Believe it or not we’ve been putting together some kibbles and bits all week but never had time to post them with all the other craziness going on. So here’s your ULTIMATE LINK DUMP for the week of June 4-10

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First off, condolences to the cartoonist Seth on the death of his father; we shuld all be worthy of such a memorial:

Dad was of another time. He didn’t fit well into this culture. To his dying day he thought of Pizza as foreign food! (“Give me some Cod and boiled potatoes and I’ll be happy.”) God knows, the world certainly changed in every way during his lifetime but somehow he stayed pretty much the same throughout it all. I know that harsh upbringing during the great depression on Prince Edward Island shaped him in every important way and though he lived much of his life away from the Island he never really left it. He couldn’t leave it behind. It was in his every conversation. He was an Islander and when he retired he returned there to live out the last 25 years of his life.


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Dept. of Batgirl:

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Jill Pantozzi has a very moving piece on how losing a disabled role model in Oracle is personally devastating to her.

I’m not telling you all this to get your sympathy or pity. That’s truly the last thing I want. This is my life, it always has been, I don’t know anything else. I don’t know what it’s like to walk up a flight of stairs un-aided or get up off of the floor after falling. This is my reality and I have adapted over the years to do the best I can. I’m giving you this background, firstly for awareness but also so you know how deeply the news of Barbara Gordon no longer being Oracle affects me personally. Oracle is my symbol. Just like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are symbols for many others. Hell, Superman became a symbol for some of the disabled community when actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed. But Superman isn’t disabled. Superman can fly, run and jump better than any person ever could. And that will always be the case.


There’s been much talk on the subject around the blogosphere, but Pantozzi and Gail Simone wrap it up with this dialog:

But beyond that, there are so many stories that can be told with Barbara that are hard to tell with other characters, even great other characters. Her connection to the Bat-family is immediate and direct. Her skills, which have been used in a lofty tower for a quarter of a century, once again will be used in the field, right where the action is. She’s going to be using that eidetic memory while dodging bullets and acid-squirting flowers. She’s been removed from the action and danger for a long time. With this relaunch, she is still very much Barbara, but she can reclaim a part of her history and legacy with modern stories, in her own book and elsewhere, drawn by some wonderful artists. The DCU in September is going to be about exploration for a while, and it seems remarkable, but this is the first time in DC history that Barbara Gordon has had an ongoing solo book.


See also THE GUTTERS

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§ It was also the week that Batman wore culottes.

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MOVING ON: Comics have been sighted at Barnes & Nobles around the nation. Todd Allen also found Marvel bagged comics, and in his spare time he asked Is Kickstarter the #3 U.S. Indie Graphic Novel Publisher?

Where would Kickstarter fall in terms of content production when compared to the independent publishers of the Direct Market? Not that high up for single issue projects, but higher than you might think for books.

§ We had not previously inked to the Inkwell Award winners.

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§ In happier Seth news, he designed the logos for some roller derby teams!!

§ Dept. of Green Lantern: Meanwhile, Geoff Johns is still in the thick of the Green Lantern movie:

…[T]he world’s sexiest man alive (according to PeopleRyan Reynolds admitted it was a “little nerve racking” at first, but had faith that things would stay true to form for the original fans. However, co-star Blake Lively credited that to a specific person.

“We were also lucky because we had Geoff Johns who is the god of Green Lantern for the past five years now at DC [Comics],” the actress stated. “He was there on our set making sure we were doing the comic justice.”

While Ryan jokingly referred to Geoff as the “authenticity police,” other stars like Peter Sarsgaard and Mark Strong made quips regarding Ryan’s diet for the role, something that still remains a mystery to this day.

Manga Korner: § Molly McIsaac with Classic Manga YOU Should Read, Part 2

§ The history CLAMP in America has been officially cancelled.

AND § Great interview with the great Joe Sacco.

5 COMMENTS

  1. With all due respect the cartoonist Seth passed away several years ago! The linked article refers to the late cartoonist John Henry Gallant and his son Seth….

  2. The discussion with Gail was pretty interesting and revealing. And it puts a big, fat “Period” at the end of the whole Batgirl/Oracle discussion. I think all those who were hating on Gail and calling her an “ableist sellout” should feel very foolish right about now.

  3. Still not happy about the Not-Oracle thing. Not that I will necessarily hate whatever incarnation they dream up, but dammit, Oracle at her best was something unique and special in the superhero community.

    Not only in personality, but in the way she operated, the work she created for herself, and the self-made authority she carried within the entire heroing community. Even Superman would think twice about crossing Oracle – and that’s a hell of a thing for a disabled woman with no superpowers of any kind.

    As Batgirl, I hope and imagine her personality and innate ability will remain, but will the uniqueness? The authority? Somehow, I have trouble imagining the JLA depending on the help of Batgirl – or paying particular attention to her advice, however good. It would be wonderful if they did, but that’s not really the way things tend to work in comics.

    I just don’t see how this incarnation will be filling a niche any different from that of every other vigilante who kicks people in the head and isn’t Batman. Don’t we already have an awful lot of those? It seems like a waste of the tremendous force and potential that is Barbara Gordon.

    I get that a plain vanilla wheelchair seems a ridiculous fate in a universe full of superheroes, but couldn’t she have walked again using an exoskeleton or something and still remained Oracle?

  4. @Kate,

    Won’t it fill the same niche as that of Millers Batgirl? And isn’t that like saying “What niche can any hero fill when we’ve already got Superman?”.

    I don’t get why doing a couple years or so of “year one” batgirl stories and return to Oracle down the road (something that Simone, in that article, clearly doesn’t rule out) is so horrible a thing. They’ve done that with just about every single hero in DC and Marvel.

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