Ugh, I reek of makeup.

1. I was too sick to get out of bed on Sunday, so I finally took Joe's advice and marathoned the entirety of Venture Brothers, which is a super fantastic cartoon that I liked a lot more than I thought I would after seeing the first episode. Although I don't see why I wouldn't like it considering it was full of GEEK HUMOUR and, uh. Geek Humour. ♥ Also, interesting characters and *seriously* strong continuity. I was impressed by the show's sense of continuity.

2.








Leslie said: "Jenn, you should buy that shirt."
and I said: "Well, I dunno. Although, that does look a little like Neal Adams art. It could also be-" *puts hand over mouth* "Oh, you're right. I should."

- so I did. Because she's a dumb enabling enabler who enables with her enabling. BITCHES, IT'S HAL JORDAN!!!! I SHOULD SAVE FUCKING MONEY FOR OTAKON.



3. Speaking of superheros, this is a meme that's been going around with female comic bloggers recently, in response to the proverbial: "WELL, WHY DO YOU GIRLS EVEN READ COMICS IN THE FIRST PLACE!?" question.

My answers are all pretty dumb because apparently I have no feminist agenda when it comes to four-color reading material.

50 Things I Love About Comics



1. Physically owning them. I just love the feeling of sorting through a pile of 50 polybagged comics and organizing them obsessively and then putting them into the longbox/shortbox/shoebox. And reading them of course. XD

2. Second hand comic bins. I've found some of the best comics I've read in my life in the 25 cent bin (that's how I discovered the Green Arrow!).

3. Nightwing's original costume.

4. Nazi dinosaurs.

5. Reading comics that were written before I was born. Seeing the ways in which they were progressive, and the ways in which they were influenced by their time.

6. Reading current comics. That feeling you get by being surprised/outraged/happy ect. by something that *just* happened, and then having an entire community that you can talk to about it.

7. The advertisments in comics 25+ years old.

8. Magneto.

9. The look I got in the comic shop when I said the recent Teen Titans/WWIII stuff pissed me off because of SLADE'S characterization, not Cass'. Which was the requisite: "A GIRL likes Deathstroke!?!?"

10. The friends I made in University thanks to comics.

11. There's just SO MUCH of it. It's canon that never ends. Once I exhaust one thing/series/character, there's always something else to be interested in that's at least linked in some way to the last thing I adored.

12. The good art. Because, obviously, it's good.

13. The bad art. Because it's hilarious.

14. The 80's. Everything in comics rocked in the 80's. JLI, Green Arrow, X-Men!!!, Watchmen, the only Avengers line up I give a shit about, so many of the best Batman stories...

15. Unintentional homoerotic subtext from the 50's.

16. Batman and Superman's burgeoning, decade spanning love affair.

17. When aliens have to fill out immigration forms.

18. The entirety of Knuckles solo series (well, maybe not the last three issues).

19. The fact that a homosexual relationship between a French Ape and a disembodied brain is one of the healthiest romances in either DC or Marvel.

20. Oliver Queen's tendancy to invoke Godwin's Law.

21. Green Lantern oaths. Here's my favorite:
'Over the shoulder
Through the wrist
Watch out evil
Here comes my fist'

22. Watchmen.

23. The Age of Apocalypse. The fact that it was allowed to happen, and the fact that it was so good.

24. All the early-mid 90's Superhero cartoons. X-Men and Batman especially, but I also love the Spiderman, Silver Surfer and Iron Man cartoons.

25. The Adventures of Lois & Clark. That show kicks Smallville's ass anyday.

26. Meta humour when done correctly, as in Young Justice or that JLI strip with Guy, the DC editorial staff and the giant, purple dinosaur with no good character motivations. Or self aware meta done well in general, ala Morrison on Animal Man.

27. Oh, heck. Guy Gardner. The fact that he EXISTS. The fact that he's irrationally popular. The fact that he's actually a complicated character. The fact that he has sympathetic depth, but he's still enough of an ASSHOLE that I wince while reading him as much as I'm heartwarmed.

28. Also, Guy Gardner's bowlcut.

29. Booster Gold saved the Universe with football. Or rather, I love it when the crappy heroes end up being the biggest heroes of all. ♥

30. Galactus is a giant man with a large, pink hat who floats around in space and eats planets like we'd eat grapefruit. In comics, this is a perfectly viable and logical happenstance. That's why comics are magical. And the second FF movie is not.

31. Robins. All of them. For that matter, Teen Sidekicks. Y'know, I even love BUCKY, and I'm no fan of the Cap.

32. Monologuing, especially by Doctor Doom.

33. John Constatine.

34. A sense of legacy. Sidekicks, inheriting the hero title from someone else, different incarnations of the same team. Passing the torch in the Justice League, for example, or characters you can remember being "newbies" in the X-Men becoming team leaders and teachers. I eat that kind of stuff up.

35. "Funny" books. Young Justice, JLI, Gen X, Excalibur certain arcs of 'Doom Patrol', even parts of J'onn's old book. Like, even when a serious book takes one or two issues off to be complete parody- I love that.

36. "What if?"s.

37. Alfred.

38. Guy's bar, 'Warrior's'. Sure, he's not running it anymore considering he's too busy off, y'know, being in the Lantern honor guard and teaching new recruits and such. BUT. Seriously, a superhero bar? Run by a known superhero? Who's patrons aren't always superpowered, but often are? It was such a great concept and helped with that lovely sense of interconnection the DCU has. I'd like to see more things like that in both DC and Marvel.

39. *GOOD* revival stories. Characters coming back from the dead is full of eyeroll-making, granted, but when it's done really well I find it can be just as moving as a good death.

40. Civilian characters who hang around Superheros. I mean, like, ones who are fully aware of their identity and stuff. Like Max and Sue with the 80's Justice Leagues doin' there managorial and clerical work. Or even really involved civilian love interests like Mary Jane. Okay, especially Mary Jane. Mary Jane is awesome.

41. Dimension hopping. Like, y'know, Exiles ♥. I'm not just excited about Booster's upcoming series because I love the guy.

42. The feeling you get from space that it's so large and lonely and mysterious and full of strange and crazy things and yet, at the same time, right in your backyard (both DC and Marvel capture this perfectly, albeit I'll admit DC's space is much frendlier. I prefer neither, but will enjoy one more depending on my mood).

43. Comics can be smart, and they can also be dumb, but they can do these in turn and be fun either way.

44. The potrayal of Canada in Byrne's old Alpha Flight run. And, YEAH, the fact that the most popular X-Man (and one of the most popular comic book characters of all time) is from the Great White North.

45. "Because Superboy punched time!" "A Skrull did it!" I hate the reasons these excuses are used, but I love making them. XDDD

46. Barbara Gordon and Ted Kord are BOTH smarter than Batman.

47. Chris Claremont's giant, little boy crush on Storm.

48. The way any given superhero origin sounds really stupid when you say it out loud, but so many stories are written well enough that you can take it seriously when you're reading.

49. That time Tony Stark's Iron Man Suit became sentient and was all like: "YOU'VE BEEN INSIDE ME. NOW, I MUST BE INSIDE YOU."

50. Elf orgies. I mean, ElfQuest. Which, consequently, involves elf orgies.



4. It's not done, but what do you guys think of the new busking site? It's not nearly as nice to look at as the old one, but Lici informed me that people had trouble navigating the original layout. :P

We're totally on the official site now, except that they cut me out of the picture. D: I'd like to know why the official site is so clunky and ugly this year, considering how nice it was the past few festivals.