreshing to see Animerica devote its Sept. ‘03 issue to shôjo. While the issue may be off of news stands at this point, the main article can be read online, giving information on the history and conventions of shôjo. The magazine itself features articles on yuri and yaoi, as well as a list of the best shôjo titles. While the articles just scratch the surface of a large topic, it’s a great resource for beginners and it’s great to see shôjo get the respect it deserves.

The Sept. ‘03 issue of Animerica can be purchased online for the cover price of $4.95 USD.

Title: 1602
Issue No. 2 (of 8 issues)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover price: $3.50 (USD)
Release Date: Sept. 10, 2003
Creative Team: Neil Gaiman, writer; Andy Kubert, illustrator; Richard Isanove, digital painting; Todd Klein, lettering

Despite the promising start 1602’s first issue, the flaws of the concept begin to show themselves in #2. Part of the fun #1 was figuring out who everyone was supposed to be and delighting in how Marvel’s classic characters were interjected into the 17th century. By issue #2, however, that novelty is gone — readers know who everyone is, and all that’s left is the story as it quickly leaves behind the pretense of the historical setting and begins to dive deeper into the Marvel Universe.

As superhero comics go, this is about as smart as they come. As Neil Gaiman comics go, this seems to be a concession to mainstream audiences. It’s still entertaining, but scenes like the shot of the X-Men in costume and origin of Matthew Murdock’s blindness are just plain dumb (as is Carlos Javier’s little anti-smoking message). Gaiman has done much better.

Still, the dialogue, overall, is competent and clean, and the characters act like themselves, even as 17th century transplants. Gaiman’s creative re-imagining of the Marvel Universe is still bright and witty while still remaining accessible.

Kubert’s art is effervescent and expressive without moving too far away from traditional comic book art. Isanove’s lush palette of colors lends mood and atmosphere to the artwork and the distinctive technique used here sets the title apart from the rest of the Marvel’s overtly computer-colored titles. Looking at 1602 is a joy, and the art keeps the story intriguing and makes the minor quibbles forgivable.

It’s still too early to see which way 1602 will go — but #2 does leave questions that need to be answers. The frustrations aside, there’s still fun to be had.

From the ever-amazing Lucy Anne:

Read all about it here.

It’s a good choice. He can act, and he looks the part, and like Christopher Nolan says, he has the right balance of light and dark. I think Christopher Nolan may be able to do the Batman story justice. I enjoyed Memento, even to the extent that I think once you get the punchline, there’s not much more to it than that. Still, it’s entertaining to watch again.

Christopher Nolan has an obvious gift for storytelling, though, which I think will be good for a Batman movie — focus on plot above action. That’s where the last two Batman movies began to go wrong (and even on the action, they didn’t do well). Burton’s films were campy fun, but a bit in love with themselves (Batman Returns moreso).

Personally, though, I liked when Darren Aronofsky was tossed around as a director for Batman: Year One. We’ll all make do with his adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub, though.

Since when did directing comic book movies suddenly become the thing to do?

Due to personal reasons, I will not be attending Small Press Expo this weekend. I’m okay with it — mostly, it came down to that there wasn’t really anyone there I was too excited about seeing, and the rest of it wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

The Strangers In Paradise 10th Anniversary would have been fun, but perhaps more fun if it had occurred several years ago. Like a lot of other fans, I’ve grown a bit bored with the course of SiP. I still think it’s a wonderful comic, but the storyline has begun to drag. It’s just turned into too much of a soap opera for me. I’ll see about attending next year.

Comicsgirl is mostly functional now. There’s still some time that needs to be spent on making everything pretty and uniform, but except for the store, all the permanent content is now here. I’m still building the links in the Amazon.com Associates store and trying to decide how to best organize it all. To me, it’s the part of the site I care the least about.

I’m going to be hitting Small Press Expo on Saturday, more than likely. I’m planning on attending the 11 a.m. (that’s early!) “Comics and Journalism” panel, along with the 3:30 p.m. “Terry Moore: 10th Anniversary of Strangers in Paradise” talk. I suppose the in between time will be spent wandering around. This is all subject to change, depending on my mood on Friday into Saturday, of course.