Gail Simone's Blog, page 719
June 11, 2013
arkhamboundz:
jens-corner-of-the-internet:
HeroesCon 2013...
HeroesCon 2013 Misfit Hopping
YES YES YES THANK YOU
Oh, good lord. LOOK AT THIS.
It’s Misfit BOUNCING!
cosplayingwhileblack:
Cosplayer: Akeeko Mars
Character:...
Cosplayer: Akeeko Mars
Character: Storm
Series: X-Men
SUBMISSION
Yikes.
And it’s ANOTHER astounding Storm cosplayer on my dash.
LOOK AT HER!
Dangnabbit. Now I want her to be Storm in the movies.
sixohsixoheightfourtwo:
gailsimone:
vivvav:
gailsimone:
aecom...
So this is an odd one…Based on a conversation on twitter with one of my favourite Comic writers, Gail Simone (of Birds of Prey and Secret Six Fame) I present to you Cutie Paws Agent of Shield as today’s sketch.
This is why I love Twitter. I said a goofy ass thing, that there should be a dog agent of Shield, AGENT OFFICER CUTIE PAWS, and almost immediately, this AWESOME DRAWING appears!
Seriously, honest to god. Would you not be MUCH more excited for the Shield show if Agent Officer Cutie Paws was going to be on it every week?
Gail, be fair. I was actually on Twitter (rare for me) watching it happen. You were kind of going on about it a lot before a sketch was made.
??? My point wasn’t that I wasn’t doing a running joke, I was.
My point was that the artist whipped out this hilarious sketch in no time flat.
I don’t know how cartoonists and artists do it, it leads to much amazement.
DOG COPS
The truth?
Batgirl is a HUGE fan of DOG COPS.
But I myself much prefer AGENT OFFICER CUTIE PAWS!
ikearstin:
Well, holy shit. I just found my new favorite Storm...
Well, holy shit. I just found my new favorite Storm cosplay.
Model Una Momolu
Photographer: Shoot or Be Shot Photography
Good golly, Miss molly!
WHY IS IT THE COSPLAYERS GET STORM BETTER THAN HOLLYWOOD EVERY WILL?
Fantastic!
I'm remarkably calm for someone losing everything.
Last night our internet was cut off, simply because we can’t afford to keep paying for it, I’m currently writing this from a shitty internet cafe about a mile away from where I live.
The other donation page is still up, but has so little traffic I’m kind of only leaving it up as a reminder by this point.
I have kept back a few points that illustrate daily just how dire the situation my Mother and I are in, simply because it’s personal. but I think I really have to illustrate the point now.
My Mother and I shower once a month. We wash our hair once a fortnight. This is because, thanks to the situation the Government has put us in, we can barely afford water. It has been this way since November last year.
Also since November last year, we have not once used the Heating, regardless of the fact that this meant we had to go through the coldest Winter Britain has had in recorded history with no heating whatsoever.
We’re looking for places to move to, but nowhere in our price bracket will accept people on Benefits, they say this phrase: ‘No DDR’, which means they do not want people on Benefits.
I usually save aside £10 a month for luxuries, just so Mother and I can continue to feel Human rather than depressed grey blobs, we barely even have that anymore.
Work is non-existent for someone with my qualifications, and believe me when I say that, while I do not regret taking six years out of education to help care for my Grandmother, I begin to resent it a little when I’m told I’m under-qualified.
I don’t expect to raise the full amount I;m asking for, simply because it’s a lot. But it’s there to illustrate just how seriously we’re backed into a corner.
Mother is depressed, and her PTSD is acting up in reaction to the constant stress we are under. I, myself, am only kept on the straight and narrow due to the presence of my friends, and now with the internet cut off, I won’t even have that.
It isn’t hard to reblog this, please.
Tweet it, share it on Facebook, Reblog it, I don’t care, please just spread it around.
You’ll also see I have little reward things up, I still stand by the fact that I’m not good enough to charge for my work, but I can give it away. For examples, it’s best to check my SWTOR tag.
Please help her, guys. Ava is just the nicest person!
June 10, 2013
cosplayingwhileblack:
X
Character: Superman
Series: DC...
Character: Superman
Series: DC Comics
Holy wow, that is one amazing Superman!
GIVE HIM A MOVIE!
About The Cosplayer Pillow Guy
This was a bad deal.
However.
The guy selling the cosplayer pillows has issued an apology (not the best apology ever, but an apology), he has stopped selling the pillows, he has agreed not to sell them in the future, and he has offered to send the remaining pillows and files to the cosplayers in question at no charge, should they want them.
This seems like a good outcome to me.
I am not one of the people affected, so it’s not my call. But it seems to me that that is a pretty decent outcome.
Good luck to everyone involved. I am glad this man took these steps. Hopefully, this will help reinforce the obvious fact that cosplayers are not property, they’re not action figures.
The good news is, some cosplayers spoke up for themselves and demanded to be treated with respect and it made a difference.
Good.
Cosplayer Pillows: The Actual Story
I signed the release. My friends have all signed the release. He did nothing wrong. They signed something without reading it, and now they’re mad hes doing this.
…did you read the actual article? Nowhere in the release these cosplayers signed did they give permission for their likenesses to be used for commercial gain, only promotional material for his business venture. I’m pretty sure that selling body pillows isn’t anything close to promoting 360° photography.
Not only that, but some of the images he’s using (the man dressed as Superman, specifically) did NOT sign a release of any kind—they are photos he took at the photo wall, and he didn’t check anyone’s identification, so it’s entirely possible that some of the cosplayers are underage.
Alright, first of all, calling me a “fucking idiot” in your tags was rude and 100% unnecessary.
Now that I’ve said my peace about that, onto the topic at hand: 1) I read the release. Once when I signed it and again on a website reporting this today. 2) he’s promoting his business buy selling printed images ONLY at his booth. Its not like this guy has a contract with target. He’s using the images he took, and has the rights to, to promote his completely 100% free photography. 3) the “body pillows” -also known as the pillows at his booth that I saw and touched with my own hands when attending animenext this weekend- is a gross exaggeration. The pillows were literally the size of a piece of paper. And if there was an ass shot cropped out, I must’ve missed that.
Furthermore, people have done far worse than this to cosplayers and no one even seems to blink at it. There was a booth at Anime next last year selling tons of prints of cosplayers and they didn’t get kicked out or have a lynch mob sent after them.
And to nip this one in the bud: if he did this to the photos he took of me? I wouldn’t care. I really really wouldn’t. When I signed that release, I understood the ramifications of my actions.
The fact is, we give up our rights every day on the internet without fuss. Facebook is constantly using my friends photos to add onto ads about dating or websites. Google collects everything you do on the internet. Verizon sells cell records to the NSA.
Maybe instead of worrying who’s fapping to your face on a pillow, you should be more worried about who can collect everything about you, even your SSN, as you scroll through tumblr.
So, basically, your argument boils down to “if it was me, i wouldn’t give a shit, and oh yeah, you should worry about way worse stuff that’s happening out there every day”? By that token, I shouldn’t speak up against sexism and racism, because people are being murdered and that’s, like, way worse, dude!
I reiterate: You’re a fucking idiot. We aren’t talking about you. We are talking about other people, people whose images are being used in a manner that they did not consent to. We are talking about a culture (cosplay/geek/con culture) and a business (AnimeNext) that is not only looking the other way on the egregious violation of these cosplayer’s rights, but is actively promoting someone who is profiting from it.
A photographer who sells prints is much different than an image printed on a pillow. As you point out so succinctly, images on a pillow are fap-fodder. As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said, referring to pornography: “I know it when I see it.” (x) Those pillows? I’m seeing it. Even if the release that you have read and signed is the same one that Marie Grey and the others signed—which, at this point, I severely doubt, given the general creepiness of this whole situation—there are others who did not sign anything. The Superman cosplayer said he has never done a shoot in that costume. Do you really think he’s the only one?
Legally, I’m not sure who’s in the right here, not without reading the contract these specific cosplayers signed. But morally? It’s not the douchebag who printed images of people on pillows and sold them without their consent or knowledge, and it’s not you for defending him.
Cosplay does not equal consent, not now, not when this man took these photos, and not ever.
Alright, I’ll play.
You fucking idiot, the superman cosplayer redacted his statement. He did sign it, he just didn’t know the photographer in question was 2 Image Solutions immediately.
And your response to the rest of my argument is… silence? I admit I did not see that retraction, but that negates only a small part of what I said. Legally, he may be fine, but ethically and morally, he’s definitely in the wrong.
For those playing along at home, we have a fauxpology and a “policy change.”
Many cosplayers objected to these pillows being made without their knowledge.
The vendor has agreed to stop sending them and has said he will not sell them in the future.
This is a positive outcome.
I'll tumblr for ya: gailsimone: Geeky Goth Girl: On Sexism And Comic Con...
Geeky Goth Girl: On Sexism And Comic Con Panels
It makes me angry that I have to do this, but I’m going to do it anyway. Last week at Denver Comic Con, I went to a panel on women and body image in comics that I had very high hopes for. It was modded by the…
He just posted this on his facebook page:
“
Legacy Action Comics You will get your pound of flesh I promise !”
Harley Quinn and Starfire were the first characters I related to. I was silly like Harley (not stupid. She is not stupid!) and I didn't speak English very well, so Starfire's blunders with the language were really understandable to me. I'm not too big o
Black Canary, sure. Lots of characters…I identify a lot with characters who are consistently underestimated. I identify with characters who hate bullies. I identify with the imperfect people who are trying to do the right thing but mess up sometimes.
And I really, identify with people who refuse to quit even when they’re losing the race. Black Canary is that, for me. But I also see that in Batgirl, Gen13, Huntress, Virtue, Red Sonja, lots of characters.
You will see my characters get beaten, you will see them knocked down. They don’t just dance in and have everything work out perfectly. They aren’t gods.
Where I identify with them is what they do once they’re down, how they find a way to stand back up.
And that’s an adorable story about Starfire, makes me appreciate her even more!
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