Wonder Woman Wednesday

Wonder Woman 146.  This wasn't the greatest run, artwise, but gave us kick ass scenes like thhis!

Lois Lane through the years #womenoncomics

Ok, so inspired by the Women Write About Comics blog carnival I decided I was gonna write a proper blog post.  With lots of words and thoughts and everything.  I haven't written one of them in a while, so let's see how this goes.

OK, as I was putting together last week's post about a history of the superpant I thought gee whiz*, I wonder what a retrospective of the Lois' would look like?  It would be interesting huh?  I wonder how much the styles would change over the years, cos we know they've changed a lot in the comics.  And y'know, as Lois is the most recognisable female figure, aside from Wonder Woman, from comics (any comics), it sure would be interesting to see how the decades changed their interpretation of her.  Right?  Right.  Course it would be interesting.

I thought about doing a retrospective from the comics, but seeing as how thousands of people must have drawn her over the years, that would be nigh on impossible to of.  Por exempla:

About all you can say is that she's usually in a suit of some sort, when she's working.  But even that's not a hard and fast rule.  So I decided I'd stick with looking at the on-screen appearances, by real actors.

One short google search later and I was a bit depressed.  This was the only retrospective type picture I could find:

Talk about the male gaze!  I don't think that Teri Hatcher pic is even from Lois & Clark and Dana Delaney did the voice for Lois in a cartoon, she never played her on screen (pedant alert...pedant alert..).
Anyway, I asked around on twitter for other retrospectives (because my google search skills seem to be abysmal) and @jimmymcg found a good one for me.

(at least i think Jimmy found it for me.  if someone else found it, let me know and I'll credit you).
Top row, left to right is:
Phyllis Coates (Adventures of Superman), Margot Kidder (Superman films), Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns)
Bottom row, left to right is:
Erica Durance (Smallville), Noelle Neill (Movie serials and Adventures of Superman), Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark)

Now, how can I compare these?  They are all in suits, they all look professional.  Erm, they are very much of their eras?  Teri Hatcher is all 90s lines and power dressing.  Check out the bob!  It's interesting that Bosworth has glasses - did the movie makers decide they needed to give her a sense of intellectualism?  or seriousness?  That's usually what's conveyed by glasses, at least in American movie land.
It's definitely a more respectful retrospective than the first one in this post.

Women's fashion changes so much more than men's.  There's so much more nuance and detail that goes into women's fashions.  So many different things  women can do - haircut, hair colour, hair style, make-up, shirts, skirts, hats, necklaces, high heels, ballet flats, wedges, earrings, low necklines, high necklines, the list is endless.  Within each bracket there is so much choice.  So many indicators that women can choose to display.  I know that in theory men have the same range of choices, but truly, they don't.  Go compare the range of men's shoes in any department store with the range of women's shoes.  The men's range is tiny.

Anyway, to bring me back to the point, Superman has one costume.  Details change, like the size of the S shield, the height of the pants, the specific shade of the suit, but it is always recognisable as the super suit.  Even on Smallville, when that Clark didn't suit up until the very final episode ever, he always wore a combination of red and blue that signified him as different from the other characters.

Lois doesn't have that.  In the comics she is recognisable by her dark hair, you contrast her with the other characters, but you mostly recognise her from her dark hair.  In the movies, or the TV shows, it's different.  these things build a Lois that is recognisable through attitude, language and relationships with other characters.  But as to how she looks? That is utterly dependent on the era in which she is being portrayed.

For me, Margot Kidder will always be my favourite Lois, closely followed by Erica Durance.  Yet they don't have a lot in common.  Kidder is more dreamy, Durance is more fun and plucky.   Even looking at the pictures from the above scan, they don't really have a lot in common.  Aside from being pretty.

Oh, I can't compare these images of Lois!  Instead, i shall give you some other retrospectives of Lois, stolen from a Livenjournal post by verogeller, titled 'Picspam: Lois Lane, my favourite character - Superman mythology':

Lois Lane: You are my favourite non powered superhero!

* not really. I never say gee whiz.  or good golly miss molly.

This week's comics

So reading through them I was sure I had lots to say.  Now looking at my laptop with it's big empty screen i'm at a loss about what i'm to say.

*leafs through comics*

Young Justice 12.  This was more interesting than previous ones, but still, I think I'll give it up.  The humour seems to be missing and whenever I'm reminded that it's Dick not Tim, and Wally not Bart, I'm disappointed.
I'm also disappointed that Jackson isn't back in the mainstream DCU yet.  Yep, always dissapointed, that's me.

Birds of Prey 5
Ugh this cover nearly put me off reading any comics this week.

Ugh ugh ugh.  But when I sat down to read the issue, it was actually pretty darn good.  And Starling is gay.  She must be.  Gay and likes a drink. My sort of gal.  There was a couple of nice slashy panels between Babs and Dinah too, so that's nice.  I am (again) dissappointed to realise that Dinah is not with ollie, and apparently has never been with Ollie, if I read the subtext right.  This saddens me.  But I'll get over it if I can see their relationship develop.
BoP is one of the consistently good ones.  A bit more quality control on the cover art and I'd be a happy lady.

Supergirl 5
This title doesn't really seem to be doing a lot, but it sure is pretty.  It's all origin, and confusion, and Kara.  All Kara, even when there's other people around.  Definitely pretty though.

Wonder Woman 5
No Chiang on this issue, but no matter.  Imitation Chiang is brought in instead, and he draws a luvverly Poseidon.  I do appreciate how they've designed the Gods in this run.  It's completely unexpected, but so good.  I'm curious as to why Hades has been given a flaming head, but I'm sure it will come to me soon.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man  6
This was going great guns until lil Miles started worrying about his apparent 'criminal gene'.  I'm a leetle bored of this trope now.  I've seen it done over and over in Superboy (any title) and I think comic writers coudl really do with giving it a rest.
That aside, the rest of the issue was fine, and the new artist was good.

I see we have a Batman 5 in the house too, but I won't read or review that, because Batman sucks.

Super Silly Sunday

Supes must have been hanging out with Batman for too long.  Nothing else can explain the negative outlook, right?

From Adventure Comics 393.

Jay Garrick outfit

I'm putting together a Jay Garrick outfit for the London Super Comic con.  Here's my preliminary post about it.

The costs
T-shirt - already owned, as a birthday present.
The boots - bought from ebay for £2.42 plus £2,50 postage.
The jeans - bought from New Look for £25.99
The hat - bought from ebay for £9.95 plus £3.75 postage.
The spray paint for the hat - £4.55, from a local DIY shop.
The primer, to prepare the hat for the spray - £8.53
The fimo - to make the wings, £4.30 from a craft shop
The acrylic gold paint - to paint the wings, £1,75, from a craft shop.
Gold feather charms - for general decoration, bought from ebay, £0.99 plus £0.85 postage.  I'm not sure how I'm gonna use these yet.  We'll see. I could attach one each to the boots, cos I'm certainly not planning to do fancy wings for the boots.

Anyway, here's the stuff for the hat, as gathered so far.

I will put up in progress posts and pictures, as well as showing the completed thing.  I am picking the jeans up on Thursday, but probably won't start putting things together for a couple of weeks.

I've also just realised I don't have a belt yet..hmm..  I'm not sure if the jeans have belt loops at the top.  I may need to get even more crafty.  This could be a problem, because I am not by nature a crafty person..

Anyway.  If you go to the con and see a Jay Garrick around, it will probably be me.  So come and say hi!

Gender bent Justice League

Artwork of that group of cosplayers that turned up last year (or the year before?) on the America con circuit.  Simply fabulous.

It's by Yasmin Liang.

Reynard City are looking for sponsorship

I think I've talked before about Reynard City, a webcomic run by a friend of mine.  They are currently developing a game and a tv pilot, as well as putting out roughly bi-monthly webcomics.  Reynard City nurtures new talent and sales of merchandise bring in cash for the artists.  It's written by a fella named Will turner, and he's gotta be one of the hardest working folk I know.  They'll be at MCM Expo in May, along with another webcomic's team - DeathBoy.

Anyway RC are now offering advertising in the comics.  Not like DC's advertising, I hasten to add.  Here's the info from their site:
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In order to pay our artists and provide the best quality we need sponsorship. You may have already seen our website sponsorship options at www.reynardcity.com/advertise  However we are aware that you want the best promotion for your money, so we have decided to extend the range of options available to you so you can decide what is best for your promotional needs.

In addition to our existing sponsorship packages we have decided to add the option to sponsor specific issues. You can either add your link to the front page where people download the issue or you can add full page adverts to a new one (ideal if you are promoting a book or webcomic!)
There are various ways you could benefit from this
* Include sample pages or teasers from upcoming issues of your comic
* Get more comissions as an artist or writer by paying for an advert for your services
* Promote your company on the front of the latest issue

(Please note- prices are quoted in pound sterling. Other currencies are available. Payment can be made via Paypal or cheque. For more information regarding content rules or any other questions please contact reynardcity@gmail.com)

Issue description page sponsorship= £25
 Full page adverts= £25 for one page, £50 for three pages, £75 for five pages

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I wanted to post this in case anyone reading was interested in advertising, or if they knew anyone interested in advertising in it.