On “Typecasting” and Opportunities in the Comics Industry

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Consider this a follow up to yesterday’s post about the fear and annoyance with Brian Michael Bendis writing Riri Williams when he has a clear track record of mishandling black characters.

Shortly after writing my post, I saw a series of tweets by Marvel editor Alanna Smith that really rubbed me the wrong way.

In the first tweet, one that clearly referenced Black anger and annoyance to BMB writing yet another Black legacy character in Riri Willams, Smith said that, “I strongly dislike the idea that people can only write comics starring characters that look like them. Leads to typecasting on both sides…”

She then followed the tweet with a big BUT (literally: “…BUT the industry always needs to do better and I’d love some recs of comics by black female creators. What are you reading/writing now?”) before moving into a series of tweets where she tries to explain her positioning but really doesn’t do more than get gummy White Feminism ™ all up in the gears.

I have a major bone to pick with her over the idea that “both sides” risk being typecast in the comics industry when it comes to writing diverse characters and it’s indicative of a serious problem.

Let’s be very clear here: There is no universe where white guys are typecast or pigeonholed into only writing white guys.

That is literally not how that works.Read More »

The Reality of Bendis Writing Blackness

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Riri Williams and Tony

In theory, I know I should be happy that we’re getting more diversity in the form of Riri Williams,  a young black woman/girl taking over the role of Iron Man from Tony Stark.

In reality?

I’m getting sick and tired of these companies swearing up and down that they really want to promote diversity before putting yet another white male writer on a book with a character of color as the focus. (You know… instead of finding writers of color — especially Black female writers — to handle the character.)

I’m especially vexed that the man behind this is Mr. Brian Michael “My Spider-Man doesn’t see what so important about him being Black in a world that loves Blackness but hates Black people” Bendis.

Read More »

[Book Review] Every Heart A Doorway

Stitch

Every Heart A Doorway
Title: Every Heart A Doorway
Author: Seanan McGuire (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Fantasy, Multiverses, Alternate Worlds, Mysteries, Murder
Release Date: April 5, 2016

Publisher: Tor.com

Order Here: AMAZON | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE

 

Every Heart A Doorway is the book of my dreams. I am so glad that my local library offers it for us to take out on Overdrive because it showed up in my “Recommended” list and I nearly screamed as I rushed to check it out.

Read More »

Letters to the Author – Afton Locke

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Note that this Letter to the Author contains graphic descriptions of racism and racist violence (sexual and otherwise) as it relates to the reality of white supremacy in history and historical romances.

Dear Afton Locke,

I could write you about a bunch of things in your Oyster Harbor series. I could talk about your constant use of food terms to describe Black characters (“butterscotch” and “light mocha” stand out). I could complain about how your heroine in Cali’s Hurricane is a vodou practitioner and how it’s so mishandled. I could even point out that the plot in and of itself is supremely flawed and in no way as accurate as you think.

But you know what, everything pales in the face of the one main question that I’ve had for you since the moment I read anything of yours: What on Earth possessed you to write a series of historical interracial romance novels where (at least) two of your “heroes” belong to their local branch of the Klan?Read More »

Radioplay Day: The Shadow – The Curse of the Cat

Stitch

Curse of the CatDownload Link: The Curse of the Cat

Airdate: January 20, 1946

Main Characters/Actors: The Shadow/Lamont Cranston (Bret Morrison), Margot Lane (Lesley Woods)

The Shadow is one of my favorite heroes from the Golden Age of pulps. I talk about him literally all the time because I love how he’s a clear predecessor to Batman but so different at the same time.

Okay, I have always had a thing about Orson Welles’ work on the franchise but once I started listening to Bret Morrison’s run on the show, he’s the one who made the Shadow click for me.

These radioplays? Yeah, I listen to them as I fall asleep (which certainly explains the ridiculous nightmares that I keep having, but whatever). When Comixology Unlimited was announced? I got it specifically so that I could read Masks from Dynamite Entertainment and catch the pulp hero team-up of my literal dreams.

Now that you’ve got a bit of backstory for my intense love of the Shadow, let’s actually talk a bit about “The Curse of the Cat”.Read More »

The Kelpie in the Canal – Original Fiction

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Note: This was first posted up on my Patreon page in December. (For folks who follow me here and subscribe to my Patreon, there are minor differences between what y’all got and this version because I went through and edited it again for this post.)

The Kelpie in the Canal

At first, when Danae sees the horse in the canal, she thinks that she’s dreaming.

The horse is huge and dark in the faint thread of light reflected on the water. When it takes a laboring step forward, vines and thick wiry ropes tug at its blue-black flesh.

Danae flinches, fingers tightening their hold on the tote bag slung over her shoulder.

The horse makes a sound like a scream, head tossing back and forth as it fights against the things binding it and threatening to haul it back into the murky depths of the canal.

At first, Danae doesn’t move.

If she’s dreaming, she’s still at her cramped desk in the back of the store and there’s nothing that she can do.

And if she’s awake, there’s a horse wading in a South Florida canal.

What can she do in that case?Read More »

My kingdom for a Bond-of-Color

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james-bond-logo-e1446827441643.jpg
Image found here

I’m not going to call myself a James Bond expert or anything so very trite, but I did spend most of last year (and a huge chunk of this year) both having intense opinions on the James Bond film franchise to anyone that would listen and writing an in-depth article series for The Mary Sue about the movies. It’s pretty fair to say that I get the film franchise better than the average non-Bond blogger.

That’s why I’m pretty uninterested in the idea of casting yet another vaguely attractive white guy in the role.

Read More »

[Book Review] Pride’s Spell – A Sin du Jour Affair

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Pride's Spell CoverTitle: Pride’s Spell: A Sin du Jour Affair
Author: Matt Wallace (Twitter)
Rating: So Freaking Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Demons & Angels, Food, Hollywood
Release Date: June 21, 2016

Publisher: Tor.com

Pre-Order Here: AMAZON (PAPERBACK) | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE (PAPERBACK)

Note: I received an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of this book from the publisher (but I have also preordered ebook and audio versions of the book because I CAN). All opinions and thoughts expressed, however drunkenly or poorly, in this review are my own. There are also a TON of spoilers for the upcoming book so if that’s not your thing, come back after June 21st when you’ve read the book!

Note the Second: There’s an extra spoilery audio review/excited rant posted embedded into this review at the bottom because I realize now that drunk!reviewing lends towards really disjointed reviews because my attention span gets borked. The audio review will hopefully be even more coherent!

I’m halfway through a bottle of Verdi Spumante (a sparkling wine that makes me giggle every time I say its name), I’ve got three fancy butter cookies left, and oh yes, an ARC of the awesome Matt Wallace’s upcoming book Pride’s Spell waiting for me to read and do my usual semi-drunken review.

Life is good. Well… for me at least.

Things don’t look so hot for the staff of Sin du Jour or their head chef for much of the book.Read More »

Supervillains (Not-So) Anonymous – Patreon Reward

Stitch

For my darling Patrons ($5 and up) , this first short story for the month is about a (sort of) reformed supervillain who attends her first Supervillains Anonymous meeting and winds up getting in between a heavy hitter and a newbie who can’t help running off at the mouth.

Contains: mildly violent imagery, a non-binary secondary character

It’s in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats!

Hope y’all enjoy reading!

LINK TO PATREON REWARD POST

Snippet under the cut:Read More »

[Book Review] Pain Slut

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Title: Pain Slut (Subs’ Club #2)Pain Slut Rock
Author: J.A. Rock
Rating:  Yeah, No Thanks
Genre/Category: Contemporary, BDSM, Romance, Interracial, M/M
Release Date: February 1, 2016
Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Note: I will not be linking to the author, their social media, or any links to purchase this book because the good parts do not begin to make up for the horrible racism that peppers the text.

I picked up Pain Slut on a lark when I saw that the fourth and final book in J. A. Rock’s Sub Club series was coming out so I’m a bit behind on the series since this book came out in February.

The series seemed interesting enough (it’s about four friends who band together to change their local BDSM community after one of their friends and a fellow sub is killed at the hands of a neglectful Dom) but I decided to get the second book since I felt that the stress might be a little lessened as we’re one book past their friend’s death.

Here’s the thing about Pain Slut: despite its cute moments and some kink that I really found sexy, it had some incredibly problematic attitudes about race/racism, respectability politics, and how it portrayed the Black main character.Read More »

Fandom has always been broken (but it’s not for the reasons that you think)

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When Devin Faraci wrote an article entitled “Fandom is broken”, there was a moment where I expected him to actually talk about the ways that fandom was actually broken.

Sure, he does mention how fan entitlement leads to threats against creators, but he also equates queer people asking for representation in the form of #GiveElsaAGirlfriend and #GiveCapABoyfriend (which has issues I’m going to mention later but still)  and Jewish people angry about the Hydra!Cap with trolls foaming at the mouth about lady Ghostbusters.

He doesn’t talk about how these same trolls hunt down and harass women and people of color in the industry or fandom on the regular, or how the decision to make Captain America a secret Hydra agent was one calculated to upset and offend people, that Marvel essentially got the reactions that they wanted for that specific book.

No, the only markers that Faraci takes as indicators of how broken fandom is are trolls and marginalized people who want positive representation.

Cool.
Read More »

[Book Review] The Jewel and Her Lapidary

Stitch

Wilde Jewel LapidaryTitle: The Jewel and Her Lapidary
Author: Fran Wilde (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Fantasy, Politics
Release Date: May 3 2016
Publisher: Tor.com

Order Here: AMAZON  (KINDLE)| AMAZON (PRINT) | BARNES & NOBLE (PRINT)

Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are my own. Spoilers abound!

By the time I finished reading The Jewel and Her Lapidary, I was well on my way to an ugly crying session. I’ve read books that broke my heart before and I’ve read some truly stellar fantasy. However, what Fran Wilde does with this book basically wrecks me.Read More »

Grayson #20 and WOC as the “Wrong Choice” Love Interests

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Note: You may disagree with this reading. You may think that’s not a valid reading. That’s fine, but as experiencing misogynoir in a comic that I adore and having clear proof that women of color (especially Black women) will always wind up “losing” to whiteness/white women is hurtful to me, I absolutely do not want to hear about it.

Helena and Dick

I knew Helena Bertinelli and Dick Grayson wouldn’t end up together at the end of Grayson #20.Despite my shipping goggles snapped tightly to my head (and you know… the actual content in the book), I knew that they wouldn’t be riding off into the sunset together especially as both characters are going to be in their own books come Rebirth.

But I knew that Dick and Helena were attracted to each other because there are several separate moments in the comic series that shows that their attraction is mutual.

More than that, the comic showed that on some level, they cared about each other as more than friends and it was in a way that could be construed as romantic. A way that could have been fleshed out in the upcoming Rebirth reboot or that would have gotten more focus in the comics had Grayson continued past issue #20 with the original creative team (Tim Seeley and Tom King on writing with Mikel Janin on art).

How do I know this? Well, in Future’s End: Grayson, five years into the future of the DC Universe (pre Rebirth and all of the retcons that’s going to be responsible for), Helena and Dick are together romantically.

So to go through Grayson #20 and basically see the new creative team kind of crap all over that is incredibly hurtful.Read More »

Stitch on Fansplaining’s Two-Part Episode About Race and Fandom!

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Earlier this week I got a chance to participate in an episode of fandom podcast Fansplaining that was all about race/racism in fandom and giving people of color a chance to speak about what they’d witnessed and experienced. It was amazing!

First, the cool content:

Fansplaining Episode 22A

In “Race and Fandom Part 1,” Flourish and Elizabeth follow up on the last episode’s questions about the impact of racism in the Star Wars fandom—and how it’s a microcosm of fandom at large. They interview Rukmini Pande and Clio, and they hear clips from Holly Quinn, Shadowkeeper, and PJ Punla. Topics covered include the historical presence of fans of color, space nazis, femslash and its discontents, and the Filipino perspective on the whiteness of media.

(Show notes!)

Fansplaining Episode 22B

In the second and final installment of our “Race and Fandom” episodes, fans of color continue to speak about their experiences in fandom. Elizabeth and Flourish interview Jeffrey Lyles and Zina (@stitchmediamix), then hear clips from Roz (@rozf), Traci-Anne, and zvi LikesTV (@zvilikestv). Topics covered include being Black and Jewish, Star Wars weddings, cosplaying characters of color, and why kink is never divorced from the real world.

(Show notes)

Under the cut is a bit of backstory (copied largely from some DMs I sent earlier in the week) about what sparked this anger at fandom (for me and several of the contributors this episode):Read More »