In which I understand a metaphor

Right, my twitter followers will have seen me gushing about Animal Man recently.  I finally read Grant Morrion's run, then devoured the other 60 odd issues in that run.  It's awesome.  Especially Morrison's run.

One question tho.  It's about the first few issues in the first trade.  Ellen gets attacked and nearly raped in the woods.  The bad guy kills a cat, but the cat's litter survive.  Ellen and her daughter take them back home and try to nurse them back to health.  Ellen gets very upset when one by one the kitten's die, but then she's then very relieved when one survives.

Now, I don't really pick up on metaphors that often.  I only got the Karolina Dean as a lesbian and a living rainbow thing earlier this year when James Ashelford pointed it out to me.  So, if you think about certain slang terms for lady bits, and a colloquial name for a cat, am I seeing a metaphor in Ellen's predicament where there is none?  Do y'all reckon it was a deliberate metaphor?

And isn't it just a bit crass??

Or is it just me?

Armistice day

Edit - just discovered this hadn't been posted, blogger's scheduling doesn't always work.  It was meant to go live on 11th November.

It's Armistice day today.  No real post, just a quick question - do other countries also use the poppys and do you all observe Armistice Day and the 2 minute silence?

I think I'm going to a comic con

London MCM Expo to be exact.

Guess who's gonna be there?  Bernard Chang.  The new artist on Supergirl.  Got anything you think I should ask him?  I don't know what day I'm going yet, or what day he will be there, but fingers crossed the days will match up.  I'm going on the Saturday and he'll be there all weekend.  There's also a good chance I'll get all squealy and either stammer or try to be cool and end up being rude.  I'm not good with meeting famous folk.

My main problem is I can't find a bloody programme on the website.  I have no idea how Expo works so I don't know if Chang will be on a panel, or signing something, or doing commissions or what.
I emailed him on facebook and he said he'd be there all weekend and possibly doing some activites, I don't know what these will be.

I do know that I'll be going in a stealth Supergirl costume.  Which will probably not be all that stealthy.  Depends on if I wear the headband or not.

Anyone else gonna be going?

PS: Reckon should I bring up the pink Supergirl logo?  News has been out about it for about 6 hours, and already the internet has exploded.  Or at least, twitter has.  Opinions are divided.

Scarecrow year one

Has anyone read it?  Is it any good?

Question

Please help settle an argument between the boyfriend and me.

Would any of you comics fans ever consider buying a title based on the Letterer?  For example, Todd Klein?


Your input would be greatly appreciated...

Who shall wear the rings?

Thinking back on Blackest Night, I reckon the rings went to some of the wrong people (no shit I hear you cry).  So, I'd like to have seen them go to these people:

Orange (Avarice): Lex Luthor.  The canon choice works for me.
Yellow (Fear): Scarecrow.  As for Lex.  The guy peddles in fear, an obvious choice.
Green (Willpower): Hal.  Well why not.  Superman Red Son: Elseworlds convinced me of his willpower even if the GL comics didn't.
Blue (Hope):  Superman.  Because, c'mon.  he's the foremost icon within the DCU.  The symbol of all that is good and all that humanity can strive for.  He keeps our egos in check and makes everyone who meets him feel like they can be a better person and make a difference in the world (unless you're a villain, then you're fucked).
Indigo (Compassion): Wonder Woman.  As was noted in the blogosphere at the time, Diana's emotions and feelings for the world are centred around compassion, not love. Making her the pink lantern was a supremely sexist choice, made worse by that godawful outfit.
Violet/Pink (Love): Wally West.  Because of Linda being his anchor.  Those two are, to me, the most perfect example of love within the DCU.  More so than the Hawks.

Thsi leaves Red (Rage).  Mera didn't really work for me, her transition to Red Lantern felt forced, altho once turned, she made a very good angry vomity hero.  I really don't know who I'd pick.  If this had all occured back when Kara was new returning to the DCU, she'd have been a good choice.  If somewhat ineffective (because I feel that she wasn't trained well enough and would be a loose cannon.  Maybe that would make her very effective, I don't know).

Guy got a red ring then was cured, so I don't want to count him.

Other than that I came up with the Hulk.  Yeha I know, wrong universe.  I'm not too good on DCU villains (other than the rogues who certainly aren't rage filled).

What do you all reckon?  If I get enough answers I'll put up a poll.

Does anyone know..

of any books/blogs/articles that deal with race theory and the representation of pidgin english in fiction?  Whether that be comics, films, books or tv shows.

Or can anyone suggest any books, films or tv shows that feature characters that speak pidgin english?

I am trying to research something but don't have the language or knowledge to put the right words into google search.  I'm not interested in real people who speak pidgin languages, i'm interested in their representations in fiction and popular culture.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

The Lurkers' Wolverine

Been listening to my Lurkers live CD today.  Came across a song called Wolverine.  Anyone got the lyrics or know where I can find them?  I can never make out the words on songs.

Meanings of the Corps' ring colours

I've been thinking, is there a traditional significance somewhere to green equalling will, blue equalling hope,
orange equalling avarice and indigo equalling compassion?

I understand the link between pink and love, red and rage, yellow and fear and black and death, but I'm not certain of the link for the other colours.

Were green/blue/orange/indigo plucked out of the air and randomley assigned meanings or was it more deliberate than that?  Does anyone know?

I'd imagine that green was picked for will purely because back in the 50s (or whenever) someone thought it would make a good costume.

A prediction

I write this on Wednesday night.  On Friday night I am going out for my old work's late Christmas do.  On Saturday I expect I shall be hungover, but I am also getting a hair cut in the afternoon.

What's the liklihood I'll come out with the world's worst hairdo?

Blogger's playing silly buggers

A few times now I've scheduled posts, put in a future date, hit publish, and instead of it going into the scheduled pile it's been published immediately but is viewable with a date in the future.

Is this happening to anyone else?  It's very frustrating.

(In self promotion news - New readers... has We3, Scary Go Round, Teen Titans Year One and Azumanga Daoih reviews up, as well as a link to our facebook group, go have a look!)

Help requested - what colourists/pencillers/inkers/letterers do

In 1994 DC ran a series of features at the back of it's books about the creative process in comics.  One was called 'what exactly does an inker do?' (I've posted a scan of it here. Look at the bottom of the entry.  It was featured in an Extreme Justice comic).

There's another one in the back of Guy Gardener Warrior # 25 called Comics Colouring demystifed, which I have scanned here:

Basically I'm looking for the ones that deal with the pencils and letters (I'm assuming these were done).

Does anyone have a scan they can send me, or can anyone put a scan on their site that I can steal, or can anyone let me know the names of some comics these how to's have appeared in?

Thanks for the help all!

And cos you're all so nice, have a lovely picture of some daffs:

A question for the non comics readers out there

I'm sure there's *some* of you that don't read comics!

A question to you all..why don't you read them?  Is there something that puts you off them?  Is it the reputation? Do you think they're juvenile and/or sexist? Is it you don't know where to start?  Have you never thought about it before?  Do you not know *how* to read comics?  (One of my friends doesn't, she finds the layout and panel flow really tough going)
If you read regular novels what is it you tend to read and have you ever looked for similar things in a comic?

For those of you that do read comics but don't read the DC/Marvel superhero stuff, why don't you read the spandex and capes crowd?

No one will be laughed at and no one will be insulted by what you say, I am genuinely interested why more folks don't read comics.  And I have some sort of plans that may come afoot if I can get enough responses.

Not a post

Honestly not.

Does anyone know which Impulse issue was the silent one? No one spoke a word it was all Bart's thought bubbles.

On second thoughts it could have been a Young Justice issue. Anyone know what i'm talking about?

I think I've blogged about it before but I obviously didn't tag it very well.

On empowerment and the language of comic art

As I was browsing The F Word a few weeks ago I became involved in a discussion about a mannequin that had appeared in UK store New Look (here). The comments discussion then got somewhat off topic and a few posts were exchanged between myself and another commenter (named Jen) about women in comics.

I just wanted to highlight a couple of comments from Jen:

“This mannequin - it's interesting. I'd see it as a key, as a set of signifiers, as part of language - definitely not a reason to boycott a shop”

“I don't love her [She-Hulk] because she's empowering, she's not one of the many things that inspire me to do weight training, but she is fascinating.”

She’s got a lot more to say, so I’d recommend reading it, but the above two sentences caught my imagination.

I hadn’t thought of the T+A aspect of women in comics as being part of the language of comics before. When I come to think about it, I think the idea has some merits. It’s true that not all artists focus on T+A, several seem capable of drawing women as people, not wank material, but I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the majority of art does have a certain T+A element to it.

If that’s the case, if that style is a set of signifiers, is it worth complaining about it? Or does it just serve to make the complainers feel better – we’ve done our bit sort of thing? Jen has more to say about this in her comments on the thread. I mean, if you change the language and the way something is framed, that doesn’t necessarily change the underlying reasons and feelings that led to the offending article being produced in the first place. And if the underlying ideas don’t change, then another offensive product will surely surface at a later date. So what will have changed?

Well, I think that if you change the way the language works you end up with a finished product that doesn’t alienate or discriminate against people. That is a good thing. I also think that the way you can express yourself has an effect on the way you think. I realize that this is probably due to reading 1984 at a very impressionable age. Are there any linguists out there who could tell me more about this?

If you no longer produce such sexist and offending material, if we do not see it in nearly every media article we pick up, then surely the general belief of women only being worth as much as their looks will not be as deeply felt in society. Obviously there are many many other ways in which this message is promulgated, but to change the way and manner in which we currently discuss and refer to women, to make it less oppressive, less one dimensional, would be a good start.

The other thing that came to mind when reading through Jen’s comments, was the idea about comics being empowering. That again is not something that I’ve recently experienced. Mind you, I am not too keen on the word ‘empowering’, mostly because of it’s connotations with pole dancing and lap dancing. It’s funny how anything marketed as empowering generally means adopting traditional roles and ways of being sexy for men. (Wear lipstick, it’s empowering! Wear a wonderbra, it’s empowering! Learn how to lap/pole dance, it’s empowering!*).

I may have felt empowered when reading something when I was little, in the sense that it opened my eyes to the different direction my life could take, the different things I could be. The media that we consume, as much as the people in our immediate vicinity, teaches us about life. It teaches us how people act, what is right and what is wrong and different ways of living. So yes, when I was little I probably found Cheetara quite empowering, I probably found Julie or Katie Power empowering. I probably found the one girl child on every kids TV show empowering – it said to me this could be your place, this is what you could achieve; you can win and be involved in adventure like the boys. Being a girl doesn’t have to hold you back**.

Question time:
Does anyone out there find comics empowering? Do you get a sense of victory when reading about some female character kick someone’s ass? If you don’t feel that way about comics have you ever felt that way about other fictional characters in any media? What was it that resonated with you and why?

I’d be truly interested to hear about your experiences.



*Not to imply that women never feel empowered by these activities, but I am skeptical of the marketing machine when the word is attached to something that would have been pretty much universally decried as sexist 20 years ago. Where are the adverts saying get a degree, it’s empowering! Leave that violent relationship you’re in, it’s empowering! Get some financial security, it’s empowering! Instead, empowering seems to be shorthand for some (straight) male view of sexy. Blah. I hate capitalism.

**Now, just as soon as I develop those mutant wings I’ll really be able to have adventures and visit other dimensions.

Notification of Comments

How do I set this thing up to email me when a new comment is left? If anybody's out there and reading please help! (I don't find blogger's help function very useful or I'd ask that).