I’ve got a couple of articles up at Campus Progress on my fave obsession of all time: Comics. Please check them out and tweet/share/repost widely!
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Webcomics: The New Female Geekdom
Comic books have long been a province of male geekdom. From Frank Miller’s tortured noir heroes to R. Crumb’s psychedelic underground scribblings, the canonical writers, artists, and producers of American comics have historically been men.
…Though comics have been published online since the mid-1980s using early subscription services such as CompuServe, in the last five or six years the number of female webcomic producers has grown exponentially. Artists are no longer limited by syndicates, newspapers’ editorial pages, or the boys club typically associated with comics. With the Internet, artists can convey an image how they want to, using any idea, for as long as they need to tell the story.
The new Spider-Woman is a secret agent, alien hunter, member of the New Avengers, and is the title character of Marvel’s first foray into Motion Comics. Today’s Batwoman, a lesbian of Jewish descent, has taken over for the now-deceased Bruce Wayne and is leading a 12-issue run in DC’s longest running title, Detective Comics. …
In many ways, heroines have mirrored the feminist movement and are excellent artifacts of popular opinion. Recent industry developments are encouraging because they mirror a new wave of women—and also tell a powerful story about the impact that online activism and community-building can have upon entrenched industries.
This is probably the best street art I’ve seen in a while. I wish I could pair it with a circa 1997 midi file of “Man on the Run,” but alas, the internet has not been so kind to me today. Oh well.
Grace Jones, I love you so bad.