Valerie D’Orazio makes some excellent points over at her blog.

Truly, my heart weeps for those fanboys inconvenienced by 1,000s of Robert Pattinson fans. It is so unfair. And they’re “not even really supposed to be there,” right?

[snip]
Where was this whining when people were going freakin nuts over “Watchmen?” Or when I couldn’t even get through the fanboy phalanx to meet up with friends because of the Hellboy roadblock?

Fandom and conventions are big enough for EVERYBODY. And instead of complaining about “Twilight” fans, maybe somebody should figure out how to get these legions of fangirls to buy more comics.

Seriously. The headline she links–”Female Fans Prepare to Trample Men“–is hilariously ironic because it reflects perfectly the fear in so many articles. The implication that ZOMG WOMEN ATTACK is just so darn Freudian it’s hard for me to unpack it without giggling.

I’m a female fangirl. I have been for years. And I’ve absolutely been trampled at cons–and punk rock shows, and even sporting events, all areas with typical male fan bases that certainly didn’t seem to think anything shocking about being in a room with hundreds of boys and a few girls.

I came to comics through a subculture that, if it had existed back in the day, would certainly have embraced Twilight. As a somewhat overeducated adult, I read the books and saw the movie and thoroughly enjoyed both, if occasionally with the very adult pleasure of laughing at all the wrong moments. I both defend the right to have something like Twilight that is so unabashedly girly that it inspires tons of squealing girls to unload at Comic-Con just for its panel, and despise the tendency to split fandom into two worlds: the comics are for boys, the sparkly vampires are for girls.

Leaving out for a moment the teenage boy sitting next to me at a subway stop reading New Moon on his iPhone (yes, I can recognize the story from a glimpse over his shoulder. What?), why the heck can’t we admit that comic cons were packed full of people fighting for seats before Twilight was thought of, that Hollywood has been trying to find ways to tap into the zealous–and zealously consumerist, willing to buy tons of movie-related merch–comic con audience for a good while now, and that the only thing different when it’s Twilight is that the fans are teenage girls (and their moms, the fear of whom brings up a whole other level of Freudian analysis that I’m REALLY not qualified to do).

So really. Do these guys need to keep Comic-Con a He-Man Woman Hater’s Club that badly, or can they learn to embrace the girls and cross that invisible line between Twilight fans and comic fans? Because who knows, maybe if they dropped the defensive act and realized that more girls in their fandom does not mean less stuff for them, that pop culture is not a finite commodity, maybe more girls WOULD buy comics. And far from that being a problem, it would create more money for comics creators, and thus…MORE COMICS FOR ALL. Win-win.

Greetings, all.  Matt Maxwell from Strangeways here.  

I’d like to do this with as little drama as possible, so here goes.  Strangeways: The Thirsty will not be concluded here at the Blog@Newsarama.  This was a decision I’d reached just before the New Year.  I’m not particularly thrilled to have been put in the position that I found myself in, but one plays the cards that one is dealt.  In this case, I find the hand playing out to me leaving Newsarama.  Out of respect for Matt, I won’t advertise the new home here.  He’s been far more than fair during the whole process.

A posting will, however, go up at Highway 62, talking about the new online home of the book and that sort of thing.  In the meantime, you can browse Chapter 1 of The Thirsty over here at Newsarama, check the Strangeways page at the top left.

Again, my thanks to Matt for allowing the syndication to go through in the first place.  Hope to see you all at the book’s new home.

Well, it’s official. Up now is the first post from JKParkin and his crew (and some friends), introducing Robot 6, their new blog about comics, hosted over at Comic Book Resources.

Robot 6 is a new comics blog by many of the folks from the old Blog@Newsarama. In addition to Kevin and me, you’ll also find Lisa Fortuner, Tom Bondurant, Michael May, Melissa Krause, Stephanie Chan, Tim O’Shea and Chris Mautner here. You’ll also find a couple of people whose names you might recognize from the comics industry – Jennifer de Guzman from SLG Publishing and Larry Young of AiT/Planet Lar fame

Stop by and say hi now, but their official launch isn’t until Monday. If you’ve missed Tom’s Trinity Annotations, there’s a new one of those over there, too.

Best of luck, folks. We’re glad you have a home again!

And with this, Chapter 1 of Strangeways: The Thirsty comes to a close.  The book will be taking a break until at least the new year, not that anyone reads anything on the internet between Christmas and New Year’s Day anyways.  

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the first chapter and it’s whetted your appetite for more.  More is indeed coming, but you will just have to wait a little while for it.  Many thanks to the readers so far.  My hope is that you’ll continue reading when things start up again in 2009.  

Best wishes to all of you.

I hope this works.  Trying scheduled publishing for the first time and I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to work out correctly and I’ll be on the road when it all comes down.

We’ll know if it works on Monday, I suppose.

Apologies if this suddenly double-posts.  Some ghosts in the machinery today.

The eighth week of STRANGEWAYS: THE THIRSTY comes to a close.  Can you believe it?  I sure can’t.

And yes, there will be updates next week.  Stay tuned, true believers!

Whew!  They made it to town and the good doctor is gonna make it all better, right?

Right?

But where, you ask, is the on-panel exsanguination?

Patience, my friends.  Patience.

Did I promise exsanguination today?  I guess I fibbed a little, as the exsanguination in today’s page is all implied.  My bad.

Huh.  So those weren’t ordinary highwaymen after all.  Who knew?

Stay tuned for more exsanguinary delights on Friday!

The nineteenth page of Strangeways: The Thirsty.  Admit it.  You didn’t think I’d make it this far.  That’s okay, I can take it.

Updates continue every MWF here at Blog@Newsarama.com

Head on over to http://blog.newsarama.com/strangeways to get the whole story from the beginning.

As always, writing by myself, art by Gervasio and Jok from sunny Buenos Aires, Argentina.

How do you East Coasters do it, getting up so early?  I mean, geez.  

Page 18 of Strangeways: The Thirsty, for your reading pleasure on a Friday morning.  Too damn early on a Friday morning if’n you ask me.

As always, you can get the whole story from the beginning by going right here: http://blog.newsarama.com/strangeways.

Your tri-weekly dose of cowboys and vampires, delivered, courtesy of Highway 62 Press (really, that’s just me) and Blog@Newsarama.  Check back Friday for the next installment.

Hit http://blog.newsarama.com/strangeways to get the whole thing, if’n you missed a page along the way.

This one goes out to all the people who ever had to give up coffee, go clean for a year and then find a pot of coffee spilled in front of them, and before they know it, they’re on their hands and knees lapping the stuff off the ground like it was…was something really really good.

Okay, so maybe I’m the only one that’s happened to.  But it could be any of us.

For the record, tea is no substitute, neither.

Part of me would love to do a collection of the comments made here and at other blogs regarding our departure. But that would be way too self-serving. I have been blown away by the response to the news and it’s definitely a testament to the hard work the rest of the Blog@ gang does. While a part of the original Great Curve gang, my part here at Blog@ has only been this column.  It has been a fun effort for me to compile, given that the comic book industry and fanbase have a wealth of quotable people.  I only hope folks enjoyed reading the quotes as much as I relished finding them.

This week saw the conclusion to Batman R.I.P., and with that an abundance of quotable material. Please don’t read this week’s quotes if you’re trying to avoid spoilers.

“Is this issue a satisfying conclusion to ‘Batman R.I.P.’? Yes, as the events of recent issues are explained and put into context more explicitly. But yet we’re left with plenty of unanswered questions about the larger picture, and the final few sequences seem too abrupt, as if we’re flashing toward too many previews of things to come even as some of the dangling threads have been left unresolved.”
Timothy Callahan

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Week five of Strangeways: The Thirsty comes to a close.

Yes, still posting here for the present.  I’ll let you all know the final outcome of things when I know myself.

In the meantime, go on out and stimulate that economy!  G’wan, git!

With this issue, we’re halfway through, and there’s a lot to digest. (Please forgive the unintentional Thanksgiving pun….) There’s not so much in the way of trivia this time, but I’m starting to look at this series a little differently now.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Worldsoul” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

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Now it can be told: this is, in fact, the last “Grumpy Old Fan” column here at Blog@Newsarama.

So … happy Thanksgiving?

Actually, I had been working on a couple of things for this week and the next. One was a “modern superhero canon” piece centered around JLA/Avengers. Another essay postulated that there really is no DC Universe, just a loose confederation of franchises held together by Justice League of America.

However, since this won’t be the last you see of me on the Interwebs, I think we can hold off for a while. Besides, it is Thanksgiving, and I’ve been a little crabby towards DC lately. Time for some happy talk.

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Your pre-Thanksgiving page of cowboy/vampire goodness.  I’ll be back on Friday, even though all of you are going to be keeping the economy afloat by starting your Christmas shopping and not hanging out on the internet.  

Me?  I wish the pilgrims had celebrated by roasting up some nice rib roasts instead of poultry.

Comics readers will find several things to be thankful for this week, including the debut of the new Umbrella Academy miniseries, the end of the “R.I.P” storyline in Batman, and the long-awaited Body Bags one-shot.

(Yes, I know Thursday is Thanksgiving only in the United States, but you can still be thankful for something — like, say, the arrival of Mesmo Delivery in comics shops.)

If you’re looking for more books to keep you entertained between parade viewings, food courses and football games, Wednesday also sees an American Elf collection, another Captain America Premiere Hardcover, Scott Morse’s Tiger Tiger Tiger, and … Tijuana Bibles.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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