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Good reviews, Kay. I want to read Scalped. I agree on Halloween Eve, it was so spastic, but I liked the art. I'm very curious where Revival and Happy are going to go.
Revival is going to some pretty interesting places I think. I like the original take on the zombies that Tim Seeley has done and I look forward to see how it moves forward from this point.
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Thanks! I cringed and laughed while reading Happy. It's so out-of-whack for having such an innocent, Disney-looking character alongside an alcoholic hitman that I can't help but like it. I'm still on the fence about Revival. It's an interesting and unique concept, but the story is so-so. I'll follow the next two issues to see if it gets any more exciting.
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I get it, I get it. No one likes a poser or someone who pretends to like or be something they're not. What I don't get is this trending hostility targeting not "fake geeks," but specifically "fake girl geeks" and more specifically, female cosplayers. I follow numerous comic book sites, and as of late, this is a recurring topic that fans, bloggers, and creators alike seem to share a growing consensus one way or the other.
First, let me address Tony Harris' rant (Starman, Ex Machina) and the topic of female cosplayers. Does the sight of our ever glistening cleavage make you uncomfortable? Do you not like the hair flipping and reapplying of our lip gloss? As a bisexual woman, I love seeing chicks dressing up as my favorite comic book characters. It makes my Comic Con experience so much more visually appealing, and I could care less if Miss Psylocke can't name all the X-men characters (I do not doubt that she could). Yo, it's freakin' Psylocke in person! Appreciate it, compliment it, take a picture. Enjoy that shit. These are the same chicks with (not as) huge boobs and puckered lips that you draw and fantasize about in your comic books so why are you so repulsed and taken back at the sight of them at a convention? And how do you know that we don't read comic books? Have you bothered to walk up to me and every Wonder Woman or Rogue to get to know our interests? Tell me, when you look at Gambit, do you say, "Oh, he's just such an attention whore. He probably can't even guess which universe he's from." Do you go to Disney World, point at Jasmine and yell, "FAKE DISNEY POSER WHORE...
Read the rest of this post at Merciful Minerva.
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How do you feel about the treatment of women in the comic world and at conventions? Have you personally experienced any prejudice or discrimination yourself? And about "fake geek girls," do they exist? Do you feel that one shouldn't dress up as a fictional character unless that person has an adequate knowledge of that character? What is considered adequate and what defines "geekiness"?
Also, what do you think of Tony Harris' rant below?
Kay Lotus wrote: "Reprisal of the "Fake" Geek Girl & CosplayerI get it, I get it. No one likes a poser or someone who pretends to like or be something they're not. What I don't get is this trending hostility targe..."
Took the words out of my mouth...
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47 Ronin (Mike Richardson, art by Stan Sakai)
This is a new 5-issue miniseries based on the classic Japanese legend of the 47 Ronin. I picked this up because I'm a huge fan of Stan Sakai's other long-running work, Usagi Yojimbo. There are definitely some similarities in the artwork. Sakai recently comment on this transition with CBR:
"For this one, I took my inspirations for the character designs from the ukiyo-e print, the Japanese woodcut, and so it's just drawing people. Actually, [artist] Scott Shaw had commented how nice the transition was from my Usagi characters to drawing the human characters -- getting the proportions correct and that."
Albeit a light read, I enjoyed the first issue. I really got the sense that the creators are trying to capture the visuals as well as the mannerisms of feudal Japan. I would recommend it to fans of classic samurai tales and those familiar with Sakai's art as it can come off too much like a comic strip to the modern reader. Keep in mind, Usagi Yojimbo has been around since the 80's!
Halloween Eve (Brandon Montclare, art by Amy Reeder)
Funded by Kickstarter, Halloween Eve is a 40-page standalone comic drawn by the same artist behind Madame Xanada and new Batwoman. Eve is a sales clerk at a Party City replica who, of course, loathes the concept of Halloween and dressing up in costumes. She reluctantly stays after-hours on Halloween Eve to clean up the store by her lonesome. While tidying up, masks and toys come to life and she finds herself in another world appropriately called Halloween Land...
The concept sounds fun, and I end up reading it in the spirit of the dead last month. I liked the playful art, but I wasn't taken away by Halloween Land as a magical getaway. The comic suffered from dull and borderline elementary writing. Somehow, Eve managed to hate Halloween, love Halloween, fall into another realm, confront her skin deep insecurity, and kiss a co-worker, of whom we're unaware she had any interest in, all in one sitting. It felt rushed and I think it missed the mark to become something truly imaginative. On just the strength of the concept and art, I give it 1.5 stars and would suggest you pass it up altogether.
Happy! (Grant Morrison, art by Darick Robertson)
A hitman finds himself being followed and pestered by Happy, a kidnapped girl's imaginary yet joyously bubbly friend. What does it want? For Nick Sax to manipulate it and help win poker hands for drugs and dirty money? Or is there a greater cause? It's racy. It's vulgar. If you don't pick up this 4-issue miniseries for anything else, pick it up because the imaginary friend is a blue horse with wings, a donkey face, and a unicorn horn. Oh, and Morrison and RZA wants to do a film adaptation. (I enjoyed The Man with the Iron Fists, btw.)
Revival (Tim Seeley, art by Mike Norton)
Anything that calls itself a "farm noir" sounds pretty interesting off bat, right? We follow Dana Cypress, a police officer assigned to the case of a recent epidemic that's starting to plague the small towns of Wisconsin. Dozens of people who were once dead, are now miraculously "revived" and back to living their normal lives. Dana soon finds out that there is something very eerie about these revivers. Her mission becomes personal when she discovers one of her own family members is rising from the dead... but how did they die in the first place? (o_0)
The "revivers" in this series are not your average zombies. As of issue #4, at first glance, they don't look threatening, feed off the living, or swarm in hordes. The setting is very rural and elements of religion are explored. There are a few racial cliches that bothered me, but once I got past that, I thought the concept is pretty unique though it hasn't hooked me quite yet.
Fatale (Ed Brubaker, art by Sean Phillips)
Known for having one of the most gorgeous cover art of the year, this series does not let the eye candy outshine its storytelling, which is told from several characters' POV. With corrupt cops, blood-soaked crime scenes, and a deadly femme fatale, the plot mimics your typical noir, but with bizarre elements like occultism and demonic monsters. There's even something paranormal about our femme fatale who is the centerpiece of events. For someone who has a stomach lined with cyanide, I was surprised by the explicit amount of gore, and it gets pretty gruesome in some shots. I'm not completely drawn in by the characters yet, but the creative mashup of noir, horror, and black magic certainly made this worth the read.
Scalped (Jason Aaron, art by R. M. Guera)
I'm going to pull out my late pass for this one. I only recently started reading this series which is a shame, because the 60th and final issue was released last month. Scalped is a gritty crime thriller that takes place within the wildly impoverished and crime-ridden Native American boroughs of South Dakota. Dashell "Dash" Bad Horse is an undercover FBI agent who takes a job from a tribal mob leader, but soon finds himself face to face with issues bigger than his undercover mission, such as the treatment and cultural preservation of his people.
Given that you don't mind rampant f-bombs everywhere, it's a very enthralling read and Guera did an amazing job with the art. The art has the western feel to it yet it's very gritty but detailed. I'm still midway into the first arc, but I can see my rating increasing as I move further along the storyline.
For star ratings and more comic reviews, visit Merciful Minerva.