Shy, elusive recluse Bendis grants rare interview: Here’s a pretty nice interview with Brian Michael Bendis over at Bookslut. It takes a broader look at Bendis and his work, particularly on Ultimate Spider-Man, rather than the very specific, project and plot-point specific sorts of interviews Bendis often finds himself involved in.
Make your own superheroes are gay joke: “Calling all superheroes and fairies”
Well, at least one paper is actually hiring a cartoonist: Chatanooga altweekly The Pulse is looking for a local artist to contribute a weekly cartoon.
Just five?: I probably would have just went with “all of them,” and saved a few hundred words.
Well it ain’t more Plastic Man, but I ain’t complaining either: More pages of Kyle Baker’s Hawkman project. Hurry up and announce this, DC so I can mark my calendar and start counting down to it!
It’s like a blog you can cut your finger tip on!: The alert nerds of Alertnerd.com will be covering the New York Comic Con using, according to Matthew Springer, “the power of the original Tweet: GODDAMNED PAPER.” Their plan is to put together their coverage, print it on this thin flat surface made for trees, and distribute it around the con for your perusal around noon-ish on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Watch the alert nerd Twitter thingee for more info, or, if you’re going, look for the Alert Nerd team, who I assume will be arriving each day riding on bicycles with very large front wheels and very small back wheels.
Or you could just keep buying those Obama/Spider-Man comics Marvel is now re-publishing once a week: Celebrate Black History Month by celebrating black comics history over at the 4th Letter, where you’ll find a series of essays about the intersection of black culture and comics courtesy of David Brothers.
February 4th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
“Make your own superheroes are gay joke”
Or I’ve got a better idea — how about you watch this PSA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS0GVOQPs0) and learn that calling something “gay” in this context is nothing but a homophobic putdown.
February 4th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
No thanks. I’m not terribly interested in explaining jokes to readers. If you find my saying that superheroes are gay–not “gay” as in “lame” but “gay” as in “are sexually attracted to people of the same gender”–as homophobic and insulting, I can’t help you. Other than to suggest that maybe you try another comics blog to spend your time reading and being offended by. There are plenty of ‘em out there.
February 4th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Content is everything, Caleb. Maybe you could explain it to me.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
The header “Make your own superheroes are gay joke” is offensive. Please remove it. It is in very poor taste.
Caleb, you might be able to argue the gay as lame if the link weren’t about Super-heroes and Fairies. Otherwise Fail.
As a “gay” myself, I don’t appreciate this usage.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Sigh…
I’m even less interested in teaching people to read than I am in explaining jokes Richard. I didn’t mean “gay” as in “lame” I meant “gay” as in “gay,” as I wrote. Am I supposed to rewrite the same thing again because you made a comment? Will repetition somehow make it clear?
Does being compared to a superhero personally offend you? Because it used to be the other way around, where superhero fans found people calling their superheroes gay which offended them. Progress!
Anyway, be offended or don’t be offended, comment or don’t comment, read or don’t read—it’s a big Internet. I’m sure you’ll find something else to your tastes if we’re not.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Caleb’s joke is CLEARLY about the headline of the piece to which he linked. It’s an ironic commentary on the nature of associations made going back to Wertham. Caleb has historically demonstrated an intelligent perspective on these issues, up to and including the introduction he wrote for the gay-themed comic that we carry right here on Blog@Newsarama, “So Super Duper”. If you didn’t get or like the joke, that’s fine, but Caleb is about the least homophobic person you’ll find. Next to Brian Andersen.
February 5th, 2009 at 9:04 am
You don’t have to be racist to make a racist joke. And yes – I’ve read “So Super Duper.” We carry it in our store. I certainly don’t think having “Gay Friends” makes it okay to make inappropriate references.
Gay as lame is never appropriate because of its origins. Plus you chose the word “gay” because of the word “fairies” in the title not word “super heroes.” Otherwise we might see “gay joke” more often in relation to super hero stories.
The header is in poor taste. I would image that Newsarama being a very public site might err on the side of caution. Particularly when its own readers point out something they find offensive to themselves.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Haha! It’s funny because it’s a joke a 12-year-old boy would make! Don’t you get it, you guys?!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:51 am
You can’t have it both ways. Either you’re making a “the word gay = the word lame” joke or “the word fairies = the word gay” joke, but you’re certainly making one of them.
Either one is not fodder for a joke on Newsarama.
February 5th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Jeez louise guys.
I was NOT making a gay = lame joke. I was making a supeheroes = gay joke (Bully, Richard Neal repeatedly misread that, and you seem to be reading what he said).
The headline was “Calling all superheroes and fairies.” It innocently, coincidentally grouped superheroes and fairies together.
I pointed and laughed. Instead of writing “There’s a difference?” or something like that, I wrote “Write your own superheroes are gay joke” because it’s a pretty obvious joke that I didn’t feel like writing.
Ken thinks its a lame joke to make, which is fine, but hey, that’s the whole joke in a nutshell. “Hurr hurr, superheroes are gay.” “Fairy” is a synonym for gay, depending on context, a derisive one. That’s it.
Yeah, it’s an immature, grade school lunch table joke. I think jokes like that are funny, and I occasionally make them. Is funny because it actually IS funny, or is it funny that I THINK it’s funny? I don’t know. I honestly don’t like talking about jokes or humor or attempts at such, because the only thing that makes a bad joke less funny is talking about it.
I’m not a comedian. I’m a frigging comics blogger. Linkblogging (In this particular post). There’s seven items up there and about as many attempts at humor. You don’t think they’re all funny, fine. I don’t think they’re all funny either, but I’m gonna go ahead and make the jokes anyway, and keep on doing so, because I don’t see any value in just posting links without adding anything of my own.
I don’t quite get how this shocks and offends anyone. Traditional gay culture and traditional superhero culture over the last 70 or so years tend to overlap in a few places. Hey, what’s with the tight costumes and the little boy companions? Why is Superman always trying to avoid getting married to a lady? There sure seems to be some sexual tension between Superman and Batman and Iron Man and Captain America, huh? That Wonder Woman sure gets spanked and tied up a lot…by women! Has anyone ever pointed any of this out ever before in the history of the world? No? I’m the first? Shocking! Outrageous!
Seriously, if that offends you, please, feel free to go away. It won’t bother me. I’m a little bummed that Bully is cross with me, because he and his owner are folks whose work I’m familiar with and admire, but whatever.
But Bully, with all due respect, I STRONGLY disagree that ANYTHING is NOT fodder for a joke. As for “on Newsarama,” well, I write for you guys as if I’m writing to myself. I know there are a lot of immature people with various levels of reading comprehension here in the reading audience, but I’m not going to write down to everyone for their sake.
Richard, Ken, Bully, if any of you want to continue to express your disappointment with me, feel free to contact me at jcalebmozzocco@gmail.com, but I’m weary of arguing trivial stuff in the comments thread.
February 5th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
“Fairy” is a derisive term for “gay” in any context.
February 5th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
You are mocking an innocent kids event with their headline “Calling all Super-heroes and Fairies” by suggesting it is “gay”
It is not appropriate or funny. It also happens that I am gay so it hits me personally as well.
This is a very public site and as a writer for it you are bringing unnecessary attention to it by being so stubborn and defensive about it. Why is it so important to defend it? I think you should want to win readers over not push them away.
I am not your enemy. You might find decent, intelligent folks behind the replies.
February 5th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I would much rather express my objection publicly where we can all participate. This is, after all, where you publicly made your gay joke.
In all honesty and sincerity, I would propose that since you “don’t quite get how this shocks and offends anyone” then it stands to reason you are unable to fully grasp both sides of the argument.
That’s fine. Rather than continue to defend the offensive post, you remove the objectionable material, save yourself and this site the problem of having to continue to defend yourself and get to know your readership a little bit better.
Also, you have a typo in your last paragraph.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Aw, jeez. He’s from Ohio. I’m so much more comfortable when I’m a few states away from the crass objectionable adults who don’t understand that crass objectionable preteen jokes that encourage heterosexism are offensive.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
J. Caleb, you need to learn something about humor, because you’re simply, NOT FUNNY.
February 6th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Wow. Troy defends you, and because he’s been a very stand-up guy around here I gave you the benefit of the doubt and let it drop. But then you said this:
“‘Fairy’ is a synonym for gay, depending on context, a derisive one. That’s it.”
A synonym? Really? So I’m curious: in just what context would “fairy” be a synonym for “gay” and it not be derogatory?
Look, I can’t judge what’s in your heart, but you “CLEARLY” don’t understand this issue at all if you think it’s ever okay to call gay people “fairies.”
February 7th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Honestly, as a gay man, what makes this offensive is that the link was picked specifically to make his joke. The content of the link is just an announcement for a dress up event for kids. I bet if the title was different, he wouldn’t even have featured the link on here.
I think there are better ways for Caleb to demonstrate and communicate clearly his “intelligent perspective on these issues” than using his self admitted lame humor.
And like stated above that “joke” doesn’t seem appropiate of a place like blog@ or newsarama in general and it’s more fit to a personal blog if it needs to be made.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I can’t resist adding a dissenting voice: I didn’t find that line offensive at all, although I can understand how other people might think differently. I thought it was a good way of poking fun at all those people talking about superheroes being gay for 1/the big muscles, 2/the sidekicks, 3/the costumes, etc.
I also thought Caleb’s introduction for So Super Duper was pretty nice.
And I don’t know Caleb at all, so no conflict of interest here. And yeah, I’m gay too. Which means I’ve talked a lot about the inherent homosocial aspects of superheroes with friends, gay and straight. I can’t in honesty reproach Caleb for making a joke about it, not the way he’s done it.
February 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
I’ll miss the Everyday Is Like Wednesday blog. After reading this post and the insensitive responses to the insult, it’s been deleted from my favorites list. Even a slight acknowledgment that your joke offended more than person was called for but instead you pulled a Valerie D’Orazio. Way to show class, man…
February 9th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Caleb, would it be that difficult to say “I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.”?
The thing is, it really doesn’t matter if you meant the joke to be offensive or homophobic or hurtful. You said something that hurt someone’s feelings.
It’s human nature when this happens to be defensive. And to write many needlessly long paragraphs explaining why we could not possibly be at fault, how the hurt feelings are clearly caused by overreaction and misreading.
That’s called “denial”. And usually that denial happens because we feel guilty for hurting someone and are trying to shift the responsibility away so we don’t feel guilty anymore.
We try to convince ourselves and everyone else that because we didn’t intend to hurt anyone, it didn’t happen. But, we have the word “accident” in the dictionary for a reason. And some of the most hurtful things are said without the person ever meaning to cause another pain.
The thing is, a very good way to make an accidental injury worse is to try to deny it happened and then turn around and blame the victim.
And in the end it doesn’t help. Because the simple fact remains: we said something that hurt someone else. Period.
If you really didn’t mean the joke to be offensive or hurtful, the best thing to do is to take a deep breath and say “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry.”
No denials. No defenses. No trying to shift responsibility to the victim with half-assed apologies (i.e. “I’m sorry you were offended.”) Just the truth.
Of course, it helps if you mean it.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:56 am
As a bisexual male, I am completely unoffended by this joke. It does nothing but point out a humorous, possibly unintentional, verbal gaffe, just as people in my hometown noticed the headline “Bush attends conference on drugs.”
The rampant PCism, on the other hand, is ugly and indefensible. And let’s face it, if anyone is more likely to run around calling attention to certain superheros’ relations to Jimmy Olsen and Dick Grayson, it would be gay and bisexual men. They can’t stop cracking those jokes.