Comicsgirl

This subject is something I’ll do more with later, but it’s timely.

Lots of news outlets are writing about the mass of teenage girls excited about the Twilight movie. Now, I know, despite the name, the San Diego Comic-Con hasn’t been just about comics for a good long while. But all these teenage girls are there, excited about a movie based on a book that’s genre fiction (although, yes, vampires are an acceptably romantic and tragic form of genre fiction) and they’re at something that has “comic” in the name.

So where are the comics for these girls? Would they not read them? I don’t think it’s entirely a leap for a girl who graduated to Twilight from the Harry Potter books to pick up a comic. Yes, there’s manga, and maybe she does read that, but as far as American comics go, I think she’s pretty much being ignored. There is this huge, passionate audience that remains untapped.

Why isn’t anyone trying to get these girls to read comics? Because they will. I was, more or less, like these girls. (Some would go as far to say I’m still basically one of these girls, despite not being a teenager, but I suppose that’s a different matter.)

I’m sure some of these girls do read comics. But I think they deserve more.

New York magazine has the image of the 20th anniversary poster for The Sandman, drawn by a bunch of different people who worked on the series (and possibly more). It’s cool. Not something I would hang in my house, but still cool (and anyway, I already have the first Yoshitaka Amano Sandman poster on my wall).

The Kindly Ones Buy from tfaw.com

I always remembered The Kindly Ones as being long, messy as complicated. I remember reading it for the first time in one sitting, not looking up for hours, and once I closed the book, I realized I was really hungry.

Certainly it was engrossing. And I supposed I liked it. But I didn’t remember much else about reading it, other than a few scant plot details.

And yes, The Kindly Ones is still long, still messy and still complicated. Those memories remain true. But I was amazed by it this time – it’s perfectly paced and brutally heartbreaking. It’s long and unrelenting, but it does pay off in the end.

To me, as much as I love Brief Lives and a lot of the short stories in The Sandman, this is probably closest to what the title was always capable of. It has the darkness, the depth the title had from the beginning, but Neil Gaiman manages to pull all of its disparage storylines into one final epic and doesn’t miss a beat doing it. I was honestly amazed at how well it all worked and how saddened I was by several of the deaths. I knew what was coming at the end – I knew it before I read it the first time, even – but the sense of loss continued to affect me for days afterward. I didn’t expect that.

Neil Gaiman also does a neat trick when it comes to the Kindly Ones themselves – there are the obvious ones, the fates in their form as the furies, but then there are also the other women that act, even unintentionally against Dream – Lyta the mother; Nuala the maiden, and Thessaly/Larissa the crone. Yes, I know everyone else figured this out years ago. It’s not like it’s not obvious (and I kind of feel like I probably saw it the first time I read it, too). But I still think it’s a lot of fun and lovely.

Oh, and Thessaly? It’s good to see her again. I know plenty of people didn’t quite understand the reasons behind her being Dream’s mystery lover – as in, they didn’t understand what Dream saw in her. I think most of those people where men, though. I know what Dream saw in her, though. Because it’s what a lot of women see in themselves.

Stick with me here.

In The Sandman, we see Dream fall in love with a queen, a muse … and OK, we don’t know quite who Alianora is, but I think we can assume she’s probably someone special.

Thessaly, or Larissa, as she calls herself now, isn’t a queen or a goddess. Sure, she’s a powerful, basically immortal witch, but other than that, she’s probably the most normal of Dream’s girlfriends (that we know of, anyway). Obviously, Dream can see past appearances and doesn’t just date rock stars or models (so to speak). In other words, girls, Dream would totally date you. Remember what I said about pandering to the female audience?

Maybe it’s not really any of that. It’s good drama, though. And while Thessaly’s protection of Lyta may seem overly cruel, she was just doing what she had to. She knew what was inevitably going to happen and I personally think she wanted to have some control in how it did. Her actions were self-serving, maybe, but I don’t think there was anything necessarily vindictive about her actions toward Dream.

Ultimately, though, I think the character’s journey I most relate to in The Kindly Ones is Nuala. She first appeared in Season of Mists as a fairy who gets her glamor taken away from her. She pops in and out of the issues after that, as a rather plain, ordinary girl. When she’s called back to the Faerie, she decides she liked who she learned she was while in The Dreaming and rejects glamor. She wants to be an ordinary girl because it means she’s herself. I always thought that was wonderful thing (although the fact Dream barely knew who she was or that she was in love with him does sort of negate my whole statement of “Dream will totally date you.” But whatever. Men are oblivious).

And I do think that’s what I like about The Kindly Ones: The women aren’t to blame. Yes, their actions do contribute to Dream’s downfall, but Dream’s downfall was his own fault and something he more or less wanted. It was something he sought out. There is not a moment in The Kindly Ones where any fingers point to any of the female characters as being responsible. That would’ve been the easy way out and I love that Gaiman avoided it entirely.

While contextually, Rose Walker’s story here doesn’t have much to do with the overall plot, I still think she’s a necessary part of this book. I like seeing her again and I like that she gets some sort of resolution. In her own strange way, she embodies all three aspects of womanhood – maiden, mother and crone.

And yes, I like Marc Hempl’s art here. I think it’s perfect for this story.

Now I just have The Wake left to read. And I am more than a little sad about this.

I don’t have particularly high hopes for the Watchmen movie, but this does make it look good. But we’ll see.

And yes, I know this is all over the Internet and you’ve already watched it. But some of us were working.

Philadelphia writer and comedian Meg Favreau writes about her experiences at Wizard World Chicago, where the above quote was said to her (while she was picking up a volume of Preacher).

She writes this:

The Suicide Girls and Wizard World can only be alternative up to a point; after that they would cease to be as popular and, perhaps moreover, as profitable. Unfortunately for me, that means that at Wizard World, the Suicide Girls set the bar for what girls are supposed to be — cute and kind of alternative, but still seen more as sex symbols than nerds.

And that’s been somewhat my experience. I can’t exactly think of one instance where I’ve ever been talked down to by men when it comes to comics — certainly, I’ve been in comic book stores where I’ve felt left out of the boys’ club, but that’s a little more subtle. I’ve had boys try to act like they know more about comics than I do because they’re boys but that hasn’t happened in a while (I think I’ve just learned to keep better company). The only people who recommend “cute” comics to me are those who know I do like cute comics.

But I know experiences like Favreau’s do happen, and probably all too often. And I do know what it feels like to be stuck in the realm between “girl” and “person who likes geeky stuff.”

It’s a good read. Go check it out.