Fear of Blogging Joins the Fashion Police

On Thanksgiving night Steve and I went to see the last Twilight movie after gorging on turkey (it’s either sleep or go to the movies, right?) and while watching a long fight scene (Don’t worry, I won’t give anything away) where the vampires, good and bad, use their special powers, I thought: This is like a superhero movie, except I really like it, and I HATE superheroes. So how come? I decided two reasons: one, the men and women in Twilight, while of course impossibly gorgeous (Because they’re supposed to be vampires, and also because, let’s face it, they’re actors) have great bodies, NOT impossibly overly muscled in the case of the men, nor do the women have enormous breasts. The other reason is, I love their clothes! Apparently when you become a vampire you develope great taste in clothes and you start dressing in velvets and soft suedes, exquisitely fluffy furs (and of course, the werewolves ARE exquisitely fluffy furs!), long fringe, soft boots, as opposed to the superheroes who wear hideously colored (poison green, royal blue!) stretch outfits that look like leisure clothing from Walmart’s, or in the case of the women, hooker outfits. How come in comics, when women get superpowers, they immediately want to dress like sluts?

If there really were a Fashion Police, I would be Commissioner.

And speaking of fashion, this wonderful handbag is designed and made by Carl Linich.  Carl designs comic book clothing and furniture, all of which you MUST check out on his ETSY shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ToonedUp  When you see me at conventions, I’ll be carrying that handbag. 

I’m thrilled to get an advance peek at the gorgeous cover of my soon-to-be-published graphic novel, “A Match Made in Heaven,” #8 in the series, “My Boyfriend is a Monster.”  The graphic novel series, each written and drawn by different writers and artists, covers vampire boyfriends, zombie boyfriends, Frankenstein monster boyfriends – you get the picture – and as you can see from the cover (so I’m not giving anything away!), my heroine’s boyfriend is an angel.  I love this book, it’s the most romantic story I’ve ever written, and it’s gorgeously illustrated by two young women in Spain, who collectively call themselves Xian Nu Studio.  Look for it in 2013! 

And speaking of collectives, 2012 marks the 40^th anniversary of the Wimmen’s Comix Collective.  In 1972 ten San Francisco Bay Area women cartoonists met at the home of Patti Moodian to create the first (and still the longest-lived) ongoing anthology of comics by women.  At the time, you could count the women drawing comics on one hand and still have lots of fingers left over.  Wimmen’s Comix lasted twenty years and by the time of their last issue, in 1992, there were more women in America drawing comics then ever before, and it was Wimmen’s Comix that started it all.  I’m proud to have been one of the original founding mothers!  We had our reunion on November 10^th, at the opening of the Wimmen’s Comix exhibit at the main branch of the San Francisco public library.

Here’s a photo taken in 1975, of the Wimmen at a gallery showing of our work. 

And here’s the photo of us at the November 10 opening, taken by Paul Mavrides (Thank you, Paul!). 

Here’s where I’ll be VERY SOON:

WONDER WOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF SUPERHEROINES by acclaimed Bay Area filmmaker Kristy Guevara-Flannagan.

From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, WONDERWOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN SUPERHEROINES looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation. Going behind the scenes with Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, comic writers and artists (including a bit of yours truly!), and real-life superheroines such as Gloria Steinem, Kathleen Hanna and others, WONDER WOMEN! offers an enlightening and entertaining counterpoint to the male-dominated superhero genre. Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan lives in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood and teaches at DiabloValleyCollege.

Saturday December 1; silent auction and pre-screening reception with the filmmaker starting at 5pm; screening at 7pm.

$25 Benefit for the Women’s Building in SF / $15 Student/Seniors and Disabled

WonderWomen will be shown at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco’s FortMason, and here’s the link: http://www.celebrationofcraftswomen.org/

Then, on December 5, I’ll be on a panel at the International Museum of Women along with film maker Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, talking about her fabulous film.    Here are the details:

Event Details: Wednesday, December 5. Check-in and wine reception at 5:30pm. Program begins at 6:00pm. RussBuilding, 235 Montgomery Street, 12th floor, San Francisco. Tickets are $5 for IMOW and partner organization members, $10 for non-members. Seating is limited. Please RSVP by December 2, 2012.

And here is the link: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/imow/event/18150/

 

Finally, my only comment on these panels, from a 1971 Batman comic by Frank Robbins (no relation!) is – Bummer!