That little Minx

I'm sad to see the Minx line cancellation. Not just personally, because I liked The Plain Janes and The New York Four, but professionally as a librarian. This was the crossover line for YA readers who are not fanboys and fangirls. I handed many teen girls ReGifters or Good as Lilly or Confessions of a Blabbermouth.

The age appropriate and excellent art, with the witty stories, were a hit with their audience. I guess it was just a small audience-- the teen girls who read manga generally wouldn't read the Minx line. So it was the avid teen girl reader, but not the ones reading Scrapped Princess or Death Note.

And I think it's already been said here, that just because Minx is being cancelled doesn't mean girls don't want comics with real stories, with real emotion that can touch them combined with art that represents more than the extremes of the superhero realm.

Minx books

More Minx at the Beat

Chi G

Blog this, Pal! Gordon is just as he appears to be on his blog- literate and funny. We talked a good two hours- interruptions to meet some of the many running bloggers that were there for the marathon. G and I have different reading tastes with some crossover. At least he seems to care about a good story most of all. I couldn't admit to him I've never seen a single Doctor Who (new or old). Does that make me a nerd outlaw? I have also never seen a whole episode of MASH, but I think I saw the MASH movie.

Some recent comic reading--
Confessions of a Blabbermouth
Written by Mike Carey and Louise Carey; Art and Cover by Aaron Alexovich

Another fun and sassy GN from the DC Minx line. I have enjoyed the three Minx titles I've read (also The Plain Janes and Clubbing). A library assistant here has two teen girls, and she raves about how they have loved my suggestions for these books. She said their Clubbing copy is all beat up due to use. I just suggested they try Runaways, and the word is they love that too. Go librarian fangirl!
This one is yet another British girl named Tasha with big opinions- that she channels into her 'Blabbermouth' blog. The main story involves her mom dating a new guy, and dealing his daughter who starts as the new girl at Tasha's school. Fun black and white art and Mike Carey shared writing with his 15 year old daughter Louise.

Birds of Prey 110
Written by Tony Bedard; Art by Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood;
An adequate and mildly amusing one shot starring Huntress and Oracle. The BOP tryout stories were amusing. Waiting for a new team and stories to gel, and still mad at Bedard regarding the Knockout.

Justice League 13
Written by Dwayne McDuffie; Art by Joe Benitez and Victor Llamas;
McDuffie takes over the Meltzer story, and the Injustice League fights the JLA. I would like less Vixen. I don't like Black Canary's face, but at least Benitez isn't too pornified in his art of the women. I do like the Doctor Light smackdown for 'what you did to Sue Dibny'.

DMZ Decade Later

Brian Wood doesn't tie war up in a nice shiny bow. This standalone story about a tagger in the city who just tried to stay out of the war-- and how war comes to him.

One more night of work. Hoping to continue to unpack boxes, maybe visit my new backyard for once, and catch up on tivo'd shows and reading.

Teddy Bears and Zombie tags

Boom! Studios has my attention with two titles: Tag, and Mr. Stuffins.

Tag 2
Keith Giffin, Mike Lieb, art by Chee
It's years later, and Ed can't live with the guilt of passing along the curse. So he decides -- to stop it? How can one ordinary man hope to halt the advance of a curse that crosses centuries?

I was in a bit of a comic rut, but reading Tag 2, with a well-plotted story and interesting sad-sack in Ed, I was jazzed again. Ed tries to track the zombie tag, and find out how people have lived with themselves after passing the Tag on. It was good to see more background on how once tagged, you get visions of who to pass it on to...often those who you feel wronged you or deserve to be punished.

Film rights to Tag optioned

Comic Critique Tag 1 review

Mr. Stuffins 1

Andrew Cosby, Johanna Stokes drawn by Lee Carter

I was a bit confused at the beginning of Mr. Stuffins, and believed the scientist who placed the chip was the same as the dad who bought the bear. The art is good, but the coloring is a little drab for this story-- it's not all fun with divorce and bullying and more, but it's not so dark to warrant the color scheme.

The dialogue is hilarious-- imagine a teddy bear in a nine year old's room saying things like "secure the perimeter". There is danger, literally, outside the door at the end. Very interested to see where this goes.

Mr. Stuffins review at Comics Should be Good


Other:
From the Minx line in July- Josh Howard of Dead@17 illustrates and Andi Watson.
Clubbing

Kirkman comes to NY

New Book:
The Feminine Mistake
Its basic message is passionate and unflagging: Women who depend on men for economic stability do so at their own considerable peril.