Comicsgirl

I’ve mostly been avoiding posting about this story because no one had written anything I liked about it — which is to say, fair. But the New Haven Advocate has a good take on the whole “Daniel Clowes Eightball #22 was given to a ninth-grader” story.

I do think the Advocate piece makes a good point about how the “objectionable” subject matter in Eightball #22 is in plenty of other “approved” literature for this age group. It’s more about that it’s a comic with those things than anything else.

My experience with Clowes pretty much begins and ends with Ghost World so I can’t say whether or not this was appropriate or inappropriate for a ninth grader. Should the teacher given it to the student? Maybe not, but I don’t know the circumstances as to why he did. I do remember being a ninth-grader, though, and the sorts of things I was reading. Maybe they weren’t assigned reading, but I think we need to stop underestimating teenagers. I think they know better than we do about what they can and cannot handle (I’ve often said that while I wouldn’t give The Sandman to a 14-year-old now, I don’t think it’s bad I read it at that age).

For one week in July, Washington Women in Theatre is presenting Astra: The Super Heroine Manga Musical, co-written by Jerry Robinson. Eximious Press has some more details (as do some other people, but Eximious Press is local so I decided they got to be the special ones).

While $22 is more than I tend to pay for my going-out entertainment, I don’t think I can miss this one. I mean, comic books, feminism, theatre, bars with show spaces, Japan … seriously, how could I justify missing this?

Walt Disney Studios Signs Exclusive Deal With Stan Lee

No, really, I saw it first! (Even if The Beat did post it before me.) After all, a major portion of my day is spent reading random stories from the Associated Press.

It covers most of the basics — you have Jonathan Lethem, Stephen King, Michael Chabon — but Jodi Picoult is in there, too (but no Tamara Pierce). I’m sure there’s some people I’m missing (comments at The Beat mention Douglas Rushkoff, but he’s not so much a novelist as just a writer).

It’s interesting to me — I mean, I suppose there’s a case that could be made about the legitimacy of comic books blah blah blah — but I also think that writers like to get paid and being under some kind of contract for a monthly title is a way to do it. I like that the AP is covering this, though, because to me, you don’t get much more mainstream than AP.

The Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington, D.C., is hosting an exhibit of shoujo manga beginning at the end of this month. Despite the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours, I think I can manage to get over there to see it.