Welcome to a bumper edition of Friday Links!
The August solicits for DC Comics had a delicious (one might say SENSATIONAL) announcement to make: a new digital-first comic for Women, bringing back the old school title of Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman. (Sensation Comics was the anthology comic in which Wonder Woman made her first few appearances before getting her own title – it is to her what Action Comics is to Superman, and Detective Comics is to Batman)
I’ve really been impressed with DC’s range of digital comics, which have been far more interesting, experimental, female-friendly, modern and shareable with kids than just about anything coming out of the main range since the New 52 began. Even better, this new Wonder Woman will be an outside-continuity anthology, allowing for multiple stories (hopefully none involving hooking up with Superman) and a jumping on point for casual readers. All this AND the list of creators involved is really exciting, including Lauren Beukes, Cecil Castellucci and Cat Staggs. With an opening story by Gail Simone. Sensational!
Courtney Milan blogs about being at the Romantic Times Giant Bookfair, and addresses the recent controversy about the separation of indie (or “aspiring” authors, heh) and traditionally published authors in signing halls at that event. I’ve seen a lot of responses to this event and I think Milan’s seems the most even-handed especially because she is firmly refusing to use civil rights vocabulary to describe a bureaucratic bungle. (having to sit in a separate room to authors you perceive as being your peers is not the same as racism or segregation, FFS)
At The Radish: the value of the backlist for authors. This one spins off the Bookfair topic, as “being stuck in the backlist” has been equated to “the back seat of the bus” YES REALLY. Actually, argues this guest post, the backlist is an awesome place to be. Hell yes, books written by past me, you are the least trouble of all the books in my life.
Trudi Canavan wrote a nice piece about the historical role of female authors in Australian fantasy – I thought she put it really well and her experience as a reader mirrors my own.
A 2014 review of the now rather retro anthology 2012 which was published in 2008. Some nice things are said! Also, my ego boost of the fortnight came from the unexpected quote from Ink Black Magic in a Gail Carriger blog post. Because !!! Also it’s one of my favourite bits of that book, so extra !!! with some <3 <3 <3 for good measure.
Oh okay, not the only ego boost, as Marianne De Pierres also included the Creature Court books in her post about Australian SFF books she loves.
Tara Moss talks about her new book The Fictional Woman, and her life as a woman – from model to crime author to mother to doctoral student and political activist, all of these things overlapping and affecting each other. She also talks openly about the sexual harassment and assault she has been subjected to over the years, and how that has affected her.
But when I suggest her beauty has been important in shaping her life, she stops me. “When you say ‘your beauty’, I want to laugh,” she says. “I do recognise that in a technical way I have at times had a conventionally attractive appearance that fits with commercial ideas, and that means I have been able to earn my living from it. But as a model you get told all the time what’s wrong with you; you don’t get told you’re beautiful.”
Speaking of harassment, Courtney Meaker has written a powerful post, Walking While Fat and Female – Or, Why I Don’t Care Not All Men are Like That which talks about her experience as a regular pedestrian on the streets of Seattle, and addresses the ‘not all men are sexist/harassers/rapists’ sentiment, which is one of the most profoundly unhelpful thing anyone can say in the face of real life harassment.
I also really loved this piece about comedian Sarah Millican’s response to the outcry about what she wore on a red carpet. Honestly, the disturbing and entitled critique of women on red carpets is getting weirder every year. Especially when (as so often happens) the critique is not just of their fashion choices, but of their bodies, their hair and their ability to not get in the way of the fashion designer in question – in other words, to be a literal clothes hanger.
“I’m sorry,” Millican writes. “I thought I had been invited to such an illustrious event because I am good at my job.”
Just once I’d like to see a magazine article on “Happiest/Grumpiest Actors on the Red Carpet” or “Actors Who Said Wittiest Things on the Red Carpet” instead of the tired old stabbing of women for thinking maybe if they feel pretty, that’s enough. (it’s never enough)
In other news, we have a hybrid car. It’s a bit adorable. Even more adorable, however, is the Tesla, a fully electric car. The Oatmeal presents a love letter to his new car, in comic form.