Sociology

Valerie D'Orazio, the president of Friends of Lulu for the last three years, has announced on her blog that due to financial problems, personnel problems, and her own lack of will to keep...

As images of SD10 filter out, the defining one has yet to manifest itself, but in this image of a woman helping her Iron Man-themed friend pee into a bottle, we have a fetish-palooza:...

The biggest sociological story here at SDCC10 on Thursday was definitely the Cosplay counter protest against Westboro Baptist Church's protest. The cosplayers outnumbered the con protesters -- who had come for the health care...

As always, CCI:SD promotes diversity with programming and events covering the LGBT side of comics. This year there will be special guests, parties, panels, and more. Highlights include appearances by Howard Cruse and the sixth annual "Heroes vs Villains" party. Stop by the PRISM Comics booth for more information.

§ Why is this totally AWESOME quote by Dan DiDio not getting the attention it deserves??? The pants are really intentional for the actual story itself, again § JMS notes an odd dichotomy: ...

We've mentioned book bloggers a few times lately, and contrasted their peaceful, herbivore ways with the violent, predatory jungle of comics blogging. Now here's a VERY direct comparison -- and also some interesting market research type stuff -- via the Graphic Novels Challenge. This is a blogging program in which book bloggers try to read a bunch of graphic novels in a given period -- one of a series of similar challenge for memoirs, history books or whatever. Most of the bloggers are not trained-from-birth comics experts and heir comments are illuminating. The list is also high on "litereary" and young adult comics -- not very much Marvel or DC. They also check books to read out of the library, so they are not "Wednesday" Crowd" much.

It's time for pissed off readers to put their money where their mouth is.

As regular readers of this site and other comics sites know, the DCU has been taking a lot of lumps for perceived insensitivity in handling the death of various minority characters, and they haven't had too many opportunities to set the record straight. However, a big interview with co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee conducted by Fearless Kiel Phegley has been quoted widely:

Okay, we've restocked our load of piss and vinegar and we've loaded our shotgun for bear! UNTIL WE TELL IT, WE JUST CAN"T MOVE ON! My first "Complaints" post drew a bit of private praise, especially from those who welcomed a return to more pointed commentary. To which I say, I'd love to do more of it but I was literally up until dawn writing that first one (I'm ssslllooowww) and this one will take just as long. Especially since this time I"m taking on everyone's FAVORITE SUBJECTS: Race and gender. It's a good thing comics never talk about religion or we'd be here all night and day! And if I can predict one thing with dead certainty it's this: Gene PHillips will show up in the comments.

The Last Airbender movie gained controversy for casting white actors in the roles associated with Asian characters in the cartoon original. Many folks are boycotting it because of this, including cartoonist Gene Luen Yang.

Dear lord, what is coming out of this woman's vajayjay? People, dogs, monster claws, golden light, frayed denim. This one has it all. The cover to Image's new NANCY IN HELL miniseries by Juan...

By the time the New York Times gets around to spotting a trend, that usually means it's something your grandma loves. IN this case, the recent manga implosion gives this New York Times spotlight on manga something of a more urgent undertone. The story focuses on budget cuts in the Queens library system, where the kids -- of widely diverse ethnicities -- have embraced the manga: