Wake the Sun

So nepenthe, who lives in San Diego, went to Comic Con 09. As one does. And because she loves me (and because I begged), she picked up a bunch of cool stuff, packed it up, and shipped it my way (vicarious convention experience, I has it!). And it arrived! Last weekend, actually, but I've finally got it all unpacked and set out pretty for photos.



( Details under the cut )

I am totally, totally going next year.

But mostly comics! :D :D

So, I went down to ye local comic book shop today and picked up the new Detective Comics and also Runaways 11. And then got it signed (Detective Comics, not Runaways) by Greg Rucka. Who was there! Signing things! HELL YEAH.

I was the only female in the shop aside from the lady behind the counter, who told me 'way to shake the genders up a bit.' Yay? Normally there are more women in the shop, I was kinda surprised.

Greg was there kinda sorta for Pride Weekend - Zeus Comics is an award-winning queer friendly shop and is the owner is gay himself (In Dallas! I <3 my comic shop) - and Detective Comics #854 features not one but *two* awesome lesbian ladies: Kate Kane, aka Batwoman, who's taking over the LEAD ROLE FROM BATMAN who is missing or in a coma or dead, idk (I stopped following that part of DC continuity when the Battle for the Cowl started, yeesh. All I know is that Dick's taken up the batmantle), and RENEE MONTOYA, aka The Question (v2), aka MY FANGIRLING, LET ME SHOW IT TO YOU. And Rucka is the author and notably queer friendly.

Also, he usually writes stories about women that do not suck! Detective Comics, in fact, is so low on the sucking that some might mistake it for awesome. The art is *amazing,* Kate is well characterized, and the writing is great. Renee's not in the same story arc here (and the art is different but also really good) - she's got her own minicomic tacked on to the end of Detective Comics (ala Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, aka at least DC's not totally ignoring these beloved characters, the fuckers). It means less screen time (only eight pages!), but what was there was a very good start.

In fact, gimmie a minute, I'm going to go back and read it again.

**

( Back! Now, as for Runaways... )

**

Okay, the original purpose of this post was to talk about two *other* comic book series (well, okay, one comic title and one manga) - Blue Beetle and Hayate Cross Blade. Two of my favorite things *ever,* y'all need to get in on this.

**

( Blue Beetle )

It's past midnight and I have Pride shenanigans to get up to tomorrow - will convey unto you the fantasticness that is Hayate Cross Blade at a later date. Night, folks!

Went to see Wolverine with the family. It was... well. It was epic. With the man!pain, and the cliched cinematography, and the cliched writing (I should *not* be able to say half Logan's lines along with him on the first viewing.). Just... think of every man!pain epic you've ever seen/read, and remember what happens to the girl/black dude/asian dude/old couple. Yeah. Boring and skeevy and unintentionally hilarious.

Also, I totally failed at playing spot the mutant - Emma Frost? Missed her *completely.*

On the other hand, unexpected Deadpool is unexpected! I somehow missed that he'd be in the movie and might have spent the first ten minutes of the film chanting Wadewadewadewadewade! not so quietly under my breath. If Wolverine opens up a chance for a Deadpool movie, it will have been so worth it.

Additional notes:

* I revise, a *decent* Deadpool movie. Which, upon reflection, I do not trust them to make.

* Gambit did not get to blow enough shit up.

* All those (cliched) narrative threads left loose at the end of the movie? Totally fucked by X-men 3. Just sayin'.

* There is a scene at the end of the credits, but it's not worth it (I was hoping for Waaaaaaaade).

* Had to give my sister a brief Rogue/Gambit info dump (she hadn't realized they were ever a couple) - her boyfriend was bouncing around going Remyremyremyremy while I was doing my Wade schtick, adorable.

* Although, wow, there's got to be a... 15 year? At least? Age difference between Rogue and Gambit in the movie-verse. At least we know she likes older men...


Additional Notes the Second - Linkage:

* nepenthe: Gambit of Wolverine: X-Men Origins

* K. Tempest Bradford: X-Men Origins: Wolverine — The Greatest Story Never Told? and X-Men Origins: Wolverine — Same Old Story

Guess who's driving the Marvel Crack Van (crack_van) for March! YES, it is I! I'm really pumped about this, reccing is my favorite fannish activity (after reading) and now I get to do it in an organized, public manner. And the three drivers before me (it's a new permanent fandom at the Crack Van, uh, garage. I'm so proud of it) didn't rec any of the stories I was planning on, the field is wide open. Hurray!

Speaking of recs, the Crack Van driver before me ended hir run with Five Times Faiza Hussain Meets a Superhero, which I missed on Yuletide. Y'all, Faiza Hussain is British, Muslim, a doctor, has healing powers, is a major fangirl, and is the current wielder of Excalibur in the Marvel-verse. She is amazing, this fic is perfect, and I totally need to pick up the current issue of 'Captain Britain and MI: 13' when I'm at the comic shop.

...I've been pretty hard on myself lately, regarding fannish matters - the little voice in my head is all 'why don't you contribute more' and 'it's not *that* hard to make friends' and so on - but, in the past two months, I've done four fanart pieces, gotten two of them published in a *steller* anthology, continued to quietly mod doujin_market, recced a metric ton of fic over at my delicious page, made nine LJ posts, and occasionally talked to people. And, y'know? That's not bad.

Just got my Yuletide assignment so it must be time to post my DYA letter, right? Right! This is my first Yuletide (and my first Dear Yuletide Author letter) - forgive me if I get a bit wordy and effusive. Or incoherent :D .

To start: I'm fine with gen and slash/femslash of pretty much every type and rating, but am much pickier about het - the characters need to go above and beyond awesome-wise, both individually and as a couple, for it to work for me (Paco and Brenda, Jaime and Traci, Policeguy and Hipbone, Akira and Utako, as examples). [shrugs] It's because I'm queer myself, I expect, and prefer to see that reflected in the romance/sexin' I read. I'm good with... actually, it'll be easier to list the stuff I'm *not* good with, which is heavy angst, rape, dubcon, partner betrayal, a strong dom/sub dynamic, character death, song fic, and lack of research (I know a fair bit about Japanese culture, for example, and nothing will throw me out of a fic faster then improper use of honorifics, an inaccurate depiction of their school system, Americanisms, etc).

I prefer lengthy, plotty fics as a rule but would also be happy with something shorter and character-focused. Or crack, crack is always good. Also pwps, if you give it a little buildup first.

I like stories with: adventure, happy endings, explosions, crossovers, genderbending, first times, mad science, banter, strong women (please, please, please), strong men, cats, shenanigans, goggles, magic, libraries, detailed (and accurate) settings, tea, swearing, first time sex that *doesn't* involve penetration (or heals or Makes Everything Better), frottage, superpowers, plots that make me think, or cry, or laugh, or (best of all) all three.

I don't like stories with: a strict uke/seme (top/bottom) delineation, sad/dark/depressing endings, mpreg, soul-bonds/destined lovers, female bashing, threesomes, petnames not taken from canon, fades to black, romance without proper development (I want to *feel* it), sex without preparation/protection, 'perfect' sex, telling-not-showing, excessive use of the words 'giggle,' 'smirk,' and 'weep' (and all variations thereof), and the word 'cum,' *ever* (unless someone's reading email spam, or something). Also, and I mention this only because two of my requests are manga (and I'm a touch obsessive ^^:), I'd prefer you to avoid using Japansese words wherever possible (see here and the first paragraph here for why - did I mention obsessive?).

[dusts off hands] Right! On to the fandoms:

( 1. Blue Beetle )

( 2. Clamp School Detectives )

( 3. Girly )

( 4. Ranma 1/2 )

Whew! That's it, I think - time to stop poking at this and post it, already. Thank you so much, Yuletide Author - I know I'll love whatever you end up writing me.

This weekend, I:

* Saw Iron Man. HELL YEAH. It made me forget that I *really* don't like Tony Stark. The dick. EDIT from 2009: Ahahahaha and then Avengers fandom and Tony/Steve ate my life.

* Dragged my brother to the closest comic shop (a 30 minute drive) for Free Comic Book Day. Got myself some free comics (although not Tiny Titans, which was the one I really wanted) as well as:

- Young Avengers (hardcover trade)
- Blue Beetle #26 (all Spanish issue!)
- Runaways #29
- Teen Titans Year One #'s 1-4

It has been so *long* since I was last in a comic shop (I do my buying on the 'net these days), I've really missed it.

* Watched the latest two Doctor Who episodes (S4, 4 & 5), which were fun but not awesome. And UNIT was made of total fail, which makes me sad.

* Watched the last five episodes of Torchwood S2. Fragments was *amazing* and managed to make most of season one make sense (which should have been impossible) and it's to bad they then followed it up with Exit Wounds. WTF, season finale.


I want to do pimp posts for Young Avengers and Blue Beetle (for all five of you, yes), 'cause these titles are SO TOTALLY AWESOME and don't get the love they deserve (Blue Beetle especially). But I have little faith in my abilities in channeling such awesome, so. We'll see.

Turns out large portions of fandom can also get behind vito_excalibur's Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Program - the response to her post has been awesome. Incredible. Inspiring. Other fun and redundant words. Folks are rising to the occasion all over the place, and there is lots of discussion, story sharing and support. And buttons, and tshirts, put together by the fabulous jacquez. Explanation for 'Back Up' here.

jacquez has also started www.backupproject.org, scheduled to go up around April 27th, as well as backupproject, which yours truly will be co-modding.

I encourage everyone, if you haven't already, to go take a look at the Program - it's something we can do, as a gender (some of us) and a species (all of us), to make a difference in the spaces we call our own.

And speaking of: I'll be working with telophase and rachelmanija to promote the Program at A-Kon - we'll have buttons and fliers available as well as, you know, help and support. An informational post will go up on backupproject this weekend.

----------------------------------------

In other news:

* The last three issues (23-25) of the current Blue Beetle run arrived today and. I love this series so much with the really amazing characters (of both genders!), excellent writing (snark! banter! general teenager-ness!), and the freaking ethnic diversity (Jaime's Hispanic! His family's Hispanic! They live inside a genuinely hispanic culture! There are characters of other races, and they are *also* real people!). Not to mention ass-kickery! [hugs books close]

* Found via vito_excalibur (I've been at her journal all week, might as well poke around) - Disney Hero pinups. People, I've gotta tell ya - I do not normally dig the men-folk and I *still* think these are freaking hot. I have decided I like Hercules best - he made me laugh until I *cried* the drama queen. Edit: should probably mention that these ARE NOT work safe. Edit 2: And originally from the deviantART gallery of David Kawena.

* For more sexy and laugh-until-you-cry: Gareth David Lloyd, who plays Ianto on Torchwood, reads aloud from a gay sex manual at a live event. Never watched the show? It's all right - if you have even a passing interest in hearing a handsome young Welsh man discuss fisting and the hanky-code, this video is for you. There is also rock n' roll.

( Further randomness: )