Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* congratulations to former Wizard Entertainment and ComicMix employee Rick Marshall on his new gig.

* veteran comics executive Paul Levitz writes about DC's efforts to use recyclable stock and to participate in sustainable forest programs, which is fantastic, it really is. Still, I have to imagine the first thing that entered into a lot of close industry watchers' minds was "I wonder how ecologically friendly pulping comics is?"

* wait, hasn't superhero comics been bringing the semi-illicit sexy in subliminal fashion since early Wonder Woman and overtly since the "Hellfire Club" Uncanny X-Men sequence in 1979 or whatever? I suppose the traffic that will likely hit a post like this one is its own justification.

* The only thing that struck me as odd about that sex post is that evil Mary Marvel apparently grew bigger boobs -- I'm guessing, because I've hardly made a study of it, but the Mary Marvel I remember even from the recent past looked like a girl. I can't figure out if this is some admirable effort not to sexualize a child's body or an inability on the part of male superhero comic book fans to find anything other than giant boobs attractive. I'm also not sure of the precedents involved. While my own boobs have certainly grown bigger the more evil I've become, I'll note this was not the case for evil Mia Sara, which is the generationally appropriate place my mind went when I first heard they'd be making Mary Marvel a bad girl.

* two smart adult people I don't know talk about their CCI experience from a point of view that's not really comics-directed, no matter what either person might assert. You may not want to read another CCI article at this point, but my desire to go back and find this article at a future date trumps your disinterest.

* so why not one more? The writer Mark Evanier has another post up about sexual harassment at CCI. It features a letter sent to him by someone involved in the effort to get CCI to make an official policy against such behavior. Once you get past the bizarre open groping story and the revelation that fandom proper is apparently driven by the appetites of sexual libertines -- who knew? -- it's a heartfelt letter, I think. It's funny that such a loathsome set of behaviors that everyone that shouldn't be smothered with a pillow agrees is wrong doesn't come with an appropriate, obvious response. I have no idea if an official sexual harassment policy will do any good or even if it's desirable. I agree with Mark that some of what gets called sexual harassment is simply assault, although I think there is harassment that depends on imbalance between genders that isn't a boss stroking his secretary's hair and that all of it is awful. Where to go next is problematic, and not in a "I'm afraid what to say" way but in a "I'm not sure what isn't stupid" way. I'm not even certain what role calling in security plays, let alone "calling in security." (I'm still 12 years old, so I'm tempted to think of the latter before the former, which isn't helpful at all.) So I guess it's good to talk about this stuff until the maturation-challenged among us on both sides of the issue find a way to process it in a way that serves the greater good. For now, I think, a baseline of non-tolerance of such stupidity will be a first, not a last, step. I hope you'll join me in blasting asinine, horrible behavior wherever you see it, and in trying to be more sensitive to it perhaps happening nearby.

* I liked this Abhay Khosla review of Air #1.

* finally, now and forever, book publishing is gross.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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