The GOP plan for the Middle-Class and the Poor:

-Swinebread

When I see a picture like this, it reminds me that the sentiment that women don't like science fiction is total bullshit.


Image from this post at i09

-Swinebread

My wife is so awesome. I've been working a lot of overtime and she felt kinda bad for me so Mrs. SB bought me a couple of books to sooth my doldrums.


The first book is Yokai Attack! It's a nice guide to traditional Japanese monsters. I've always enjoyed creature tomes but this is the best one I've come across. It has the more famous yokai like the the onibaba, the Kappa and the Tengu but also contains weirder stuff like the woman with a mouth in the back of her head, the hand washing demon and the tree with human faced peaches. My personal favorite is the slash-mouthed woman. Yokai Attack is presented as a survival guide, but what really makes this work so well is that it concisely describes the various monsters while putting them in a cultural context that's easy for a westerner to understand. The readability of the test is due to the biracial husband and wife team that wrote the book. It's worth noting that the art is wonderful too. It's a nice cross of modern manga styles and traditional wood block printing. Highly recommended to creature fans and folks interested in Japanese culture.

Here is a video about the writers of Yokai Attack! (and uh Halloween in Japan)


Yokai Attack also makes a nice companion volume for fans of Japanese horror films.



The 2nd book Mrs. Swinebread got for me was a volume of Oishinbo (the Japanese Cuisine story). Oishinbo is one of the most popular manga series of all time. I was quite surprised that portions of it are now being adapted into english because, well, Oishinbo is about food. It had a huge affect on Japanese culture so I guess, now that I think about, it was just a matter of time for Viz to publish it. Now when I tell folks that comics can really tell any kind of story I'll have an edition of Oishinbo to prove it. One of the guys I work with is a Gourmet, and he's salivating to to borrow my this book once i'm done with it. here's copy from VIZ website:

Each volume of Oishinbo follows Yamaoka and his colleagues through another adventure on their quest for the Ultimate Menu. Now, the highlights from the hundred-plus volume series have been selected and compiled into A la Carte editions: bite-sized chunks of story arranged by subject that add up to a full-course manga meal!

Japanese Cuisine introduces us to the fundamental ingredients--rice, sashimi, green tea, and dashi (cooking stock)--that constitute the soul of the Japanese kitchen. In each story we learn about the proper preparation and presentation of different dishes, as well as their history and cultural significance. The result is a moveable feast of a book, as informative as it is engaging.

Now those of you that love food but say you don't like comics no longer have any excuse.


-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 4

In the Part 4 we get to know three different comic artists and some of their artistic output: John C. Worsley, David Hahn, and Nicole Georges.




-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 2

In part 2 more of Portland's Comic Culture is revealed and Dark Horse Comics is introduced.





-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 1

This is part one of a short documentary about the comic book scene in Portland Oregon.

It was made in 2005 and shown at the 2nd annual Stumptown Comics Fest.




on Youtube you can watch it in High Quality


-Swinebread

Non Sequitur Comic Panel

Caption from Marvel Premiere #39

Random Image Word: Solitude




-Swinebread

Nonsense made Sensible

-Swinebread

Comic Book Baby Blues

First off, let me apologize for not responding to all of your comments and for not posting comments to all of your blogs. I’ve been a tad busy getting ready for our new baby. He can come at any time now and the wife and I have been getting our last few things done that we need to, like going berry picking for the last time in a good long while. Hopefully I’ll get one good sweep or two by everybody’s blogs before I’m outta’ the loop for period of time.

I’ve been having some weird thoughts about comics that I thought I’d share.



The Memin Pinguin thing got me thinking about my Spirit Archives. I’ve got volumes one through ten only. I just haven’t been able to justify, as married man, the expense of a 50-dollar book every few months. Sadly it’s volume eleven when things are supposed to get really good for the Spirit title. One through ten are kinda “meh.” I really love the spirit comics (volume 2) from my time reading the reprints published by Kitchen Sink Press. They were great because they were regular sized comics that had new cover art by Eisner and had black and white interiors, which I enjoy more than the color versions. When DC announced that they were publishing collections of the Spirit I was pretty happy but I would have preferred an affordable set of trades.


Regardless, I was quite shocked by how grotesque Ebony White was depicted in the early Spirit stuff. I knew he was pretty stereotyped from the later adventures I’d read in the Kitchen Sink Comics but man, the stuff in early Volumes is really ugly. I kept buying though, hoping I’d get the Spirit I knew (which I discovered later was post WWII). Where was P’Gell, Sand Saref and the Octopus? Where was the deft skill with which Eisner had crafted the Spirit stories? We’ll for the most part it’s not in the volumes I have. I’ve been considering selling these books for a long time, but now with a kid on the way maybe I really need to get rid of them. The problem is that the first 2 volumes are autographed by Eisner himself made out to me. These are the two that have the worst depictions of Ebony. *Sigh*… I wish… I wish would have had him sign my copies of the Kitchen Sink Spirit Comics instead…

In a similar vein, I was reading the latest issue AC Comics Mystery Men with a story about the Hood. He was smashing up a Japanese saboteur ring. The story was quite ridiculous with the saboteurs disguising themselves as cowboys while wearing suicide bomb vests. But it got me thinking… I’m gonna have a biracial child. He’ll be half Japanese. Obviously, I wouldn’t let him see this at a young age, but should I chuck out all my comics that cover WWII? Should I throw out my All-Stars Squadron comics, my Invaders comics and Captain America comics? What kind of affect could this have on him? Seeing big strong American Superheroes beating the shit out of Japanese villains might screw with his head right? I like superheroes a lot, and WWII is a big part of the superhero mystique. So, I’m a little at a loss of what to do. I’m probably overacting but I’m worried that my collection of Usagi Yojimbo books ain't gonna be enough to counteract any harm that may be done.

Just some thoughts I'm having...


-Swinebread

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo Mi Amigos!

Here’s one Mexico’s biggest superheroes, Kalimán el Hombre Increible. He’s similar to the pulp adventurers we have in the states. He doesn’t have any powers but he is at the top of human perfection by being very strong and intelligent through the use of esoteric wisdom. Kalimán started out as a radio show in the 1960s and the character found even more success when his adventures appeared on the comic page. He got so big in fact, that he had his own movie in 1972. He had a good run of over 1300 issues and despite the fact that his comics are now only reprints; Kalimán remains a pop culture touchstone in Mexico.

One of his radio shows with the Comic Adaption:


There is a whole arena of comics south of the border that we’ve missed out on here in el Norte. Here’s a wonderful post about the interesting world of Mexican comic books.

One of Kalimán's many sayings:
"He who brings peace opens any door"

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Portland Comic Book Show... April '08

Hey guys I think it’s this way!

First off let me apologize for the tardiness of this post. I was ill and I was also quite busy with the random mundanities of the past workweek. Anyhoo… I had a wonderful time at the show despite my mammoth dislike of the dungeon… er… space that the PCBS is held in. I haven’t been this excited about a comic event in a while. I think it had something to do with the fact that Tony DeZuñiga and Stan Sakai were going to be there. I don’t really go to conventions to buy comics anymore except for the occasional stumble upon. It’s the creators that I’m really interested nowadays. I was also looking forward to seeing Heidi and James Meely too. I did have a nice chat with James, but sadly Heidi didn’t happen to be around when the spouse and I strolled by the space goat table.

As you can see from the top pic, the Star War costume folks were there again and I’m sure they’ll be regulars at the comic shows from now on as they’re local yokels. It’s kinda weird for me because it’s a new thing here in Portland but the kids seem to like it and heck it’s a small convention so why not. What was interesting this time around was the fact that a female Stormtrooper made an appearance. She had… ah… um… a specially adapted breastplate so to speak. I didn’t get a picture of her as she walking in as I was leaving, maybe next year.


Kieron Dwyer

The first table I stopped by was Kiron Dwyer’s. He was a really laidback, approachable kinda guy. Part of my comic collection is stashed away at a relative’s house, so I didn’t have time to grab any back issues for him to sign, but I did have Shadowpact #20 on hand. Kiron had the original pages for Shadowpact #20 for sale. They were stunningly illustrated, but at seventy-five to hundred bucks a pop I just couldn’t afford any of them. The guy has gotta make a living, so Kiron’s prices were reasonable from a market standpoint but alas from a Swinebread budget standpoint they weren’t. One thing I realized from perusing the original art pages was that I like Kiron Dwyer’s art much better in black and white.


Ernie Chan

It was wonderful to meet Ernie Chan. He was sketching away at his art board as I approached his table, which was laid out with all kinds of glorious drawings of Conan and Red Sonja. As I was fumbling with getting my Conan trades outta of their bags, another fan walked up and just handed him an issue of Savage Sword of Conan and told him to keep it and not bother paying for it. Obviously this exchange related to a previous discussion between the two, but Ernie was pleasantly taken aback by this fan’s generosity. When it was my turn, I thanked him profusely for coming to Portland and then promptly dumped five trades on him for signatures (Chronicles of Conan 10-14). I told him how much I enjoyed his artwork and shook his hand (again) before I left, saddened that again I couldn’t afford an Ernie Chan original.


Alex Niño

Here’s Alex Niño! He’s an artist that really found his nitch in Warren’s b/w horror comics and Heavy Metal. Again, I didn’t have my whole collection on hand so I only had one thing for him to sign but it’s a doozey the 30-page Conan the Barbarian tale, "People of the Dark." This story had recently been reprinted in Savage Sword Vol #1 trade. If only there were some trades out there with his Warren work.


Tony DeZuñiga

Well, I finally got around to meeting Tony DeZuñiga and his lovely wife Tina. He was sitting there looking too cool for school even though he’s about sixty-one and he was wearing an odd fur-like vest that he somehow made look chic, kinda like Jonah Hex’s Confederate garb. He had a calm demeanor like poker player in a gin joint.

Tony was very friendly and was happy to sign my comics. I had him autograph issues 5 & 9 of the new Jonah Hex series, the Conan story “Demons of the Summit” reprinted in the Savage Sword of Conan collection Vol 1 (same one Alex Niño signed!), and the Showcase Presents Jonah Hex trade. When Tony saw the Showcase Hex he remarked that I was the only person that had brought a copy for him to sign. That struck me as a tad bit sad. I thanked him for coming to Portland and told him that I hoped he’d get a chance to try the fantastic beer here in the Rose City. Tony made me laugh when he told me he was surprised because he thought it was going to be raining. I said back that he and his fellow artists had brought along the sunshine.

He had some amazing hand drawn pieces laid out on his table. My tongue practically hung out while I flipped trough the beautiful pages in his portfolio. There was an amazing Red Sonja illustration that I wished to high heaven that I could have bought it. Oh well, maybe I can save up for a commission. It was a great experience meeting him.


Art Thibert

I eventually had a chance to get something singed by Art Thibert, as he had the biggest crowd around him all day. It was funny because some emo guy before me was bitching about the fact that the convention flyer didn’t have everything Art had done listed. Here was this dude that just had a huge stack of comics signed and then he had the nerve to complain that he didn’t get even more autographed, amazing. Anyway, Art scribbled his name across my smallish stack. I went through my standard schpeal welcoming him to Portland and asking if he had had a chance to try the beer. His buddy Rich Birdsall (on the right in the pic) piped up, “oh yeah he tried a lot of the beer last night, and he’s still feelin’ it today.” Art responded that he was having a great time in Portland and that he couldn’t believe how friendly the girls here were. He got a dreamy look on his face as he thought about his time at a nameless bar the night before. Heh heh, now there’s a story there…


PGX

Did you know there is a comic grading company here in Oregon? No? Neither did I. But apparently CGC has some strong competition by the likes of Professional Grading Experts or PGX from Eugene. I was surprised to learn that they’d been around for 5 years already. I asked Rich (the guy in the pic) to sell me on their product vs. CGC.
Rich said:
PGX is cheaper
PGX has a sturdier container
PGX has faster turn around time (around 17 days)

Something else I noticed from their website is that you don’t’ have to have membership in some collecting organization to get your comics graded either. You just send ‘em in with a check. That’s it. PGX sounds like a comic grader for the rest of us. Now I can get my comics graded and support the local economy. I never considered it before, but for some of my older books I just might do it.


Stan Sakai

Finally we get to Stan Sakai. You know what? Everybody always has these stories about what a nice guy Stan is and yes he is very nice guy, but all these stories gave me the impression that he was some sort of comic book saint that blessed the geeky fans that show up at conventions. Well, after meeting him I’m here to say that he’s just a regular guy. He’s a little quiet when approached for an autograph (or maybe that was because I got a little too personal in my enthusiasm to meet him) but get him in front of an audience and Stan is very lively. In fact, I’d say Stan Sakai is a very funny man. He was letting the zingers fly constantly during his talk and the audience was cracking up the whole time. It makes sense why he is such a good storyteller, as he has an impeccable sense of timing mixed with a sharp wit.

I had Stan sign four books Usagi Yojimbo vol. one (as it has the rabbit’s first stories), Grasscutter as it adapts Japanese mythology, Travels with Jotaro as it has some nice father son angst, and Space Usagi because it has some of my favorite Usagi art. I was simply expecting an autograph in each book but Stan went to the trouble of drawing a nice sketch in each one. Class act all the way.


Here Stan talks about the origin of the cartoonist, and the modern illustrator’s connection to renaissance artists. (See wikipedia here for more info)



Stan draws his famous rabbit Usagi Yojimbo. Stan said he just drew a rabbit with his ears in a topknot one day and the rest was history.



Murakami Gennosuke, the hard drinking Rhinoceros bounty hunter…



Inukai (Stray Dog) a ruthless bounty hunter that secretly has a soft-spot for an orphanage



The Evil Jei that keeps coming back no matter how many times he's killed.



Stan is set to do a short Samurai Hulk story in the near future and he gave us a sneak peak at what he'll look like.

I wish I had the time to write down all the the fun tidbits that Stan spoke about but his talk was a great way to cap off the day at the comic book show. My SO had a good time too as Usagi Yojimbo's grounding in Japanese myths and pop culture drew her into the whole presentation.

-Swinebread

Coloring Kamandi

It was amazing how much I enjoyed Countdown Special: Kamandi, which reprints issues 1, 10, & 29 from the original Kamandi run in the 1970s. These post–apocalyptic classics were written and drawn by Jack “King” Kirby. I had never read Kamandi: That Last Boy on Earth before (although I wanted to) so it was a real treat. The premise of the story is that some undefined “Great Disaster” has remade the earth. Most Humans have devolved into animals while conversely animals (like tigers, apes and dogs) are intelligent, walk upright, and rule their own empires. The title character is the teenager Kamandi, who adventures across a shattered landscape with his mentor Dr. Canus, and the mutant Ben Boxer. It’s easy to see that Kamandi was heavily influenced by Planet of the Apes, and that it, in turn, informed both Gamma World and Thundarr (which Jack worked on BTW).

Being a post–apocalyptic enthusiast, it makes sense that I would find this enjoyable. I’m even tempted to pick up the new hardcover collections that DC is putting out, and I’ve never been tempted to do that previously. This title really works for me and I like Jack Kirby’s art and storytelling here much more so than his New Gods work. It’s nice to see DC embracing Kamandi again through republishing and by reintegrating him into new storylines. In fact, Kamandi and OMAC (his grandfather) are the only reasons that I’m even remotely interested in the Final Crisis event at all.

When I was reading my copy of Countdown Special: Kamandi, a question struck me: how would Japanese folks respond to the quintessential/classic art style of Jack Kirby? Their experience with comics and their aesthetic tastes are so different I just couldn’t imagine what they might think. Would they like his art? Would they hate it? Could they even relate to it? So I showed some pages to my SO. The exchange went something like this:

Me: “Hey, what do you think of that art in this comic?”
Her: “Hmmm… It’s very busy.”

I thought: “ah, Jack’s dynamic action is too much for her”

Me: “Yeah, this artist is known for his incredible action and powerful figure drawing.”

Her: “the Color is too much, it’s too busy. The background color changes in each panel. It’s distracting”

I thought: “Huh?”

Me: “Ah well, the artist didn’t have anything to do with the color. See, these are comics that originally came out in the ‘70s and…”

But she had lost interest in what I was talking about and went back to reading her book.

That did get me thinking. The bold use of color, which is so common in older comics, was just too visually overpowering for her. She really couldn’t focus on Jack’s art at all. I was kinda stunned but then I remembered that Japanese manga is a black and white medium. The "in-your-face" color had a strong negative impact on her. When for me, it was nearly incidental, particularly because it appeared in a reprint of Kamandi. I recognize that the colorist’s job is much more integrated into the artistic creation of comic books nowadays (computer technology has completely revolutionized the nature of color), but back when Kamandi was first published; it almost seems like an afterthought position. The intent of the coloring process in the days of yore must have been to keep the eyes interested by flashy uses of 4-color shades… whether they matched from panel to panel or not. Looking at the Kamadi pages was such a disharmonious experience for my SO; that the art style didn’t matter at all. For her, the application of color didn’t seem to be thoughtfully considered nor carefully applied. Very interesting. I easily separate Jack’s art from the hues that someone else decided upon, but my SO sees them as one thing. I often have to remind her that American comics are largely a collaborative medium. In the past, my SO has expressed that American comics are too wordy, and bogged down with unnecessary exposition that redundantly describes what’s already visually depicted, but this is the first time she has said anything about color. I guess I gotta’ show her something of Jack’s in black and white to really get her opinion on the his art style. That's sorta' weird for me...



-Swinebread

My Lame Black History Month Post

Boy did I get this in just under the wire, Huh? Basically, I screwed myself with last year’s post because I chose characters from a spectrum of pop genres that I enjoy and so now I’d end up duplicating myself if I did something similar. But here on the last day of the month an idea came to me.

Back in 1984, I was fairly new to reading comics as a full-blown hobby and while I had, of course encountered black superheroes, the concept of race or racial issues didn’t really stand out in comics until I read Secret Wars… …seriously. Naturally, there had being many comic book stories that had dealt with race by that point, but as a kid, I hadn’t really encountered them and black characters were merely blank slates or tokens in the comics I read (and I wasn’t reading everything, far from it in fact). But here in a few panels of Secret Wars, race just popped out.

In Secret Wars, Jim Rhodes is wearing the armor rather than Tony Stark, as Stark was busy ruining his life with Alcohol. Also, the rest of the characters don’t know Iron Man’s true identity at this point in Marvel Universe.

It’s funny because I remember thinking: “is that what black folks really sound like in man/woman type of situation?” and “is Captain Marvel’s type a rich, alcoholic, white guy?”


Here, in a single panel from a different issue, Reed Richards helps Rhodes with his armor.

Thus, as a kid, I learned that Mr. Fantastic wasn’t a racist, just an egomaniac, but why was Rhodes so unsure of himself?

Secret Wars had four black characters in all: Iron Man II (Rhodes), Captain Marvel II (Photon, Pulsar), Storm, and Thunderball (a villain). Too bad Power Man couldn’t make it. It sure would have been fun seeing him tussle with the Wrecking Crew and Absorbing Man. But hey, at least there were a few brothers and sisters present because the Asians and Native Americans didn’t have anybody representing them. Oh well, a comic series got me to think about race for a moment during my early comic reading, and it wasn’t because somebody was ranting or raving.

Yes, this is a rather sorry Black History Month post, but I had to do something to convince myself for at least two seconds that I’m culturally sensitive and nothing says culturally sensitive like Secret Wars.

Have a great Leap Year Day!

-Swinebread

DC’s Super Feminine Mystique

My post Men are From Marvel and Women Are From DC, generated some interesting comments and fun discussion, imagine that. I came to one big conclusion about the femaleness of DC and the Maleness of Marvel… it all goes back to Wonder Women… …Duh. Think about it. Having a major female superhero thrive in and more importantly, survive the golden age of comics speaks volumes. Marvel/Timely, in truth, never had interesting women characters to begin with but the break between their 1940s supers and the 1960s Marvel Age cements my point.

The fact that Wonder Woman had her own successful title for decades gives the DC universe a possible womanish vibe even if her stories didn’t always depict females in the best light. The Amazon is a headliner. This fact combined with numerous other characters like Catwoman, Power Girl, Super-Girl, and Black Canary make a for a solid foundation that echoes down the years through the DC Universe. It seems obvious when you think about it but then I’m a man bred on Marvel Comics… 80’s Marvel Comics.

D0nnaT0ry had a good point in that a person’s universe of choice comes down to their gateway comic. The appeal of Wonder Woman and other DC heroines is obvious, so this must be the reason why girls have flocked to DC Comics. They have the female supers, so they have the female readers. Now this makes sense and could end the gender question right there but… the gateway comic doesn’t ring true for me personally as a man. If it did, I’d have been a DC Comics fan for most of my life. The first comic book I ever read was an issue of Green Lantern/Green Arrow, bought by my sister no less, and while I generally liked the characters it didn’t really fire my imagination. I also read some Justice League of America too and again it didn’t do much for me and these were male character dominated titles. Consequently, I didn’t really read comics extensively until years later. One day, out of boredom, I convinced my mother to buy me three, bagged together; marvel comics… and my addiction began. I’ve often wondered what would’ve happened if I had encountered an issue of Amazing Spiderman or The Avengers instead of Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Justice League. So I tend to think there is something a little more feminine to the DC Universe…

Now a thought experiment to test if DC is more female-like than Marvel would be to pick a masculine heavy genre that women generally don’t enjoy, like War Comics. If you do a little compare and contrast, I believe women would come down on the side of Sgt Rock rather than Nick Fury. I’m not discounting the fact that Rock was better written and drawn than Fury, which would make it more appealing to most folks including me, it's just that I have a feeling that women would be better entertained by DC's WWII comic over Marvel's version. Besides, which title had Mademoiselle Marie?

Wonder Woman gets to the heart of the matter to me. Having her front and center made DC unconsciously more diffused with a female ethos. But, and here is where we get to the Feminine Mystique aspect, DC super-heroines are saddled with pre-women’s lib baggage. Wonder Woman and friends were still struggling against the sexist themes of the golden age long after the successes of the sexual revolution at least that’s how I perceive it. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t attracted to DC Comics as much. Not because their comics were more feminine but because they were more 1950s feminine. Case in point, She-Hulk. I’ve always liked Shulkie and as I’ve said before, she’s a modern woman. I like female superheroes a lot, I think I just prefer ‘em post second-wave feminism. This is not say that Marvel was doing a great job with their female characters, far from it as the Wasp’s annoying prattle in the 1960s Avengers attests, but rather that Marvel simply had a more male centered universe even though, paradoxically, it was a more modern universe.

By the 1990s a lot of the gender issues I’m proposing about DC and Marvel had changed. Through retcons, modern storytelling, and the X-men Splitting into a plethora of titles with strong female characterizations the view has been blurred. Many younger readers have more choice to jump back and forth between the big 2 without much regard to gender or gender legacy. In other words, they’ve grown up with comics that are less defined by such issues. Again, I’m not necessarily saying the big 2 are doing a good job, I’m just saying they seem to have more freedom when it comes to expressing a masculine or a progressive feminine ethos rather than sticking to what was par for the course in the past. Whether they use this freedom, responsibly or creatively is a different issue.

What are your thoughts?

I ended the “Men are From Marvel” post with a Hillary and Obama political cartoon. So with that in mind I’ll end this post with them. Maybe the struggle in the Democratic Party is a fight between the Wonder Woman Generation (Hillary) and the She-Hulk Generation (Obama). It’s looking more and more like the She-Hulk generation is gonna win.

-Swinebread

Presidents Day

A few of my favorite Fictional Presidents:




President Tom Beck
"Life will go on, we will prevail." -Deep Impact



President Steve Rodgers
Captain America as President? What could be more American than that!
-What If, vol. 1 #26



President Thomas J. Whitmore
“Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!” - Independence Day. Want to know what fantasy land the republicans are living in? This is it!



President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho
“Shit. I know shit's bad right now, with all that starving bullshit, and the dust storms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito coverings. But I got a solution.” -Idiocracy



Unnamed President played by Donald Pleasance
“You’re the Duke of New York! You’re “A” Number One!”-Escape From New York



President Travis Morgan
A former Pilot and sword & Sorcery champion from a Pelucidar-like world travels to a post-apocalyptic future and overthrows what’s left of corrupt US government. He frees slaves, becomes President, and then travels back in time to stop the nuclear war from happening in the first place. Now that’s what I’d call a proactive executive. -Warlord #84



President Merkin Muffley
“Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.” – Dr. Strangelove



President Margaret Valentine
“…I’m President of the United States and I said Drop You’re Goddam Weapons” -Y that Last Man



President Kenneth Yamaoka
“That’s a Dangerous thought. A powerful few could crush the dreams of the majority” –Eagle: the Making of an Asian American President.

-Swinebread

The Aussies Keep It Simple

Our fine friends down under explain the process by which we elect a president in the United States. See here

The whole thing sounds so much better with that wonderful accent. Of course they don't mention those pesky Super Delegates on the Dems side... Heh heh A brokered convention? Now that couldn't happen could it?

Men Are From Marvel, Women Are From DC? Not Really But…

The perfect couple?

One of the things that really surprised me when I started blogging was the amount of women out there that read comics, superhero comics. I’ve met women that enjoyed the indie stuff over the years but never the superhero fare. Well, OK, maybe one of my older siblings liked sneaking my X-Men comics, but she was practically in the closet about it and she didn’t actually buy them, so obviously she can’t count. Plus, she’s my sister and sisters NEVER count when considering these types of things. Anyway, The second thing that surprised me was the amount passion females had for DC characters. When I was a kid nobody read DC let alone girls reading DC. There might have been some fan love for Batman but in general DC was considered lame on the playground. Marvel had all the cool and fun characters, like Spiderman, X-Men, Avengers, Hulk and ROM. That changed somewhat after Crisis on Infinite Earths, Dark Night, and Watchmen. A comics company couldn’t be too lame if they published those types of stories. So after that, it was OK to pick up a few issues of say Green Lantern, or the Byrne Superman.

Come to think of it, after seriously strip-mining my memory I do remember one girl from high school that read comics. She was in the closet about it though, and I only discovered her spandex-love after I knew her a couple of years. When she finally opened up to me, I was really surprised and thought, “Cool, a girl that reads comic books” but… she was a diehard Teen Titans fan… I didn’t really know that much about the teen titans other than their appearances in Crisis. She really wanted to discuss the characters with me especially the females like Raven, Wonder Girl, and Starfire however my lack of DC knowledge simply made me made a listener. I didn’t bother discussing my comic tastes, as she didn’t know anything about the Marvel Universe. Our one-sided comics talk was tinged with a certain sadness because her father couldn’t stand the fact that she read comic books and so she had to be very careful by hiding her collection or at least keeping it out of sight.

So, the seed was planted someplace in my subconscious, that girls preferred DC to Marvel. Now besides the obvious answer of DC having more prominent female characters, I get the feeling that something else is going on here like maybe DC is more, dare I say it, womanly? I dunno, like maybe a female vibe/energy permeates the DC universe somehow? Even going so far as to say that DC’s male characters have more of an appeal to women than Marvel’s male characters? …And perhaps that’s why, as a kid, I wasn’t attracted to DC very much?

Now, obviously guys read DC and gals read Marvel so there is no hard and fast gender rule, but I wonder on some symbolic level if there isn’t something to this including concepts like sexual attraction, hero identification and role models. Comprehensive knowledge (which I don’t have) of Joseph Campbell and classic myths would be very helpful in wrangling this out…

I’ve opened the door here for a weighty essay about the Yin and Yang of the big two but actually, I’m kinda stumped on how to proceed. I just don’t have the background to do this topic justice. What do you think?

I would note that if DC does have that goddess energy, so to speak, this might explain why women feel they’ve been punched in the gut by many of Dan Didio’s editorial decisions while Joe Quesada’s are “merely” the standard, sexist slog.


I must be thinking like this because of the Democratic Primary that’s going on.


“My plan for America is DC….”

“In contrast to my opponent, mine is Marvel….”

Hey, wait aren’t they both talking about comic books….



-Swinebread

Cartoons Are Evil!

part 2

part 3

part 4

What Book Are You?

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Maybe it's all those Captain Carrot, Bugs Bunny, and Usagi Yojimbo stories I've been into.

Thanks to BAC at Yikes! here

The Retcon the Feminists Missed

After reading Red Sonja #29 on Saturday the 26th I figured the usual blogs would be all a buzz about the story from that issue. Well, there was nothing… nothing except a review (here) by Ray Tate at comics bulletin.

I guess that most woman aren’t reading Red Sonja otherwise this comic would have made bigger waves. Now I can understand this as Red Sonja does have her cheesecake with a side of pornface appeal but ultimately that’s more of a cover art kind of thing. The bigger concern here is that Red Sonja’s origins have been drastically rewritten and most of it is awful.

With issue 29 Michael Avon Oeming and Brian Reed bring their Kulan Gath conquers the world storyline to a close, his defeat by Sonja and the shattering of Sonja’s origin play out in this issue.

What’s important to know about Red Sonja’s past is that as a child she was raped, her family was murdered, a goddess took pity on her and that goddess made her into a great warrior. Additionally, Sonja was given a warrior’s skill and in return she’s forbidden from having sex. Not only that, but she can only take a mate when she’s defeated in combat by a man someday. This is the back-story that Roy Thomas laid down in the 1970s. There’s never any mention of any possible lesbian relationship in all of this by the way. So apparently Sonja has always been a celibate hetero hero. OK she did screw a god a year or two ago but that didn’t count ‘cause he was a god.

Anyway, the idea that Sonja is a feminist icon (as Tate and some purport) is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, she’s a strong woman that makes her own way in the world. She has a warrior’s destiny and she kicks butt. She fights against evil and is a womanly force for good in a primitive male-dominated world. On the other hand, it seems that it was necessary for Sonja get raped for all this to come about, and that’s troubling. While rape is a fairly common theme in some ancient myths, which is what I think Thomas was tapping into, it’s much more of a dubious storytelling origin in our modern era. In addition, the idea of her being celibate until she’s defeated by her “Mr. Right” brings up all kinds of other gender issues as well. (Especially since her Mr. Right is Wolverine, don’t believe me? Read What if? Vol. 2, #16.)

So where does this leave us with issue #29? Well, it’s revealed that Red Sonja’s rape and the murder of her family were actually orchestrated by the goddess so that Sonja would be a force to oppose and defeat Kulan Gath. It’s also revealed that she was created out of the blood of Kulan Gath and the heart of a Tree which is confusing and creates all sort of questions about her such as; is she an artificial person, an elemental like Swamp Thing, or a homunculus as Tate says? The story goes further and demotes the Goddess to simply a failed, pathetic sorceress willing to use Red Sonja as a tool. Thus the Recton is complete.



Now having the goddess exposed as merely human and the one that caused all of Sonja’s troubles is incredibly cynical and isn’t a good payoff on a storyline that’s been going for a long time. This is the kind of lazy narrative we usually see from the big 2.

The one bright spot in all this is that Red Sonja has renounced her vows. This means that she could have an intimate relationship with someone now and that opens up new avenues for storytelling. It’s just too bad that Oeming and Reed’s plot was a very messy way to accomplish this. To top it all off, Ron “the refrigerator” Marz takes over the writing duties with issue #30 so any mature examination of this new liberated side to Sonja is probably doomed. At least he can’t kill her off since she’s the title character.

-Swinebread