Comicsgirl

Archive for September, 2008

Lynda Barry and Tom Tomorrow will be at Politics and Prose at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively, on Friday night. If you’re headed north to SPX, this is a good kickoff (if you’re headed south to SPX, you should be going to the Atomic Books party instead). I will not be there since I’m putting in a volunteer shift at SPX on Friday night, but since Politics & Prose is among a dying breed of independent book stores in the D.C. area, you should support them if you can.

Especially now that this has been taken care of (I have no explanation beyond “It’s all Dan’s fault.” Of course, to me, the answer to the question “Do you want to present a RoboPanda to Neil Gaiman?” is always “yes”), I can now focus on Small Press Expo.

I will likely be there the entire weekend, a guest of my good friend Tim Lantz (and yes, he knows his work isn’t quite what you see from a lot of exhibitors at SPX). I would love it if you stop by and say hi.

I have a few plans for the weekend in terms of blogging, but we’ll see what I can actually get together between now and then.

I will likely attend the Children’s and YA Comic Books panel on Saturday at 3:30 (which overlaps with the Brian Lee O’Malley presentation, sadly). I may attend a few other things as the mood strikes me.

I hope to see you there. I encourage you to be there if you’re anywhere within driving/train distance. It’s always a good time.

It’s all over the Internet at this point, but The Beat links to a CBR report that DC is canceling the Minx books. No one is really too surprised and most people seem to be conflicted but sad about it. I know I am.

Dirk Deppey has an interesting analysis, and one I mostly agree with — DC wasn’t thinking long term. The Minx line is less than two years old and despite that deal with Alloy, was never really marketed to its target audience. I think it was just beginning to find its footing and its direction, but because it was underperforming, DC just scraps the whole thing.

I understand DC is a business and while I admire them for trying to get teenage girls as an audience, they obviously had no clue what they were doing. The books, for the most part, were good and not great and didn’t really appeal to the teenage girls reading Twilight or watching Gossip Girls.

In the end, it was a nice attempt but it was one that was pretty much created to fail.

I am doing about 1,000 things (as usual) and while there’s a few reviews on the back burner, there are more important things (in other words, things I’m being paid for) that are taking priority.

Next weekend is the Baltimore Comic Con. I will not be there, however, since I will be at the National Book Festival instead. The weekend after that is Small Press Expo, and I will be there, more than likely for the entire weekend. (Baltimore’s Atomic Books is having a pre-party and 16th anniversary celebration on Oct. 3, but I doubt I’ll be there.)

Anime USA is the weekend after that, and if I’m not completely burned out, it’s a maybe (a little pricey, but might be fun).

And then, I think the entire D.C. area prepares for winter hibernation. Which I know I’m going to need.

There is some interesting discussion of The American Prospect’s “The Invisible Woman” piece about the lack of superherione movies at Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch blog.

I kind of sort of liked Elektra, but then, I’ll pretty much watch anything with Jennifer Garner (And I suppose that if she’s in the U.S. version of Be with You, that’s not quite the kind of comic book movie people are talking about, although I guess it was a movie first anyway).

NPR discussed the “Bechdel Rule” a couple of weeks ago, and I think that’s a lot of why we don’t see movies about superheroines. We don’t see many movies about women, period.

I’m basically neutral on this. Yes, I’d love to see awesome women onscreen. But I don’t want to see superheroine movies that aren’t particularly good. I think there’s plenty of room for an awesome action heroine who is in a good movie. I think both men and women would gladly go for that.

It’s a discussion worth having. For now, I’m happy to know that TV has such things as The Middleman. If we can’t get the movies, we can at least get TV shows.

Yes, I know I’ve said how much I love Isotope before and I am still sad it’s way across the country. But the Isotope Award is cool regardless of all of that. It has a cool collection of knowledgeable judges and is, without a doubt, an honor. If you have a mini-comic, what are you waiting for?

(Unless there is some sort of miracle, I doubt very seriously I will make it to Alternative Press Expo this year. I’ve even considered the “well, I could fly out there for a day …” scenario, but the money it would cost me is fairly ridiculous. Maybe next year …)

Chiggers HC Buy at tfaw.com!

It’s painful and confusing to be a young teenage girl. Your friends are growing up faster than you are. You feel alienated from the people you once knew. No matter what you do, you don’t feel cool enough.

Hope Larson’s Chiggers captures this transitional period beautifully, quietly. There’s no profound life-lessons here. The book at both matter-of-fact and magical as it follows Abby through a summer at camp and her friendship with a strange girl named Shasta, who says she was struck by lightning.

Larson understands why Abby would still talk to Beth after she overheard Beth talking about her and why Abby would remain loyal to Shasta after they fought over a boy they both liked. She understands his is just the way girls are. (And I liked how Abby and her friends were initially catty toward Deni – none of the girls here are presented as being better than the others.)

Larson’s art is loose and animated. The thick outlines give an immediacy to the story that reflects the subject matter. Everything for teenage girls is right now. Her expressive faces are fun and can almost tell the story in themselves – characters’ eyes cut off to the side, or widen in surprise. I love Abby’s look of confusion and sorrow when someone points out there’s a leaf in Shasta’s hair after she’s run off with Abby’s crush Teal. We’re never told what happened there, but Abby’s heartbreak is apparent, wordless.

I also love that through the slightly older Rose, Larson shows that there is something beyond the turmoil of young adolescence. While some women never grow out of gossiping and betrayal, Rose represents that girls do move beyond this period. Abby gives Rose – and readers – hope that things won’t be like this forever.

Abby is also, delightfully, a geek. She’s a girl who likes Dungeons and Dragons and books called things like Outlaw Queen of the Minas (which, sadly, seems to be something Larson made up). It’s easy for me to relate to her and why she’d feel attached to Shasta, who seems to attract electric forces. That’s the kind of teenage girl I was. (And there’s something so wonderful when Teal gives Abby a 20-sided die.)

I want to know why the Minx books aren’t like this. I love it now but I would’ve loved it as a teenager. I can only hope that this book will bring Hope Larson the wider attention she deserves.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko is a career guide in manga form. Written by Daniel Pink with art by Rob Ten Pas, it follows Johnny, who is unhappy in his job, as he is visited by the mysterious Diana, who appears any time he pulls apart a set of magical chopsticks to give him career advice.

Yes, the whole set-up is pretty silly, but the advice is great. I especially like the first lesson of “There is no plan.” It’s a quick read and quite a bit of fun. There is a lot more related content on the website.

I like the idea of this — career advice aimed at a younger audience in a format they’re comfortable with, but without it feeling condescending. I certainly connected with it.

(Yes, it’s been out since April. And yes, I read about this in the Post article. I’m just a little behind.)

Google-following blog, Blogoscoped was sent a copy of Scott McCloud’s comic explaining Google’s new browser, Chrome. Google has good taste.

Whether or not we need a browser from Google is irrelevant in this case, I suppose.

Update: Google itself has it here now.