Please check out my new article at Comic Attack!

LGBT in Mainstream Comics, or the Lack Thereof

Over the past few weeks, I have been catching up on The Walking Dead comics. So far, I have read the trade paperbacks volumes one through twelve. It only took one of them, however, to know I was hooked.

The writing in The Walking Dead reminds me a little bit of stories told by people like Stephen King and Joss Whedon. It may seem like those two don’t have a lot in common, but the thing they do share is unpredictability. Reading or watching their stories, they make it so hard to guess which characters will live or die. No one is really safe, and sometimes even main characters bite the dust. It’s risky, but if done right, it can really pay off.

The Walking Dead is risky and it’s nerve-wrecking. All of the characters are well developed despite the fact it has such a large cast. None of the characters seem to be there “just because”. Every time I reach a story peak and think things can’t get any worse, they somehow do. Very few series of any kind can continuously up the ante.

Where I find the comics faltering (and I mentioned this in another article at Comic Attack) is in their treatment of female characters. This is the second series I’ve read that is by Robert Kirkman, and it seems like he has it out for the lady folk. Intentional or not. So far in The Walking Dead, there has been a serial killer that murders a few female characters, a mother and baby girl shot to death, a woman who is violently raped again and again, three women who try to commit suicide (two succeed) and a back story of a male character whose wife and daughter were violently raped. I find that more than just a tad worrisome.

While the abuse towards woman is not easily overlooked when reading (not by me anyway), I can’t put the books down. The stories are so compelling and the characters so real. If anything, the zombies are a backdrop to the real story. It’s really a series about survival and how the people around you might be the worst thing out there when it comes down to a crisis. It’s the sort of story we’ve seen time and time again, whether it’s the Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” or the story “The Mist” by Stephen King. No matter how many times we see it, it’s still just as scary. No one wants to find out that those closest to them have the capacity to change for the worst.

Overall, I can’t recommend The Walking Dead books enough. If you have the stomach for zombies eating people that is. (Pun VERY intended.)

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Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to write a new article here on my site, but I’m hoping to soon. In the meantime, check out my articles for ComicAttack.net and ThinkLeet.com:

Of Bouncy Bits and Cleavage Windows

I Fight in Heels: Balancing Women in Comics

Learn New Words With Horror Movies

My Wolf Man inspired photo shoot was also featured on Werewolf-News.com:

Werewolf Costume Photo Sets

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Go Hal, Go!

Thanks to my husband, I’ve been getting into the world and the mythology of Green Lantern. Last night we continued my education with the new Green Lantern: First Flight on BluRay.

First Flight is the perfect movie for Green Lantern beginners. It traces the origins of Hal Jordan, the first Lantern from sector 2814 (that’s Earth). It gives you the background you need on the core, Sinestro, the guardians, and what being a Green Lantern means.

In a technical sense, the movie is executed well. The animation is good as is the voice talent. It was nice to hear quite a number of familiar voices such as Victor Garber (Sinestro), John Larroquette (Tomar Re), and Kurtwood Smith (Kanjar Ro).

It was also nice to have an animated movie that could hit the PG-13 marker. Not that I require cursing and violence in my cartoons or anything. It just sometimes makes for a more mature film and allows comic-based movies to be a bit more on level of their source material than say, a saturday morning cartoon.

On the whole, Green Lantern: First Flight is a well done movie. You get a good sense for the characters and the world plus the plot is entertaining. The BluRay also came packed with a lot of extras including interviews, a segment on the new Blackest Night comics, some Justice League episodes that prominently feature the Lanterns, and even the Duck Dodgers episode where Daffy gets a chance to try his hand at being a Lantern.

Now I guess it’s back to practicing the oath for me…

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!

Final Score: 4 out of 5.

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A while back I had an idea for a variation of my comic strip. Since it was taking me so long to do my full colour pieces, my thought had been to put up simpler black and white strips in between.

I went searching through my old website files (trying to see what I could salvage) and came across the only finished “Tidbit” comic I’d completed. It’s a bit silly, but I hoped you might enjoy it. (Click to enlarge it.)



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