Paper Moon

If you want to see the first official photos from the upcoming X-Men: First Class film, here they are.

Really, though, there are only three things that you need to know about this film:

1. It is going to be 60'S FABULOUS.

2. The main villain will be Sebastian Shaw, who is played by The Goddamn Kevin Bacon.

3. Alex Summers is supposed to be one of the main characters.

There's already some headdesk-worthy crap coming out of the film - namely the producers repeatedly stating that they based Magneto's character arc on the beliefs of Malcom X (really? really?!) and January Jones kvetching to the LA Times that the initial costume designs for Emma Frost were ridiculously, stupidly sexist - but other than that, it looks like it's shaping up to be an awesome movie.

Speaking of comics stufff, here is a comics-themed Zodiac. I'm a Bulbasaur.

And finally, the world's first Sanskrit Book Fair was held in Bangalore last week. Well, that only took four millennium to get off the ground.

One Piece is the topic of this month's Manga Movable Feast. There are a lot of great posts so far, but my favorite is the most recent one from David Brothers. Kate Dacey also has some very insightful things to say about the artwork and Erica Friedman presents the most intelligent defense of Mr. 2's character that I've read yet. Which still hasn't convinced me that Mr. 2 isn't a grotesque, offensive stereotype or that his death wasn't incredibly problematic, but at least I can respect Friedman's take on the character.

The Microagressions tumblr puts a lot of this "privilege" business into perspective.

Ragnell is blogging again!! This post dissects one of the clearest examples of sexism in Hollywood that I've heard of in a long time.

Girl-Wonder.org is holding a membership drive as a precursor to electing a new Board of Directors. As someone who was on the original Board I can say that it was not only tons of fun and a great way to meet and network with new people, but it was also incredibly satisfying to be part of an organization that actually got stuff done. If any of y'all reading this have an interest in comics and Making the World a Better Place and finding ways to combine the two, then I'd urge you to at least enroll as a member of the organization, if not consider volunteering for an official position or even running for the Board. Ragnell has some good advice for those of you thinking about stepping up to the plate.

Niall Harrison is asking readers to submit their lists of the best Science Fiction written by women in the past ten years. Today is the last day to submit your list (oops!) but even those of you who don't submit your picks can enjoy reading the lists that others have compiled.

Or, more accurately, collaborating with Vidyun Sabhaney to make a Mahabharata manga.

You can find some preview materials here and here, although everything so far seems to be very much a WIP.

DOING IT RIGHT: Batwoman: Elegy. Holy shit, you guys. This book. THIS BOOK. Greg Rucka + J.H. Williams III + hardcover deluxe edition with an introduction from Rachel Maddow + the authors doing ACTUAL RESEARCH to get the srs bzns details right = pure, pure win.

DOING IT KINDA-SORTA WRONG: The new New Mutants series. On the one hand, hooray, all of my childhood dreams have been fulfilled now that Doug Ramsey is officially back among the living. On the other hand, WTF is up with all of these other characters suddenly saying that Doug is autistic? When and how did that particular meme get started? Doug's mutation literally makes him the exact opposite of autistic. The exact. opposite. What the hell, Marvel?

First, via Saurav Mohapatra's blog!

The complete India Authentic comic book series is now available on scribd, including the never-before-published Krishna issue. The series on scribd has been retitled "Myths of India" for some reason, but whatever. The Ganesha issue is free, and other issues are one dollar per download. Unfortunately, I don't think that scribd downloads are available to customers outside the US, but maybe you can use an anonymizer to get around that?

So it looks like Liquid Comics is putting ALL of Virgin's old series on scribd, including Ramayan 3392 AD, that Kshatriya comic that never got published, The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma, Mumbai MacGuffin, and of course Devi. And a bunch of other titles too, but really those are the good ones. In my humble opinion. The big question, though, is are any of these titles going to be continued in digital format?! I seriously doubt it, but I'm going to keep dreaming of a Devi continuation anyway. Because that's my dream and I'm sticking to it.

Oh, and in case you're new here and you missed all of the artgasms and asskickery and post-apocalyptic questing and metafictional minderfuckery that Virgin Comics brought us three years ago, well, here's your chance to make up for it!

And now for something completely unrelated: Your Soul Eater Moment of Zen.


From YumeIchigo

Thank you, anonymous puppy. I needed that to wash the bad taste of Chapter 75 out of my mouth.

For all y'all who miss Virgin Comics and who want more stories about Lord Vishnu genderbending, wrestling horses, accidentally beheading himself, turning into a merman, and trolling Indra for epic lulz.

Also, Karna.

Because Karna.

( Large images behind the cut. )


PS! If Indian mythology isn't your thing... I gotta say, these new Greek mythology graphic novels by George O'Connor look completely awesome. The Athena volume is definitely on my shopping list now.

Thinky-thoughts finals week reading, for those of you who like thinky-thoughts.

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HELL YES 18 DAYS!!!!!

FUCK YEAH!!!

From the PR: 18 Days takes one of the most enduring tales of the East and places it in the capable hands of Grant Morrison, one of the greatest storytellers of the West.

A HA HA HA HA HA HA no. But Mukesh Singh is doing all of the artwork, so no matter what Morrison does to the story it is utterly impossible for this project NOT to rock. Thus is the awesome power of Mukesh Singh.

From the Beat writeup: The original — a classic Indian myth telling of three great warriors and their cataclysmic battles — is the world’s longest epic poem at more than 1.8 millions words, so there was certainly a lot of source material.

...Three? Only three? Is it going to be Krishna, Arjuna, and Karna? But what about Bhima?! What about Drona and Bhisma?!?! What about the Original Woobie, Ashwatthama?!?! What about Abhimanyu?!?! Inquiring minds want to know!

Pretty pictures are preeeeeeeeetty.

In addition to the previous round of signal-boosting:

Girls Drawing Girls (NSFW) is hosting a Haiti Earthquake Relief Charity Art Sale (also somewhat NSFW). There is some effin' amazing stuff being offered for sale, so please check it out.

Because I'm sure that y'all are tired of me keysmashing endlessly about how I want to marry James Joyce's prose and have its babies. Here is some other cool stuff to read.

1. Princess Mononoke vs. James Cameron's Avatar.

I know that pretty much everyone and their dog has compared Avatar to Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai,, and Ferngully by now. This is the first time that I've seen the film compared to Princess Mononoke, however. Conclusion: Hayao Miyazaki did it better.

Not that that's saying much. Oh no I didn't!

2. Manly Women and Feminine Men (Claymore meta)

In which the_sun_is_up argues that Claymore is the most perfectly gender-flipped shounen manga in existence, and she's right. I would also add that, even after 99 chapters of manga and 26 episodes of the anime, it is astounding that Claymore still manages to completely fail the gender-reversed Bechdel Test. When you think about it, that's pretty extraordinary. Most "chick lit" media still passes the gender-reversed Bechdel Test (or even worse, manages to fail the real Bechdel Test). So the fact that a long-running series like Claymore - a series published in a "for boys" magazine, no less - fails the gender-reversed Bechdel Test is pretty darn awesome.

3. Robot6's 30 Most Important Comics of the Decade: Part One | Part Two

Definitely not a list of the best 30 comics of the decade - there are certainly some titles on the list that one could argue are not actually, you know, good - but a list of the decade's most undeniably popular and influential comics*, for better or for worse.

The English version of Sailor Moon is ranked at #2.

* Asterik: "within the English-speaking world and confined solely to output from the US, UK, and Japan" should be added as a disclaimer here. The list completely excludes titles like Italy's W.i.t.c.h. (available in English and one of the best-selling comics of all time in the Philippines and several European countries), any English edition of manwha or manhua, or anything at all from southeast Asia's enormous comics industry, much of which is also available in English. If Watchmen can get a spot on the list just for being reprinted and becoming a bestseller this past decade, then doesn't Amar Chitra Katha (also reprinted a gazillion times, a bestseller, available in English, and hugely influential in Indian comics history) deserve a mention as well? ETA: More about this in the comments.