From Philip Gelatt and Rick Lacy’s Labor Days vol. 2, coming soon:

(click through for larger)

I like this interview a lot; it’s full of interesting thoughts about the nature of vampire stories and why they appeal to us.

But I think then the thing that changed everything and gave vampire fiction, if not a new lease on life a new lease on death, would have been AIDS. You hit the early ’80s, and suddenly you have something in the blood, an exchange of blood that kills and is altogether fundamentally about sex. And vampirism essentially came out of the closet as metaphor — not particularly as a metaphor for gay sex, but again as a metaphor for the act of love that kills. Stephen King once said, using the Erica Jong quote, that vampirism is the ultimate ”zipless f—.” And I think you got the resurgence of vampirism in the ’80s as ”zipless f—.” And then in a sort of continuous transmutation, you had Lost Boys, which is essentially vampirism as wish fulfillment — it was really the first time you can absolutely take a pin and point to these great vampire moments on celluloid or on video, or in print, whatever, where people really seemed to have looked around and gone, ”What is the downside of this thing again? Hang on, you get to live forever, you get to be absolutely sexually attractive and you don’t have zits… You have magic powers; what you’re giving up is daylight.”

Gaiman traces the history of the vampire story from Dracula to the modern day–it’s worth reading in its entirety.

Jamie McKelvie

:

(click through for larger version) Ryan Kelly:

Fiona Staples:

Becky Cloonan:

(again, click through for larger)

Molly Crabapple:

Because y’all can’t get your stuff in on time

New York:

Sunday, Sept 6:

The party begins at Bergen Street Comics from 2-6 where artists Paul Ciaravino, Zees, and writer Jef UK will be celebrating the release of the second issue of the Americans UK comic book with live art, signings and FREE BEER!  Free to the public!

Then Americans UK head around the corner to Southpaw to pump fists and shake hips at the Super Hero and Rockstars party organized by burrowsink.com ( http://burrowsink.com/Super-Heroes.html ), featuring a range of performances–from hip hop, to rock n’ roll, live painting to spoken word.  It’s a badass night, forrealz!  Doors open at 8 PM, show starts at 9 PM.  $10 cover.

Please visit www.americans-uk.com to listen to AM/UK’s full-length record Rocktronic,  download the “I, Ape-Man” EP for FREE, and check out FREE downloads of the AM/UK comic book!

Pittsburgh:

For Immediate Release (September 3, 2009) Stan Lee has graciously agreed to do a limited meet-and-greet with a few select fans at the Pittsburgh Comicon!

The event will take place at the Pittsburgh Comicon on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 at 9:15 AM! There are only SIX availabilities! Each of six winners will be escorted by duly authorized Hero Initiative personnel, where they’ll meet Stan the Man the con’s double-swanky VIP Green Room! You can get a picture with Stan, and you’ll also be able to get TWO Stan Lee autographs at this event on YOUR items of YOUR choice!

These six availabilities will be auctioned off by the Hero Initiative via eBay.com starting Thursday, September 3. Hero’s eBay page is located at http://qurls.com?iH020

Here’s the five Ws.
WHO: Stan Lee, co-creator of the Marvel Universe, and such beloved characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and even Fin Fang Foom!

WHAT: A meet-and-greet appearance with Stan. Only six people will be allowed in via this auction, and you can get two autographs as well, AND a picture with Stan!

WHY: Because Stan is a jolly good fella, and he believes in and supports The Hero Initiative!

WHERE: The appearance will take place in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Comicon. You must be present at the convention and report to the Hero Initiative booth if you’re a winner.

WHEN: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 at 9:15 AM

IF YOU WIN…
• Please come to the Hero Initiative booth at the Pittsburgh Comicon promptly at 9:00 AM. Enter through the Pittsburgh Comicon’s VIP entrance. Bring your PayPal receipt and photo ID to claim your berth. You will be escorted to the shindig by Hero Initiative!

Upcoming comics-related events. As always, send yours to newsaramaevents [at] gmail [dot] com. I’d love to have some events that aren’t in NYC or LA!

New York:

Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn, NY.

“The ACT-I-VATE Renaissance”

Sunday, September 13
3:00pm – 4:00pm
There is a comic book renaissance happening in Gowanus, Brooklyn, and members from both DEEP6 and XOXOs Studios, featuring Dean Haspiel, Mike Cavallaro, Tim Hamilton, Joe Infurnari, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple, and Mike Dawson [among others], will discuss the genesis of ACT-I-VATE, the premier webcomix collective, and sneak-peek their upcoming print anthology, THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER. Moderated by Jeff Newelt, who will also announce two new members to ACT-I-VATE.com

For more info on ACT-I-VATE, please visit: http://www.act-i-vate.com

California:

WHO: JAIME HERNANDEZ of LOVE & ROCKETS fame
WHAT: LOCAS II Book signing and discussion with writer Ben Schwartz
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 12, 5PM
WHERE:

Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Tel: 323.660.1175

Via Comics Worth Reading, I found this post by Sean Kleefeld on the technological setup of Zuda comics. Being a bit of a media nerd, I read with interest and have some comments of my own.

Kleefeld starts off with a critique of browser compatibility, which hasn’t been a problem for me with Zuda (I use Flock, a Firefox-based browser) but his thoughts on Flash and “push” vs. “pull” models I think have some relevance on a wider scale.

He says:

See, there’s a larger problem with using Flash to deliver web comics, beyond iPhone users not being able to partake of the content. The model Zuda is using is what you would call a “pull” — Zuda is actively trying to pull readers to their site on a regular, recurring basis to read their comics. They have to reach out to users, get their attention, and convince them to click over to their site.

Many (I daresay “most”) webcomics these days instead opt for a “push” model. That is, they push their content out to the user via some form of syndication (RSS, XML, etc.) and the reader can view the content on a device and format of their choosing. Maybe it’s through a feed reader, maybe it’s through a customized iPhone app, maybe it’s part of a portal set-up someone created, maybe something else altogether. The point is that people can move the content around quickly and easily.

This seems to me to be symptomatic of the comics industry at large and its attitude toward new readers. Comic shops are wonderful things, but they are often not welcoming to the casual viewer (I know plenty of notable exceptions) and more importantly, many people never set foot in a comic shop–because why would they? They don’t read comics.

With the Web, and with “push” models like Kleefeld describes, comics have an excellent opportunity to reach out to people who wouldn’t set foot in a comic shop–and wouldn’t go looking for Zuda comics. If you could embed, move, link to individual pages, and other features that he mentions in the post, there would be many more opportunities to attract new eyeballs to the comics.

The problem is that viewers on one site are easy to calculate and easy therefore to charge advertisers for or to monetize. Embeddable video is not easy to monetize. Yet the media environment we are in, as many, many theorists have noted, is increasingly one where the price point is “free” and whether we like it or not, we have to think about different ways to support art and artists than the advertising-and-paid-content models we’re used to. (For some interesting thoughts on monetizing new media, check this post out.)

Nothing makes me happier than a new Vertigo series. Well, not much, anyway. So Sweet Tooth #1, along with Greek Street #3, as well as Northlanders and the tail end of Young Liars this week, leaves me plenty to be happy about.

And since I do read books that aren’t Vertigo, there’s The Boys #34 and North 40 #3. And if I had extra income (which I most certainly don’t have right now) I’d be buying the Absolute V for Vendetta because really, it’s necessary, and the DMZ trade that hits today because that arc was bloody amazing (as well as bloody and amazing).

But, you know, what am I missing?

At the WildStorm blog.

Coming in October. You’re welcome.

This post on girl power in comics, from Retconning My Brain, is a seriously awesome piece that made me want to read a lot of these books (Power Girl, Batgirl, etc.) more than I already did.

The original “Girl power,” a sugared-up, popified version of what Riot Grrl was, hit when I was in my last years of high school. The late 90s, which brought us post-communications deregulation prefab pop, but also at least sort of acknowledged that women wanted pop culture that was their own, and that there was more to it than fighting over a man on a soap opera. It brought us Xena and Buffy, too.

I’ve never been the type of feminist who is terribly bothered by the word “girl”–if prodded, I can even conjure up a defense of using it as a word that doesn’t contain the word “man,” although that’s really not any less useless to me than spelling woman with a y. At the ripe old age of almost-thirty, I still refer to myself as a girl and usually anyone else who is my age or younger. I’ve even been scolded for it by friends male and female. But I can’t really help it, and I wonder if the twin specters of Riot Grrl and Girl Power are to blame.

I was thinking about Girl Power, while I was writing my generally-happy reactions to the stories, and I remember learning about third wave feminism and discussing Girl Power in my class, and the positives and negatives. You had shows with strong (Xena) or complex (Ally McBeal) female leads, but they were wearing short short skirts (and some of them could have used a sandwich, ahem). You had the Spice Girls saying friends come first (in a way more empowering way than bros before hos, yo) but most of their popular songs were still about finding love or something. I think. I can’t actually admit in public to listening to the Spice Girls. You know.

So. Is the rash of “Girl” comics a revival of this kind of feminism-lite? There certainly has been a trend lately, especially with DC books, toward female leads. Batwoman, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens (and yes, Marvel Divas) and many more that I’m probably missing because this just isn’t really my area of expertise. The pop universe doesn’t seem to be swinging that way in the dramatic fashion it did in the Spice Girls era, but we do have Twilight and other pop-culture phenomena that are aimed at girls bringing a new demographic to geek culture–check out Vaneta Rogers’ awesome piece on The Fangirl Invasion.

Either way, I have to agree with this statement, again from Retconning My Brain:

What it came down to for me this week was that it was nice to buy a bunch of comics that are led my female superheroes, who are super with or without their male counterparts, but don’t exist in a vacuum of femaleness or solely for the gaze of the male reader. They’re there to kick some ass and be super.

Amen to that.

Not too many emails this week, so I tried to round up a few more on my own…

California

Comics on Comics will be taping a new episode on Saturday August 29 with comic creator Jonathan Hickman along with comedians Ed Salazar and Paul Cibis as well as Geekscape.net founder, Jonathan London at Collector’s Paradise in Winnetka, CA (part of the greater Los Angeles county). The show starts at 1pm and admission is free!
After the taping, Hickman will be signing autographs from 3pm to 6pm. Info HERE.

New York

(Fake) Art Therapy Night
Suggested Donation $5
Friday, August 28, 2009 at 9:00pm
HiChristina! 632 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY

Why let artists have all the fun? Tonight you have a signed permission ship to let your long-slumbering creativity come out and play! Come join our sexy art scientists (Laura Lee Gulledge and Diana Arge) as they lead activities such as scribble therapy, glitter expressionism, body outline portraiture, and finger painting twister. No prior artistic talent necessary! You’ll leave feeling fitter, happier, messier. Wear your play clothes (we have some too).

And tonight you will catch our special-one-week-only ART SHOW featuring Laura Lee’s trademark introspective illustrations, Bishop203’s candy-colored paintings, and Diana’s timeless polaroid transfers. We’ll have special prizes from our artists!

This week might be a bit skimpy, but keep ‘em coming! newsaramaevents [at] gmail [dot] com.

Note: This is about events that you can attend, not releases of new comics.

No, really. OK, well I do plan on reading some other books this week. Like Unknown Soldier, Gotham City Sirens, and…that’s it.

As usual, though, I’m open to suggestions. I feel like I should be reading some of these new DC books with a female lead (Batwoman? Batgirl? So many options…) and I’m tempted by all sorts of other things.

I know I planned to do Events posts on Thursdays, but I just found out about this one today and as it’s a benefit for New Orleans, it is my responsibility as former New Orleanian to publicize it.

Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge was a fantastic webcomic and is now a fantastic graphic novel. Come celebrate its release in New York City at Idlewild Books–$5 cover charge will go to benefit Common Ground, one of the many grassroots organizations rebuilding New Orleans, and one of the better ones.

Party from 6 to 9. Here’s the details.

You can read more about A.D. here in my interview with Neufeld.

From the Small Press Expo site:

Outstanding Artist
Tim Hensley, Mome (Fantagraphics), Kramer’s Ergot #7 (Buenaventura)
Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf)
Richard Sala, Delphine (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Josh Simmons, Mome (Fantagraphics)
Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Abandoned Cars, Tim Lane (Fantagraphics)
Against Pain, Ron Rege Jr. (Drawn & Quarterly)
Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5, T. Edward Bak, Anneli Furmark, Amanda Vähämäki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Fuzz and Pluck: Splitsville by Ted Stearn (Fantagraphics)
Kramer’s Ergot 7, ed. Sammy Harkham (Buenaventura)

Outstanding Graphic Novel
Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
Disappearance Diary, Hideo Azuma (Fanfare/Potent Mon)
Drop-In, Dave Lapp (Conundrum)
Nicolas, Pascal Girard (Drawn & Quarterly)
You’ll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man, Carol Tyler (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Story
“The Carnival,” Mome #14, Lilli Carre (Fantagraphics)
Disappearance Diary, Hideo Azuma (Fanfare/Potent Mon)
“Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars,” Acme Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Untitled,” Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5, Amanda Vähämäki (Drawn & Quarterly)
“Willy,” Papercutter #10, Damien Jay (Tugboat)

Promising New Talent
T. Edward Bak, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Colleen Frakes, Woman King (self-published)
Hellen Jo, Jin & Jam #1 (Sparkplug), “Diamond Heights,” Papercutter #9 (Tugboat)
Ed Luce, Wuvable Oaf (self-published)
Amanda Vähämäki, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Book 5 (Drawn & Quarterly)

Outstanding Series
Danny Dutch, David King (Sparkplug)
Delphine, Richard Sala (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Interiorae, Gabriella Giandelli (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Reich, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug)
Uptight, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Comic
Danny Dutch #1, David King (Sparkplug)
Dead Ringer, Jason T. Miles (La Mano)
Interiorae #3, Gabriella Giandelli (Fantagraphics/Coconino)
Reich #6, Elijah Brubaker (Sparkplug)
Uptight #3, Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics)

Outstanding Mini-Comic
Claptrap #2, Onsmith
Just So You Know #1, Joey Alison Sayers
Stay Away From Other People, Lisa Hanawalt
Stewbrew, Kelly Froh & Max Clotfelter
Xoc, Matt Dembicki

Outstanding Online Comic
Bodyworld, Dash Shaw
Danny Dutch, David King
Thingpart, Joey Alison Sayers
Vanessa Davis’s comics for Tablet
Year of the Rat, Cayetano Garza

The awards are given out Saturday, September 26th during the Expo.

One of my favorite things about New York City is the massive amount of fabulous indie bookstores. I found another one yesterday in Brooklyn, and found this book on display:

Comic book superheroines bend steel, travel across time and space, and wield the awesome forces of nature. These mighty females do everything that male heroes do. But they have to work their wonders in skirts and high heels.

The Supergirls, a cultural history of comic book heroines, asks whether their world of fantasy is that different from our own. Are the stories of Wonder Woman’s search for an identity, Batwoman and Power Girl’s battle for equality, and Manhunter’s juggling of crime fighting career and motherhood also an alternative saga of modern American women?

Someone’s written my book! OK, maybe not entirely, though I do occasionally use superheroes as an extended metaphor, but I am fascinated. Haven’t read it yet, but I certainly plan to…

My friend Tammy wrote a piece about the ladies of Wizard Rock (for the uninitiated, that’s bands spun out of the Harry Potter universe) and the new, growing subculture of, yes, Twilight rock.

But plenty of DIY communities, especially within the indie music scene, are male-dominated and less than female-friendly. The difference in wizard rock is the sheer number of women and girls making the music, and the extraordinary amount of encouragement wrockers and fans provide each other. Many men who are involved in wizard rock actively support their female peers, and the vast majority of wrock music avoids demeaning or stereotypical treatments of women.

Wizard rock has also paved the way for Twilight rock, a small but growing collection of musicians and bands devoted to making music inspired by Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling series. Mostly made up of solo acts and acoustic bands who sing from the perspective of the novel’s many characters, Twirock is overwhelmingly (and, given the book’s fan demographics, unsurprisingly) dominated by women. Katie Parr of the band Bella Rocks! says, “Obviously, Twirock is a branch of wizard rock. We’re still in our young stages, but we are related to them in almost every way.” But Twilight rock doesn’t seem to have the momentum that wizard rock had at the same time in its history, leaving one to wonder if Twilight’s female-dominated readership hinders the growth of its fan-based musical movement.

Most wizard and Twilight rockers will acknowledge that the treatment of women in their source materials is problematic, and some wrockers have also raised questions about gender issues in the scene.

I love when a creative work, whatever that work might be, spawns other creative work, and particularly since Twilight faces a lot of criticism for encouraging girls into traditional gender roles, it’s nice to see girls who love the books taking that love to a very untraditionally feminine place: fronting a rock band.
Of course, there’s the usual downside:

Although there’s no open feud, and a few wizard rockers even have Twirock side projects, Twirockers are often received in the same way that the public tends to characterize all Twilight fans: as screaming, silly girls.

Still, it’s a start. Maybe the more active and involved Twilight fans get, the easier it will be for people to take them seriously–at least as seriously as grown men who call themselves “Harry and the Potters.”

Hi everyone.

After yesterday’s post, where I promoted an event at my local comic shop, I got to thinking. I do love promoting local events and creators of whom I’m fans, but I feel bad because there’s an entire country out there that my little northeastern behind never gets to. So! A brilliant idea.

Eventually, we want to create a Newsarama Events calendar where you can promote your shop, your appearances, everything. For now, though, I’m going to take charge and do a weekly events post here at Blog@. I’m thinking Thursday is a good day to do them for the week coming up, since it’s the day after comics day and the day before the weekend officially starts (though I know a lot of you start partying on Thursdays…)

We have an email address set up just for this, so if you’ve got an event at your comic shop OR if you’re a comics creator making an appearance somewhere, you can email us at newsaramaevents [at] gmail [dot] com. Then I’ll aggregate and post them on Thursdays for everyone to peruse.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Please don’t abuse this address, everyone–I’ve got entirely too much junk mail on my other email addresses.

Thanks!

I am a sad, sad girl that I have a day job all the way in Manhattan and won’t be able to make it to this:

Seriously, I could write my own love letter to the Bouncing Souls. They were one of the bands I loved in high school and they never, ever grow old. Bands I love + comics? It’s pure WIN. Plus, Bergen Street Comics is a pretty rad little shop and deserves your love. So get thee to Brooklyn, people.

It’s an extra-special movie-themed linkblogging day today.  To start things off:

District 9

Reviewed by Spencer Ackerman, we get some thoughts about white anxiety in the film, and also the future of video-game movies. No, District 9 isn’t a video-game film, but Ackerman points out some similarities to video-game structure in the pacing of the movie, and wonders what it means for the future. He also takes on another blogger whose comparison of the movie to US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, he thinks, is over the line.

At Racialicious, of course, the focus is even more on the racial undertones, with one commentator finding the film uneven and problematic and another writer examines the racist portrayal of black Africans in the movie.

Inglourious Basterds

R.M. Guera of Scalped (the best comic you may not be reading) worked on a comic book from the film, and the results can be seen here.

Splash Page’s Twitter report shows several comics professionals have Tarantino on the brain, too. Glad it’s not just me.

Whiteout

1979SemiFinalist looks at Whiteout’s promo materials and gender issues. Verdict? Looks pretty, who knows if it’ll be any good.

Twilight

Eclipse, the third Twilight movie, started filming today, apparently. And apparently the werewolf pack likes to hang out and eat muffins? (I swear that’s not sexual innuendo.)

Finally, Scott Pilgrim

Splash Page has some video from the Scott Pilgrim set. You know you wanna see it…

Sadly, I’m busy as hell this week and there are tons of wonderful comics coming out. Air #12, Batman Streets of Gotham #3 (with Manhunter backup, the real reason I buy it) Doktor Sleepless #13, Hellblazer #258, Wolverine Weapon X #4 AND Brian Azzarello’s inaugural Vertigo Crime OGN and a new James Jean art book! Oh, and the first Unknown Soldier trade. Seriously, I don’t think I have the time or the money for all the good books coming out this week.

But, y’know, just in case, let me know what I’m missing, as always. I’ve heard good things about We Kill Monsters…

Yeah, that’s not true at all, actually, but it neatly sums up the type of attitude I regularly hear and see in the comics world and the literature about comics–if by literature you mean articles and blog posts written 9 to 1 by men.

Anyway, Jennifer de Guzman wrote a post several months back that I just stumbled upon via this post on Amazon Princess (which I found via When Fangirls Attack), and it articulates something that I’ve never really thought about before, but makes perfect sense.

As I wrote in my reply, I am kind of astounded that some men don’t see why physical empowerment would clearly be attractive for women. I think it’s intriguing to note that women often like the hot women who kick ass as much, if not more, than men do. Here’s what I think is behind that: As women, we are nearly constantly aware of physical threats. And those threats often are of being violated sexually. When I used to go to campus for night classes and people warned me to “be careful,” what they are saying was, essentially, “avoid getting raped.”

Now, what if, what if, as a woman, you could walk around, be sexually attractive and not have to feel threatened? What if all the rage you feel about women being victimized and brutalized could be channeled into pure, righteous ass-kicking? And, because you’re a woman, you could possibly do that ass-kicking without being seen as a testosterone Steven-Seagal-esque meathead. Ass-kicking fantasies for men are more about proving and retaining power, I think. For women, they’re about finding and asserting power when they’re not expected to have any.

This resonated with me on so many levels. I’ve taken kickboxing, krav maga and muay thai at different times in my life, and they always did make me feel more confident and yes, sexier, but I’ve always attributed that to feeling healthier and stronger. Maybe I thought a bit about the idea that I might be able to kick someone’s ass if they harassed me as a component, but only in a very general sense.

Yet Guzman’s point is that a superheroine can be sexy and because she can kick someone’s ass, she doesn’t have to apologize or fear for herself. There’s no need for the tradeoff–sexy woman needs powerful man–because she is both. Her sexuality is no longer something to be feared, but something she is free to display if she wants to without worry of repercussions.

In media for so many years, female characters were simple projections of what men wanted to see. Still, women gravitated toward certain characters, and as more women create comics (and movies and TV series and and and) we argued that yes, we do want superheroines. And maybe we do want them to be pretty.

Also, perhaps this explains why I was never one of those who was really bothered by superheroine costumes. Sure they’re unrealistic. But could they also be a gleeful middle finger to everyone who wants to tell a little girl that what she’s wearing is “inappropriate” or that bad things will happen to her if she dresses in a way that attracts male attention?

(Of course, we could debate about the rather narrow view of what is “sexy” that is still put forth by superheroines, but that’s another post.)