Ask and ye shall receive. No sooner did I muse about female representation at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention than Mikhaela Reid comes through once again and reports on the ECBACC panel entitled "Having Our Say: Black Women Discuss Imagery"! Do click on the link, it has lots more photos and promises a more in-depth look at the "Having Our Say" panel in Part 3 of her report.
As promised here on ComicMix, cartoonist Mikhaela Reid has served up a terrific photo-review of this past weekend’s East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention on her blog, which has been justifiably linked to from lots of comics news sites. And here’s her Flickr page for even more. We like this one of Reid’s fiance Makesha Wood and ComicMix friend Kyle Baker:
In addition, Ormes Society founder Cheryl Lynn’s review of ECBACC is up now at PW, and includes news of 2008 plans:
"Convention organizer Maurice Waters is already planning for next year’s ECBACC, which may move to a larger venue to accommodate the rising number of attendees. Waters is also considering launching a West Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. However, next year’s East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention will remain in the heart of Philadelphia."
Cheryl also talks about the Kids’ Corner section of the convention, which sounds like it was terrific, but has nothing about female representation there. Surely she wasn’t the only sister? Then again, as she recently noted in her blog, "Are there any women of color attending the Women of Comics II event?"
In the past week or so we’ve seen Toon-a-MILFs. We’ve observed Frank Miller seemingly becoming Dave Sim before our eyes (Val D’Orazio has a good play-by-play on that). We’ve had previews of covers for all-ages comics featuring tentacle porn. And of course we’ve been subjected to the infamous "comiquette" of MJ Watson looking as though she’s just waiting to be, um, MILFed by lonely fanboys, copious discussion of which has made it as far as the NY Post and Toronto Star, and which is still going strong in the cultural and feminist blogosphere (more about that later). Is it any wonder that this spring a young (and not-so-young) woman’s fancy turns to enraged frustration?
Sure, on the face of it, the subject matter of these fascinating and insightful discussions isn’t as life-and-death urgent as any number of real life atrocities happening to women around the world. (No culture warriors actually make that claim, by the way, contrary to implications by "concern trolls" that their priorities are skewed, as if one cannot simultaneously fight against sexism in both geopolitical and cultural venues.) But it’s reflective of an attitude by half the population towards the other half that may finally, bit by bit, be going the way of the dinosaur, and it’s worth examining.
It’s been my empirical experience that cultural leaps forward often come from a situation where it’s "darkest before the dawn." Sometimes the most egregious and outlandish examples of pop culture sexism occur at the point at which women are making significant strides in convincing the media corporations (now, with actual women employees!) to move beyond the boys’ club mentality. But this same point harbors much danger, like a wounded animal, as many men act from a misplaced sense of pride or fear and dig in their heels more stubbornly than before. (more…)
The US Post Office has certainly stooped to movie promotions before, but one would assume the US Mint rather exempt from messing with our legal tender just to hawk a film.
One would be wrong.
The movie studio producing Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 20th Century Fox, has cut a deal with The Franklin Mint and, apparently, the US government to foist a limited edition of 40,000 "Silver Surfer" US quarters that used to be 2005 CA state quarters but which have been dolled up "color enhanced" by the Franklin folk. Not only that, consumers are urged to use the quarters not to pay for stuff or even collect, but to win valuable prizes at Fox’s promotion site.
The quarters go into circulation today.
New York Magazine’s culture blog Vulture has just started excerpting Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds. I’d never heard of Modan, but according to Drawn & Quarterly, "She has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times, Young Artist of the Year by the Israel Ministry of Culture and is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation."
Why should movies have all the fun of resurrecting old TV shows, when TV itself can autocannibalize with the best of ’em? Here’s a teaser from the new Bionic Woman pilot set to air this fall on NBC.
I can’t help but wonder if this sort of exercise hasn’t been superceded by all the leaping about done by Buffy & co., not to mention those magnificent flying gals in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon…
It doesn’t take much to piss off the increasingly repressive government of Iran. Now they’re protesting a graphic novel autobiography turned into a film.
That’s right, Heidi notes that Marjane Satrapi’s and Vincent Paronnaud’s animated version of Persepolis, adapted from Satrapi’s book, is showing at Cannes, and Iran isn’t happy about it, claiming it "presents an unreal picture of the outcomes and achievements of the Islamic revolution." Not a real surprise considering Islamic revolutions rarely seem to view women as real.
Here’s the trailer (in French) for the film:
The film premieres on Wednesday and is in competition for the Palme d’Or.
Adnan Saleem is either a real Simpsons fan, has too much time on his hands, or both. He’s turned actual people into life-size models of the Simpson family. Here’s Lisa:
The rest of the family (including pets) are here. With yesterday’s 400th episode special and the movie coming out in July, there’s no doubt these characters are deeply embedded in many people’s psyches…
Karen Healey of GirlWonder reports on a few comics-related panels in which she’ll be participating at the upcoming annual WisCon feminist SF convention, May 25-28. Here’s the full panel schedule. My favorite is the one she’s moderating:
Sarcasm and Superheroics: Feminism in the Mainstream Comics Industry
2006 was declared the year of Women in Comics. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was one of Time’s 10 Best Books, best-selling authors Jodi Picoult and Tamora Pierce were signed up to write for DC and Marvel, and DC announced a new Minx line for girls. However, 2006 was also a year of increased feminist activism in mainstream comics. New websites "When Fangirls Attack" and "Girl-Wonder.org" collected and encouraged feminist debate on issues of diversity and sexism in comics, and there seemed to be plenty to talk about. Moreover, the Occasional Superheroine confessional memoir recounted a disturbing tale of abuse and misogyny within the superhero industry that was reflected on the pages of its comics. What has improved in the comics industry? What is yet to be done? What challenges are posed by the industry’s peculiar institutional structure? How can women break into the comics mainstream? How can we critique it? And what comics can you buy for your kids? M: Karen Elizabeth Healey, Charlie Anders, Rachel Sharon Edidin, Catherine Lundoff, Jenni Moody
There’s also an interesting-sounding X-Men panel on Sunday. I’m officially jealous; it sounds like another great year for the WisCon folks.
As mentioned here and on many other news sites, the voting is now open for this year’s Friends of Lulu Awards. Since the awards are all about enhancing women’s visibility in an industry that too often marginalizes and downplays them, and since there’s a lot of discussion currently going on about what real women look like, I thought I’d present the nominees pictorially:
For the Women Cartoonists’ Hall of Fame (left to right): Colleen Doran, Lily Renee Phillips, Donna Barr
For Lulu of the Year (left to right): Alison Bechdel, Abby Denson, Donna Barr (Torvald not eligible)
For the Kim Yale Award (for Best New Female Talent): Top row, Rachel Habors and June Kim; bottom row, Rivka and Joelle Jones
For the Women of Distinction Award (left to right): Jennifer deGuzman, Joan Hilty, Karen Berger
Links to all the fine work done by these women are at the FoL voting site.
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