The comics blogiverse is an increasingly diverse network of comics pundits, fans and fanatics — not to mention professional creators themselves — where one can find a variety of fascinating and/or obnoxious opinions to suit any taste, or lack thereof. Every Saturday [or Sunday, perhaps!], I’ll offer up excerpts from five of the more interesting, thought-provoking posts I’ve come across over the past week, for better or worse. Enjoy!

Blacktastic!
Digital Femme

Blank preview pages are one hell of a temptation.

Wanted: Female Comic Book Legends
Occasional Superheroine

(the feminist response:)

No, there have been plenty of female comic book talent that deserved to be considered “legends,” but they either
a) work in a genre (like manga) that is not considered “real comics”
b) never had their talent & work cultivated & promoted by the mainstream publishers the way male creators have
c) are compared to solely male artists and writers, ie “her work is good enough as a man’s”
d) get dissed even when they do succeed by being called “tokens”

***

(So I wanted to do this comic called “Fetish Lass and Pizza Boy,” that would be this total parody of cheesy “T & A” comix. This billionaire heiress gets traumatized after her parents convert to the Hare Krishnas and start dancing in airport terminals. Now she fights crime. With her pizza delivery boy. And they break up this “sheep porn” ring. By dressing up like sheep. Now, would that be the very end or the very beginning of my career? That’s what I want to know.)

Review 1.2.1 New Comic Wednesday
Graphic Novels @ Vox

As an aspiring graphic novelist, there is no better place to go and get energized to create. I stroll down the aisles reeducating myself on where comics have been and where they are going. Try to figure out where I fit in that pantheon. Check out other female authors and become excited that there’s more than last time but still feel like there needs to be more. Usually when I’m in the presence of such talent I become discouraged, like nobody else could do any better so why try, but not so with comics. There’s so many places yet to be explored, so many stories yet to tell, so many types and forms accepted. Just when I’m feeling dulled by my work week, Wednesday is there to pick me up. I leave work and make a reverse commute deeper into the city, casually flowing against the frenzied bodies rushing home. I revel in the fact that for at least one day a week, I know something they don’t. That you don’t have to rush home. That rushing any where will get you no where. I linger in the park adjacent to the store. I wander around the market afterward and look for fresh ingredients for dinner. I meet someone I love and we slowly walk together through the city, clinging tightly to our new purchases, in no hurry to remember what’s in store for tomorrow.

I Heart Blue Beetle!
One Diverse Comic Book Nation

Maybe I should start a campaign to SUPPORT Blue Beetle. If you haven’t read this book, there’s at least one trade paperback to catch up with and then add it to your pull list. If you dropped this title, please give it a try again. If you’re a comic book store owner and aren’t carrying this book, buy an issue or two and see how it sells. And, if you read this title, buy another copy and give it to somebody who hasn’t tried it. Give it to your son or daughter or niece or nephew, your best friend Phil who never returns anything you own, or your Maid of Honor who tripped halfway down the aisle. I’d like to see people reading this book.

I think the bread got wet on the way home today
Dick Hates Your Blog

-Proposition to Kevin Church: I’m willing to moderate/administer your new message board if you include a forum for MMA discussion. Only members which I approve will be allowed to participate in this section of the board (I don’t want a lot of “Ghost Rider could beat Brandon Vera” talk from comics fans who don’t know a gogoplata from an omoplata). As it stands, your forum runs the risk of being really fucking boring. I’m sure there are several people there who hate me or my balls-out, go-for-broke, wing-and-a-prayer, extra-hot-ginger approach, so granting me mod/admin powers will surely spice things up. My presence will also raise the average IQ there by about 10 points, I suspect. There’s no universally accepted system of quantifying good looks, but my participation will also make your board handsomer–probably 20% handsomer, I’m thinking. Consider this offer; I won’t keep it on the table forever.