Here’s to the Ladies
Conversations on the Female Geek at Wizard World Chicago

Boobs
I had come to Wizard World Chicago through an email sent by my comic book journalist friend, we’ll call her J, to some of her girlfriends: “I know you guys probably would not be interested in the con itself although I might need some boobs… I mean… people to help staff a booth and that would be free but would involve ogling by geeks.”

I thought to myself: I have boobs. I thought to myself: Secret Life Dream #86—visit a convention where I know nothing and observe it anthropologically. So, I wrote back.

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Want to talk about a labor of love?  How about trying to catalog and document all of Marvel Comics’ graphic novels, trade paperbacks, prose novels, and children’s books ever published?  That’s exactly what Rob Weiner does in this thoroughly exhaustive reference book.  Over five years in the making, Weiner gives Marvel fans a one-stop shopping place for information on all of these books published through 2005.

As I paged through the book I was simply blown away by the amount of information inside.  I had no idea that there were so many books out there.  But of course, in the past decade, we’ve seen this trend towards preprinting story arcs of varying numbers of issue into book format.  Comic fans are no longer merely collectors and some are not collectors at all.  They still want to keep up with their favorite characters and buying one book every six months versus having to run to the comic store monthly is simply more desirable for a lot of people and for those people especially, this is a fantastic tool.

What I love about Weiner’s layout is that he didn’t just decide to list books in alphabetical order but instead he grouped the sections by subject matter or characters.  For example there is a section for Marvel’s Superheroes with subsections for individual heroes or groups of heroes such as The Avengers, Conan/Kull, Hulk and She-Hulk, Thor, X-Men/Mutants, Wolverine, etc…

Next is the section for special volumes and series like the Marvel Masterworks and Essentials lines and Epic Comics graphic novels, followed by sections for Children’s books, Prose novels, Marvel/DC crossovers, guidebook and indexes and more.  Nearly 400 page in all and it’s all backed up by a comprehensive index or indexes I should say as there are three of them:  one for title, one for artist/author, and one for subject making it easy to pickup and find exactly what book you are looking for.  There are even three appendices including one for all of the Marvel Superheroes game books and modules published by TSR.

Now if this were just a list that might be good enough but it isn’t.  Once you look up a book, Weiner provides the artist, writer, year of publication, ISBN#, the issues the book reprints if applicable and a comprehensive summary of the plot.  Now I don’t know if Mr. Weiner actually read all of these books but it doesn’t really matter…there is a wealth of information here that is indispensable for Marvel fans.   Extraordinarily researched and meticulously laid out, the book is well worth the $49.95 price tag.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“My giant-sized teammate is fighting a mechanized version herself on the streets of downtown Tokyo… I’ve been preparing for this day my entire life!” Andrew Wells, Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight #15.

Yet another column? My, I’m really serious about this catching-up business, ain’t I? Here I am with the column for comics published on the week of 06/04. Last column’s DT! was solved by Lt. Cmdr. Snakebyte, who correctly spotted that Fever was referring to “Vundabar”, but the speech balloon said “Vandabarr”, Badge for you, and you’re three badges away from being full Commander.
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Guests of San Diego Comic-Con this year have been treated to a sneak peek at the animation for a new Grant Morrison project. That’s right– animation. In collaboration with Virgin Comics and Perspective Studios, Morrison is bringing the classic Indian myth of The Mahabharata to life with his project titled MBX. Combining the tale of ancient families at war with technology and super humans, this collaboration is a first for both companies and versatile– feature film and video game adaptation announcements in coming months are expected.

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Now that’s just damn cool . . . See the full image and an interview with Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver regarding the event at Newsarama.

Polybagged with a die-cut chromium silver foil gatefold pop-up scratch and sniff cover! Buy 100 copies and sell them in 20 years so you can pay for your children’s college tuition!

For those of you who do not know The Watchmen series it was written by Alan Moore who also wrote the cult classic “V for Vendetta” and “From Hell“. The basic plot of The Watchmen center around an alternate reality that closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The main difference is the existence of superheroes. Their presence in this history has altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and presidency of Richard Nixon.

Although the cast of Watchmen are commonly called “superheroes,” the only character in the principal cast who possesses superhuman powers is Dr. Manhattan. In the comic, they refer to themselves as “costumed adventurers”. And yes they have released a trailer for it, and all I can say is holy shit this is going to be really good check out the trailer:

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“You are ejected from the sliding chute like phlegm from and old sailor’s nostril.” B.A. Felton, Knights Of The Dinner Table #135.

Damn, I’m on a roll here!!!! This is the column for comics published on 05/29, but still, I have almost two more months to cover… Last column’s DT! was spotted by Sully; who gains one more badge, and it was that Grace’s midriff tattoos were missing. The Dissector’s Picks Of The Week, short and sweet: Best Book Of The Week was New Avengers #41, just because how well Bendis is tying up the start of his New Avengers run with Secret Invasion. He has a plan… The Worst Book Of The Week was Batman: Gotham After Midnight #1, simply boring. (more…)

Along with a few other incredible comic creators, bloggers and writers I have been invited by the awesome peeps from Prism Comics, www.prismcomics.org, to be a part of the “Emerging LGBT Voices” panel discussion being held this coming Saturday, July 26, from 10:00-11:00am in Room 10 at Comic Con San Diego! This is the biggest, most exciting comic convention of the year and I am way honored to be included in this awesome event.

I will also be at the Prism Comics booth (2146 and 2148) signing copies of my indie comic So Super Duper on Sat the 26th from 1-2pm, www.sosuperduper.com! If all goes well I will be debuting the 5^th stellar issue of So Super Duper, which features a way awesome back-up strip by fellow Shotgun Reviewer J. Caleb Mozzocco. Yay! I will also have two new comics debuting along with So Super Duper; the secret agent Will & Grace-ish Reignbow & Dee-Va, and the slice-of-life, black and white comic loosely based on my life called, Unabashedly Billie. You can learn more about both comics on my above website.

So if you are at Comic Con come by and say “Hieeee!” And be sure to check out Prism Comics FULL agenda to see all the way cool events they have planned at this year’s Comic Con! Yipee! http://prismcomics.org/display.php?id=1589

Finally, I my indie comic was reviewed by YouTube sensation The Gay Comic Geek. Totally check out his thoughtful insights here:

www.youtube.com_gaycomicgeek

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“*cough*wifebeater.” Prodigy (Ritchie Gilmore), on Hank Pym, Avengers: The Initiative #13.

One step closer to being up to date, although there’s some stuff in my future work plate that I know will make me fall behind again… unless I can write a column a day… Well, last column’s Dissect This! was not found by my readers (granted, I didn’t give them much time), but it’s the fact that Beast Boy is morphed into some sort of demonic goat with a cape… and he’s not a metamorph, just a zoomorph. Not much to say, except to launch the Dissector’s Picks Of The Week (this is week 05/21, by the way):
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DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“TAKE MY TENTACLE!” Random alien, Doctor Who #6.

Seventy five columns! Nice number, isn’t it? I accept diamond gifts, if you like… or from Diamond Distribution. This column is on comics published the week of 05/14, and by the way, nobody found the DT! from last time. Captain America’s costume lacks the stripes in the back… remember, it’s based on the US flag?
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DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“I always punch anything I see that’s wearing a swastika!” Captain America, Giant-Size Avengers/Invaders #1.

Alright, still on the catch up job, with a column about comics published on the week of 05/07, plus a few older dissections. Last column’s Dissect This! was spotted by Sully, who reaches the rank of Lieutenant in the HDSC. Of course, you can’t kill 29 billion men, since there’s roughly over 6 billion people on Earth; and no Snakebyte, it doesn’t matter that Y: The Last Man happens in a fictitious Earth.
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Somewhere out there, Demi Moore is taking a meeting with Les Moonves…

It’s very telling when you look at the list of actresses who today got Emmy nominations for their work in drama series:

Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters, ABC

Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer, TNT

Glenn Close, Damages, FX

Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NBC

Holly Hunter, Saving Grace, TNT

With Sedgwick as the youngest of the five talented actresses at age 42, the median age of the quintet of nominees is 52 years old.  With acclaimed, award-winning actresses like Jessica Alba, Megan Fox, and Anne Hathaway grabbing all the plum big-budget studio film roles, is it any wonder that TV is where older good actresses continue to turn to solid, reliable work?  Never mind the fact that TV drama’s overall quality is as good if not better than the best Hollywood can muster in their motion pictures.

To be fair, though, I really think Anne Hathaway is plenty talented, her age simply attracts the suits more at Warner Bros.,  Universal & Paramount.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“I fucking hate writing speeches. I would rather suck green syphalitic donkey dicks! (filled with puss).” Mayor Mitchell Hundred, Ex Machina #36, speech draft complete with illustrations.

I’m trying to get back on the horse here, and I think I’ve never been so behind! But anyway, like Master Yoda said, there is no try… Last column was 20 days ago, and nobody got the Dissect This!, and I fear my lack of posting is making me loose readers, so I hope I can prevent that. The DT! was that the relative sizes of Darth Krayt and the stormtroopers around him were all screwed up, making him look twice the size of the stormies.
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