Comicsgirl

Archive for January, 2009

Lemondrop has posted a list of The Top Ten Coolest Cartoon Characters, which despite the name, is pretty heavy on comic book characters. As these lists go, this is one of the more interesting and diverse ones, even when I don’t agree — it features characters such as Nasser Ali Khan from Marjane Satrapi’s “Chicken with Plums” and John Arbuckle from Garfield — but other than Daria and Maggie and Hopey from Love and Rockets, it was sadly lacking in women. (I do get the feeling, though, it was originally intended to be a list of comic book and cartoon crushes and was later changed to “coolest.”)

If you’re going to make a list of the coolest cartoon characters, how is Sailor Moon (or any of the other Sailor Scouts/Soldiers) not on this list? Why no Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop? If we want to branch out to comics without resorting to the typical faves like Hellboy and such, why not Fone Bone and Thorn from Bone? Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise? I think I’d even happily campaign for Skywise from Elfquest, but I understand that’s my issue.

I’m glad that Emily Brochin included Daria, though. I’m surprised at how polarizing Daria is — you talk to women of a certain age, and we all cite Daria as something we related to and is quite the reference point for us. You talk to men of a similar age — even otherwise thoughtful, awesome men — and they just talk about how annoying the show was. I just think that’s funny.

Image taken from screenshot of Lemondrop

There has been a lot of chatter about this article around the Internet, or at least the bit of it that I read. And yeah, I think with all the superboys out there, we could see a few more supergirls.

I grew up playing with a good mix of “girl” toys and “boy” toys. I had all kinds of My Little Ponies and I loved Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake. I even liked Barbies. But I loved Legos (which I think are unisex, anyway, but I loved the simple smiley faces they used to have because you could put on “girl” hair to anyone and look, you have a woman!) and I loved playing with my brother and his Justice League action figures during the ’80s (or whatever they were — the DC Comics characters). I think Wonder Woman was the only woman of the batch, but it didn’t matter to me. Hawkman was also cool.

I didn’t see why I couldn’t be a princess and also go on adventures. Maybe I didn’t quite think of it like that, but I while I was happy being a girl, I didn’t see that as a limitation.

I know it’s different growing up as a boy — because while girls can easily cross over to the other side and pick up “boy” toys, boys have a much harder time doing the same. But it seems that a lot of the discussion about superheroines on screen seems to revolve around “women should get to see movies with strong women” and “men don’t want to see movies with strong women.”

And yeah, I do think Hollywood has a problem presenting female-driven movies that aren’t, you know, Bride Wars, but I also know that there’s a good portion of women that want to see movies like that. (I also know there’s a bunch of us who don’t.) I think women deserve to see a better picture of themselves onscreen. But I also think men do, too.

I cannot speak for all men, but I know plenty of awesome men who like strong female characters. Maybe they don’t seek them out necessarily, but they’re happy to relate to a woman who’s strong and awesome. They like Wonder Woman and Batman (just as examples). Or at least, they like good stories, regardless of who they are about.

And isn’t that really the ultimate point — good stories can be told about superwomen, just as bad stories can be. (And there are also a lot of bad “superhero” movies out there — sure, it was just a made-for-TV deal, but I do need to point out Nick Fury: Agent of Shield starring David Hasselhoff.)

So I think we need good superheroine movies more than anything, even just to prove to the doubters it can be done. I don’t think there’s any better time for it.

Promotional image from the Birds of Prey TV series from 2002

The Masque of the Red Death Buy at Amazon.com!

I actually feel like I should be slightly embarrassed to own Masque of the Red Death: Volume One. Or that I would be embarrassed if I possessed a sense of shame. But you know what? I like Wendy Pini. I like Elfquest and I don’t care who knows it. Elfquest was a ton of fun and way ahead of its time and some day everyone is going to realize that and stop making fun of it.

Masque of the Red Death you can make fun of, though. But it’s impressively good nonetheless.

Pini uses Edgar Allan Poe’s story of decadence and death as her jumping off point — Anton Prosper IV decides to seclude himself away from the outside world, only inviting a few people into his extravagant house. Among them are the crass and ambitious Madame Kabala and her beautiful son Steffan to work on his secret project. However, Steffan and Anton find a connection with each other and begin to break down the walls of secrets each have created.

And well, you know where this is going. Mostly, the basic plot is straight out of any convoluted anime series you’ve ever watched — this world comes with its own rules that it doesn’t really try to explain. The romance between Anton and Steffan is pretty much apparent from the first moment they meet, but the bigger concepts of the nature of the human heart and brain, the limitation of science do keep the book compelling. Anton and Steffan are a little bland, for all their secrets, but still likable, and Madame Kabala is delightfully devious (and her relationship with her son is more than a little creepy).

Pini’s always been in love with the look of late ’70s and early ’80s anime and manga and it works excellently here. While in my more disparaging moments, I would compare this to any of the Photoshop-enhanced artwork you find all over deviantART, that’s really not too fair — the art here has a wonderfully animated look to it that’s distinctive and lush. Pini uses color beautifully when Anton and Steffan travel through the Rainbow Chambers. The sex is surprisingly explicit but tastefully so (you don’t see everything, but you see enough) and if watching two pretty, skinny elfin boys get it on if your thing, it’s pretty erotic (if it’s not, then you probably wouldn’t want to be reading this book in the first place).

I was surprised at how caught up I got in the story and I look forward to seeing what happens next. This book is better than you want to think it is and so much fun.

(I can’t, in good conscience, specifically recommend this to teenage girls. But they’re probably the ones who are reading it anyway. So let’s just leave it at that.)

You can read Volume One and beyond at Go! Comi, but I personally don’t like the whole slightly “animated” interface of reading it. I like the attempt at doing something different, but it annoys me. I think it looks better in book form, too.