Welcome back to News & Things! Today we have the Winter Soldier trailer, bisexual Loki, 25 reasons to love genre fiction, and much more!
Read of the Week
25 Reasons I Fucking Love Genre Fiction
Read the full transcript of a speech that screenwriter, novelist and game designer Chuck Wendig gave GenreCon in Brisbane Australia. This is a love letter, pure and simple:
6. IT TAKES US AWAY FROM OUR ORDINARY LIVES
Genre fiction lets us buy the ticket and take a ride away from our own lives. Hey, listen, sometimes? Life will punch you right in the Chicken Twisties — it’ll kick you square in the Tim-Tams. See? Local references, Australia! Now I am one of you! Ahem. What was I saying? Ah, yes. Jobs and laundry and paying bills and commuting to work and all the mundane rigors of an average life can be mitigated by opening the magical mystery box that is a book of genre fiction.
7. WHAT I MEAN IS, IT AIN’T LITERARY FICTION
Oh, I’m not knocking literary fiction — stories across the whole range of human experience have value. But sometimes you want to read fewer books about intellectual ennui and MORE books about SEXY STEAMPUNK WOMBATS.
8. BUT IT CAN DAMN SURE BE AS LITERARY AS WE WANT IT TO BE
Uh, hello, China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Connie Willis? Genre fiction can bring the literary cred. Our work can resonate with powerful themes, with lyricism and rhythm, with complex characters, and have just as much Narcissistic navel-gazing as those other guys, goddamnit.
News
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Trailer Online
Cap! Black Widow! Falcon! And…Robert Redford? Okay, now go watch.
Agent of Asgard’s Loki to be Bisexual, “Shift Between Genders”
Loki: Agent of Asgard won’t hit shelves until February, but writer Al Ewing has revealed on Tumblr that his portrayal of Loki “is bi and I’ll be touching on that. He’ll shift between genders occasionally as well.”
Lea Hernandez’s Webcomic Bani Garu on Boing Boing
Hernandez’s new series is an autobiographical comic about her time as vice-president of General Products USA, the American merchandising arm of Japanese anime studio GAINAX, and the people who “took [Hernandez] on a year-long trip down a rabbit hole of reality.”
The Ultimate Guide to Evil Cats in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Looking for any evil cat stories for Halloween? io9 has you covered, from Dex-Starr to Meowth.
Dave McKean’s Favorite Sandman Covers
At The Guardian, Dave McKean reveals the stories behind his favorite covers for Vertigo’s Sandman, including #11, whose original art was stolen at a gallery exhibition.
Check out this cartoon short that was produced as a proof of concept, for a potential animated adaptation of Chester Brown’s Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography.
Commentary
Geeks of Color Unite: Minorities in Fandom
Watch video of this NYCC panel featuring N.K. Jemisin, Jeffrey L. Wilson, Emmanuel Ortiz, Muse en Lystrala, Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Ger Tysk, and Jay Justice, and oderated by Diana Pho of Tor Books.
Indie Comics vs. Context Death Match Index
The Hooded Utilitarian has been running a series on indie comics (what are they? what aren’t they? what are the trends in indie comics?). You can find them all in this handy index.
And Finally…
Danny Elfman gave his first vocal performance in 18 years at the UK’s Royal Albert Hall, singing multiple songs from A Nightmare Before Christmas:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i7VV2OeoTU&w=420&h=315]