Superman In:
"How Not To Deal With Your Female Co-Worker"

1. Poor Clark -- he's trying to be tactful. But Wonder Woman feels ganged-up on and patronised. "Edgy" is obviously a code-word for something not appropriate for a DCU comic book (unless it's by Frank Miller).

2. "Oh, so it's a women's lib thing." Well, now Supes's gonna get killed. Dope.


3. It's going to be bad. WW pages Gloria Allred.


(Inspired by this excellent post in Postmodern Barney.)

Dude Vs. Chicks, Round Two (Electric Boogaloo)

Continuing the never-ending saga of whether fanboys are, as a tribe, soft and doughy or hot and awesome, Sean Kleefeld has brought us "Dudes Vs. Chicks Part 2," In which male and female attendees of the San Diego Comic Con are compared to each other.

And apparently the article hoists me a bit on my own (or is that pwn) petard.

Well played, my boy, well played!

But I shall be back with some clever post, don't doubt it!

Dudes Vs. Chicks Part 3! In 3-D!

The Last Real Man In Comics

What interested me far more than Beau Smith's commentary on the pariah-cover-of-the-week "Showcase Presents Batgirl" was his "About Me" blurb:

"My name is Beau Smith. Others have tagged me as 'The Last Real Man In Comics'. That comes from a time when there was nothing but poodle skirt wearin', crybaby , hobbit lovin' liberals and former dope dealin' hippies in comics . I was one of the few if not only men in comics that liked and participated in sports, enjoyed grade B-Action movies and had done time in jail.

"I also did my time introducng other to my fists as my father and his father did. Rumors have it that I was in the first Tough man Contest in West Virginia in the late 1970s. The ones that weren't sanctioned by law and took place in the back alleys and bar rooms of various places of ill manners. My fists were sold for hire in college to girls that were gettin' smacked around by abusive boyfriends. I never wanted to take their money, but they insisted. I rarely turn a damsel in distress down. The longest love affair I've ever had is with cold beer. It began when I was in the 6th grade and continues to this day. Don't look all PC put out by that fact.. .things were different then. It was a time when Jonny Quest, a 14 year old boy , could blast bad guys with a machine gun and no one thought it was wrong."

Perhaps his bio is written a little tongue-in-cheek, but "the longest love affair I've ever had is with a cold beer" will stay with me a little bit today, at least until tonight when I have a cold beer.

Which brings up the topic of "He-Men" working in the comics industry. Larger-than-life individuals that would look comfortable wrestling with the Red Skull on the top of a moving train.

Two that come to mind is Darwyn Cooke & Howard Chaykin. Neal Adams might be a third, though his graying temples and listening him expound on his geological theories gives him more of a professorly aura.

Are they hearkening back to another time when men got up in the morning and caught their own breakfast and spent their leisure time wrestling sharks and fighting one deadly horde or another? Have they been influenced at all by the comics and movies they devoured as a kid, showcasing "men who were men," hard-as-nails heroes that predated the introspective second-guessing of the O'Neil/Lee era of comic book writing?

Beau Smith reflects on the controversy regarding the Batgirl cover,

"Who has time to think of this stuff? Is there some long line to be a victim of society that I’ve missed. Last time I looked there was a difference between being an activist and annoying. On second thought, no there isn’t. Not when it comes to this kind of time wasting stuff in comics."

Further on in the column, he profiles a MySpace hottie, with pictures.

I don't see anything wrong with the hottie photos or his take on the cover or the fact that he refers to liberals as "Hobbit-loving." The whole thing, taken as a package, has a rather cute pseudo-conservative quality about it; maybe not as adorable as Stephen Colbert, but somewhat more palatable than Guy Gardner.

As an aside, I actually clicked on the link for the hottie's MySpace page. It's...apparently not the same girl. BEWARE MYSPACE, PEOPLE!

Also, I am wondering if the "Last Real Woman In Comics" honor has been taken already. Nominees?

Comic Book Guys Can Be Teh Sexy

Sean Kleefeld raised some interesting points in his article "Dudes Vs. Chicks," and I would like to counter with pictures of skinny/well-built comic book professionals who challenge the "Comic Book Guy" stereotype (commentary will follow):


Kleefeld's article raised some interesting issues:

1. Yes, there does seem to be a higher ratio of "skinny/well-built" women in the comic book industry. Why is this? Is it because women are smarter? Or because skinnier, more attractive women tend to get hired more?

2. DOES the "comic book guy" stereotype really hold water in terms of comic book fans? I have no way of knowing this outside a poll, or head count, or something. But I do wonder.

3. As way of a personal example: when I met David the G., I thought he did not fit the stereotypical fanboy profile. I thought he was a hottie, and nearly knocked down another comic fan at the convention to get to him & give him my phone number.

4. As I get to know more fans, I do not see the fanboy stereotype really bourne out in the numbers one would expect based on the way the media/entertainment industry typically portrays them.

5. When I worked with Silver Bullet Comics, one of the projects we discussed was having a "Mr. Fanboy" beauty pageant. Contestants would be judged on hotness and comic book knowledge.

6. It is far more common to see heavy dudes with skinny chicks than heavy chicks with skinny dudes. It's a societal thing. It's a "World According to Jim/King of Queens" thing. The pressure is on women to be teh sexy -- but not just teh sexy, but society's vision of teh sexy. It's ok for men to gain a few pounds and wear one of those cool oversized shirts with the dice on it. I've just gained 15 pounds because I was 15-20 pounds underweight. I've gone from a size 0 to a size 4. This is a healthy step, and it is nice having an ass again. But such a process is accompanied with fear -- fear of not being teh sexy. Why does there seem to be much more skinny women in the comics industry than men? Maybe women try harder because they are afraid of not being teh sexy.

7. I think this post needs more Paul Pope and John Cassaday:
Oh, and here is a picture of David the G.:

Study Finds That Women Like
Looking At Dirty Pictures Too

"Men are more likely to look at a female's face before gazing at other body parts, according to a new study by researchers at Emory University. And when men and women look at pictures of heterosexual sex, women look longer at the photos than men do, according to the study published in the journal Hormones and Behavior."

The basic gist of it is that according to the study, females look more at the male's body to see if he is, as they say, "in the mood." Whereas with wimmins, a cursory look at her form will not so easily reveal this information. Thus, men look longer at a woman's face. Except when she has really big ones, apparently.