Hello and welcome to a new installment of News & Things! Have you read Saga #13 yet? You should totally read Saga #13. But after you read our News & Things. Because we’re awesome.
Read of the Week
At New Statesman, Sophia McDougall writes I Hate Strong Female Characters:
“What do I want instead of a Strong Female Character? I want a male:female character ratio of 1:1 instead of 3:1 on our screens. I want a wealth of complex female protagonists who can be either strong or weak or both or neither, because they are more than strength or weakness. Badass gunslingers and martial artists sure, but also interesting women who are shy and quiet and do, sometimes, put up with others’ shit because in real life there’s often no practical alternative. And besides heroines, I want to see women in as many and varied secondary and character roles as men: female sidekicks, mentors, comic relief, rivals, villains. I want not to be asked, when I try to sell a book about two girls, two boys and a genderless robot, if we couldn’t change one of those girls to a boy.”
News
Jaime Hernandez to Illustrate This is How You Lose Her
Love and Rockets co-creator Jaime Hernandez has illustrated a new deluxe hardcover edition of Junot Diaz’s bestselling novel This is How You Lose Her, out October 31st.
Rogue Almost Joined The Wolverine
In an interview with Creative Screenwriting, Mark Bomback reveals that his script for The Wolverine almost involved Rogue, but her connection to the story was scrapped after becoming “more problematic than cool.”
Monster: The Perfect Edition Coming in 2014
Following the announcement that Naoki Urasawa’s manga Monster is in development as a series for HBO, Viz has announced they will be reprinting the series in 2014. The story of Dr. Tenma, a surgeon pursuing the murderer he once saved as a child, Monster will be reprinted in a new double-sized omnibus format.
Marbles Reviewed by The Guardian
Rachel Cooke reviews Ellen Forney’s graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo & Me, now on sale in the UK.
Go For a Ride with Wonder Woman Animated Shorts
DC Nation’s new Wonder Woman animated shorts are now online. Where do we sign up for an invisible muscle car?
Historical Anti-Suffragette Cartoons
August 18th marks the 93rd anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave voting rights to the women of the United States. In commemoration, The Week shares 12 anti-suffragette comics which illustrate the discrimination faced by women who sought the vote.
Sandman and The Crisis of Infinite Continuities
Though often read today as a standalone work, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman was originally written as part of the wider DC Universe. Here is an in-depth, annotated list of how Sandman fit into the complicated world of late-80s to early-90s, post-Crisis comics continuity, spanning from Superman to Swamp Thing.
And Finally…
This Charming Charlie mashes up Charles M. Schulz’s classic Peanuts strips with the song lyrics of Morrissey, and existential ennui has never been more adorable. Shoplifters of the world unite!
