Very cheap comics bundle available on Comixology - 1 day left

I crossposted this from my other blog.. New readers... start here! - introducing people to comics.  I thought readers of this site would like to know about it too.

Comixology have just announced a sale on their Submit comics.  These are creator owned comics (not published or owned by Marvel, DC, Image or any other big companies) that creators submit to the site for sale to the general public.

There are 100 comics in this bundle, including some by Joshua Hale Falkov and Becky Cloonan.  The individual comics are normally priced at $333 but the sale price is $10 for the lot.  This is unbelievably good value.

Buy the bundle here.  The sale ends March 10th, 11pm EST.

Note - these are for digital comics to be read on your laptop/phone/tablet etc.

Really out of date comic reviews

Here we go..  All these comics are at least 2 weeks old so yeah, spoiler alert, but I bet the content won't be news to many people.  Comics covered are:
Princeless Get Over Yourself Issue 4 and Tales of the Family Ashe, Justice League 22, Fearless Defenders 6, Demon Knights 22, Clockwork Watch: Breakaway, Batman/Superman 1, X-Men 2, Uncanny X-Men 7, Larfleeze 1, Hawkeye 11 and 12.

Thoughts will be short as I've got such a lot to cover.

Hawkeye 11 and 12
11 was told from the perspective of the dog.  It was rather cleverly done.  Lots of unintelligible words and symbols to convey dog thoughts and dog understanding. When I read it I had an awful virus and couldn't take a lot in, so parts confused me.  But I enjoyed it.  Even if I needed a nap afterwards.

12 is told from the perspective of Clint's (estranged?) brother.  the pages are broken up into a lot of different panels.  There's usually at least 10 on each page.  Colours are nice. Dialogue is nice.  Story is interesting.  Good stuff.

Larfleeze 1
This was great fun.  Like the DCU used to be.  This went straight onto my pull list.  It will be interesting to see how and why there are other Orange Lanterns, as I thought Larfleeze could be the only one.  I mean, the whole orange thing is about greed, so I bet he'll go mental when he meets the others.

Uncanny X-Men 7
I bought this by mistake, I intended to get another X comic, that was recc'd to me, but got confused in the shop.  It's got very pretty art and Cyclops did get knocked on the head by a flying rock, which is always nice to see.  Don't think I'll be buying any more though.

X-Men 2
Also great fun.  It's got Jubilee and Mohawked storm, and Shadowcat, Rogue, Psylocke and a redhead from the Summers family tree.  So apart from Psylocke and the Redhead, all my favourites.  This is great.

Batman/Superman 1
Another good offering from DC.  Like Larfleeze this went straight on my pull list.  The art is fantastic, changing to suit the scenes. It starts off in Gotham, and is all gothic, then moves to Kansas and the colour palette goes summery.  It's beautiful.  Even though it's the new 52 Superman and Batman I really enjoyed it.  I have high, high hopes for this title.

Clockwork Watch: Breakaway
This is the second issue in the Clockwork Watch series (issue 1 reviewed over on New readers...) and it moves the story along nicely.  The art is gorgeous and Janav has matured into quite the attractive young man.  Clockwork servants have become more and more advanced, with many resembling humans (apart from their eyes, which have little cogs for pupils).  Janav has been pushed into a sort of police force where he has to hunt down renegade Clocks.

The lettering and speech bubble lines are lovely.  When Janav is visiting his mother's grave his dialogue is written in the style of an Indian alphabet (I wish I knew exactly what).  When he's writing to his childhood friend in India the speech bubbles lines are rough, like that of old paper.  When the Clocks are speaking a little cog is incorporated into the speech bubble.  When Janav is angry the speech bubble drips with aggression.

The Clockwork Watch team is at SDCC this weekend and I think they are previewing the next issue.  I'm jealous because I want to read it!

You can buy copies of both issues here, in hardcopy and digitally.

Demon Knights 22
Oh blimey. The get the grail. The Horsewoman's injuries (?) are healed and she can walk again.  I'm so sad this series will be finishing soon.

Fearless Defenders 6
I cannot get over Valkyrie's ridiculous boob armour.  People complain about sexualisation in comics. They complain about Peej's boob window.  Have I missed all the complaints about Val's costume?  or is that not a thing?
Great issue, but Annabelle got killed. I'm sad.  But I'm sure she shall be back!

Justice League 22
This is the start of Trinity War and Gods help me I actually enjoyed it.  Superman appears to kill Dr Light.  Except he doesn't.  It's quite clear by other characters exposition that he doesn't.  I have little patience for people who took this as badly as they took Man of Steel.  I've put the Trinity War issues on my pull list.  We'll see how that goes.

Princeless Get Over Yourself Issue 4 and Tales of the Family Ashe
As usual, this is brilliant.  If you aren't getting it, go order it now.  The trades are out.  It's so much better than most Marvel or DC fare.  Go buy.

Wonderful article on the Empowered comic

Just go read it.  Empowered is a subervsie feminist comic with an intelligent and likeable heroine, that is all about cheesecake and sexy stuff and getting tied up but does it right.  I reviewed the first volume over on New readers...

Nil comics

I bought no comics this week so I have no reviews.  Instead I am going through the boxes of comisc (all 5 of them!) that a friend gave me a while back and reading stuff from there.  I read Grendel: War Child yesterday which was great.  Read a Lords of Misrule and Challengers of the Unknown mini today.  Then started Morrison's JLA run (again).  I am not too enamoured with it (again).

I read 50 Shades of Grey last week and it's absolute shit.  It's a terrible romance, a terrible porn book and terribly written.  Grey is a controlling manipulative stalker, the story IS a story of domestic abuse, Ana can't and doesn't consent and the BDSM stuff is pretty light.  I'm pretty sure I've read blogs about how the BDSM in 50 Shades isn't true BDSM and I can well believe it.  It reads like someone's warped idea of it.

It's awful.  I am disgusted that this book is being marketed as acceptable porn for women.  It's awful.

If you don't know why the book is a domestic abuse story look at this website and this twitter.

I am also thinking about writing another update on my gym/diet progress. I am so near to my goal weight I sort of want to celebrate and I have lots and lots of thoughts about the dieting industry, calories and exercise, and support from others, but it seems a big topic to tackle.  I also need to do more New readers... reviews and get back to signing, but uhh, everything seems so big.  I'm not sure how to break everything down into manageable chunks.  Life seems full of work and gym at the moment, and worrying about weight. Anything else feels too big.

Anyway, I hope you are all well!

I started a tumblr

Mostly because I want an easy quick way to reblog images that I like.

I have come to a decision about how I will use each of my blogs (and twitter).

This blog (Pai) is for informal comics review, essays, ramblings, whinges, celebrations and anything that needs more than three sentences of words.

New readers...start here! shall continue as a formal comics blog for people new to comics.  And I am going to update it more often too.  Honest.

My tumblr, Pai tumbls, is located at http://sarangacomics.tumblr.com/.  That will be used for reblogging photos, most likely to be of Supergirl and a Wonder Woman, but quiite possibly will cover other heroes too.  I really wanted to do a fuck yeah Supergirl tumblr but don't want to give myself another project, and anyway, there already is one (http://fuckyeahsupergirl.tumblr.com/).

Twitter (@sarangacomics)  is for general chit chat and finding out news.

Comic reviews!!!

These have been a long time coming.  As I said before I spent 80 quid on comics at Thought Bubble, and because I've been busy moving house and doing coursework it took me a while to start reading them.  Now I've read all apart from the 3 Cinebook books, for which I want a full afternoon spare in which to revel in them, and Howard Hardiman's Badger books, for which I want an evening to sit and relax with them.

But I now feel ready to start getting down my thoughts on the other books I got.  The best books will also be reviewed on New readers.

I'll start with the weakest of the lot - Team Girl Comic.  This wasn't something I went looking to buy, but when I saw it I thought it might be the sorta thing I'd like.  You may remember I had a Wonder Woman costume on.  So there I was, stopped at the table, selling TEAM GIRL comics, and I noticed they had about 5 eager looking enthusiastic women all sort of crowded round ready to sell comics to the punters.  In fact, there's a picture of them here. But what with the enthusiasm, and me in the WW costume, and it being a girl comic, it all felt a bit cliched, which was mildly embarrassing, but also quite nice, I think.  Anyway it meant I didn't chat much to them, even though they were all perfectly nice people, and advised me to get issues 5 and 6 as they were the best.  So I did.

It's an anthology, with strips by women artists/writers in the Glasgow area.  The problem is the comics aren't that great.  The quality of work is variable and the only pieces that really stand out are Penny Sharp's Fox comics.  The rest I can easily leave.  However, I guess that's the beauty of anthology comics.  You take a punt and everything is a surprise.  Occasionally you discover a gem.  I have the first two issues of The Girly Comic, which was doing a similar thing, but I feel that The Girly Comic was much better.  Mind you, I haven't re-read them for years, so maybe they are bad too...

Next up I read Julia Scheele's I don't like my hair neat.  I first came across Julia in The Peckham House for Invalids.  I hadn't set out to find her at Thought Bubble, but I saw her name on the table and it rang a few bells and I asked her if she was involved with the Peckham House and she said yes, and so I bought the comic.  I think my boyfriend was buying something else from the same table at the time.  It helped that I saw this image of hers being given away as a postcard:

Julia's blog is here and she is on twitter at @juliascheele.  I don't like my hair neat is a collection of stories, the first (and main) one being about a woman fearing she might be pregnant. Then there's a page showing 'a short history of touches' which is actually quite moving, and a page showing what is in her handbag ( a wonder woman badge and a lot of tobacco and filters, amongst other things).  Julia's strength is in her colours.  They are incredibly vibrant and full of life.  Positive (written by Katie West) and Diem (words and concept by Chrissy Williams) are mesmerising.
On a more physical and less visual note, the paper this has been printed on is gorgeous!

That's enough for ThoughtBubble stuff for tonight.  I'll do more reviews of these indie comics in a few days, and now move onto a few DC issues which are languishing.

Thought Bubble 2012

I went to Thought Bubble this year and it was ace!

Sadly we could only go on the Saturday and we had the world's most horrendous train journey back (ending in a taxi from Peterborough to Norwich, where the taxi driver didn't know where Norwich is.  I kid you not) but the day itself was fantastic.

I went dressed as Wonder Woman:

Instead of buying a WW symbol top I got an eagle necklace and wore that instead:

In case you can't see clearly, the gemstones are blue.

I felt like a bit of a charlie at first (for charlie, read fool) but quickly got over that.  There were a few other Wonder Woman there (including a roller derby Wondy) and some appropriately tall and lithe Wondys.  I was definitely the fat one. But I enjoyed it and I reckon there's room for a few fat Wonder Women in the world :)

Most of the day was spent trawling the stalls but we did get to go to 1 panel - comic and society. It wasn't quite what I expected (a political analysis of comics), and was more of a history of American comics.  Still, it was interesting, and I was proud that I already knew most of the superhero stuff he talked about, and I even knew some stuff the lecturer didn't! (such a nerd).

I spent 80 quid on comics (the boyfriend spent 60 quid) and I met lots of people I'd previously only chatted to on twitter, which was great.  I'll post reviews of each comic I bought and talk aboutt he creators and who I met as I do the reviews.  I'll also feature the best comics on New readers...

The stallholders were on the whole from the indie scene.  There were a few professionals, but I only got to chat briefly to Phil Noto because his table was empty at the same time as we were buying a Yanick Paquette Swamp Thing poster (Paquette and Noto were seated next to each other).  I would have brought comics for the professionals to sign but unfortunately they were all in boxes due to the imminent house move.  I bumped into a twitter friend Lee Hiley who I had met previously at London Super Comic Con in February, which was really cool.  Lee got an Impulse comic signed by Mark Waid and I got jealous.  Next year I shall bring stuff!

I also didn't get a copy of the Thought Bubble 2012 anthology.  So I shall order it from my local comic book shop instead.  We also didn't go to the British comics awards because we were tired and hungry and wanted food before getting our train back.

I am definitely going to go back to Thought Bubble next year, and for the full weekend.  I'd love to go to more panels and can only do that and comic shopping if I go for the full two days.

My next con to look forward to is the next London Super Comic Con where I shall gush at Peter David at be dressed as a Blue Lantern. :)

So last weekend I took part in a panel at Eastercon, the British Sci-fi con.  The topic was Comics outside the mainstream.

It was fun, the hour went really quickly and I didn't feel stupid.  The audience was good and no one was an argumentative sod, which was my biggest fear.  I kind of want to do a full write up, but I'm quite tired, as yes, I've been doing homework each night, having driving lessons and working. So here's a brief outline of what we discussed:

What 'mainstream' means - are vertigo comics mainstream?   has this changed over the years?  What constitutes mainstream in manga and manwha books?
Do people who read 'graphic novels' see themselves as in the mainstream or our of it?
is there a distinction between comic readers who read only superheroes, only vertigo, only graphic novels, or only webcomics - is one more mainstream than another?
What non-mainstream comics are out there for women?
How effective is marketing for women (and other) readers, and how women (and men) as readers react to the big 2  marketing to the 18-35 male demographic.
The (un)success of DC's Minx line.
We talked a brief bit about films of comics.
Where to find webcomics and what good ones are out there.

We also recommended quite a few books - I talked about Skal, Cinebook's entire catalogue, Bayou Arcana and Markosia publishing.  One of the other panellists recommended Fumi Yoshinaga's books, especially the restaurant manga (she also does good yaoi stories).  The moderator recc'd a comic version of Hamlet, which I can't quite remember the details of now.

Various audience members also recc'd comics, one of which was Gunnerkrigg Court which I keep meaning to read.

It was a lot of fun.  I'd love to do more panels.  I mentioned a I ran a couple of comic blogs but I don't think I namechecked New readers...starter here! Damn.  That was stupid.  I also didn't mention that I go to non mainstream comics for diversity in writing styles, story types and character types.  That was stupid.  Doh.

The same weekend I also met my fresh 3 week old niece and she's totes adorable :D  And sleeps most of the time (even more adorable) and didn't throw up on me (good child).

Hope you're all well out there in blog land.  This is the first time I've logged into blogger for a few weeks, and now I find it's got a new format.  I do not like this.  Bah humbug.  I just finished reading the new edition of Batman: No Man's Land - these new versions are collecting all the NML issues, unlike the first set of trades which only collected half of them.  This first volume is great.  I highly recommend it.  Now I'm gonna go read Gotham Central, which I just downloaded from Comixology. :D  All $79 worth.. eeeeek...

Dc: redefining Captain Marvel to be grim

Argggfffgghghhhhhh.

Captain Marvel, one of the few sueprheores that is really about unbridled childhood joy.  Now he's grim and moody and snarly.  I've written about Captain marvel over at New readers...start here!.  I'd hoped he and his family would be revived, as more childhood fun, with no angst, just innocence.  But oh no.  everything's gotta be grim and moody.

aggggghhhhhhhh.

I'm really having an awful monday.

Green Arrow sheds a tear

Nicked from my New readers... colleague Eyz' site, who in turn got it form DC's super dictionary.
Poor Ollie!

The F Word wants comic reviewers!

The F Word is the UK's most prominent feminist website and they are gonna start reviewing comics.  Here's their shout out for reviewers:

The F-Word Reviews section continues to expand, and this time we are branching off into the wanton wilds of comics, graphic novels and manga. A territory traditionally considered hostile to women generally, and downright dangerous for feminists in particular, we aim to conquer it heights, scale its lows, delve into its plateaus and let it be generally known that women read comics, love comics, and have opinions about comics!

We want, in short, to create a space for both long time fans and tentative toe-dippers to come and get feminist-friendly reviews of comics and graphic novels. The planned remit is more or less all inclusive: anything from classic graphic fiction like Art Spiegelman’s Maus, to the latest superhero comics from DC and Marvel, via the Modern Age of Comic Books - those instant classics by Carey, Gayman and Moore from the 1990s - to non-Anglosphere works from the Japanese and French traditions is welcome.
We'd also love to reviews of and reports from fandom events, conventions, comic meets, and any comic-relevant subcultural happenings going. The culture around comics and graphic art is one of the best things about the genre, and it would be fantastic to give some of our non-fandom initiated feminist sisters a glimpse into this fascinating, fun world.

So if you read comics, or even just the occasional comic, and have something to say about them: we’d love to hear from you! Contact me at marinas[at]thefword.org.uk with any questions or with a short piece (700-1000 words would be ideal) that you’d like to be published on the reviews site. Or leave a comment below with your details and I will get in touch.

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Talking of reviews, if anybody wants to review for my other site New readers please let me know!

So, bloggin eh,

Hi all.  I've not blogged for a few days, I've been rather tired recently, don't know why.  the boyfriend thinks it's because I've gone vegetarian and not getting enough protein (iron?).  I don't know.  Anyway, after I set up scheduled lots of posts I didn't manage to write anything new until today, so at least you've got some things coming up over the next few days.

I missed International Women's day on here but did manage to cover it on New readers....  See here and here.

Another thing you guys might like is this lego video on the great microbiologists of the world.  I enjoyed it.

Gearing up for Halloween

I figure it's time for another plug.  Over at New readers... we're having a Halloween themed month.  We'll be featuring books that are a it spooky, scary, gory or maybe just weird.  I know for sure that we've got books with zombies, vampires and replicating schoolchildren coming up (not necessarily all at once).  There's some shit hot manga in the queue and even a few superheroes.  We've also got a list of other books that might appeal, if you're after a seasonal read.

Come on by, have a read, leave a comment.  And recommend us some stuff!  We like recommendations!

Oops, meant to post something on wednesday.

It basically said 'life got really busy - new job, lots of things to do in the evenings and lots of things to learn. Back in a week.'

I'll stick to it. Back in a week - I got new readers stuff to do that takes priority.  But before I go, I will leave you with the news that Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle will be off Supergirl as of January.  This news makes me really sad.  You will all probably have picked up on the fact that I'm a massive Supergirl fan and I have really loved Gates and Igle's run on the title.  My only wish is that they had had more standalone issues and less crossover.  I'm gutted they are going.

Nick Spencer and Bernard Chang are taking over.  I think I like Chang.  I don't know Spencer.

Today

I don't have a real blog post.  I had last week off work on leave and was just getting into the swing of it when I had to come back to work today.  Booooo.  As I don;t start my new job for 3 more weeks I'm not really in the mood for my current job.  Ah well.

Here, I wrote a review of Wolverine:Origin over on New readers.. You can read that if you wish.  You can tell I like it cos it's a Marvel book I still own.

I did a review for Prism Comics!

And they published it :D.
It's the Secret Six: 6 degrees of separation book.  You can read the review here.  I had fun writing it up and I hope to submit more reviews to them in the future.  They're a great site - they basically promote all sorts of comics with LGBT themes or characters.

Readers with good memories might notice I also reviewed the book for New readers... a while ago.  Being totally honest, I put together the Prism comics review from the New readers... one but tried to give it a different slant as it's for a different audience.  I hope it worked.

Jimmy Olsen

It's LGBT History month in the UK and someone recently pointed out to me that Jimmy Olsen rather enjoys dressing up in ladies clothes.  Here's the evidence.  Having not read alot of old Superman stories I wasn't aware of this, but as the linked site has scans up, I think I may go read them.

The website featuring these is the Transgender Graphic and Fiction archive.  The comics section is reasonable, and features Hawkwoman being body swapped, Superman being bodyswapped, and everybody's favourite, Gal Gardener.  Except I haven't read that story yet...

We're trying to celebrate LGBT history month over on New readers too... starting with me reviewing a yaoi title.

Blogging slowdown

I lost my job.  I am looking for another one but between here and New readers... blog stuff may have to slow down a bit.  Apart from anything else I'm gonna have to really cut my comics pull list, and that's the thing that gives me blog fodder!

Until I find new employment, of the ongoing monthlies, I will be reading only Supergirl and Red Robin.  It was actually a surprisingly easy choice and made within about 3 seconds.  I guess the other books aren't quite so vital after all!  I'll keep the minis and Blackest Night tie ins as they are all over in a month or so and it seems stupid to drop them with one or two issues to go.

With reference to New readers..., James will still be posting and I'll put up the odd thing, but it won't be regular.  So, this is another shout out for reviewers.  If you fancy writing something for the blog, be it a one off review or regular submissions, please email me on paicomics [@] yahoo dot co dot uk
Let me know what you'd like to review and either point me towards your blog or send me an example of your writing.

Thank you for your patience.

Tis the week of the romantic stuff, we're celebrating!

Well we are over at New readers... anyway.

This week will see lots of romance themed reviews going up.  This being a blog by James and I, the featured books will be less traditional boy meets girl, gets marrie, has lots of babies sort of thing, and more teenage ineptitude Japanese style, troubled lesbian relationships in 50s France, a bit of yaoi, some stories of Death and a Neil Gaiman inspired Gothic type story (my choice, don't want James getting the blame for an incongruous suggestion).

Check back tomorrow morning for a suggestion of books to buy, or if you can't wait that long, go to the romance themed tags.  Then check back later in the week as more and more reviews go up.

20th Century Comic Books at the Victoria and Albert museum

On 3rd February, 2010, Ian Rakoff will be giving a talk entitled 20th Century Comic Books at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK.

Ian Rakoff has been involved with the V and A since the late 1980s.  Karen Rubins is their current artist in residence, you can read more about her role at the museum here, and view her website here.

Information about the comics held can be found here.

Information about events at the V and A can be found here (some of which are BSL interpreted).  Unfortunately no information specifically about the Rakoff talk could be found online at the time of writing.  The What's On guide for January to March 2010 listed the talk under Lunchtime Lectures, all of which are free of charge.

Crossposted from New readers...start here! which has reviews on Promethea, Penny and Aggie, Spider-man Fairy Tales, the Muppet Show Comic Book and Terra.