LA Time's Guide to Comic-Con for Girls

I should have mentioned this earlier this week when I found it, but io9 had an article on how Comic-Con wasn't for girls. First the people in charge of District 9 made a contest that specified it was only for men. They added a second contest for women and extended the deadline, but the irony of excluding someone when the movie's tagline is "You are not welcome here" is amusing to me.

What wasn't funny though was the LA Time's Guide to Comic-Con for Girls. It starts off saying women will line up to do Jake Gyllenhaal's laundry on his washboard abs (yes, they really use that joke,) and get worse from there. Some highlights, or is that lowlights?:

• Saying that only as long as a hot guy with a hotter accent is talking, women will bother listening to details about a murder mystery plot
  
• Werewolves make better BFs than vampires because that can sympathize with you about your monthly curse
• Review for Where the Wild Things Are (yes, the one with the little boy) starts off "Two words: Mark Ruffalo." They just reduced a kids' movie to what hot guy is in it. They do this to every single movie and show without fail, this is just the most disturbing and blatant.
• Using the phrase "face furniture," which isn't so degrading to women as it's just stupid phrasing
• the only mention of Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes is whether Robert Downey Jr. or Jude Law is sexier
• They mention female empowerment in the middle of this 23 pages-long reversion into a pre-suffrage age article
• Scariest picture of Denzel Washington I've ever seen, without makeup
• Saying Battlestar Galactica got girls into sci-fi, and then saying new show Caprica will be more for women since it'll be a soap opera in space
• The only reason women will see an action flick is if a hot guy is in it

So let's recap, this article mentions laundry, that-time-of-the-month, soap operas, and hot guys, hot buff guys, hot shirtless guys, and did I mention New Moon and vampire yet?

It featured both male and female contributors, so this isn't just a case of them finding chauvinists to write for them.

I have a lot of female friends, nerds and not, and this is insulting to anyone with more than a couple braincells. The opening page for it says Comic-Con is for more than just nerdy guys and the influx of Twilighters, but then panders to the shallow Bellas of the country.

Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Comic Code

Reading Neil Gaiman's blog and he just came across an interview he did of Alan Moore back in '85.

I still need to read Watchmen. The movie comes out next week. That or I'll enjoy a movie with little knowledge of the original so I'm not comparing it for the whole couple of hours.

I'll be seeing it in Imax at the midnight showing with Mike and the guys, and again Monday when they go to visit their professor Scott from up north. Ice cream cake and a comic movie. Does it get better?

So, earlier in class, after a talk about the U.K. and vague laws that make almost anything count as pornographic, there was a discussion of the Comic Code, and how it wasn't so much a law as something imposing that offered safety to weary parents. It doesn't mean something won't get put out, although some stores refuse to carry anything for adults or people freak out if there is an adult section where everything is sealed in plastic in a backroom. This article covers it. Moore talks about how Swamp Thing had very controversial topics and DC decided to publish it anyway, without the code sticker. The world didn't end, and sometime in the years after, Vertigo was been created for adults who like pictures with their adult subject matter.

And wonderfully so, Sandman is my favorite series and is very intelligent. I bought the Vertigo Encyclopedia a couple months ago and intend to use it as a personal guide for graphic novels to read.

I think I'll put V for Vendetta on. Mike and I were discussing it earlier.

Branding

So, I have a predicament. For Professional Practices, we are doing logos, business cards, business plans, a blog, and a site. That way when we actually get started we'll be ahead of the curve. Except I didn't think things through thoroughly and now I have a business card and such that I won't use.

My Paper Wings logo is light, airy, pastel. I want my art and style to evolve and grow towards dark, gothic, a little scary, and romantic.

I do not at this point want to change things, since it's kinda for a grade. Then again, this is for me, to be successful. Maybe I should talk to my prof and see if I can/should.

I also can't figure out quite what to do. My aim in the market is scattered and mostly inconsistent by day.

B:TAS

I finally got Batman: the Animated Series on DVD! The whole boxed set. It came with a booklet that had some of Bruce Timm's notes and examples for Batman poses, such as how to draw the hands, cape, and head. This is awesome. Last semester when I was sick, there'd been a couple episodes of B:TAS on TV and having nothing else to do for my sketchbook, I decided to try to copy Batman and other characters, doing gestures and such. It wasn't that great but between the short booklet and Batman Animated, the artbook from the show with sketches and notes by Timm and the others involved, I'll add a few pages to my sketchbook of it.

My boyfriend Mike recently loaned me Hush, and I loved Jim Lee's artwork and the way he drew everyone, so I want to attempts some studies of his work too.

I'm just in a mood to learn how to draw Batman and all my favorite villians.

Weird Dream

So... I had an interesting, artistic dream this morning. Well, I get a lot of inspiration from dreams, but this dealt with an artist rather than surrealism. Apparently, according to this dreamworld, buying a film by Guillermo del Toro, he'll visit you. Yeah, I know, thousands of purchases, must be a very busy guy. Well, I was watching Hellboy 2 in my dream, and there was a knock on the door. It was him, he spoke perfect English without the hint of an accent, and he sat down on the couch with my brother and I and started giving a commentary. He said how the actor who played Nuada was now getting roles but Nuala went into obscurity. I said how I wanted to know if he had an artbook, and he said no but he'd show/give me one of his sketchbooks. I completely forgot to have him look through mine. As this occurred to me, he'd already left and someone ran in with a rack of costumes; del Toro was an impostor! Thus began a chase scene and I woke up.

I really do want his art book, if he has one. The sketchbook in Pan's Labyrinth was nice, but I'd like an actual one that doesn't require pushing buttons on a remote.

My Christmas (Art) Wishlist

A Polaroid camera
Corel Painter
a tablet like Russell's
A new sketchbook
a scythe
a gas mask
weapons
props
art books
that book of Playboy centerfolds since the very beginning. it's quite thick yet skinny, as one can imagine
Gothic Art Now
Batman comics
Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book or new Sandman stuff
Sandman bookends
someone to take me to get my Mac fixed
illustration board
bookshelves
lights for photoshoots
art stuff
Goggles, goth, steam-punk, or industrial

Icky

I have been sick with who-knows-what for the last three weeks, and I've gotten 4 different diagnoses. Unlike the great artists in history who created really significant work during the time they were stuck in bed, all I've done is sleep, take a couple bites of food, swallow pills, and roll over and go back to sleep. I've missed an entire week of school and barely have sketches to show for it. I don't even have little Matisse cutouts...

To mock me, I was kidding to a friend about Chuck Palahniuk's book Diary, which is about art, but considering I haven't noticed anyone putting charcoal in my hands so I draw deliriously, I don't think I'll be fulfilling any ancient artistic prophesies. It's a good book but made me hate my oil paints more than normal for slowly killing me.

I'm going to at least find some ref pics for when I'm up next.

Tonight's the Night

Well, this evening is the Big Photo Shoot, the one I came up with the idea for two months ago and have not planned at all. No photographer, no scenery, no props. Just a bunch of people standing around looking handsome and pretty.

This is gonna take more than luck.