Redhead Fangirl

Thursday, May 31

Pass the baton

Getting hot here, over 90 today, making my run very sticky! This weekend "The Fantastic Five", five of us, are running a 5 mile relay. I've always wanted to pass the baton!

I haven't been reading as many comics, because I was deep into the book The Post-Birthday World. It's a 510 pager, with an interesting premise: Irina has a parallel-universe depending on what she does on Ramsey Acton's birthday. (which is my birthday!) I just loved the characters and how the same event is woven into different stories. It just feels honest.

Over the last few weeks, I've been listening to the new They Might Be Giants CD The Else. My allegiance to songs change with many listens, but "Climbing the Walls" builds (and references teeth grinding and losing jobs still in the happy TMBG way), "Careful what you pack" is Giants-emo, could easily be a Death Cab song, and I'm impressed, Take out the Trash, The Cap'm have a rockin base. Spend 9.99 on iTunes for it! Also just got The Cost CD from The Frames.

If you have been a faithful Dan Slott She-Hulk reader, you'll want to see this interview where he discusses the end of his run. So glad Dan has big projects in the pot, because he's a great guy. The joy of She-Hulk has been thin though; the subject matter and the S.H.I.E.L.D agent tie in to the serious storyline from Civil War. I miss the law firm interactions with Pug, and Awesome Andy. One take: It's like he's self-destructing the book before he goes.


Stephen takes on "100 great pages" This is a list of all the posts I've done in my 100 Great Pages series, indexed by title.
An amazing amount of work in each post- try the WE3 post for a sample.

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Tuesday, May 29

Wood axes, polar bears

Back to work week grind! Some images to share--
I wanted to share these handcrafted guitars from a program at my library. Rich crafts electric guitars, amplifiers and more. It was really interesting to see electric guitars in beautiful wood- although he admits you have to sit to use them because of their weight. It's great when your personal hobbies can cross with work.

Friend Bryan had artist Dave Perrillo, a MidJersey regular, create this image of Michael from Lost being eaten by a polar bear as revenge for killing his beloved Ana Lucia.

It's almost June, and that means Wizard World Philly. I have to say that the NY Comicon (and putting on my own MidJersey), have taken some of the excitement from Wizard. I've been waiting for the programming, which will get me more jazzed. It's always great to see local artist and dealer friends. I guess being the third year I've gone to it, with many of the same names, takes some juice out. PhillyGirl got her 3 day, so it is fun to fangirl together.

Reading Preacher GN now.

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Friday, May 25

Tenticles and ladies are just wrong

I was Memed from Rock and Roll Librarian on "Strange Search Terms”. Regular readers know I posted my vetted referral lists every month or so. I'll add two recent ones: adrienne barbeau images, are redheads mutants

Thank you Bent Corner!

Comic artist Rags Morales is a great interview subject. Always great to see him at Wizard Philly!

Rex Libris 8 review-- More than just librarians should be reading this!
Nearly every page features Rex tackling monsters, from Nazi Zombies to giant alien lice, side stepping Nosferatu and Pod People on the trail of Beowulf’s Grendel (scamming the Omega Man’s ride along the way). And if the story isn’t following Rex sticking it to some human-brain operated robot, then back at the library, the other librarians Hypatia and Circe are slashing and shooting their way through some meme manifestations panel after panel after panel

Have a very rare 4 day weekend! More posts next week. Enjoy!

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Wednesday, May 23

Finales

This morning I found a misplaced book in the teen section, and when I opened the Manet oversized book, inside was a guide on "How sex works". In this Internet age, it's almost sweet to see someone trying to learn about sex from a book, like we used to.

Series finales for Gilmore Girls (bye bye Stars Hollow!) and soon, Veronica Mars.I don't think I'll be watching a damn thing on the CW now. VM Season 3 has been not been great, even for a fan like me, but compared to "the search for the new pussycat doll", it was high art.
Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy ( a very moody finale with cast leaving)both finaled with a wedding scene. Heroes ended with the Sylar- Peter confrontation. I don't want more fighting, but more emotional connection might be nice. And every damn NY street scene showed only the cast. Even if you wanted to there's no way streets or plazas would be empty in Midtown! Tonight's two hour Lost. "Ben" was on the radio here and said it would be a violent, bloody fight and characters won't return. Let's see if the bug-eyed Other makes it.

I picked up last week's comics, and there were only 3! I think that's the least I've spent on comics in two years. Local, Justice League, and Catwoman. I've only read Justice League-- does anyone else think the labels floating over the characters are dopey? "Green Lantern" or "Black Canary" over Dinah. I'm no expert, but can't this be done in an intro or index to the comic rather than within the panels?

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Saturday, May 19

Fact vs. Fiction

Fiction: A fictional character represented by an absurd statue, that spawned many an overheated blog post.



Fact: A real, live redhead doing actual laundry!

As a woman and a comic fan, I hate how ridiculous her body is sculpted and posed, but also believe the button-pushing is not furthering the women are sequential art fans /comic book fan cause. Let's just use our sense and dollars to buy art and stories that do represent us in a real way - we can be smart and sexy and authentic.

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Thursday, May 17

Moore Lost Girls, other girls

My celebration of Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's wedding was to get Lost Girls on ILL, because there ain't no way we'd buy it at our public library. I'm glad another patron asked for it, and I get to look it at for week until it goes back, because I'm sure my tech services branch had a coronary if they flipped through it. So far, I've read a few pages, but the pastel based children's type illustrations are not my cup of tea-- more on it later.

Birds of Prey 105. More fangirl squees over the combination of the new BOP and the Secret Six. Hawkgirl, and Harley Quinn (Philly Girl!) driving up saying 'Hey, half-naked fellas and top-heavy lady!'. Just makes me grin.

I stopped reading All Star Batman and Robin 5, and wouldn't have bought the Wonder Woman heiny issue. Now that hear the content (WW just wants to bang Superman!) , so glad I passed. Issue 6 does have that adorable Batgirl cover though...

I did buy World War Hulk 106, and was glad to see it's focus on She-Hulk. Not sure I'll follow the whole series.

Tag 3 deepens the story for Ed, the Tag survivor who is traveling around to piece the Tag history together. It's detective novel, or reporter thriller, but it works. Drawn by Chee, written by Mike Leib, Ed's a below-average type who gets the girl- of course it all turns on him. A minor complaint, but a la Identity Crisis and other , the girl goes batty and screws up the boys life.

Y 56!! Inevitable reunion, but a bit anticlimatic. 355 gives a scarf to Yorick, signaling the (temp) end of their road. Only 4 more issues of my favorite series ever.

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Tuesday, May 15

Firestar rocks NJ

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 18- redhead Firestar takes him home- to New Jersey!

More Spidey-- THANK you to Matt Fraction for Sensational Spider-Man Annual 1, for a mature and thoughtful Mary Jane and Spidey story. This is why they are married, and from the doubts of the start of their relationship, until now, this is the MJ that should remain married to Spidey.

Get well wishes to comic blogger doc Scott at Polite Dissent!

Hope everyone is checking out Dave's Free Comic Book Month matches at YACB!

Getting caught up-- got last weeks comics, and only 5 in the pile. Y the Last Man, DMZ, Two Gun 2 (trying more Boom! Studio stuff), Jack of Fables 10 and Rex Libris 8 (natch).

And with that library reference, Check out The Rock and Roll Librarian, for another blog from a cool Jersey librarian. Music, zombie movies, librarianship!

I recently learned that books that used to be called "horror" in the bookstore or library, are now labeled "dark fantasy" because of the glut of King wannabees in the 80s. Speaking of King, just finished son Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box. An aging metal god buys a ghost on the internet...horror, or dark fantasy, ensues. Judas, the lead character, also finds more of himself and how he treated his young, goth girlfriends (boys, take note)

Except that he hadn’t kept her safe, he knew that now. …what he thought of as a personal strength- he was happy to know about her only what she wanted him to know- was something more like selfishness. A childish willingness to remain in the dark, to avoid distressing conversations, upsetting truths. He had feared her secrets- or more specifically, the emotional entanglements that might come from knowing them.

Next: sweet and simple reviews of some comics from the last month.

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Monday, May 14

Surfer!

Saturday, May 12

What words rhyme with buried alive?

Shoreturtle, PhillyGirl, me and a ton of underage kids packed the Stone Pony last night to see They Might Be Giants. They have a new album coming soon, and played a lot of new songs. I liked the slow "Careful what you pack" and a song with obsure words like "phrenology". I've seen them there 3 times, and the crowd was def. the worst this time. It was 14 and up-- those young kids just took up the whole floor space. Some guy next to us was almost lighting people on fire; shoving for position; and I could see them less than any other show. That said, it was still classic TMBG. There was even a song that said "up the library steps!"
Took a nice 5 mile bike ride today. The trail ran along a lake and everyone is enjoying the nice weather.

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Thursday, May 10

I'm so hungry I could eat a universe

52 It ends here!
I liked this weekly series, but the ending was "eh" for me. Or, as happens with these multiverse, megaverse, parallel Earth storylines, more "huh?". I know they explained that 52 writers crafted stories on these B and C grade characters, but the World War III to fill in the actual One Year Later hole left by the big 3. Well, that bent the promise of what 52 was supposed to tell us. We did learn about what happened "in a world without Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman", but I guess I thought we'd finally hear more from them near the end of the series-- not just that Bats was hiding in a cave or whatever. Not to stomp on those of you who love Booster Gold, but the "glory years" to come don't interest me much.

I love Ralph Dibny, and liked his storyline (until it was cut short). Renee, the Question, and Batwoman was another of the strongest. Infinity, Inc, Steel, serviceable story but not very thrilling after she realized Luthor was- shocker- a bad guy manipulating them. Black Adam was OK, but I can just hear the voice over "they killed his love, his wife, so revenge is his to take!"

In the end, I may not be the best person to analyze the series from the long range of putting back pieces from 1960's continuity. But I am a fan, and bought all 52 issues, so that's gotta hold some water.

X-23 5
I have enjoyed X-23 in this story arc (Target X), not having read the first round. Already up to 5 of a 6 part series, Laura is headed with the big finale fight with Wolverine, from the preview image. I think the art is very sharp and attractive, except in issue 5 it veers into too much boob territory with Kimura, her handler/nemesis and X23. Chris Yost and Craig Kyle have written here a girl you can't help but root for- a weapon used against her will who loses everyone who she cares about.

Since January I had the trade of Testament at work. I've finally started reading it-- but man, for a book that ties into the bible there is a lot of sex and nudity! Interesting even for a nonreligious person like myself. I don't see much of the blogosphere talk about this-- anyone out there try it?

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Monday, May 7

TV

Season and series finales for the shows I watch are coming fast in the next few weeks.

My loyalty can hinge on the finale: for example, Prison Break Season 2 ended with Michael back in prison (in a savage Peruvian prison). I just can't sustain belief and go through that next season, and even with so easy-on-the eyes Wentworth Miller, I've written it off. (Kellerman appeared in Grey's last week, for the spin off I'll probably watch for the awesome redhead Kate Walsh)

Desperate Housewives-- Peppered with some great Gaby lines, the season has been mild. Still Tivo. Susan and Ian and Mike, dull. Edie and Carlos, OK.

Grey's Anatomy- So bored with the Christina/Burke marriage storyline. Meredith is dopey with McDreamy. Kate Walsh, a shot of life, is leaving for the spin off. The heart of Grey's is with Izzie Stevens, and I'm hoping I like the resolution of the George story.

Lost- The internet is buzzing with the 2010 announcement of the end of Lost. That's still three more seasons. The move to 10 PM, and the season, has made this a must watch to a sometimes Tivo. I think this show really changed course with the addition of the guns-- watch how many times someone threatens someone else with a gun--it's the equalizer for a little woman like Kate to brandish a weapon, but it also makes for less interesting 'resolutions'.

Heroes- That flashforward episode of last week was one of my favorite shows of the year.

Gilmore Girls- Series finale May 15th. This season has crept along, and Alexis Bledel has never had the energy or acting chops, and that only in tandem with Lauren do I really like her. I'm the rare person who started watching this series in the last few years, instead of dropping it like others.

Veronica Mars- The disappointment of the year. Season 3 never found it's footing, the mini-mysteries were shallow, and Wallace and Weevil nearly cut out. Piz does not do it for me as her new beau.

Actually happy to have more free time in nice weather for running, reading, comics...

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Sunday, May 6

02:03:04 05/06/07

Free comic book day yesterday! And I finally picked up 3 weeks of comics.
Thx to Comic Lair, the library got a box of free comics. He told me that each "free" comic actually cost the store about 25 cents. I agree that the big 2, and TokyoPop, should give the stores comics that are actually "free" Personally I only picked up The Umbrella Academy, Gumby, and the Lynda Barry activity one.

This a packed day, with FCBD, Kentucky Derby, Cinco De Mayo, and 02:03:04 05/06/07.

Spidey3 reviews:

Sleestak

The Beat I lean with Heidi; I liked the film (besides for the fact that the film broke, not once, but twice! making it about one hour longer with waits)

2 women and 4 villians (if you count Peter himself) was too much of a tossed salad. I cheered when alliances were formed, felt bad for Mary Jane, and even liked Gwen Stacey. Our machisimo audience made sounds whenever Peter got upset-- but those seemed to be guys with other guys, and I'll be they'd be crying if Kirsten Dunst was breaking up with them too.

Comic Coverage I mostly agree with all the summaries of the characters and actors of Spidey 3

Other links:
Bloggers should be following this story--
Brian Bolland vs. Bent Corner

52-- Finished! On the heels of Girls, the end of another series I enjoyed. Thoughts on 52 later.

Thursday, May 3

I (heart) Peter Parker






I have Spidey tickets for Friday-- going with three boys! While it's not a perfect adaptation from the comics, I like the Spidey series above all others, mostly because of Tobey. He hits all the high spots of trying to be a hero, and a decent human being. Of course I adore the MJ storyline. Kirsten is not the MJ I think of from the comic-- she's not as strong or sassy- I think she's been good in the films.

Bryce talks about being "the other woman" in Spidey 3

Jane magazine had an interview with both Kirsten and Bryce, where Bryce says once she died her hair blonde she got a lot of attention Kirsten said that blondes attract everybody, but redheads get the smarter and sweeter guys..

94% of Fandango ticket sales

Spidey 3 already setting records

Wikipedia Spidey 3

Official movie blog

Spider-Man, one more day comic
ONE MORE DAY’
When it comes to Peter’s love life, Straczynski put him through the wringer with Mary Jane actually leaving him at one point. It’s been up and down for the couple over the years, but in August’s upcoming arc “One More Day,” things may be permanently resolved.

QUESADA: The question of their marriage is finally going to be answered and I think old-time fans…for those who like the status quo will be pretty happy.


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Tuesday, May 1

You play with words, you play with love...

PrivateEye- my librarian coworker went to a session on searching for personal information, and this site has interesting results. You might see your name, different places you lives, and who your possible relatives and roommates are. Find family, neighbors, friends!

Zabasearch- this site returns phone numbers, addresses, and makes a map to your house. Also, some results give birth month and year.

With mom visiting, I am again about 2.5 weeks behind in comics. I read DMZ No. 18, and I have to say that I did not like the art of Nathan Fox. Faces are really exaggerated teeth and ugly lines. Mostly I think it's the mix of Ricardo Burchelli's art, gritty and realistic compared to the Fox art. The story of a young soldier caught in the DMZ and now on a 'show trial' after a massacre does add a level of compassion for the pressures of being a soldier. Started reading the She-Hulk, where Shulkie and Tony Stark, have a 'private meeting'...

March and April referrals, a sample:
female criminal redhead
dirty minds comic
Great Lakes Initiative
spain fingerless glove
nightcrawler parents
"love bkv"
why does he love redheads so much?
Atom fictional superhero in the DC comics universe who can alter the size and density of his body
yes, you are very beautiful when you cry
derivation irish temper
pearl jam bat wings
redhead zombies
where does spider-man take his wife, MJ, on vacation
white lion pride
redhead oracle 300 the movie
small scottish hands
linda blair zapped
redhead in cannonball run 2
Barda from BOP
scruffy looking nerf herder
All the kick ass girls have red hair. They are independent, passionate, mysterious, and sexy
how to make pajama pants
sad lana lang

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