Gentle Reader, Mr. Reads just reminded This Humble Author that Saturday, yes, This Saturday, is Free Comic Book Day! There are some great titles up for grabs, including All-Star Superman #1 and Tiny Titans, which This Humble Author just recommended to a Friend for her small Girl-Child (who, apparently, wants Wonder Woman Underoos).
Huzzah! A bright gold *and* silver lining for a week rather fraught with peril!
Back to Dissertating, Friends. More soon.
Can't blog, Gentle Reader. Dissertation will eat me.
That is to say, frantically finishing a chapter for tomorrow, yes, Tomorrow, and as it is on not one, not two, not three, but four Very Large Victorian Novels, I must bid you a brief hallo and then adieu for today. Please be forgiving of these brief interludes and longer, grumpier silences, as the revised draft of the Entire Dissertation is due to my committee in Less Than Two Weeks.
Send the good writing vibes this way, Friends!
Still dissertating, Gentle Reader, so neither reading nor writing anything for pleasure. Mr. Reads, however, is thrilled over the Toy News leaking out of New York's Comic-Con, and I will insist on buying the Wonder Woman and the Artemis figures when they come out. Mr. Reads will, I believe, Buy Them All, so send Kind Thoughts to the Reads Checking Account!
Also, lovely to hear about the General Fantasticness of some of my favorite writers, like Mr. Geoff Johns and Ms. Gail Simone, courtesy of this delightful blogger, found courtesy of the delightful women at When Fangirls Attack!
Gentle Reader, I long to go to a Comic Convention and meet all of my Favorite Writers and watch My Darling Husband swoon over the Latest Toys. Why, o why must they all be So Far Away?
While it has been demanded that I write a full review of Wonder Woman #19, I must beg off just a little longer, Friends (Apologies, Robert!). This Humble, Last (!) Chapter is due by the Not-So-Humble Date of As-Soon-As-Possible (but no later than May 1st), so I promise a double review of Wonder Woman #19 and #20 next month, once the dissertating is done.
Until then, might I direct your attention to the happiest blogging news I've had in a year? That is right, Gentle Reader: Loren at One Diverse Comic Book Nation has returned to the blogging world. Please join me in offering up a Huzzah! and welcome Loren back to a blogging community that Missed Him Terribly.
Gentle Reader, I've a chapter to revise by Thursday, yes, Thursday, and a few meetings this upcoming week to make it just that much more Difficult. So I must be Rather Silent this week despite the fact that 1) I've read Gail Simone's Wonder Woman #19 and thought it Absolutely Brilliant (who else but Ms. Simone can make me eat crow regarding Tom Tresser in just one month, and make me laugh *and* cry in just one final panel?), 2) I finished Jim Butcher's Small Favor and thought it Absolutely Brilliant (truly, his best Harry Dresden novel yet), and 3) both The Office and 30 Rock have returned to us (Jim! Pam! Jack! Liz Lemon! That's what she said!). Never mind the fact that Mr. Reads and I have a Large Stack of comics to be read this week, nor the fact that my Trinity Wonder Woman is just lovely and is begging for a Post of Her Own.
Never mind the pop culture. Here comes the Dissertation.
Wish me luck, Friends! It seems I'm Suffering under the Suffragettes at the moment, for the second (!) time this year.
Another Very Productive Day, Gentle Reader! Much accomplished on both the Dissertation and the Teaching front, so I took some time to get caught up in comics. I confess that I went the DC Route First; the Most Constant of Readers might recall that in some parts of my Marvel Universe reading, Captain America is still alive. Thank goodness I am not nearly as behind in my DC reading: only a few issues in Catwoman and Birds of Prey, only one in All-Star Superman, but several in Teen Titans. After I leave you here, I think I shall revisit my New Avengers and begin working through the Marvel Universe there.
But This Humble Author assures you, behind does not mean uncaring. Rather, life has gotten the better of This Humble Author over the year, and as I plan to defend my dissertation sometime in the next month or two, I should attempt to finish it, no? Therefore I've had to shuffle my comics reading, just a bit.
But now, a few reviews, in extreme (!) brief.
All Star Superman #10
This is the best comic being written at the moment, and Friends, I do not even *like* the Superman. This issue is just extraordinary. I believe I have no words.
Birds of Prey #115 and #116
I confess, Gentle Reader, that I'm not quite enjoying Birds of Prey as of late. And I adore Sean McKeever, so perhaps it isn't just the loss of Gail Simone I am bemoaning. Rather, I think I miss Black Canary, and the solidity of the Birds themselves. I am enjoying the exploration of Misfit, however, and the addition of Black Alice was a Very Nice Touch. And it is Ever Enjoyable to see the fabulous Manhunter, who returns to us very shortly!
But my biggest--and loudest--complaint is in the spirit of Women in Refrigerators: why, o why do we constantly see our Female Superheroes mindwiped into sexual submission? I know that this is a Theme that affects Male Superheroes, as well, but mindwiping someone into sex or even sexual submission or affection is rape, no matter how it is devised. I would have liked to see some handling of the severity of this part of Zinda's life, both past and present, in this issue, but perhaps it is coming? The insightful and poetic Ms. Rachel Edidin informs us that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and includes links in her Inside Out column to her 2007 Sexual Assault Awareness columns. Let us thank her for directing us to this information, and to the safe space of the Girl Wonder forums. Gratitude, Ms. Edidin.
Catwoman #76 and #77
This is the most fun I've had with Catwoman since before the Crisis, and I applaud Will Pfeifer for it. Constant Readers know how much I abhor the removal of Helena from the Selina Kyle storyline--the same as I abhor the removal of Sin from the Dinah Lance storyline. Why can our superheroes be simultaneously fathers and heroes, but not mothers and heroes? Here, however, Mr. Pfeifer shows us the agony of losing Helena, and the damage it has wrought on Selina's psyche. Bonus: fun Cat-on-Cat fighting action.
Tiny Titans #1 and #2
Squee!!!!!!
*ahem*
That is to say, This Humble Author finds this comic Quite Delightful, and urges many of her Gentlest of Readers to explore the Utter Fun of this adorable read.
Now off to find out where Mr. Reads has stashed Green Arrow and Black Canary...
Yesterday was a Rather Productive Day, Gentle Reader, and as happens on most Rather Productive Days, come night, Mr. Reads and I were Rather Bored. We had accomplished everything we set out to accomplish--I wrote 2 pages of my last (!) dissertation chapter and read 20 (!!!) articles, while Mr. Reads enjoyed the rare moment of an instructor's life: nothing to grade. So around 9:00 p.m., we decided to leave the house in search of action figures.
We drove to two of the Large Mega-Marts in town to look for the latest DC Universe action figures, of which Mr. Reads wants all, and I, of course, want Pup Reads's namesake, Ms. Harley Quinn. Alas, none have reached our Small Town yet, but we are hopeful to find them.
This, of course, made me think of my two latest purchasing dilemmas: To Super Lois, or Not to Super Lois?, and, does This Humble Author deserve a graduation present?
The answers are, I believe, Yes, and No.
That is to say, I cannot justify spending $300 on a Wonder Woman statue, when there is the rent to be paid, and the car to be fixed, and the sofa to purchase, or, at least, consider. Not to mention a new computer and printer for This Humble Author, and, considering the dramatic rise in gas prices, the future inevitability of Better Walking Shoes.
But, Gentle Reader, she is so *gorgeous*. She is So Incredibly Beautiful, I almost cannot stand it. Look at her in full 360 degree turnaround. Have you ever, in all of your life, seen a statue this beautiful? This powerful? The axe, I think, is the nicest touch, a testament to the warrior Wonder Woman is.
Of course, I almost must consider a Possible Trip to the Big Apple to see the upcoming exhibit on Fashion and Superheroes, two things that This Humble Author can say, with great certainty, affect her academic life. O! If only money were happier!
I have decided to take a few hours to myself today, and Friends, I am going to sneak the new Jim Butcher novel, Small Favor, away from Mr. Reads. Although he has priority reading because His Birthday is this coming Friday, and lacking an autographed issue of Grant Morrison's We3, I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the anniversary of his birth.
