As far as I’m concerned, Free Comic Book Day should be printed on every calendar in America. It’s one of my favorite holidays, and why not? A day celebrating comics, when the comic book stores give you free comics! What’s not to like?
And, after all, what are we at Girl Wonder but comic book lovers at heart? This is a holiday for us, too, why shouldn’t we claim it as our own? Why not take this day to celebrate all the things we <i>love</i> about comics, and all the things we hope they can become.
Free Comic Book Day is a great time to give the curious a taste of comics. And hey, while the comic shops are recruiting new readers, why not recruit new G-Wers?
So I don’t know about you, but I’m going to wear “Ask Me About Girl Wonder” proudly, and hope someone asks. I’m going to post Girl Wonder flyers proudly. I’m going to blog about my favorite woman-friendly comics and let people know Free Comic Book Day is coming. And also, I’m going enjoy all those free comics!
If this sounds interesting to you, here’s a link to the Celebrate Free Comic Book Day with Girl Wonder forum.
Referee Michelle Campbell was told not to officiate a high school basketball game in Kansas by a official of St. Mary’s Academy:
The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy’s beliefs.
So far, so irritating religious-based sexism, of the kind that infuriates, but does not surprise. But what did surprise (and delight) me was that her male colleagues refused to cover the game:
Campbell then walked off the court along with Darin Putthoff, the referee who was to work the game with her.
Fred Shockey, who was getting ready to leave the gym after officiating two junior high games, said he was told there had been an emergency and was asked to stay and officiate two more games.
“When I found out what the emergency was, I said there was no way I was going to work those games,” said Shockey, who spent 12 years in the Army and became a ref about three years ago. “I have been led by some of the finest women this nation has to offer, and there was no way I was going to go along with that.”
The Kansas State High School Activities Association is now considering removing St. Mary’s Academy from its list of approved schools.
David Brothers is writing daily posts this February for his Black History Month at the excellent 4th Letter.
Of particular interest to Girl-Wonder.org readers (though it’s all great) might be this entry, where he ponders the lack of reaction to the death of Orpheus, in comparison to that for the Spoiler:
Why is Orpheus forgotten and why is Spoiler an icon? Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but this sounds familiar.
I’m not trying to diss anyone here. It’s just an interesting little comparison that I thought of while I was mulling the two characters over in my head.
I think it boils down to this: Spoiler is much, much more marketable than Orpheus is. If vigilantes were real, and Spoiler went out like she did? It’d be a 24 hour news cycle with breaking updates from various talking heads, constant news tickers, and the whole shebang. She’d be Jonbenet Ramsey, Natalee Holloway, Laci Peterson, and Chandra Levy all in one, with a side of Patty Hearst.
Orpheus… not so much. History bears this out. Crimes against black people just don’t get a lot of media attention, unless it’s something either a) totally outlandish or b) talked about enough that the media can’t get away with ignoring it.
If you opened your newspaper today and noticed some of the comic strips seemed similar, it’s not unintentional. 11 minority cartoonists have banded together to protest the unequal treatment minority strips receive in many American newspapers.
Listen to NPR’s interview with Cory Thomas (or for those not audio-inclined, read the Washington Post article), and check out his awesome version of the strip.
Other strips participating include Herb and Jamaal, Housebroken, Cafe con Leche, The K Chronicles, Compu-toon, editorial cartoonist Tim Jackson, and Candorville.
One of the Super-Top-Secret projects I’ve been hard at work on has finally made its public debut!.
An update since the article was written: We’ve now donated over a hundred comics to organizations in and around Portland and have developed ongoing relationships with several of those. With luck, our website will be up and running within the next week or so, at which point we’re hoping to see an explosion of both requests and donations.
Rock on!
November 25 – December 10
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, which marks the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.
I found out about this toward the end, but that’s no reason not to check it out!
Disclaimer This bingo card is not meant to replace or, indeed be used in, actual debate. Instead it is merely designed to amuse and inform, in a lighthearted presentation of the most common arguments against having queer characters in comics.
http://ragnell.blogspot.com/2007/12/never-thought-i-say-this-but.html
ETA: Feel free to use, link, or distribute this image in any way you see fit.
Nov 20th 2007 is the 9th annual Transgender Remembrance Day, a day for remembering the dead women and men who were targeted by anti-trans bigotry and violence.
The official website: http://www.gender.org/remember/day/
This link has been making the rounds lately, and I think it’s especially pertinent to G-W.org. Given the recent discussion floating around the blogosphere on the place of anger in activism, this fabulous discussion on the empowering and useful aspects of anger provides a new perspective.
September 20th 2007 is the Jena 6 Day of Action. Go here to find out how you can get involved and what you can do to help. They literally have everything from flyers you can print out and post in your neighborhood, to phone numbers you can call and a list of events that could be happening in your area.
Comics Black History Month
David Brothers is writing daily posts this February for his Black History Month at the excellent 4th Letter.
Of particular interest to Girl-Wonder.org readers (though it’s all great) might be this entry, where he ponders the lack of reaction to the death of Orpheus, in comparison to that for the Spoiler: