Paper Moon

Television

Parks and Recreation is still easily the best goddamn thing that I watch every week. And it's been holding that position for a solid two years now, so. I don't think I've written about it yet on this blog and frankly I don't have a lot of things to say about it that haven't been said before (and likely better) by others, but: it's brilliant television and if you're not already watching it, you should be. (I'm of the opinion that the first season is totally skippable though.)

It took a few episodes to warm me over, but I am now officially in love with The Mindy Project. I think in many ways it's the spiritual successor to 30 Rock but (and please don't shoot me for saying this because I LOVED 30 Rock) in some ways done better. The lead is still a smart, successful woman who is damn good at her job even though her personal life is in shambles, there's still a wacky cast of co-workers (and a secondary male lead who gets his own secondary character arcs) that are in turn funny and/or poignant, and the style of humor is still that particular blend of surreal absurdist mixed with so-true-to-life-that-it-hurts comedy that seems to characterize all the best of the most recent television sitcoms. Where I think The Mindy Project improves upon 30 Rock's formula, however, is a) the fact that our heroine Mindy has more than one close female friend and that Mindy's interactions with her diverse group of female friends often play an important role in most episodes, and b) there's an awful lot less of the gross femininity-bashing and wink-wink-nudge-nudge-we're-only-doing-this-because-it's-ironic sexism that 30 Rock so often indulged in. Mindy is the character who would have been the butt of the jokes in 30 Rock (see: Jenna), but in The Mindy Project everything that she is and everything that she stands for is unabashedly celebrated without ever denigrating other flavors of femininity as being less desirable, less progressive, less feminist, less whatever.

Film

Recently watched and now firmly in the why-the-hell-did-I-wait-this-long-to-see-these-films-because-they-are-GREAT category: Pitch Perfect, ParaNorman, and Amour. "Great" isn't really an adjective that comes anywhere near close to doing Amour justice but hey, let's just roll with it.

Seen recently in theaters: Admission. Loved it. Tina Fey is always great, of course. But in the theater where I saw the film the audience actually burst into applause the moment that Lily Tomlin's character first appeared onscreen. Because Lily Tomlin is legitimately just that awesome.

On a recommendation from a friend I recently indulged in both of the Lyrical Nanoha movies, which at first I was skeptical about because I was mostly lukewarm on the series, but oh my god, these movies are really fantastic. Taken together they're five solid hours of gorgeously-animated magical girl badassery full of female friendships and family relationships driving the entire plot and just wow. Of course I share the same criticisms of the films that nearly everybody else in the universe has expressed so far: yes, the films are both so much more about Fate than Nanoha that they really should have been named after Fate instead of Nanoha (not that I don't love Fate but come on it's almost disingenuous to name the films after Nanoha when Fate is the real star of both), and yes, the transformation sequences with the detailed nudity on underage female characters (nipples and all JESUS CHRIST) are pretty damn inexcusable. Thankfully, however, the transformation sequences only happen once per each film, so they're easy to fast-forward through. And other than the transformation sequences there's basically zero fanservice on any of the underage characters, which is pretty damn refreshing to see in a magical girl franchise intended for an adult male audience.

Also, I saw this one months ago but have neglected to rec it here: A Letter to Momo. Everybody should see this film. It's weird and beautiful and moving and funny and important in a way that I can't really describe in words. It may be sacrilege to say that this is an improved, better version of My Neighbor Totoro but... it really is. It deals with the same thematic setup (children move to a new rural home, encounter nature spirits, and deal with a crisis when one family member gets sick and another appears to be in immediate danger) yet in a deeper, more mature way that still manages to be appropriate for and accessible to a child audience. But the nature spirits in Momo are an entirely different breed than those from Totoro: much more in keeping with Japanese tradition, Momo's supernatural creatures are alien, dangerous, and frightening, even when they're trying to help out the human characters and/or providing comic relief. These are not the cute, fluffy, cuddly forest gods from Miyazaki's nostalgia-tinted view of Japan in days gone by. They are much stranger and darker but also much more interesting to watch, not unlike the human characters in the film as well. Anywhoo, this film is finally starting to garner some critical attention in the English-speaking world (I think it's playing in the Boston International Childrens' Film Festival this weekend?) so if you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. It is so, so worth it.

Relatedly: Little Witch Academia is basically perfect. Just perfect.

Comics

Zahra's Paradise is a graphic novel that deserves waaaaay more attention than it's getting. Of course it's a politically important book (Iran! Democracy! Political dissidence! Women fighting against oppression!) but in case you're the type of person intimidated by reading a "political" comic let me assure you: The pseudonymous authors use a brilliant, expressive, cinematic art style that makes the complex narrative accessible to any reader without ever once compromising the story or dumbing down anything for the benefit of knowing-approximately-jack-shit-about-the-Middle-East readers. In other words, even if you know approximately jack shit about the Middle East, you can and you should still read this book. It's a beautiful, painful story that will stick with you for a long time and it will be impossible for you to walk away from the book without a much deeper and better understanding of Iran than you had before opening its pages. Which is really the whole purpose of the book in the first place.

The Flowers of Evil continues to impress me with its so-true-it's-painful dissection of the wannabe-edgy, alienated teenage mind. Whether you think it's a "good" manga or realistic in any sense of the term (and I'm on the fence about both to be honest), it's still totally different from nearly every other shounen manga out there, and a fascinating read for that reason alone.

Hawkeye is still the reason that I give Marvel my hard-earned money every month. Young Avengers... not so much, not anymore.

Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin. Cripes where do I even start with this one. For a long time it's been clear that this isn't really a story about plucky humans fighting evil man-eating giants, the same way that Eureka Seven was never really a story about cool rebels fighting an oppressive government in giant robots (even though it took the main character half the series to reach that realization), and the same way that Evangelion was never really a story about plucky humans fighting giant aliens (even though in its original incarnation the stuff that Hideaki Anno intended for the series to really be about was so poorly-executed that yeah the giant robots and aliens really were the point by the end, hence everybody hating the original ending, okay this is a really bad example I should stop now). So then what the hell IS Attack on Titan really about? Without giving too much away, I'm going to riff on Batezi's brilliant post about the series and say that thematically it cuts straight to the heart of our two deepest fears in the modern age: the power of bass-ackwards organized religion as a force for regressive social stagnation, and the mindset that drives those who have been wronged to justify acts of mass terrorism as a way of striking back against the faceless enemy "other." In exploring these themes, of course, Attack on Titan dives into all sorts of dark territory about how the human mind and the human heart works, in a way so visceral and real that in terms of thematically-similar media I can come up with few truly comparative examples save for perhaps The Snowtown Murders (particularly with Bertolt's story jesus christ dude) and Harvest of Empire ("all of humanity is your enemy" until you get to know them and then they're not faceless others anymore and then uh-oh). But of course on top of all of this there's also badass giant-slaying action and fucking awesome characters all of that great bloody, gory fun every chapter. Attack on Titan is that rare, rare series that manages to do awesome grimdark bloody action horror really well AND blend it successfully with complex psychodrama that ISN'T shallow, pretentious, or poorly-written the way it so often is when clumsy attempts at human psychodrama rear their ugly head in your usual run-of-the-mill survival horror stories. Isayama isn't a clumsy writer, and Attack on Titan continues to be a brilliant series. Go read it now and spoil yourself silly before the anime starts airing this weekend. If you can stomach a story where most of the main cast gets eaten alive by giants, that is.

Long story short:

I'm going to be teaching a unit on graphic fiction to my Art History students.

I've been working with our school librarian (who is AWESOME when it comes to comics) to curate a list of sample texts to use. I mean "sample texts" both in terms of texts that I will make the whole class read AND an approved reading list of comics for students to choose for their independent reading at the end of the unit.

Awesome Librarian and I mutually decided that list of optional comics for students to choose for their independent reading should include a least one representative example of puzzle-game-style-adventure-partially-generated-by-reader-input-type comic, since it's a format that's intriguing, interesting to the kids, and easy to use as discussion fodder for a variety of themes developed in the unit (that they WILL have to address in their final critique of their chosen comic).

And for our representative example of said type-of-comic-that-we-really-need-a-better-name-for, we really want to go with Rubyquest.

It's short, it's complete, and it's the best representation of reader-input-driven storytelling I've seen in the genre. I know that the content can be really disturbing, but it's an optional reading (one of over thirty titles that the kids will be able to choose from) and believe me I know that said disturbing content will definitely appeal to more than a few of my students. Best of all, it's available in a super-convenient format for us to use: these beautifully-compiled SWF files that WILL, believe it or not, play on the Sony pocketbooks that the kids have been issued. Complete with all the extras like the rejected reader commands and reader theories and fanart and stuff all nicely compiled together right there in the SWF.

Aaaaaaaaaaand therein lies the problem. The fanart that our intrepid TekStation compiled into the SWF files contains some Rule 34 and there is no way in hell I can give my students SWF files with bunny porn on them.

Yes, I am totally okay with putting a comic full of shockingly violent imagery and lots of body horror on my approved comic reading list. It wouldn't be the only comic full of shockingly violent imagery and lots of body horror on the list, either. (Swamp Thing, Akira, Sharaz-De, and Courtney Crumrin are on the reading list too.) But anything even mildly sexual is a huge no-no (hence me being unable to get administrative approval to add Craig Thompson's Blankets to the list) so it goes without saying that the fanart porn in the Rubyquest files has got to be removed. And to be totally honest I think that all Rubyquest porn is horrible weird gross and wrong, no I don't feel particularly bad being judgmental about that, and as far as I'm concerned it detracts nothing from the experience if you can't see that shit in the SWF files.

So I've got this great comic that somebody on the interbutts has already compiled into super-convenient SWF files for me, but said compiler also included some fanart in the SWF compilations and said fanart also happens to include some porn.

I've tried contacting TekStation on his deviantart to explain my situation and ask him if he would be so kind as to help a poor teacher out and send me (or post on the internet somewhere) versions of his SWF files with the porn removed. But that was over a week ago, I haven't heard back from him yet, and he doesn't appear to have logged into his deviantart account since last summer. So I don't have much hope there.

Right now my options, as I see them, are:

1. Edit out the porn myself.

But HELP I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THIS and neither the Awesome Librarian nor I are nearly tech-savvy enough to even know what program to use to edit SWF files I mean what program DO you use?! Can anybody recommend a good (free) program that would help a total SWF newbie like me edit a few images out of a file? Or is this not even a thing that can be done that easily?

2. Ask somebody else to edit out the porn.

Problem so far: None of my RL friends are tech-savvy enough to do so, and there's no way in hell I'm going to ask anybody that works for my school district to do it for me because, you know, it's bunny porn. Not worth losing my job over.

3. Find an alternative compilation/presentation of the comic.

Does anybody know of an alternative compilation/presentation of Rubyquest that they would recommend? So far Google has only given me TekStation's SWF files and this which is unfortunately just a horrible way to experience the comic.

4. Give up and settle for a different representative example of a puzzle-game-style-adventure-partially-generated-by-reader-input-type comic to add to the approved reading list.

I'm open for suggestions. Parameters: Works must be complete, not more than a few hundred pages long, and not contain too much sexual content. Gore is totally fine, though!


So anywhoo I would very much appreciate help with any of the four options above.

A few of my favorite things amongst this year's offerings from the comic book industry:

Marceline and the Scream Queens
It's everything I ever wanted an Adventure Time comic to be: Marceline and Princess Bubblegum have ridiculous adventures together and actually grow as characters because of their influence on each other, the artwork by Meredith Gran and a roster of talented guest artists is fantastic, and the jokes fly fast and furiously while still being every bit as sophisticated and layered as you'd expect Adventure Time humor to be.  Absolutely one of the best comics I've read this year. Cannot be recommended enough.

Bandette
My favorite among Monkeybrain's launch titles. The dialogue and characters are delightfully over-the-top, and Colleen Coover's slick, stylized, yet cartoonish artwork fits the tone of the book perfectly. Dueling master thieves! A grumpy detective in over his head! A villainous matadorista! Terrorist organizations that need to be thwarted, hostages in a bank robbery that need to be rescued, cute dogs, rare books, and stolen Rembrandts - and that's all just in the first three issues. I can't wait to read more of this.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Oh look, it's the comic book that spawned over twenty variant covers and that sold over 100,000 issues in pre-orders alone. And that's just for the very first issue.  But hey, this is one of those cases where the success of the comic is richly deserved. Andy Price's artwork looks nothing like the style of the cartoon series, but it fits the comic book medium perfectly. Katie Cook's storyline centers around a fan-favorite villain, yet never really kowtows to the Brony fan base the way that many of us feared that it would; the story, the characters, and the humor in the comic remain true to everything that makes the cartoon great. So in short, this comic book is basically perfect.

Krishna
Abhishek Singh is still one of the most criminally under-appreciated comic artists working today. I probably can't write anything here that will convince you to buy his new (utterly gorgeous) graphic novel that will be more persuasive than simply showing you a selection of some artwork from the book and letting that speak for itself, so here you go: http://abhiart.blogspot.com/2012/09/krishna-journey-within.html

Hawkeye
Everything that you've heard about this series is true: It really IS that good.  And I'm saying this as somebody who normally doesn't care for Clint Barton as a character. I don't dislike him or anything, but in most comics that I read I just don't find Clint that interesting of a character. To be honest, I started reading this series because I'd heard that it co-stars Kate Bishop being completely awesome (which it does and she is), but by the end of the series (ETA: first six issues, as this actually an ongoing and not a miniseries like I mistakenly assumed!) I was definitely reading it for Clint. I love this comic. I love the interplay between Clint and Kate, I love the artwork, and I love the way that Matt Fraction writes Clint's narrative voice. It's a fantastic series.  I'll recommend it even if (like me) you're usually not that much of a Clint fan.

Astonishing X-Men
Still hands-down the best X-Men title every month. I loved the conclusion to the epic Mauraders/Karma/Susan/gay wedding/Madripoor story arc.  I love Karma getting to take a starring role in any story arc, period.  I loved the wedding. I love Iceman, Gambit, and Northstar being bros. I loved Danger and Emma co-starring in one of my favorite standalone issues I've read this year. I just love the way that this series is so consistently good, and it's hard not to acknowledge that this is largely because Marvel keeps Astonishing mostly separate from whatever crossover event bullshit they're mucking up the other X-titles with.*  It was exactly that same tiresome crossover event bullshit (*cough*Avengers vs. X-Men*cough*) that turned X-Men Legacy from a series that I was enjoying immensely into a series that bored me to tears. Anywhoo, Astonishing is for that very reason still the only X-title on my pull list as I head into 2013, although to be honest I kind of hope that changes soon. I miss Rogue being awesome.

*Okay, I admit that I did really enjoy Schism. But Schism is basically the ONLY one of Marvel's big narrative "events" I've enjoyed in a long while, and it wasn't even a big crossover event at that.   Avengers vs. X-Men wasn't just bad, it was actively painful and boring.  Thank God that  Astonishing had nothing to do with that crap.

-----Shingeki no Kyojin-----

oh my god

oh my god

OH MY GOD

Also: I KNEW IT (in terms of [spoiler name]'s sexuality AND in terms of so THAT'S what happened to Connie's village) and WHOA I DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING but it's pretty goddamn refreshing to see it being so casually mentioned in a shounen series anyway and for a non-bishie male character to boot (in terms of Reiner's sexuality).

-----Homestuck-----

So The Worst Thing That I Have Ever Shipped has officially become canon.

And it became canon in the most beautifully perfect horrible way, too.

(I love seeing how much Tavros has changed and I love seeing how terrible his relationship with Vriska is because there is no way - NO WAY - that their redrom should EVER be portrayed as a sparkly happy funtimes schmoopy hugglefest, and thank skateboarding Jesus Christ that it's not that way at all now that it's canon, no, it is EXACTLY as twisted and terrible as a redrom between Vriska and Tavros SHOULD BE and yet at the same time it is so gloriously perfect for the both of them in all of its twisted terribleness.)

I don't think I've ever been this happy about a set of updates since... Well, since Roxy was first revealed, I think? Anywhoo, fun times. Fun times all around.

-----AvX-----

Welp.

That was a steaming pile of fucking terrible.

If you need me I'll be over here in the reduced-my-Marvel-pull-list-to-exactly-one-title-for-the-time-being corner, reading Astonishing X-Men. Which is pretty much the only consistently great X-Men monthly now. And it accomplishes this greatness largely by completely ignoring the rest of the Marvel universe and whatever shitty crossover shit Marvel is pulling out of their asses this season. And also by consistently focusing on great yet under-rated characters like Karma.

I suppose I should be excited about the new Young Avengers series, but honestly, I'm having a hard time working up any enthusiasm for a Young Avengers series without Eli in it.

But first, I need to say something about The Dark Knight. For me, the best scene in the entire movie - the scene that made the entire film work thematically on so many levels - was the scene in which the people of Gotham foiled the Joker's boat plan. That scene, more than anything, carried the entire film for me. The rest of the film was typical Nolan movie stuff: as a suspense thriller it worked beautifully, as a rumination on the nature of superheroes and villains it was full of shallow and at times downright sophomoric fluff, and goddammit Christian Bale what the hell happened to your acting ability. But that boat scene. Oh that beautiful boat scene. If not for that scene, the entire movie would have fallen apart, thematically as well as emotionally.

And I'm sorry, Commissioner Gordon, but I think that scene proved more than anything that Batman is the hero that Gotham deserves. You can't include a climax like that in your film and then end with "we need a savior even if we don't deserve him." But you do. Y'all DO deserve a savior. It was the people of Gotham that ultimately undid the Joker, not Batman punching him in the face. (Well, to be more accurate, it was the people of Gotham surprising the fuck out of the Joker that caused him to lower his guard long enough for Batman to be able to punch him in the face, but you get my drift.)

Now, about The Dark Knight Rises.

1. I liked it. A lot. And even though it lacked the wham!moment in which the city en masse proved the villain's repeatedly-stated view of human nature wrong, that theme was still very much present in the film via the individual character arcs of Selina, Blake, and even Foley. ETA: And I think that what makes the idea that, as Batman says, "anybody can be a hero" particularly powerful in The Dark Knight Rises is that at the end of the day, true heroism is demonstrated by the unlikeliest of individuals: An aging cop past his prime, a man whom the audience was led to believe was a self-interested coward, a naive young detective who should have been helpless in the face of an adversary that outmatched him in every way, and - above all else - a career criminal. That it was this particular handful of characters who rose to acts of selfless heroism - not only saving Gotham City but proving the villain's view of human nature to be fundamentally incorrect - is really a much more powerful statement about the nature of heroism than anything in the film related to Bruce Wayne or Batman. The same was very much true in The Dark Knight, too: in the end, it was the unlikeliest group of individuals - a boat full of ordinary citizens fearing for their lives, and a boat full of convicted criminals - who decided collectively to commit a selfless act of heroism, thereby ultimately foiling the Joker's plan and allowing Batman to defeat him. Like I said before, I really found that moment in the film to be a much more powerful and interesting statement on the nature of heroism vs. evil than any of the tired, clichéd exchanges between Batman and the Joker. And the same is true for The Dark Knight Rises, too. I mean, come on: Weren't you all way more interested in watching how Gordon, Selina, and Blake dealt with Bane, rather than watching Bruce Wayne go through the exact same freakin' character arc that Nolan put him through in the previous two Batman films? I know I was.

2. I think we've reached the point in superhero movies where comic readers are going to be prematurely spoiled for awesome, beautifully set up, carefully crafted, and genuinely shocking plot twists. Because I was able to pick out the spoiler reveal in the third act of the movie the moment that a certain character walked on the screen. :( And that's kind of no fun, because I think that Nolan set up the shock of the reveal really well. Unfortunately it wasn't a shock to me, and I think that it probably wasn't a shock to anybody with even a passing familiarity with Batman comics.

Related to number 2: I can't help but wonder what the hell Marvel is planning to do with the Winter Soldier movie. I mean, it's not like the identity of the Winter Soldier is one of the most infamous (and genuinely shocking) spoilers in the entire Marvel comics canon or anything.

3. I'm sure I wasn't the only person watching this movie who was able to predict the culmination of Blake's character arc fairly early in the film, but the predictability of it in no way detracted from the HELL FUCKING YES!!!-ness of the moment when it finally happened.

4. As usual, Christian Bale was the weakest of the actors in the film. Which is still so weird to me because... He's Christian Bale. In his other films he ranges from decent to actually good acting. But in Nolan's films he just sucks. And it's not just because of the horrible Batman voice, either. His Bruce Wayne is just so flat and lifeless, even during supposedly intense scenes when he's struggling to ~*~overcome his inner turmoil~*~ or deal with a broken spine or whatever the fuck. Blargh.

5. I cried exactly three times during the movie. All of them were during Alfred's speeches.

Thing the first: If you aren't watching The Disney Channel's Gravity Falls, you should be watching it. It's gorgeously animated, genuinely funny, surprisingly self-aware, and it has an amazing musical soundtrack. It's definitely a show with that particular sense of humor that makes it feel like it belongs on Cartoon Network much moreso than it belongs on The Disney Channel. I mean, just look at this opening sequence:

Thing the second: Here are some more comics that are good!

The Legend of Bold Riley: Princess Rilavashana SanParite is one of the best adventurer-princess characters I've encountered in a long time, the artwork by Vanessa Gillings and Kelly McClellan is incredible, and this book overall is just so. damn. good. By the way, here's a free 55-page preview.

Ntombinde, the Girl Who Loved Danger: This comic is one of the rarest of the rare, a page-length weekly newspaper comic printed in independent weeklies across the United States. Fortunately, even if you don't have access any of the newspapers that print Ntombinde, you can still read the (uncolored) version of her weekly adventures at Sterling Clark's website, or you can buy her collected adventures in graphic novel format. I'm having a hard time finding where to buy the Ntombinde graphic novel online, but I bought my copy directly from Sterling Clark when I met him at DCCC, so if he or Studio S is appearing at any comic conventions in your area you should definitely check out his books.

Battlepug: This comic is exactly what it says on the tin, and it is glorious. It's clever, irreverent, a helluva a lot of fun, and beautifully illustrated by Mike Norton (whom you may remember as one of the best artists on Marvel's Runaways). Plus I think that this page just kind of speaks for itself. ETA: And Battlepug just won the 2012 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic!! AWESOME!!

Monekybrain Comics is a new imprint that just launched with five amazing-looking titles, three of which have female protagonists, all of which you can check out extensive previews of here.

The Whole Story is a new comics website that lets you name your price to download beautiful DRM-free, high-quality PDF comics. You can find new comics by Ryan North (Adventure Time, Dinosaur Comics), Meredith Gran (Marceline and the Scream Queens), Katie Cook (Star Wars), Shaenon Garrity (Smithson), Ryan Estrada (Aki Alliance, Flight), David Hellman (Braid), Andrew Hussie (YES REALLY), and Nam Dong Yoon. In addition to about a dozen other talented artists and writers. So trust me when I say that this site is really, really worth checking out.

Speaking of indie comics! Love and Rockets is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary at Comic-Con this weekend. And if you've never read anything by the Hernandez brothers before, you are seriously missing out.

And now, our concluding link for this post, for all of you writers out there: Five Ways that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Can Make You a Better Writer.

The Hero Initiative is seeking donations to cover the cost of Robert L. Washington III's funeral. Please please please help if you can. Washington was a groundbreaking writer who neither got the acclaim nor the financial compensation that he deserved from the comics industry. Without funds to cover the cost of a small, modest funeral his remains will literally be thrown into a ditch on Hart Island, without any ceremony, and without giving his family an opportunity to say goodbye.

Other links of interest:

Chris Claremont, Ann Nocenti, and Louise Simonson re-unite to discuss the original plans for Madelyne Pryor's character in the X-Men comics. Wow. Wooooooooooow.

Justin Sevakis explains the mysterious process by which film properties are licensed and distributed internationally: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Molly McIsaac lists the ten best manga (available in English) for children. Comments argue about whether Dragonball should be on the list because of its sexual humor and whether the list fails for excluding Astro Boy. In response to the former, meh, I'd say there's no hard or fast ruling on that one - it really depends on the age, maturity, and experiences of the kid reading it. As for the latter, well, if I had to pick one kiddie Tezuka manga to put on the list, I would choose Princess Knight over Astro Boy. And I still think it's a shame that Honey Honey will likely never be available in English because it is still one of the greatest kids' manga of all time.

In much less light-hearted fare, Foz Meadows explains some basics of Rape Culture 101 in her two blog posts about rape culture and gaming: One | Two. The comments on the first post are unsurprisingly full of fail, hence the follow-up post. But I agree completely with the way that Meadows lays out the differences in terms of what rape culture looks like in a digital community versus how it manifests in meatspace. Both posts are definitely worth a read, even if you don't exactly need a 101-level explanation of the basic concepts involved.

Here it is, holy shit, the actual fucking trailer for Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 2:



I know, it's in French. I know, the Golden Condor still looks ridiculous and Mendoza is still ridiculous and the parrot is still annoying. I know, the flash animation that worked so beautifully for Wakfu and My Little Pony just looks weird and awkward when combined with Cities of Gold's retro, rounded, semi-realistic character designs. I know, I know, I know.

And yet.

When that theme song starts playing at the end of the trailer. Oh my flash animation-loving God. I hear that and suddenly I'm three years old again, sitting on my dad's lap, either crying because the aliens in this cartoon are terrifying the shit out of me*, or freaking out because for some reason my dad (who is from South America) has the brilliant idea to attempt to EXPLAIN THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THIS SHOW to his toddler daughter and I'm just like WHUT WHUT what do you mean that Zia was sold into slavery and what do you mean the Spanish dudes and the native people didn't get along and what do you mean that Tao isn't even a "real" native because his entire race is fictional. I mostly didn't get any of what my dad tried to explain to me. I didn't get it at all. But I did pick up the word "conquistador" from those conversations. My dad was super-proud when he finally taught me how to say that word, even though I didn't really understand the meaning or the weight of the word. All I knew was that my dad called Mendoza a "conquistador," therefore he was a conquistador. Whatever that meant.

I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say that some of my earliest memories are of watching this show. Heck, I barely remember anything about preschool, but I remember watching this show with my dad. And being mostly confused about the historical context and the conflicts between the Spaniards and the Incas and the Mayans and the Olmecs. And being completely terrified of those scary aliens that showed up in the final episodes. Hey, I was three years old, okay?

But despite being confused by some parts and outright terrified by others, I still loved that show. Oh my God, how I loved that show. Maybe it's because I was three years old at the time and I didn't have much in the way of discerning taste, or maybe it's because I just loved having that bonding experience with my dad, I don't know. But I definitely remember that I freakin' LOVED that show.

Oh, and if Cities of Gold returning to television later this year isn't enough of a nostalgiagasm for y'all, check this out:

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld is getting a reboot in DC's new Sword of Sorcery monthly.

Hell. Fucking. YES.



* Looking back now I have no idea why I was so terrified of the aliens in Mysterious Cities of Gold. I mean, they were just pointy-eared little bald men. I do remember having a pretty horrifying nightmare about them, though. In my nightmare they had red glowing eyes and were definitely a lot scarier than they appeared to be in the cartoon. So I think it's possible that my three-year-old brain confused my nightmare version of the aliens with the cartoon version of the aliens, and then got legitimately scared whenever the cartoon aliens appeared onscreen. I dunno.

Whoopi Goldberg announced on The View today that JP is going to propose to Kyle in tomorrow's issue of Astonishing X-Men and that the two will be wed in June's issue.

So Marvel is going to have their first official on-panel gay marriage. :D

HEY MARVEL COMICS YOU KNOW WHAT? Since you're going all-out to ride this wave of gay marriage publicity and you've got this awesome Avengers fanbase just dying to throw money at you right now... You know what you should do?

You should make a Young Avengers cartoon. That's what you should do. And I know that I just said the same thing yesterday, but come on! Young Avengers features one of the best portrayals of gay teen relationship in either Marvel or DC canon. It would be an enormous and important step in the right direction if Wiccan and Hulkling could star in a mainstream cartoon series.

Having a gay marriage in the official Marvel comics canon is an awesome and amazing thing, no doubt about it. Here's hoping that someday (possibly soon?) Marvel is ready to take the next step and include a gay relationship in one of their cartoon shows.

No but seriously you guys Young Avengers is such perfect, perfect material for a cartoon adaptation. Absolutely perfect.

Due to health problems and not being able to work earlier this month, I've been spending a lot of time catching up with old comics and trying out a few new ones. In particular I've been gorging myself on webcomics lately, and although I usually end up either underwhelmed by or outright disliking most of the webcomics that I try reading, there are a few that I fall head-over-heels in love with. So, here are some thoughts about some things that I'm reading right now, whether I've been reading them for years or have only recently discovered them, all of which I would recommend to the comic-inclined.

Namesake. Just starting reading this last week and have barely been able to put it down step away from the computer screen. A beautifully-drawn and fiercely feminist fantasy story about fulfilling roles in fairy tales and taking charge of your own destiny. And it does more to establish the heroine's complex and believable personality in the first six pages of Chapter 1 than most webcomics manage to do in an entire volume. I'm only pointing this out because that is definitely one of my number-one pet peeves in the entire "normal girl gets sucked into a strange world" genre of web comics: When the author doesn't establish anything about the heroine's personality before having her suddenly end up in the other world. Or even worse, when the author wastes time with page after page of scenes of the heroine doing "normal everyday stuff" in order to establish how normal she is but STILL forgets to let her show any hint of a personality trait. This comic is one of the worst offenders I've seen to date in that particular area. On the opposite end of the spectrum and as an example of Doing It Right, however, we have Namesake and also animeshen's delightful Wendy and Sully in Candlyland, which takes a succinct eight pages to give the reader a solid grasp on Wendy and Sully's personalities and how they interact with each other, and does so in a fun and interesting way.

Unsounded. This comic is about a young monkey-thief who can swashbuckle with her feet and who suffers from Black Star-like delusions of grandeur. If that isn't enough to of a selling point for you, there's also a mysterious and handsome zombie with a tragic past. And a magical mountain-shaped monster that befriends a blind boy and his assistance flame-monster. (Why have an assistance dog when you can have an assistance flame-monster?) Unsounded is immediately engrossing and tons of fun to read, even if it does suffer from some significant flaws - namely that the overcomplicated artwork can sometimes get visually confusing, and the story throws a lot of made-up terminology at the reader without really pausing for some more comprehensible world-building. But those are really my only complaints about this beautiful, beautiful comic.

Gunnerkrigg Court. I've been hearing nothing but good things about this comic since it began in 2005, but I never got around to actually starting to read it until earlier this year. I wish I hadn't waited so long. It is every bit as good as everybody says it is.

The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal. Young man calls off his arranged marriage, comes out to his family, gets disowned, gets drunk, and wakes up the next morning with a *~quirky and free-spirited~* hottie frying eggs and singing in his kitchen. Oh, and apparently the two of them made a pact last night to drive across the country together. In the hands of a lesser writer this could have been every terrible gay-romance-for-straight-ladies cliche rolled up into a "wacky roadtrip" narrative. But somehow E.K. Weaver manages to infuse the story with actually believable characters, believable dialogue, and plenty of humor and warmth. Highly recommended.

Patchwork and Lace. The new-ish fantasy comic by furikku (who is also the creator of Reliquary). A pair of lady monster-hunters, a fantasmagoric set-up, and an intriguing fantasy world. Need I say more.

Oglaf. You may have heard of this one as "that epic fantasy porn comic that's actually really, really funny." A rare example of comedy porn that actually succeeds at being whip-smart and hilarious, while embracing a freewheeling variety of straight, gay, lesbian, vanilla, and kinky characters.

The Non-Adventures of Wonderella. Superhero parody comics come and go, but this one remains one of my absolute favorites and definitely the funniest.

X-Men canon: Keeping up with Astonishing X-Men, Exiled, Generation Hope, New Mutants, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, and Wolverine & the X-Men. I dropped X-Factor a while back after sticking with it for far too long. And I just can't get into X-Force no matter how much I love Laura. But with the notable exceptions of a) all of X-Factor, no seriously all of it and b) Forge's epic character derail in Astonishing, I have to say: I LOVE the current X-Men canon, in a way that I haven't really loved the X-books since the early 2000s. I love all of the New Mutants story lines. I love Hope and all of the 5th-generation X-Men. I love Logan's sixty-year character arc finally coming full circle. I love Scott and Emma. I love Rogue so goddamn much. I love Magneto's redemption arc. Everything about the X-Men universe is so much fun to read right now. I think that the overall tone of the X-books has finally settled on a comfortable level of danger/angst/darkness without descending too far into the boring-ass depths of grimdarkness, which is a MUCH needed improvement after the epicly stupid, epicly boring, and pointlessly grimdark mess that was Messiah Complex and all of its aftermath.

Buffy Season 9. Much, much, much better than Season 8 so far. Much better. (Although I will forever and always love the Faith/Giles story arc from the beginning of Season 8. Best and arguably the only solidly good part of that entire series, if you ask me.)

Homestuck. "There's not a lot of style to invisibility. Primarily because nobody gets to see how damn smooth you're being." Homestuck, for all of its overhype and its failures and its flaws, is still just a goddamn delight to read with every update.

And as for DC Comics, well... I am taking a break from DC Comics for a while. Might try to reconnect with the Batfamily sometime later, but I don't know. I loved everything that Grant Morrison built up with the "death" of Bruce Wayne and the birth of Batman Inc, and I'm still bitter about the New 52 just wiping all of those years of character development and storyline setup right out of the DC Universe.

Yup, that's how you know that I'm a mainstream comics fan: Still bitter about an storyline-breaking editorial mandate from over a year ago. Still bitter.

And as for what's upcoming that I'm the most looking forward to: It's the Adventure Time spin-off comic about Princess Bubblegum joining Marceline's band. Hell. Fucking. Yes.