More from G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS)

Image via Wikipedia

I stopped reading blogs on ‘mainstream’ N.A. comics because each time I did I felt angry and depressed.  But once in a while, I still run into these girls-drool-boys-rule news items.

A new post on Comics Worth Reading is about gender targeted contests and articles.  The L. A. Times article “Girls’ Guide to Comic Con 2009” caught my attention.

Charlie Jane Anders rips it apart, and the final line made me laugh.

Thom Zahler is so incensed that he’s giving away free comics.

Anyhow back to the article.  It was meant, I think, to convey that not only does Comic Con permit females to attend but they might find one or two events enjoyable.

I pointed out on CWR that the second sentence reads, “And it’s not all just about the influx of squealing “Twilight” girls, either.”  Well, and good.  Nothing like alienating fans of a popular author like Meyer.  But the best part is that the article points out that werewolves are hot; vampires are hot; guys in mecha suits are hot; vampires are hot; reptilian aliens are hot.  It’s not that I disagree, far from it.  My question is why the digs at paranormal romance fans and then direct your comments to that audience.

At long last, I’m a fan of Dollhouse.  However, it’s a little off-putting to find an Active/Doll referred to as butt-kicking. Sure she is, just like Pinocchio. It’s also painfully amusing to read that Echo is “airheady” not that she is drugged and that her mind is constantly wiped.

And the only interest any woman could have in Whiteout and Inglourious Basterds is their hot male actors.

Yar.

10 Good Manga Blogs

Way too many blogs on manga out there.  You can’t read them all.  Really, you can’t.

Here are a few good ones I’m reading right now.

Comics Worth Reading.  Been checking this one most days for a couple of years.  Solid reviews and a lot of variety: webcomics, manga, independents, animation, anime.  Here is the manga only link.  She really likes Tramps Like Us.

Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page.   I enjoy her reviews so much that I try to save them up for a week so I can read several in a row.  Most of the manga she reviews is not licensed in English but I enjoy learning reading about them.

Slightly Biased Manga.  Good reviews.  Perversely, I enjoy that her blog is so stripped down, she doesn’t even show covers.  She’s pretty forthright about her opinions which I also like.

Precocious Curmudgeon.  Recently started reading this blog regularly.  Lots of news and reviews.  I feel reassured by his posts because they seem so carefully selected from the great mass of information available.

Sporadic Sequential.  A more off-the-cuff type of blog.  He’s a very engaging writer.  Started reading him lately too.  He likes St. Frog and Bleach – he has a more shonen bent than I do and great sense of humor.

Warren Peace.  Used to  review Shojo Beat issues.  When it existed.  He reads a lot of USA comics too.

Deb’s Manga Blog.  Pleasant reading for mainstream manga in the USA.

These are good too but I haven’t been reading them lately.

MangaLife.  Reviews manga.  Also has interesting articles on translation.

MangaBlog.  Links to reviews and news all over.  Good resource but can be overwhelming.

Kuriosity.  Another nice blog with good reviews.

8 Firefox Extensions

I enjoy reading people’s lists of helpful firefox add-ons. Here are some that I have found useful.

1) Colorful Tabs. Makes your tabs different colors. Can assign colors to certain sites.
Pro:  It’s attractive. Plain tabs look too bare to me now.
Con:  I  don’t know how useful this one is.
Firefox add-on.

2) Cooliris. image search  & display that is very fluid.  Saves or emails images.
Pro: Pretty, pretty.  Quick and easy way to browse through bunches of images.  Don’t have to download every image you see that you like.
Con:  Sometimes it won’t load, can be triggered just by mousing over an image.  I’d like to choose the color and size of the returns.
Firefox add-on.

3) Dictionary.  Looks up words in a new window.  I prefer the status bar to the right click but both work well.
Pro:  Easy to use.
Con:  Be nice to have a thesaurus too.
Firefox add-on.

4) Reminder Fox. Dates and to do list in popup or alarm box.
Pro:  It’s simple.  I use it for bills and library books, mostly.
Con: Can’t think of any.
Firefox add-on.

5) Scrapbook.  Saves text & images from websites and emails. Adds notes, highlights.  I haven’t even really figured out all the stuff it can do.
Pro: It’s the best clipping tool I’ve found. I adore it and use it constantly.
Con: You can’t access it online.
Firefox add-on.

6) Scribefire.  blog editor.
Pro: Very helpful for link blogging, adds links, images, Youtube videos.  I like that it will save your post as a draft.
Con:  Sometimes awkward moving from one function to another.
Firefox add-on.

7) Share Video.  Posts videos to your blog.
Pro:  Works with almost any video you see. Very easy to use.
Con: Manipulating the videos in your collection is awkward.
Firefox add-on.

8 ) Zemanta.  Contextual  blogging.  Can pull up images, other posts, and  references from Wikipedia and other places.  It also suggests tags which is useful.  I like how it chooses which blogs, etc that it searches for relevant posts.
Pro: Helpful in finding links that fit your topics.
Con: The post suggestions can be way off target.
Firefox add-on.

linkblogging Romance Novels 1

Image via Wikipedia

Since the fall of 2007, I’ve had a Google alert going for romance novels.  I was inspired by Robert Langford’s Ansible newsletter.  He often features a section named, ‘as others see us’ (example).

I thought that if science fiction and fantasy is denigrated by mainstream media then romance novels and their readers will definitely get all kinds of snide remarks.  I set up the Google alert out for “trashy romance” and my email overflowed with a bunch of nasty and repetitive comments from across the Internet.  Good thing I didn’t try “bodice ripper”.

I changed my alert to “romantic fiction” and sifted through the results which were more even handed.  I’m going to start linkblogging some of the more interesting ones.  I may throw in a few of the snide ones if they are witty, ’cause I know none of the complaints against the genre will be original.

These links are old but they still exist and are still pertinent.

How to Write a Trashy Romance. part 1. part 2. part 3.  Has most of the typical charges against romances (readers have no restraint, it’s all about sex, all romances are the same) but it’s very funny.  It’s a pity the author spent so much time blaming authors for the covers and the titles since, as I understand it, they seldom influence either one.

Writing in a new age of romance by Brendan O’Keefe. link.  Pleasant introduction to the genre for the novice.

Alyssa Goodnight ponders the causes behind the ‘trashy romance’ stereotype. link.

The Anchoress is comically dismayed by the gay romance novel. link.

A short biography by Jay Dixon on Georgette Heyer who is best known for her Regency romances and set the standard for later writers.

April Fools Day

Gmail’s Autopilot is pretty funny.

Wired_Women – more on fan fic

I have tried to understand fan fiction by reading Fan Fiction and Fan Communities and other articles and books.  I read an older account of fans when they were first getting online which gave me a really different picture.

By the way, I had a friend read over this post and found that some of the terms I use don’t make sense to a general reader. To correct this, here are a few clarifications.

Media fans: people who adore a TV show or musical group or some other mass media entity.  (Like the Star Trek series.)

Mailing lists:  a conversation by email, about jobs or comic books. When a message is sent to a mailing list, each person who has subscribed gets a copy of it.

Fan fiction:  Fiction written by media fans based on a mass media product without copyright permission.  (Harry Potter is, by far, the most popular)

Mary Sue:  Fan fiction character whose perfection mars the story.  There are a bunch of links about it below.

Slash fiction:  Fan fiction which depicts the romantic relationship of two male characters in a manner not found in the commercial version.  (e.g. Edward and Jacob from the Twilight series as a couple.)

No more furl.net

So, Furl.net the bookmarking site is gone. This distressed me at first since I have about five thousand bookmarks on it. The Furl email suggested migrating to Diigo but they proved to be overwhelmed by new users and couldn’t import my bookmarks.  I’ll check back with Diigo but I want my bookmarks now, so I turned to Delicious.

WordPress offers Delicious as a widget, so I tried them. I’m liking the new system so far, it’s got a bit more flexibility in tagging. I’ve been playing with bundling and cleaning up duplicates and so forth.

Ultimately, I intend to make public worthwhile links to blogs and sites that pertain to comics, romance and fantasy.

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Snow White – links

Link blogging for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Places to Start

Surlalune Fairy Tales -  the annotated Snow White.

An study guide to Snow White – excellent resource for text and images.

Disney’s Snow White

A review of Disney’s Snow White.

A little girl’s love of Disney’s Snow White.

Bill Thompson’s review of Disney’s Snow White.

Movies

A review of Snow White: A Tale of Terror.

Review of Snow White movie starring Kristin Kreuk.

Images

Images of Snow White.

Snow White wallpapers.

photograph of lovely snow white. Like the black gown she’s wearing.

Angela Ma in stage version of Snow White.

Super cute cartoon of Prince and Snow White by Cippow.

Stylish Snow White by YSA.

Contemplative Snow White by Sorceress Myr.

Books

Ron Charles’ review of Gregory Maguire’s Mirror, Mirror.

Jasmine Greene’s review of Bill Willingham’s Fables: Legends in Exile.

General

Contemplation of the dwarves’ qualities in us all.

comics and terms

I was culling my categories and tags the other day, and realized that I had a bunch of different terms for comics. I had comic strip, graphic novels, manga, comic books, cartoon, comix, online comics, webcomics and so on.

Graphic novel and webcomics only refer to their format. Comic strips are too limited I think, especially when referring to online comics. Comix is more of a historical term that makes me think of the underground comics of the past. Comic books inevitably makes me think of super heroes and so it’s too narrow.

I kept manga as a separate term but I think it soon will become a historical term as well. Plus, I’m not going to memorize every single term for comics for every country who publishes them.

What surprises me is that comic strip or variations thereof are the main search terms my blog gets. It seems like an old fashioned, ink on your fingers, phrase. I still plan to use it a lot in my tags.

Planet Karen is burned out of home

Saw this on Lea Hernandez’s twitter.

DivaLea Undamnbelievable: Comicker Karen Ellis, creator of Planet Karen, has been burned out of her apartment.

Poor Karen.

Ellis’ cartoon on the tragedy.