Because they’re good comics, that’s why.
In keeping with the atmosphere of progress following Kathryn Bigelow’s two big wins at the Academy Awards and the spotlight of International Women’s Day, let’s take a look at two prescient Marvel comic books that came out last week: the first issue of the 3-part anthology series, Girl Comics and Valerie D’Orazio’s one-shot Punisher MAX: Butterfly, both of which show the scope of what can be achieved when we have more female voices in the creative industry.
Girl Comics collects a bunch of short stories by female writers and artists that range in tone and style. The intro pages by Colleen Coover are incredibly charming (no really, that’s the word to use, I’m not just trying to sound cultured!), featuring a bunch of different heroines in different poses with different facial expressions. It does a good job showing that although they are all collected here under a title that some might see as reductive, Marvel’s female characters exist across a wide spectrum — or at least they should. “It’s not because we are different…Yet we are all unique,” goes the dialogue.
This line of thinking follows throughout the anthology, where stories range from cutesy to gritty, whimsical to sad.
Photo via panicmanual
YACHT—”a band, a belief system and a business”—is the kind of act that exceeds every expectation you might have of seeing them live. The dance-pop duo is making their living off of showboating, playing energetic shows masked as old-timey country revivals in small, packed bars.
At this point, I think it’s redundant to talk about how many plot lines Caprica has up in the air all at once. It’s doing an admirable juggling job, but at some point the novelty of volume wears off. That’s why juggling acts always open with the rubber balls but end the show with just three flaming chainsaws — ultimately it’s not the quantity of what you’re working with, it’s the quality.
By and large, the quality is a mixed bag. Instead of going through a summary, I’m just going to make a point by asking all the questions I now have about this show. Mystery seems to be the major fuel Caprica is running on. Spoilers after the jump.
- Star Wars cosplay nerds give casual SW fans a bad rap. Why is it perfectable acceptable—nay, cool–to be a rabid Scarface fan but the heights of nerd-dom if you dig intergalatic epics? It’s a fucking classic movie man! The cultural cache is priceless! And with the invention of the Internet a bajillion SW fans (of both nerd and casual ilk) rejoiced in being able to discuss the films in broader terms (or in minutiae) with the like-minded. The ultimate for me? A LOST related discussion that heavily references Star Wars. I give you “The Real Problem With Midichlorians.”
- I have a confession: I didn’t read anything this week! At least, not on the culture front. Well, not anything that wasn’t Oscar-related, and don’t worry I’ll spare you that headache. Instead, join me in re-watching some amazing Canadian public service announcements. Gawker.tv did a great round-up of clips, everything from “I can put my arm back on,” to “Don’t you put it in your mouth,” and the fun extends into the comments section with “Some people say I eat too many chocolate bars, but…” and “I smell burnt toast, doctor!” Who needs reading? Everything I need to know in life I learned from these clips. Now excuse me while I laugh at all the non-Canadian kids who became pimply epileptic fools with severed arms in their mouths.
- I want to say this article by Anne Trubek over at GOOD magazine is a must read, except I’m not entirely sure if she technically wrote the thing at all. I won’t hesitate to say this is one of the most inventive uses of the written word I’ve ever seen online, articulating a philosophical debate on plagiarism, writing and originality in a way her own words probably could never have done. Great concept, well executed and probably worth talking about for a few hours over some beers. Seriously, call me after you read it. I’m so lonely.
- When George Lois starting designing covers for Esquire in 1962, he brought in an era that saw the mag push the boundaries and create some of the most memorable imagesto ever be burned into the collective conscious. The Ny Times recently spoke to Lois, and got him to tell the stories behind his 12 favourite covers here.
I'm done with these two!
I’m so glad that Alice in Wonderland is finally coming out. So glad, because finally everyone will stop linking to new trailers and gushing over released photos and fawning over Johnny Depp’s brilliance and losing their minds because they saw Tim Burton speaketh at a comic convention or got to peek at his high-school doodles at the MoMA. It’s strange, isn’t it? Strange that in a world of cultural cynics and bald-faced haters Burton and Depp still garner so much goodwill and generate heaps of anticipation, despite the fact it has been two whole decades since these frequent collaborators did anything of lasting note.
You probably already know the answer: Roll Up The Rim To Win.
I, like many other Canadians, have somehow allowed this annual food gambling tournament to turn into as much a part of our national pastiche as curling, hockey, skating on frozen rivers and drinking milk from bags. If you ever leave Canada to live in a foreign land, I promise you those are the five things you will miss most.
But first let me provide some context.
Being a former barista and theoretically, a writer by trade, my average coffee consumption hovers somewhere in the range of three cups a day. And when I say “cup,” I don’t mean the kind of cup you get at a fancy restaurant. I mean, at least a 14oz paper container or a giant, steaming, mug. Basically, I am a caffeine addict, as anyone who knows me and has seen me sans coffee for any prolonged period can attest. I turn into a disturbingly aloof sociopath. It’s not pretty. Don’t try to sell me things before 9am.
In terms of brand loyalty, I’d say due to pure availability to taste ratio, I drink Starbucks coffee 75 per cent of the time I purchase a coffee, followed by 20 per cent Tim Hortons and 5 per cent misc.
Miles put it best: “Still hot though.”
Knowing that the ingredients for a good LOST episode is a healthy mix of “!!” and “??” Jef and Anupa will be interrobanging the show’s final season every week. As LOST winds down to its conclusion, can its creators dish out all the needed explanations without resorting to exposition? Can they keep up the mystery without succumbing to just more mindfuckery? In “Sundown” we begin with a fight and are set up for a fight, while being reminded along the way that some characters we haven’t seen in a while could definitely still get it. SPOILERS after the jump:
Leonardo DiCaprio channels ghosts of Hitchcock past in "Shutter Island"
To all of you criticizing Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island because you could see the “twist” ending an hour away: YOU NEED TO RELAX. The reason you saw the surprise coming was because it was hardly the film’s raison d’être. i.e. It wasn’t a surprise, Sherlock. This ain’t no post-The Sixth Sense bait-and-switch Shyamalan screw job. Part of the joy of Scorsese’s latest flick is figuring shit out way before Leonardo DiCaprio’s hard-boiled marshall Teddy Daniels does, and then watching him flounder around in a sad display of confidence and misplaced chutzpah.
What typically happens when Canada wins gold medal hockey (all photos via)
When it comes to hockey my friend is what you would call intensely devoted to a point where you fear for your own safety. Which explains why when he woke me up last Sunday morning to go downtown Toronto and meet him to line up for a bar, before noon, so that I could pay a $10 cover charge to wait for more than three hours for the Canada / U.S.A game to start, I did (with only minor hesitations). read more…
Five episodes in, I can’t help but notice that every episode of Caprica starts with a recap of all the plot points that will be addressed in the upcoming hour. This is important to note, because I think the show realizes without these little summaries, people would quite easily lose track of what’s going on.
Let me reiterate: these recaps are not of what has been going on in the show as a whole. The show has SO MUCH SHIT going on, that it takes nearly 2 minutes just to recap which of the many, many, many plot points we are going to dive into in this particular episode.
Some might hate this, some might love it. Me? I applaud the effort, despite being somewhat skeptical of the result.
More thoughts (with spoilers) after the jump.