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§ Comic of the day: Christina “Steenz” Stewart has a powerful comic on race called “Tired.” Please read it and think about how we can do better.

§ Women Write About Comics is launching a print zine and looking for contributions, both print and comics, and there is pay. It’s open to women and non-binary creators. It’s called “Secrets of the Goat People” and who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

§ 2d Cloud is Kickstarting their spring collection including Turning Japanese, Virus Tropical, Someone Please Have Sex With Me, and Trying Not To Notice, all of which have already received some notice, so help them pay for all that printing.

§ Tom Spurgeon reruns an interview with the late Genevieve Castree.

§ The Blerd Girl has a measured take on the whole Riri/Iron Man controversy, pointing out that while it’s good that Marvel is introducing and promoting a new black teen girl character, there are other troubling issues:

Why does a black man always die or get maimed near the beginning of a Marvel Civil War? In the original Civil War comic it was Goliath (Bill Foster) and this time it’s War Machine (James “Rhodey” Rhodes) in CWII, and even in the MCU Rhodey’s paralyzed. Why was Riri the choice for the “new” Iron Man as opposed to Misty Knight, whose arm was personally created for her by Stark? Or even Rhodes’ genius niece Lila, (I’m referring to the Earth-616 version) who helped maintain Rhodey’s War Machine armor? Clearly she would know something about how the suit works, right?

Why does Marvel keep “re-skinning” original characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and Thor? Why not just make new ones? Or at least bring back old ones (Isaiah Bradley, Josiah X or the Patriot?) And how come Riri won’t be called Iron Maiden, or Iron Girl or even Iron Woman (Earth-3490) like Natasha Stark was?


Marvel’s recent “re-skinning” trend is indeed notable. It’s a fact that the market is more resistant to new characters than new people with the same name – a superhero tradition that goes back to the Golden Age to be fair – so that’s an obvious reason.

§ Deb Aoki rounds up the most recent Anime Expo, which drew over 100,000:

While most North American comics publishers are preparing for July’s San Diego Comic-Con, manga publishers are increasingly putting their focus on Anime Expo, an annual megafest of anime, manga, and other Japanese pop culture content, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center over the July 4 weekend. Attendance at this year’s show hit 100,420, a 10% increase over the 90,500 fans that attended last year. Show officials called it “the biggest year ever for Anime Expo.” The exhibit hall offered 40% more floor space than previous years, and this year’s show featured more than 100 guest artists and on-site performers. Fans attending Anime Expo are noticeably younger (teens to 20s) than the average Comic-Con attendee, who tends to be in their 20’s to 40’s. The exhibit floor is also dominated by companies from Japan, or companies that focus on content imported or licensed from Japan.

§ Every week as I look for links for a Monday there are inevitably a report a two about some local con. I treasure these stories because they hel put the supercons in perspective. To wit, here’s a story out of Youngstown, OH called In awe of All AmeriCon, which reports that the show drew HUNDREDS:

The eight-hour gathering featured an estimated 80 tables and 50 local and regional vendors, including artists, illustrators and designers, noted Greg Bartholomew, event organizer. An estimated 1,700 came to last year’s event, and 2.000 were expected this year, said Bartholomew, who noted that beginning next year, the show will take place at the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown. Adding to the excitement for many was an appearance by James O’Barr, a graphic artist perhaps best known for having created the comic-book series “The Crow.”

§ Christian Hoffer and Steve Morris have teamed up for a series that looks at the great controversies of comics, and they’re kicking it off with a big one:

And so to deal with the greatest controversies to ever hit the printed page, we’ve formally set up a Comic Book Court to finally reach a definitive verdict on the cases you’ve always wanted closure for. Each court session will see Christian Hoffer take on a case against Steve Morris, as they go back and forth over some of the biggest issues in the history of comics. Also…some silly ones.

With that in mind…

Will You Please All Rise for: Wolverine vs. Resurrection AKA “The Case for Wolverine Staying Dead Forever”

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§ Tarzan is the most colonialist and racist of characters, although his more woke new version seems to have had some success with modern audiences. He also has a loooong history of vine swinging in comics and Tom Speelman takes a look.

1 COMMENT

  1. “Why does Marvel keep “re-skinning” original characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and Thor? Why not just make new ones?”

    Because Marvel has a really, really poor history when it comes to how they compensate and treat people who create characters for them. If you have a great character, a creator is likely to see way more money from it if they publish it through Image.

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