Thursday, October 05, 2006

A Different Type of Comics

It's funny because I read the feeds from several blogs that focus on comics from a woman's /feminist's perspective (i.e. Written World, When Fangirls ATTACK!, and Pretty, Fizzy Paradise) but since I rarely read the major label comics I usually don't know what they are talking about. I'm interested in hearing about them because comics are related to other sci-fi/fantasy media forms and because I do read comics, just not the usual ones.

To illustrate my lack of knowledge...Although I do know a little background on the X-men, it's not from having read the original comics. As a teen I watched some X-men on Saturday morning cartoons and enjoyed the first two movies in the trilogy. When I need to know more about the backstory and how the movies fit into the original stories I ask Beorn. After an interesting post on Writing as Jo(e) about what super power you would like to have, I decided I better watch the third movie. After reading some discouraging reviews from friendly feminist bloggers I never bothered to watch X-men 3 but after Jo(e)'s teenager suggested that she resembled phoenix it was time to take a look. After sitting through it, I was disgusted not only because of the phoenix storyline, but also the overall gender dynamics of the movie. So of course I had to question Beorn about the original Dark Phoenix storyline to see if the misogyny originated with the movie makers or with the original author. (If I can find a copy I plan to take a look at the comics someday.)

Back to my strange comics reading...

My favorite comic ever: Strangers in Paradise
Other paper comics I've read: (Comics about gaming, it can't get dorkier than that.)
Knights of the Dinner Table
Dork Tower

Online comics I've been reading lately: (Watch out, some have adult content.)
Dykes to Watch Out For
The Devil's Panties
PhD (Piled Higher and Deeper)
and my new fav...
Liliane Bi-Dyke

Anyone else read comics? What are some great underground, woman friendly comics?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Breena...

Here are three anthologies which should give you a nice taste of "thoughtful" alternative comics:

Sexy Chix
anthology of women cartoonists

2006 The Best American Comics
an amazing collection

Flight #1, #2, #3
you can't help but be enchanted by this series of anthologies

Getting rid of my beer gut said...

I guess I'd have to watch it again, because it seems to me that a character who devastatingly lashes out at the men attempting to use her for their own gain doesn't sound so misogynistic to me. But what do I know? I have a y chromosome, which probably keeps me from picking up on this sort of thing.

As for the original Dark Phoenix story arc, it's collected in a trade paperbook that is widely available at your local shop, as well as Barnes and Noble and Borders. I'd be interested in your impressions, especially since the title was edited at the time by a woman.