A fun little info/history (herstory!) and sticker collection book for any Wonder Woman fan. There is a lot about Wonder Woman in the comics here. Also included is gorgeous artwork. Plus many character pieces (we see Wondy's friends and colleagues, which include other DC heroines, such as Donna Troy, Batgirl and Black Canary), and factoids and tidbits.
A loving and respectful celebration of the greatest superheroine, and one of the greatest superheroes of all time. Little girls would love to own a copy of this as well.
Final Score: 4/5
Wednesday 29 July 2020
Monday 27 July 2020
Top 30 Fictional Geek Girls (2020)
I love to celebrate the best-written women and girls in fiction. Now I present to you my new, updated list of the current smartest, geekiest, nerdiest, loveliest and most charming and complex females I can think of; ranging from the mediums of books, comics, anime, films, TV shows, musicals, and video games. There are a lot of fangirl characters out there!
For more details and references, including info on some of the geek girls included on here, which I had included also on a previous list, see here. Most notably on that post I stated:
These fabulous females are smart, relatable, brilliant in their own individual ways, and are all-out fangirls in their specialised fields. She's out and proud to be a geek, no matter what anyone thinks, and she is no walking, boring cliche. There's no "She's not like other girls" and "She's one of the guys" crap here, nor do these geek girls exist as some male-gazy fetish fantasy sold as being "feminist". No - I see these women as special because they cannot easily be labelled, they are so complex. They are just fully-rounded and nerdy, their gender has nothing to do with their character.
This list will mainly be just the names of my favourite fictional geek girls, and around half of them will be followed by links to older posts where I talk about them in greater detail. These entries will be sorted in the order according to personal preference, character development, admiration, cultural impact, unconventionality, diversity, and who is: written better, more relatable, smarter, braver, kinder, and/or more feminist.
Here they are, my personal favourite Top 30 Fictional Geek Girls (2020):
30. Bedelia (Princeless) / Hay Lin (W.I.T.C.H.)
29. Cynthia "Mac" Mackenzie (Veronica Mars)
28. Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (Cowboy Bebop)
27. Jillian Holtzmann (Ghostbusters (2016))
26. Yomiko Readman (Read or Die)
25. Coco Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot)
24. Sam Sparks (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)
Info here.
23. Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra)
22. Sloane MacBrute (Anti/Hero)
Info here.
21. Connie Maheswaran (Steven Universe)
20. Alphys (Undertale)
19. Entrapta (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)
18. Matilda Wormwood (Matilda)
Info here, and here.
17. Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno (Sailor Moon)
16. Barbara "Bobbi" Morse/Mockingbird (Marvel Comics)
Info here.
15. Meg Murray (A Wrinkle in Time (2018))
Info here.
14. Doctor K (Power Rangers: RPM)
13. Washu Hakubi (Tenchi Muyo)
12. Nadia Pym/Wasp (Marvel Comics)
Info here.
11. Lisbeth Salander (Millennium trilogy)
Info here, here, here, and here.
10. Thirteenth Doctor (Doctor Who)
Info here, and here.
9. Kitty Pryde (Marvel Comics)
Info here, here, and here.
8. Shuri (Marvel Comics)
Info here.
7. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Marvel Comics)
Info here, here, here, here, here, and here.
6. Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl (Marvel Comics)
Info here, here, here, here, here, and here.
5. Belle (Disney's Beauty and the Beast)
Info here, and here.
4. Elphaba (Wicked the musical)
Info here, here, and here.
3. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
Info here, and here.
2. Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle (DC Comics)
Info here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
1. Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons)
For more details and references, including info on some of the geek girls included on here, which I had included also on a previous list, see here. Most notably on that post I stated:
These fabulous females are smart, relatable, brilliant in their own individual ways, and are all-out fangirls in their specialised fields. She's out and proud to be a geek, no matter what anyone thinks, and she is no walking, boring cliche. There's no "She's not like other girls" and "She's one of the guys" crap here, nor do these geek girls exist as some male-gazy fetish fantasy sold as being "feminist". No - I see these women as special because they cannot easily be labelled, they are so complex. They are just fully-rounded and nerdy, their gender has nothing to do with their character.
This list will mainly be just the names of my favourite fictional geek girls, and around half of them will be followed by links to older posts where I talk about them in greater detail. These entries will be sorted in the order according to personal preference, character development, admiration, cultural impact, unconventionality, diversity, and who is: written better, more relatable, smarter, braver, kinder, and/or more feminist.
Here they are, my personal favourite Top 30 Fictional Geek Girls (2020):
30. Bedelia (Princeless) / Hay Lin (W.I.T.C.H.)
29. Cynthia "Mac" Mackenzie (Veronica Mars)
28. Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (Cowboy Bebop)
27. Jillian Holtzmann (Ghostbusters (2016))
26. Yomiko Readman (Read or Die)
25. Coco Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot)
24. Sam Sparks (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)
Info here.
23. Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra)
22. Sloane MacBrute (Anti/Hero)
Info here.
21. Connie Maheswaran (Steven Universe)
20. Alphys (Undertale)
19. Entrapta (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)
18. Matilda Wormwood (Matilda)
Info here, and here.
17. Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno (Sailor Moon)
16. Barbara "Bobbi" Morse/Mockingbird (Marvel Comics)
Info here.
15. Meg Murray (A Wrinkle in Time (2018))
Info here.
14. Doctor K (Power Rangers: RPM)
13. Washu Hakubi (Tenchi Muyo)
12. Nadia Pym/Wasp (Marvel Comics)
Info here.
11. Lisbeth Salander (Millennium trilogy)
Info here, here, here, and here.
10. Thirteenth Doctor (Doctor Who)
Info here, and here.
9. Kitty Pryde (Marvel Comics)
Info here, here, and here.
8. Shuri (Marvel Comics)
Info here.
7. Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Marvel Comics)
Info here, here, here, here, here, and here.
6. Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl (Marvel Comics)
Info here, here, here, here, here, and here.
5. Belle (Disney's Beauty and the Beast)
Info here, and here.
4. Elphaba (Wicked the musical)
Info here, here, and here.
3. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
Info here, and here.
2. Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle (DC Comics)
Info here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
1. Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons)
Sunday 26 July 2020
Book Review - 'Kiki's Delivery Service' by Eiko Kadono, Emily Balistrieri (Translator)
2023 REREAD: As enchanting and charming as ever. How can it not be a favourite, just like the film?
Funny, creative and delightful; a children's classic I'll definitely be reading again and again.
The simplest things are the most magical of all.
'Kiki's Delivery Service' delivers, all right.
Final Score: 5/5
P.S. I've literally just realised I read this three years ago, also in July. What light, enchanting, coming-of-age, little-witch-on-broomsticks summers!
Original Review:
I love the movie, and when I heard there was going to be a new, 2020 English translation of the original novel, of course I wanted it.
'Kiki's Delivery Service' by Eiko Kadono is just as delightful, adorable, heartfelt and soulful as the classic Studio Ghibli film by Hayao Miyazaki. There are differences, but the premise is basically the same: Kiki the twelve-to-thirteen-year old witch flies from her small humble home to another town on her mother's broom, accompanied by her talking black cat Jiji and her red radio, as part of her witch's coming-of-age rite. Once in a big town by the sea, that has a giant clock tower, she takes up residence at a baker's and starts her own business, "Kiki's Delivery Service". Her simple yet exciting and significant adventures start from there.
The 'Kiki's Delivery Service' novella gives us more information about the roles of witches, what they do, and how people view them as part of its worldbuilding than in the film. We learn about dying crafts and gifts that are passed on from mother to daughter, and it's touched upon that, by their limited places in society, witches are pretty much close to becoming extinct. This is barely a footnote, so it's still a sweet, light little tale. Some of the novella's episodic chapters, all hilarious and charming in their own way, are also absent in the animated version.
However, both are coming-of-age stories and metaphors for a girl's adolescence. They are relatively plotless and structureless, but it is the emotional storytelling and character development that matters. Both explore Kiki's feelings and insecurities about how she fits in with other people in her new setting. How do the townsfolk - the other kids, the other girls, the adults and the elderly - view Kiki, as a witch, a delivery girl, and her own person? How does she view them, when she inevitably compares herself to them? Self-image and finding her place to call home are key.
Everybody comes to love the darling, polite, funny, cunning, clever and helpful little witch eventually, just as the reader does.
The things that Kiki delivers, on her broom, on her unprecedented and bizarre adventures are not just physical. There is plenty of whimsy fun to be had here as well.
I never even knew that belly bands were a thing until I read 'Kiki's Delivery Service'. It is absolutely fixated on those!
What a wonderful, colourful, funny and charming children's masterpiece. A sky high, euphoric triumph. Kiki should be the star of a children's cartoon series.
'Kiki's Delivery Service' - it is for everyone, but especially for those with little witch's hearts. It certainly delivers.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Funny, creative and delightful; a children's classic I'll definitely be reading again and again.
The simplest things are the most magical of all.
'Kiki's Delivery Service' delivers, all right.
Final Score: 5/5
P.S. I've literally just realised I read this three years ago, also in July. What light, enchanting, coming-of-age, little-witch-on-broomsticks summers!
Original Review:
I love the movie, and when I heard there was going to be a new, 2020 English translation of the original novel, of course I wanted it.
'Kiki's Delivery Service' by Eiko Kadono is just as delightful, adorable, heartfelt and soulful as the classic Studio Ghibli film by Hayao Miyazaki. There are differences, but the premise is basically the same: Kiki the twelve-to-thirteen-year old witch flies from her small humble home to another town on her mother's broom, accompanied by her talking black cat Jiji and her red radio, as part of her witch's coming-of-age rite. Once in a big town by the sea, that has a giant clock tower, she takes up residence at a baker's and starts her own business, "Kiki's Delivery Service". Her simple yet exciting and significant adventures start from there.
The 'Kiki's Delivery Service' novella gives us more information about the roles of witches, what they do, and how people view them as part of its worldbuilding than in the film. We learn about dying crafts and gifts that are passed on from mother to daughter, and it's touched upon that, by their limited places in society, witches are pretty much close to becoming extinct. This is barely a footnote, so it's still a sweet, light little tale. Some of the novella's episodic chapters, all hilarious and charming in their own way, are also absent in the animated version.
However, both are coming-of-age stories and metaphors for a girl's adolescence. They are relatively plotless and structureless, but it is the emotional storytelling and character development that matters. Both explore Kiki's feelings and insecurities about how she fits in with other people in her new setting. How do the townsfolk - the other kids, the other girls, the adults and the elderly - view Kiki, as a witch, a delivery girl, and her own person? How does she view them, when she inevitably compares herself to them? Self-image and finding her place to call home are key.
Everybody comes to love the darling, polite, funny, cunning, clever and helpful little witch eventually, just as the reader does.
The things that Kiki delivers, on her broom, on her unprecedented and bizarre adventures are not just physical. There is plenty of whimsy fun to be had here as well.
I never even knew that belly bands were a thing until I read 'Kiki's Delivery Service'. It is absolutely fixated on those!
What a wonderful, colourful, funny and charming children's masterpiece. A sky high, euphoric triumph. Kiki should be the star of a children's cartoon series.
'Kiki's Delivery Service' - it is for everyone, but especially for those with little witch's hearts. It certainly delivers.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Friday 24 July 2020
Manga Review - 'Bloom into You, Vol. 1' by Nio Nakatani, Jenny McKeon (Translator)
"There's nothing wrong with the way you feel."
"It's not fair...I thought Nanami-senpai was like me...But the face she made just because I grabbed her hand...She already knows what it's like to feel that someone's "special."...I want that, too..."
"Even though I haven't fallen in love myself...I've gotten close to the person who loves me."
I have no particular strong feelings for 'Bloom into You, Vol. 1', but it is a nice and calm little high school yuri manga. There is nothing skeevy or racy about it; it's merely a coming-of-age slice-of-life piece that explores feelings and different kinds of love, friendship, and devotion to another person. To someone "special" to you. It's as sweet and gentle as a pond with sakura petals in autumn, with slow moving trickles flowing into streams.
The romance, though it's one-sided at the moment, is between Yuu Koito, a quite timid, jaded and apathetic pushover who is possibly asexual and aromantic, and Nanami Touko, the typical cool, pretty, popular, dark-haired senpai, who is actually really shy and withdrawn.
Nanami feels she can be herself with Yuu, and is very much forward, sure and confident in her love for the new girl on the student council. To her ever disappointment, Yuu feels nothing. She has never fallen in love with anyone, and may never will, which she finds disconcerting. She thinks she isn't "normal", a word she aspires to. Nanami says she doesn't mind that Yuu doesn't feel the same way about her, and is happy just being with Yuu as a friend, but is she really?
There are great messages here about how your own feelings are valid, and nothing, certainly not love of any kind, is to be rushed. You matter, and there is nothing wrong with you if you don't feel like how you think you should be feeling.
However, Nanami is a bit too forceful with the uncertain and naive Yuu. She confesses her love out of the blue at least four times in this volume, and she even kisses Yuu without her consent in public once. Even though Yuu isn't uncomfortable or upset by this, that part of Nanami's character isn't great, though she does at least apologise to Yuu. Also I am annoyed and tired of the pervasive "girls asking out girls is not normal" and "two girls in love is not normal" attitude in high school yuri manga, like it's a thing that simply doesn't happen - is just not done - when it clearly does. It's a 2015 publication too, but I admit I'm not sure how progressive Japan was in terms of same-sex relationships back then (look at me, talking like this about something from 2015, wow does time fly).
Blooming and blossoming genuinely describe 'Bloom into You' well. I'm not sure I'll be picking up the next volume, but I am a little curious about what might happen next, and I am interested in the main relationship, and these characters (Yuu's friend Akari, her older sister Rei, and Nanami's best friend-who-might-be-in-love-with-her Sayaka, are cool and compelling characters too). I haven't failed to notice that this is yet another yuri manga with a strong female presence, abundant in female love and support, and hardly any male characters populate it.
Cute, tranquil, serene stuff.
Final Score: 3.5/5
"It's not fair...I thought Nanami-senpai was like me...But the face she made just because I grabbed her hand...She already knows what it's like to feel that someone's "special."...I want that, too..."
"Even though I haven't fallen in love myself...I've gotten close to the person who loves me."
I have no particular strong feelings for 'Bloom into You, Vol. 1', but it is a nice and calm little high school yuri manga. There is nothing skeevy or racy about it; it's merely a coming-of-age slice-of-life piece that explores feelings and different kinds of love, friendship, and devotion to another person. To someone "special" to you. It's as sweet and gentle as a pond with sakura petals in autumn, with slow moving trickles flowing into streams.
The romance, though it's one-sided at the moment, is between Yuu Koito, a quite timid, jaded and apathetic pushover who is possibly asexual and aromantic, and Nanami Touko, the typical cool, pretty, popular, dark-haired senpai, who is actually really shy and withdrawn.
Nanami feels she can be herself with Yuu, and is very much forward, sure and confident in her love for the new girl on the student council. To her ever disappointment, Yuu feels nothing. She has never fallen in love with anyone, and may never will, which she finds disconcerting. She thinks she isn't "normal", a word she aspires to. Nanami says she doesn't mind that Yuu doesn't feel the same way about her, and is happy just being with Yuu as a friend, but is she really?
There are great messages here about how your own feelings are valid, and nothing, certainly not love of any kind, is to be rushed. You matter, and there is nothing wrong with you if you don't feel like how you think you should be feeling.
However, Nanami is a bit too forceful with the uncertain and naive Yuu. She confesses her love out of the blue at least four times in this volume, and she even kisses Yuu without her consent in public once. Even though Yuu isn't uncomfortable or upset by this, that part of Nanami's character isn't great, though she does at least apologise to Yuu. Also I am annoyed and tired of the pervasive "girls asking out girls is not normal" and "two girls in love is not normal" attitude in high school yuri manga, like it's a thing that simply doesn't happen - is just not done - when it clearly does. It's a 2015 publication too, but I admit I'm not sure how progressive Japan was in terms of same-sex relationships back then (look at me, talking like this about something from 2015, wow does time fly).
Blooming and blossoming genuinely describe 'Bloom into You' well. I'm not sure I'll be picking up the next volume, but I am a little curious about what might happen next, and I am interested in the main relationship, and these characters (Yuu's friend Akari, her older sister Rei, and Nanami's best friend-who-might-be-in-love-with-her Sayaka, are cool and compelling characters too). I haven't failed to notice that this is yet another yuri manga with a strong female presence, abundant in female love and support, and hardly any male characters populate it.
Cute, tranquil, serene stuff.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Holiday Special: Time Out of Mind' by Jody Houser (Writer), Roberta Ingranata (Artist), Enrica Angiolini (Artist)
2022 EDIT: From my 'Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor, Vol. 1: A New Beginning' review:
Another series I won't be keeping. Not just because of my book clear-out, but because I want to distance myself from this franchise and its "fans" as much as possible. In my opinion, 'Doctor Who' isn't worth it. It's never been worth it.
I'm done.
I've never known a more toxic, culture-and-society-killing, and soul crushing fanbase as that of the sci-fi genre, except maybe the video games community.
Original Review:
A fun and supremely funny 'Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor' Christmas comic. Very quippy, witty, savvy and sweet.
It's not perfect, nor wholly satisfactory plot-wise, but it is easy to follow, which is a feat for a story involving altered memories (though how did the TARDIS get scrambled with as well?). And involving Santa's elves, toy soldiers, and Krampus (who is female in this version). The Thirteenth Doctor remains a wonderful character. And it's so lovely the way she refers to her companions as her "fam".
Gorgeous artwork, humour and message, this sci-fi holiday special is wholesome family entertainment. An enjoyable treat to put in anyone's stocking (or anywhere else for anyone who celebrates any holiday).
Final Score: 4/5
Another series I won't be keeping. Not just because of my book clear-out, but because I want to distance myself from this franchise and its "fans" as much as possible. In my opinion, 'Doctor Who' isn't worth it. It's never been worth it.
I'm done.
I've never known a more toxic, culture-and-society-killing, and soul crushing fanbase as that of the sci-fi genre, except maybe the video games community.
Original Review:
A fun and supremely funny 'Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor' Christmas comic. Very quippy, witty, savvy and sweet.
It's not perfect, nor wholly satisfactory plot-wise, but it is easy to follow, which is a feat for a story involving altered memories (though how did the TARDIS get scrambled with as well?). And involving Santa's elves, toy soldiers, and Krampus (who is female in this version). The Thirteenth Doctor remains a wonderful character. And it's so lovely the way she refers to her companions as her "fam".
Gorgeous artwork, humour and message, this sci-fi holiday special is wholesome family entertainment. An enjoyable treat to put in anyone's stocking (or anywhere else for anyone who celebrates any holiday).
Final Score: 4/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' by Alison Bechdel
Content warning: suicide, grief, broken families, child abuse, mental illness i.e. depression and OCD, child molestation.
'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' - a graphic novel memoir worthy of the likes of 'Persepolis'.
When first reading the mixed reviews, I did not expect to pick up, let along love, this raw and painful coming-of-age/ family drama graphic memoir at all. But since I'd heard of Alison Bechdel and her coming up with the standard feminist media critique of "The Bechdel Test" years and years ago, more than this book I'm surprised at myself for not reading anything by her until now. I'd only recently heard of a musical adaptation. So I thought, hey, if it's that popular and mainstream, then why not give it a go?
I think there are some stories that are better told in graphic novel form. I think that if 'Fun Home' had been written entirely in prose, I would have found it pretentious and boring as hell. But in the way that it is expressed in this medium, in this simple yet gloomy art style, it becomes powerful and evocative. It is more original and humanistic. Alison Bechdel's autobiography, and her musings on her family and life and the classic works of literature she attempts to interconnect it all - to make sense of it all, to give meaning to the meaningless - is suddenly graphic, in more than one sense. It's desperate and reaching, yet cathartic. Any creative type can relate to it.
Bechdel may realise the futility of paralleling her own story and identity as a lesbian with the old stories of white men, who may or may not have been queer themselves, and their insecurities and frustrations at life might stem from that. Either way, works of women and more overt queer people (though Colette is read in the memoir too) should be taught in the curriculum as equals to Homer, Proust, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Salinger, Joyce, etc.
'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' is itself a good start. It is Bechdel's "Odyssey" as she puts it, and it revolves around her relationship with her closeted father, who had died of apparent suicide.
The book is very real, honest and shocking, as a memoir of someone's life should be. Alison Bechdel's earlier life was dysfunctional, full of secrets (like in every family), and utterly believable and harrowing. Not half of which comes from Bechdel growing up in a funeral home business, so death has been present from the start. Having a depressed, orderly, controlling, borderline abusive and emotionally distant father, as well as a very distant theatrical and thesis-writing mother, I could see Bechdel's struggles and desperation to understand her family throughout. She also has two brothers, who, if not exactly happy, seem fairly "normal" and "functional" like her.
She doesn't just talk about her father, a paradoxical figure of great admiration, bafflement and fear, and books, in almost streams of consciousness as she tries to grasp for reasons why her father did what he did; she also relates when and how she discovered her own sexuality. Leading up to this are her childhood preference for being masculine (in hair and clothing, plus seeing a "bull dyke" for the first time), her first period (and her not telling her mother right away), her troubles in writing anything thorough and honest in her diary entries, her OCD, her first orgasm, and her picking up books on homosexuality. Add in dashes of mythological, phallic and literary symbolism and Easter eggs on nearly every page, and the reader is in for a devastatingly real but enlightening and interesting experience.
It is a tragedy. We all experience it in out lives. Grief is a black, terrifying, monstrous, traumatic, heartbreaking, confusing and empty void, and eventually - for it does happen, it has to - we deal with it; we move on from it in thousands and thousands of different ways. Alison Bechdel processes her own loss and grief in the form of a comic.
'Fun Home' isn't amusing, in my opinion, and it contains no funny moments. But there is a bittersweetness and strange hope to be found in its pages, for not every person in Bechdel's life is miserable, of course, and any nihilistic viewpoint conveyed isn't oppressive and suffocating. Catharsis is key. Amazingly, it is accessible for anyone old enough to know about these human issues (not necessarily "adult" issues, for sexual orientation, mental illness and death have nothing to do with not being "family friendly").
If there is one serious downgrade to give the tragicomic, however, it's the offhand mention by Bechdel's mother on the phone with her that her father was molested as a child, right after revealing his affairs with men and teenage boys. This is...unfortunate. And is never brought up again. Additionally, only white people seem to be present, most disconcertingly.
A few overlooked and disturbing implications aside, 'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' comes recommended by yours truly. The avant-garde piece engrossed, absorbed, and touched me greatly. It can be frustrating and complicated, but that is life. I can see why it would be viewed as pretentious, but that's the author, the artist, merely trying to make sense of her own story, to give it meaning and hope, in a way that feels natural to her. With or without her family, and the ways they influenced her, she makes it on her own. She isn't a side note or joker in her parents' story, a dysfunctional mess of (limited) choices, done just to fit into society's limited, stifling boxes.
Alison Bechdel breaks free of that.
Loving your parents while trying not to make the same mistakes they did is one of life's inevitable paradoxes. And wonders.
Final Score: 4.5/5
'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' - a graphic novel memoir worthy of the likes of 'Persepolis'.
When first reading the mixed reviews, I did not expect to pick up, let along love, this raw and painful coming-of-age/ family drama graphic memoir at all. But since I'd heard of Alison Bechdel and her coming up with the standard feminist media critique of "The Bechdel Test" years and years ago, more than this book I'm surprised at myself for not reading anything by her until now. I'd only recently heard of a musical adaptation. So I thought, hey, if it's that popular and mainstream, then why not give it a go?
I think there are some stories that are better told in graphic novel form. I think that if 'Fun Home' had been written entirely in prose, I would have found it pretentious and boring as hell. But in the way that it is expressed in this medium, in this simple yet gloomy art style, it becomes powerful and evocative. It is more original and humanistic. Alison Bechdel's autobiography, and her musings on her family and life and the classic works of literature she attempts to interconnect it all - to make sense of it all, to give meaning to the meaningless - is suddenly graphic, in more than one sense. It's desperate and reaching, yet cathartic. Any creative type can relate to it.
Bechdel may realise the futility of paralleling her own story and identity as a lesbian with the old stories of white men, who may or may not have been queer themselves, and their insecurities and frustrations at life might stem from that. Either way, works of women and more overt queer people (though Colette is read in the memoir too) should be taught in the curriculum as equals to Homer, Proust, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Salinger, Joyce, etc.
'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' is itself a good start. It is Bechdel's "Odyssey" as she puts it, and it revolves around her relationship with her closeted father, who had died of apparent suicide.
The book is very real, honest and shocking, as a memoir of someone's life should be. Alison Bechdel's earlier life was dysfunctional, full of secrets (like in every family), and utterly believable and harrowing. Not half of which comes from Bechdel growing up in a funeral home business, so death has been present from the start. Having a depressed, orderly, controlling, borderline abusive and emotionally distant father, as well as a very distant theatrical and thesis-writing mother, I could see Bechdel's struggles and desperation to understand her family throughout. She also has two brothers, who, if not exactly happy, seem fairly "normal" and "functional" like her.
She doesn't just talk about her father, a paradoxical figure of great admiration, bafflement and fear, and books, in almost streams of consciousness as she tries to grasp for reasons why her father did what he did; she also relates when and how she discovered her own sexuality. Leading up to this are her childhood preference for being masculine (in hair and clothing, plus seeing a "bull dyke" for the first time), her first period (and her not telling her mother right away), her troubles in writing anything thorough and honest in her diary entries, her OCD, her first orgasm, and her picking up books on homosexuality. Add in dashes of mythological, phallic and literary symbolism and Easter eggs on nearly every page, and the reader is in for a devastatingly real but enlightening and interesting experience.
It is a tragedy. We all experience it in out lives. Grief is a black, terrifying, monstrous, traumatic, heartbreaking, confusing and empty void, and eventually - for it does happen, it has to - we deal with it; we move on from it in thousands and thousands of different ways. Alison Bechdel processes her own loss and grief in the form of a comic.
'Fun Home' isn't amusing, in my opinion, and it contains no funny moments. But there is a bittersweetness and strange hope to be found in its pages, for not every person in Bechdel's life is miserable, of course, and any nihilistic viewpoint conveyed isn't oppressive and suffocating. Catharsis is key. Amazingly, it is accessible for anyone old enough to know about these human issues (not necessarily "adult" issues, for sexual orientation, mental illness and death have nothing to do with not being "family friendly").
If there is one serious downgrade to give the tragicomic, however, it's the offhand mention by Bechdel's mother on the phone with her that her father was molested as a child, right after revealing his affairs with men and teenage boys. This is...unfortunate. And is never brought up again. Additionally, only white people seem to be present, most disconcertingly.
A few overlooked and disturbing implications aside, 'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic' comes recommended by yours truly. The avant-garde piece engrossed, absorbed, and touched me greatly. It can be frustrating and complicated, but that is life. I can see why it would be viewed as pretentious, but that's the author, the artist, merely trying to make sense of her own story, to give it meaning and hope, in a way that feels natural to her. With or without her family, and the ways they influenced her, she makes it on her own. She isn't a side note or joker in her parents' story, a dysfunctional mess of (limited) choices, done just to fit into society's limited, stifling boxes.
Alison Bechdel breaks free of that.
Loving your parents while trying not to make the same mistakes they did is one of life's inevitable paradoxes. And wonders.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Wednesday 22 July 2020
Manga Review - 'The Rose of Versailles - Omnibus, #1' by Riyoko Ikeda
A new and pretty, special English edition of a classic and influential manga from the seventies that's reputedly feminist and is an inspiration for one of my favourite anime of all time, 'Revolutionary Girl Utena'? Yeah I wanted to check it out!
'The Rose of Versailles' - the first omnibus, anyway - is surprisingly accessible, timeless, engaging and entertaining. In my opinion it still holds up marvellously, and was a product ahead of its time. A Japanese manga revolving around the French Revolution (Austria, Sweden and other European countries are touched on too)? Who knew that it would work this well? This translation into English is brilliantly done.
Even for someone like me who gets bored to death easily by historical fiction and costume dramas (oh woe are the troubles of the 1%), this manga held my attention - sucked me into its world utterly - and wouldn't let me go until I'd finished its 500 pages. 'The Rose of Versailles' is an intrigue plot, like a mixture of real historical events about Marie Antoinette, 'War and Peace', and a non-fantasy 'Game of Thrones'. Add in a crossdressing female Royal Guard commander, LBGTQ overtones, class struggles, poverty struggles, and commentary on how capitalism is bullshit and rich people are literally the scum of the earth, and you have the recipe for a unique classic! Other themes include how monarchies should be selfless and responsible for the care and welfare of the poor and working class, and the evils of nepotism and favouritism.
Plus it's so pretty! The art is fantastic- shoujo at its best, brightest, funniest and most expressive.
'The Rose of Versailles' is a gorgeous and insightful manga that will take your breath away and leave you seriously thinking about world class systems and their issues. The story is intricate and complex, the worldbuilding stunning and believable - the mangaka, Riyoko Ikeda, really did her research thoroughly and carefully - and there is a giant chessboard's worth of characters. But somehow it all flows together so well and so airily, in a good way, that it never feels crowded, stuffy, confusing or boring.
Another thing I have to comment on in this classic historical fiction shoujo manga, is the strong, predominant female presence all throughout. There is a mass of female characters, each with her own individual personality, worldview and set of skills, and in varying degrees on the moral high ground scale. Good, evil, greedy, selfish, power hungry, scheming, manipulative, sensitive, motherly, caring, calm, fussy, naïve, intelligent, promiscuous, determined, cowardly, lordly, competent, incompetent - women and girls can be all of these things and more, and 'Rose of the Versailles' showcases this phenomenally.
I barely need mention the two female leads: the young, naïve, spoiled, brownnosing, superficial, easily bored, caring but thoughtless and inexperienced Marie Antoinette, whom we follow from childhood to her becoming the Queen of France (really, nothing is her fault, it's her age and poor upbringing not preparing her, and other people manipulating her - give her a break); and her guard and friend Oscar François de Jarjayes, who was raised like a boy when her father desperately wanted a male heir after having six daughters. She exists to challenge fixed gender roles and conventions; she even still openly identifies as a girl, and no one is really bothered by this. How progressive for 18th century France in a story from 1970s' Japan. By today's woke reflections Oscar could easily identify on the LBGTQ spectrum. She could be trans.
Sadly I've heard ahead of time who Oscar will eventually fall in love with, and I am disappointed. I mean, who knows how many people back then, even and especially in the French aristocracy, were queer! I know it's still a seventies manga, but it was doing great and the queerness fits and makes more sense than heteronormality! I am dissuaded from picking up the sequels now.
But for what the first omnibus's chapters are worth, the femme and yuri presence shines through. So much so that there are plenty of male characters, aside from Axel von Fersen and Oscar's servant and best friend André Grandier, who are minor, and are relatively useless and under the thumbs of the female characters. The men get browbeaten quite easily. What a magnificent display of role reversal for its time!
For its time.
'The Rose of the Versailles' is subversive - for its time - and has aged remarkably well. It is a beautiful shoujo masterpiece - a credit to the genre, and a testament to how successful and far-reaching it can be. It's intelligent, enlightening, funny, sweet and shocking. How gratifying that a popular, influential, radical and liberal manga and anime of this calibre has finally been renewed and made readily available to English speaking audiences.
A priceless, lovely jewel.
Final Score: 5/5
'The Rose of Versailles' - the first omnibus, anyway - is surprisingly accessible, timeless, engaging and entertaining. In my opinion it still holds up marvellously, and was a product ahead of its time. A Japanese manga revolving around the French Revolution (Austria, Sweden and other European countries are touched on too)? Who knew that it would work this well? This translation into English is brilliantly done.
Even for someone like me who gets bored to death easily by historical fiction and costume dramas (oh woe are the troubles of the 1%), this manga held my attention - sucked me into its world utterly - and wouldn't let me go until I'd finished its 500 pages. 'The Rose of Versailles' is an intrigue plot, like a mixture of real historical events about Marie Antoinette, 'War and Peace', and a non-fantasy 'Game of Thrones'. Add in a crossdressing female Royal Guard commander, LBGTQ overtones, class struggles, poverty struggles, and commentary on how capitalism is bullshit and rich people are literally the scum of the earth, and you have the recipe for a unique classic! Other themes include how monarchies should be selfless and responsible for the care and welfare of the poor and working class, and the evils of nepotism and favouritism.
Plus it's so pretty! The art is fantastic- shoujo at its best, brightest, funniest and most expressive.
'The Rose of Versailles' is a gorgeous and insightful manga that will take your breath away and leave you seriously thinking about world class systems and their issues. The story is intricate and complex, the worldbuilding stunning and believable - the mangaka, Riyoko Ikeda, really did her research thoroughly and carefully - and there is a giant chessboard's worth of characters. But somehow it all flows together so well and so airily, in a good way, that it never feels crowded, stuffy, confusing or boring.
Another thing I have to comment on in this classic historical fiction shoujo manga, is the strong, predominant female presence all throughout. There is a mass of female characters, each with her own individual personality, worldview and set of skills, and in varying degrees on the moral high ground scale. Good, evil, greedy, selfish, power hungry, scheming, manipulative, sensitive, motherly, caring, calm, fussy, naïve, intelligent, promiscuous, determined, cowardly, lordly, competent, incompetent - women and girls can be all of these things and more, and 'Rose of the Versailles' showcases this phenomenally.
I barely need mention the two female leads: the young, naïve, spoiled, brownnosing, superficial, easily bored, caring but thoughtless and inexperienced Marie Antoinette, whom we follow from childhood to her becoming the Queen of France (really, nothing is her fault, it's her age and poor upbringing not preparing her, and other people manipulating her - give her a break); and her guard and friend Oscar François de Jarjayes, who was raised like a boy when her father desperately wanted a male heir after having six daughters. She exists to challenge fixed gender roles and conventions; she even still openly identifies as a girl, and no one is really bothered by this. How progressive for 18th century France in a story from 1970s' Japan. By today's woke reflections Oscar could easily identify on the LBGTQ spectrum. She could be trans.
Sadly I've heard ahead of time who Oscar will eventually fall in love with, and I am disappointed. I mean, who knows how many people back then, even and especially in the French aristocracy, were queer! I know it's still a seventies manga, but it was doing great and the queerness fits and makes more sense than heteronormality! I am dissuaded from picking up the sequels now.
But for what the first omnibus's chapters are worth, the femme and yuri presence shines through. So much so that there are plenty of male characters, aside from Axel von Fersen and Oscar's servant and best friend André Grandier, who are minor, and are relatively useless and under the thumbs of the female characters. The men get browbeaten quite easily. What a magnificent display of role reversal for its time!
For its time.
'The Rose of the Versailles' is subversive - for its time - and has aged remarkably well. It is a beautiful shoujo masterpiece - a credit to the genre, and a testament to how successful and far-reaching it can be. It's intelligent, enlightening, funny, sweet and shocking. How gratifying that a popular, influential, radical and liberal manga and anime of this calibre has finally been renewed and made readily available to English speaking audiences.
A priceless, lovely jewel.
Final Score: 5/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Harley Quinn: A Celebration of 25 Years' by Various
Such fun!
They definitely included the better stories about - and featuring - Harley Quinn in this fine collection; in, appropriately enough, chronological order (up until 2017). Some of them I'd already read before, but others I am glad to have come across. I am happy to see a lot of Harley Quinn stories where she is partnered with Poison Ivy, who is her true soulmate, and later on where she is free and independent of the Joker.
Highlights include Harley teaming up with Batgirl to save Poison Ivy; Harley outmanoeuvring the Joker and Batman in a battle of wits; not one but two Martha Stewart references in the whole thing; Harley and Ivy teaming up to sabotage a Joker-esque theme park and roller coaster without the Joker interfering; Harley teaming up with Wonder Woman in London in the most bizarre of circumstances (where they switch costumes, don't ask); and the final issue, which has the Suicide Squad Harley telling the Joker in a possible hallucination that she is through with him and that she is not evil anymore. It all comes full circle, and she is as important to people as ever. The journey has been difficult, but it is a feminist triumph.
'Harley Quinn: A Celebration of 25 Years' - it truly celebrates and respects this amazing and complex DC female character. I just love Harley Quinn! Fun and, on the flip side, serious. But mostly fun, if a bit too gory and edgelord-y in the later, modern issues.
A strong recommendation for old and new Harley Quinn fans alike.
Final Score: 4/5
They definitely included the better stories about - and featuring - Harley Quinn in this fine collection; in, appropriately enough, chronological order (up until 2017). Some of them I'd already read before, but others I am glad to have come across. I am happy to see a lot of Harley Quinn stories where she is partnered with Poison Ivy, who is her true soulmate, and later on where she is free and independent of the Joker.
Highlights include Harley teaming up with Batgirl to save Poison Ivy; Harley outmanoeuvring the Joker and Batman in a battle of wits; not one but two Martha Stewart references in the whole thing; Harley and Ivy teaming up to sabotage a Joker-esque theme park and roller coaster without the Joker interfering; Harley teaming up with Wonder Woman in London in the most bizarre of circumstances (where they switch costumes, don't ask); and the final issue, which has the Suicide Squad Harley telling the Joker in a possible hallucination that she is through with him and that she is not evil anymore. It all comes full circle, and she is as important to people as ever. The journey has been difficult, but it is a feminist triumph.
'Harley Quinn: A Celebration of 25 Years' - it truly celebrates and respects this amazing and complex DC female character. I just love Harley Quinn! Fun and, on the flip side, serious. But mostly fun, if a bit too gory and edgelord-y in the later, modern issues.
A strong recommendation for old and new Harley Quinn fans alike.
Final Score: 4/5
Graphic Novel Review - 'Birds of Prey: Murder and Mystery (Birds of Prey (1999))' by Gail Simone (Writer), Ed Benes (Artist), Cliff Richards (Artist), Michael Golden (Artist), Various
Thankfully, this is much better than I thought it would be.
'Birds of Prey: Murder and Mystery' - combining the original comic volumes 'Of Like Minds' and 'Sensei and Student' - is one of the few 'Birds of Prey' titles I've come to like. Which is quite a relief for me as I'm a huge fan of female-led superhero teams, and I'd hate to be disappointed by one of the popular examples. This is 'Birds of Prey' in its original, back to the basics, classic DC line, as penned by the ever-awesome Gail Simone.
This big volume is clever, intriguing, sharp, snappy, funny, and full of badass, kick-ass and boss-ass women. I can see what some people mean when they call it well-written cheesecake. Because, while the writing and female character development and interactions are excellent (you can definitely tell it was written by a woman), the artwork just can't resist emphasising female crotch shots, big breasts, cleavages, and arses (with thongs riding right up the crack) from time to time. In almost ten years of reading comics, I can't believe I only now noticed how often women are drawn from behind with snake-like spines, with their arses sticking out in very unnatural and uncomfortable-looking poses. Like, do some straight male artists think that women don't simply stand up, but bend slightly but not all the way so it looks like they can't quite commit to pole dancing?
Note on the trade cover: images are obviously traced over something else and photoshopped into limited space; why is Huntress surfboarding a keyboard? What is Black Canary looking at? And why is Oracle wearing sunglasses when she doesn't at any point in the actual comic?
If you can ignore instances of typical male-gazey and sexist comic book art autonomy, then you'll find that the characterisation more than makes up for that. I've come to appreciate Dinah Lance a lot more now, when she's this well written and three dimensional (and far less male dependent). Never mind about the fishnet stockings. She's one of the best martial artists and endurance champions in the world; she doesn't always need to use her canary cry to beat bad guys. She's tough but friendly and compassionate, like the super intelligent Barbara Gordon as Oracle. Barbara is as amazing as ever, as a tech genius, a world class hacker, and a deductive detective who can rival Batman (you also find out here that she likes teddy bears! Aww!). The crossbow-wielding Huntress has her moments of vigilante coolness as well. The violent, violet Italian former mob boss's daughter is shown to have less of a civilian identity than the other two, though; her nighttime caped escapades are her life.
It's not always easy for these women to be friends, for many different reasons, but they can depend on each other, and support one another. They make a wonderful team.
Other awesome female characters include Shiva, Cheshire, Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, Catwoman, Katana, Gypsy (these latter four are cameos, really), and Dinah's mother, the original Black Canary, who is shown in a flashback issue when Dinah is uncovering a mystery (there are a load of those lying and filing around). Good, bad, morally grey: all kinds of strong and utterly human women are featured and are empowered in this comic. Regardless of whose side they are on, they help to take down rich, privileged old white men in positions of power who have gotten away with murder and sexual assault and scandals for decades. That is always gratifying to see.
A downside to 'Murder and Mystery' is that there is a lot going on in it that you need to pay close attention to - it's complex and intricate, not all of it brainless cheesecake. I won't reveal the plot(s) here because I don't wish to spoil anything, and also because it would be fairly difficult to describe what happens in a few short sentences. Two male villains in the comic are gay, or at least one of them is(?), but they are given depth and are fleshed out; they don't exist for one story.
It is so good to be able to finally read an old 'Birds of Prey' comic by Gail Simone and see what the fuss has been about. This trade paperback isn't that expensive, at any rate. Smart, dark and writhing with twists and turns, and women overcoming the corrupt, toxic and deadly mess that is the patriarchy. I recommend it.
Superheroine and antiheroine power!
Final Score: 3.5/5
'Birds of Prey: Murder and Mystery' - combining the original comic volumes 'Of Like Minds' and 'Sensei and Student' - is one of the few 'Birds of Prey' titles I've come to like. Which is quite a relief for me as I'm a huge fan of female-led superhero teams, and I'd hate to be disappointed by one of the popular examples. This is 'Birds of Prey' in its original, back to the basics, classic DC line, as penned by the ever-awesome Gail Simone.
This big volume is clever, intriguing, sharp, snappy, funny, and full of badass, kick-ass and boss-ass women. I can see what some people mean when they call it well-written cheesecake. Because, while the writing and female character development and interactions are excellent (you can definitely tell it was written by a woman), the artwork just can't resist emphasising female crotch shots, big breasts, cleavages, and arses (with thongs riding right up the crack) from time to time. In almost ten years of reading comics, I can't believe I only now noticed how often women are drawn from behind with snake-like spines, with their arses sticking out in very unnatural and uncomfortable-looking poses. Like, do some straight male artists think that women don't simply stand up, but bend slightly but not all the way so it looks like they can't quite commit to pole dancing?
Note on the trade cover: images are obviously traced over something else and photoshopped into limited space; why is Huntress surfboarding a keyboard? What is Black Canary looking at? And why is Oracle wearing sunglasses when she doesn't at any point in the actual comic?
If you can ignore instances of typical male-gazey and sexist comic book art autonomy, then you'll find that the characterisation more than makes up for that. I've come to appreciate Dinah Lance a lot more now, when she's this well written and three dimensional (and far less male dependent). Never mind about the fishnet stockings. She's one of the best martial artists and endurance champions in the world; she doesn't always need to use her canary cry to beat bad guys. She's tough but friendly and compassionate, like the super intelligent Barbara Gordon as Oracle. Barbara is as amazing as ever, as a tech genius, a world class hacker, and a deductive detective who can rival Batman (you also find out here that she likes teddy bears! Aww!). The crossbow-wielding Huntress has her moments of vigilante coolness as well. The violent, violet Italian former mob boss's daughter is shown to have less of a civilian identity than the other two, though; her nighttime caped escapades are her life.
It's not always easy for these women to be friends, for many different reasons, but they can depend on each other, and support one another. They make a wonderful team.
Other awesome female characters include Shiva, Cheshire, Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, Catwoman, Katana, Gypsy (these latter four are cameos, really), and Dinah's mother, the original Black Canary, who is shown in a flashback issue when Dinah is uncovering a mystery (there are a load of those lying and filing around). Good, bad, morally grey: all kinds of strong and utterly human women are featured and are empowered in this comic. Regardless of whose side they are on, they help to take down rich, privileged old white men in positions of power who have gotten away with murder and sexual assault and scandals for decades. That is always gratifying to see.
A downside to 'Murder and Mystery' is that there is a lot going on in it that you need to pay close attention to - it's complex and intricate, not all of it brainless cheesecake. I won't reveal the plot(s) here because I don't wish to spoil anything, and also because it would be fairly difficult to describe what happens in a few short sentences. Two male villains in the comic are gay, or at least one of them is(?), but they are given depth and are fleshed out; they don't exist for one story.
It is so good to be able to finally read an old 'Birds of Prey' comic by Gail Simone and see what the fuss has been about. This trade paperback isn't that expensive, at any rate. Smart, dark and writhing with twists and turns, and women overcoming the corrupt, toxic and deadly mess that is the patriarchy. I recommend it.
Superheroine and antiheroine power!
Final Score: 3.5/5
Thursday 16 July 2020
Tuesday 14 July 2020
About She-Ra and Other Queer Cartoons and Comics
Interesting article from Fangrrls (by Sabs Cooper):
How She-Ra and Other Nostalgic Faves Reclaimed Queer Pop Culture History
How She-Ra and Other Nostalgic Faves Reclaimed Queer Pop Culture History
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