May: Batgirl, by Bryan Q. Miller, Lee Garbett, and Trevor Scott

It may seem a little disingenuous to write a review on Girl-Wonder.org praising a book starring Stephanie Brown.  After all, Stephanie’s death was the catalyst for the founding of this whole site.  And yes, the fact that she has returned (well, been retconned) from the dead and become an accepted (well, mostly) member of the Batfamily, presumably indefinitely (well, we’ll see what Bruce says when he gets out of his timecave or whatever) does carry with it a certain note of triumph – not of “ha ha, we won,” because it shouldn’t be a battle of sides, but because protests that a female character was slaughtered to further the story of the men around her were heard and registered.  As a Steph fan (not everyone at G-W.org is!), I am especially pleased to have her back.

But more important than Girl-Wonder’s relationship to Steph is the fact that Batgirl is a really good book.

Brian Q. Miller’s writing is consistently entertaining.  His Stephanie Brown expects no support and no praise, and is gobsmacked each time she receives it, but she never loses her determination or her sense of humor, making her an endearingly bright spot in the bleakness of Gotham.  His Barbara Gordon is flawed and struggling, but still witty and scary-competent and doing her best to keep her personal issues with Batgirl separate from her work mentoring Steph.  The development of their relationship is one of the best things in the comic.

In fact, all of the relationships are handled wonderfully – Steph’s and Babs’s touchy ones with Tim and Dick respectively, Babs and her father, both women and new pretty-boy detective Nicholas “St. Nick” Gage.  One of my favorite moments in the comic came when what seemed to be building to an annoyingly cliché catfight between Steph and one of her classmates over a boy was turned on its head when the boy turned out to be gay and the female classmate just very protective.  Take that, myth of female competition!

The art is uneven, going back and forth between pages by Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott (though Scott has now been replaced by Jonathan Glapion), but none it has been actively bad or oversexualized the characters.  If Cassandra Cain would only return as a regular, as it was rumored she would when the series began, Batgirl would be just about perfect.

Violence: The usual amount for a superhero book, but nothing overly gruesome or gory.

Sexualized Violence: None.

Gender: Two female leads, with a co-ed supporting cast (Jim Gordon, Nick Gage, Wendy (of Wendy and Marvin fame), and Steph’s mom make the most frequent supporting appearances).  Nice!

The Bechdel-Wallace Test: Passes with flying colors.

Minorities: Pretty much none.  Bring back Cass Cain!

Parents May Wish to Be Aware: Not much to warn for.  The audience is probably tweens and up.

– Review by Jessica Plummer

Apologies for the Mess!

Dear Girl-Wonder.org Members.

As people have noticed, the site was recently infested by an endemic malware problem. After trying a bug-swatting based approach for a while, it became apparent that this approach was too reactive, and allowed for malware to persist until discovered, which is basically bad.

Because our site is very large, rooting it out instance-by-instance was becoming prohibitive, so what Betty has done is create a local (to her machine) mirror of the site which can be checked against the production (live, on the internets) version, and discrepancies may be assumed to be malware.

Unfortunately, Dreamhost’s backups left something to be desired, so some of the extensively modified php files which were responsible for look-and-feel have gone missing and need to be recreated. The good news is that this shouldn’t be too hard; bad news is that we’re going to be discovering missing php files for a while.

We apologise whole-heartedly for the mess, and would appreciate your assistance in getting the site back on its feet. In particular, if you have civicrm experience and would like to help, please contact Betty at [email protected] .

If you notice any issues not listed below, please let us know.

Known Problems:

– Forums users’ icons have been deleted, and will need to be re-uploaded by the users

– Blogs have had their themes deleted – all the content is there, but possibly inaccessible. Blog owners can fix this by logging in and installing a new theme. Some links/categories may be messed up in the process.

– Several links on the front page are broken.

– Sub-domains (xxxx.girl-wonder.org) should be unaffected.

Once again, we apologize for the problems, and thank you for your patience.

Benefit Auction For Webcomic Creator Karen Ellis Now Open

In mid February, Karen Ellis, the creator of popular diary webcomic Planet Karen, was made homeless and nearly possession-less by a fire in the apartment above hers, which resulted in the tragic death of the occupant.

The comics community rallied, and thanks to generous donations of money and equipment, Karen was able to replace some of her art supplies and find a new place to live. Her gratitude and determination are recorded on Planet Karen, but she is still unable to replace many of her possessions.

Girl-Wonder.org is delighted to announce a fundraising auction for Karen, thanks to the generous donations of the comics community. The auction runs until 30th March, and includes items as diverse as an “incredibly wordy” Wonderella giftset, handbags, jewellery, an original Phil Noto Black Widow Sketch, and the original artwork of this post-fire Planet Karen strip.

For more information, please contact Karen Healey at [email protected].

Benefit Auction For Webcomic Creator Karen Ellis Announced

Karen Ellis, creator of diary comic Planet Karen, lost nearly everything in a fire this weekend.

The apartment above her own caught fire on Sunday night, and while firefighters fought the blaze for three hours, tragically, the occupant was killed. Karen is physically fine, but most of her possessions, including books, clothes and drawing supplies, are ruined beyond repair. The apartment itself has suffered so much structural damage that she’s also been made effectively homeless. (See this comic for an account in her own words.)

Karen is a valuable part of the webcomics community. If you can, please consider making a contribution to her Paypal account to help out. Just head to http://planetkaren.girl-wonder.org/ and hit the “Donation” button in the right-hand column. Every donation, whatever its size, really counts!

Girl-Wonder.org, the organization that hosts Planet Karen, is also planning a fundraising auction on Karen’s behalf. If you have items you think you’d like to donate, please contact Karen Healey at [email protected] for details.

The Baby-Sitter’s Club, by Anne M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier

The first comic of 2008 is brought by Jessica Plummer, GW Board member, and one of the writers of the new GW blog Sequential Smarts, a resource on comics used in the classroom.

Well, it’s a new year, and what better way to kick it off than with a blast from the past? January’s book of the month is The Baby-sitters Club Graphix, a series of four graphic novels based on Ann M. Martin’s hit kids’ series (specifically, Kristy’s Great Idea, The Truth About Stacey, Mary Anne Saves the Day, and Claudia and Mean Janine). Adapted and drawn by Raina Telgmeier, the books center around a group of tween girls and their babysitting business.

If you’re a typical child of the 80s and early 90s, you remember the setup of the series: when Kristy sees how hard it is for her mom to find a sitter for Kristy’s little brother, she organizes her friends Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey (and later Dawn) into a babysitting club to enable parents to reach a whole bunch of sitters with one phone call. Babysitting forms the background to all of the books, but these four graphic novels, taken from the earlier and less ridiculous volumes of the original series, are really about Kristy learning to deal accept her single mother dating and her family changing, Stacey coping with diabetes, Mary Anne finding her own hidden strength, Claudia forging a stronger relationship with her sister as their grandmother falls ill, and, above all, friendship.

I was a big BSC fan as a kid, and these books retain everything good about them (except, alas, for the ludicrous 80s fashions) while jettisoning some of the goofier aspects of the series. The first is rather awkwardly paced, but by the second  seems to have found her rhythm. And the art! It’s cute, and energetic, and distinctive. The characters are all easily distinguishable – a sadly rare feat in a book starring all girls! – and dress with their own distinct senses of style, which I’m sure all grown-up fans of the series remember as a major draw. Everything about it, from the expressions to the layouts, is fantastic. It takes me twice as long to read these books as it normally would because I’m spending so much time gazing rapturously at the art. All in all, these are great, fun reads for both adult fans of the old series and kids meeting the Baby-sitters Club for the first time.

Violence: None.

Sexualised Violence: None.

Gender: All four protagonists are girls with distinct personalities, and none of the plotlines revolve around boys.

The Bechdel-Wallace Test: Passes with flying colors!

Minorities: Claudia, one of the four protagonists, is Japanese-American, as is her entire family. The original series consisted of almost entirely white characters, so Telgemeier replaced a couple of white babysitting clients with new black characters to make the series a little more diverse.

Art Et Cetera: Adam Gallardo and Todd Demong

Today’s donations come from Adam Gallardo (writer) and Todd Demong (artist) of 100 Girls, which was recently reviewed on Girls Read Comics! Gallardo is best-known for Star Wars: Infinites — Return of the Jedi, 100 Girls and Gear School; an artist and animator, Demong‘s work included Class of the Titans, Star Wars Tales and 100 Girls.

They have jointly donated two packages: a piece of original artwork from 100 Girls with a signed copy of the comic; and one copy each of 100 Girls, Gear School, and Star Wars: Infinities — Return of the Jedi, all signed by Gallardo. The first package will start at $100, while the second will begin bidding at $33.

Looking for other donator posts? Check the Auction page for the latest updates!

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Rapunzel’s Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale

Rapunzel’s Revenge succeeds at everything: gorgeous, lush artwork; an imaginative and unashamedly – but not polemic – feminist take on the fairy tale; a beautifully-written script; a fictional setting that plays with all the best tropes of the Old West while acknowledging the actual ethnic composition of that West; endearing, flawed good guys; selfish, human bad guys; a controlling, horribly believable villain; and a heroine who takes care of business by using her hair to whip, lasso and acrobatically disable prison bars, evil-doers, and a huge freaking sea-serpent.

Violence: Killing of some nasty beasties and some fighting (one probably-death)

Sexualised violence: None.

Gender: It’s wonderful. There are multiple characters, both female and male (both female and male and of colour!) with diverse personalities and contributions to the tale. Rapunzel herself is a delight.

Bechdel-Wallace Test: Passes on all three counts.

Parents should be aware: That their kids might well insist on growing their hair long in order to weaponise it.

Joint Girl-Wonder.org/Cerise Comics In Gaming Issue

Girl-Wonder.org is partnering with Cerise, an online feminist gaming magazine, for a special issue on the overlap of gaming and comics! Topics can cover any intersection of comics and gaming, from creatively to fannish. What can the industries learn from each other? What are the best game-based comics or best comic-inspired games? Keep and eye out for Cerise bloggers stopping by Girl-Wonder.org in October and a chance to win combined prize packs.

Submissions to the Comics in Gaming are now being accepted. The deadline is September 20th, 2008.

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Girl Wonder Board by-election

Girl-Wonder.org member Rachel Edidin has retired from her position on the Board of Directors. We thank Rachel for all her fantastic work with the Board, but don’t worry; we won’t lose her completely! She will continue to be one of our essential mod squad members, and blogs at the fantastic Inside, Out.But this is good news for those who want a little more responsibility! We are holding a by-election to replace Rachel’s seat. All Girl-Wonder.org volunteers are eligible to run and/or vote, including bloggers, mod squad members, project co-ordinators and participants, podcasters, and all the other excellent people who volunteer their time to the site’s well-being and expansion.If you would like to run for the Board, or would like to nominate someone else who qualifies, please email Karen at [email protected]. Nominations are due by September 21st UTC.