Category Archives: Comics

Apr 11 2009

Female Products by Marvel

No, Marvel isn’t about to debut sanitary napkins or tampons. However, they have apparently discovered that there are females who are interested in their icons, whether in movies or in comics and so decided to come up with a line of ‘female products’. Female products – their term, not mine.

Also [emphasis mine],

Since our core customer has always been guys, we need to be very careful when we introduce female product so that we don’t alienate our core,” said Paul Gitter, president of consumer products, North America, for Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Yeah, printing Spidey t-shirts for females is going to piss of legions of male comic book readers. How shallow do they think their male readers are? Is comic reading some sort of males-only-no-girls-allowed club? Will men decide to not read Deadpool because I like it?

And look what they are apparently offering.

Female Product Exhibit A

Female Product Exhibit A

Right. Us females are only interested in cute little comic heroes with hearts. Still, this isn’t quite as bad as this one below.

Female Product Exhibit B

Female Product Exhibit B

What is with all the kissing? Who are those people kissing anyway? Captain America? Iron Man? You know, while I like romance and all, that isn’t all I like. I don’t like how stereotyped these things are. Just because you are marketing to a female audience, it doesn’t mean you have to plaster hearts and pink and romance over everything.

And of course there are heart-shaped lockets. The kinds you can break into half and, I don’t know, give the other half to someone else (I never understood why anyone would do this). I have to say that the locket on the left is probably something I would buy though.

Female Product Exhibit C

Female Product Exhibit C

Spidey and Green Goblin?! I never knew. :D

Today I was at the gym and after my shower, I pulled on my Arsenal t-shirt. Then it struck me – why can’t Marvel be like Arsenal FC? I’m sure that majority of their supporters are males too but they still have “female products” which aren’t quite so sexist. They have t-shirts in female sizes which are similar to their male counterparts and not everything for the ladies are in pink or have hearts. My Arsenal tee is black and red and sized for females and I love it.

On the other hand, I have a Superman tee as well. A quick peek at their online shop and I realise that the only ‘female products’ is a pink t-shirt called the DC superladies and a sparkly pink keychain with the Superman logo. My Superman t-shirt is the classic blue one and I had to buy a kids size one because they don’t sell them in female sizes. It doesn’t fit very well because it isn’t made for the female body, which means I don’t wear it all that often.

Oh comic publishers, you have a long way to go.

Mar 18 2009

Random Pop Culture Ramblings

I tape Law and Order every Monday (all varieties) so I can watch them at my leisure throughout the week. It’s easy to watch and fairly entertaining plus I enjoy procedural dramas. Interspersed between my show are advertisements for Crusoe. In fact, in any advertisement block, I would see at least two ads promoting Crusoe. And the more I see them, the more I wonder what kind of show this is.

In the first place, I have no idea why the island is overrun with visitors. Surely if everyone is jaunting off to the island for a little R&R and some treasure hunting, someone can get Mr Crusoe off it? I suppose, perhaps, they all hate him or have no space for him on their cramp little ships.

Secondly, it seems that Mr Crusoe has a way with his hands, what with all the fancy gadgets he builds. Again, why is he not building a ship? Why spend his time building ziplines? Ok ok. I know that you need more than a ship to get off an island – a compass maybe – but I don’t see him trying very hard to get off the island.

Thirdly, why do all the pirates look like Captain Jack Sparrow?

And last of all, how come his man-pal, Friday can speak so many languages?

Of course, all this is based on my limited experience with the show. I’ve not seen an episode at all. I could be completely wrong and there are perfectly good reasons for everything that happens (or does not happen) on the show.

In other news, it seems that one of the screenwriters of Watchmen has written an open letter imploring people to watch the film again.

All this time, you’ve been waiting for a director who was going to hit you in the face with this story. To just crack you in the jaw, and then bend you over the pool table with this story. With its utterly raw view of the darkest sides of human nature, expressed through its masks of action and beauty and twisted good intentions. Like a fry-basket full of hot grease in the face. Like the Comedian on the Grassy Knoll. I know, I know…

You say you don’t like it. You say you’ve got issues. I get it.

And yet… You’ll be thinking about this film, down the road. It’ll nag at you. How it was rough and beautiful. How it went where it wanted to go, and you just hung on. How it was thoughtful and hateful and bleak and hilarious. And for Jackie Earle Haley.

Trust me. You’ll come back, eventually. Just like Sally.

Apparently, I really want to be tortured, violated and so on. And I would come back for more. I don’t know how to point out how disturbing this is. Does he think that Sally really wanted to be raped deep down inside? And that is why she returned for more?

Well, I hate dark shows and dark heroes. I also hate, hate, hate Rorschach. It’s not cool to be twisted or to be violent no matter what the reason. Dark, disturbed people should not be heroes. They aren’t doing good because it is the right thing to do. They are doing it because they think it would cleanse their past. And when did darkness become such a great thing anyway?

I don’t like how all these “darkness” is all the rage nowadays. In all honesty, the open letter is just another reason I would not watch Watchmen again.

To end this long post on a positive note, I adore my new PSP! I can watch movies on it and yesterday, it made my journey home from Orchard such a pleasant experience. So yay to my PSP! And I will conquer FFT eventually. Doesn’t matter that I didn’t manage it years ago on the PS. I’ll do it on my PSP!

Mar 8 2009

Thoughts about Watchmen

To be honest, although I do read the funny books, I was never all that keen on watching Watchmen. First off, I have not read it, despite JK lending me his copy and it lying around in my house for months. Secondly, all the hype was a little scary and off-putting. Lastly, I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy show.

Still, I suppose how can one not watch Watchmen? So I went along with JK and friends to catch a midnight screening of the movie. Do note that I was having the flu and not enough rest, so that may have affected my view of the movie.

Strangely enough, I feel somewhat meh about the whole movie. I don’t dislike it nor do I like it all that much. When I like a movie, I have a tendency to watch it multiple times. I’m not watching Watchmen again. Yet, I don’t feel strongly enough about it to say I disliked it.

Hmm … there might be spoilers below.

Continue reading »

Mar 1 2009

Various Snippets

Life has been incredibly hectic but the major event that was eating up all my time and energy is over, so yay! Plus it went off well too, so I am so pleased. Very proud and happy with my students. Even though others may think you weren’t all that great, you put in effort, improved and really, that is all that matters.

On a whim, I bought Heartbeat. I got it really cheap too. I quite like the songs, so it was a good buy. I especially like tracks 2, 4 and 9.

Scans Daily is gone! Where do I go for crack Japanese manga now?

Next week is Jason Mraz’s concert. Cannot wait!

Now to get my teaching and marking back on track. I have to run a reading challenge in school. Anyone have ideas?

Feb 15 2009

I might as well turn this into a comic blog

So, this is partly why I love Superman. I don’t really want to read about relationship angst in my comics.

On that note, I had a pretty good Valentine’s Day. Only now I have a bruised knee and a pile of work to complete. It’s going to be a long week next week, public performance and all.

Oh and parents really need to realise teachers are human too and we do the best we can. Also, every child is important, not just yours. It was quite a crappy Parent- Teacher thing we had yesterday where I felt as if I was in a firing line with all these parents demanding to know why we weren’t doing this or that.

Why isn’t my child bringing his file home more often?

Why aren’t you teaching more expository writing? My child needs it for GP (?!).

Why aren’t you teaching grammar the way I was taught in school? Where are your grammar worksheets?

Why aren’t you having more remedials for my child who is passing English? I want one-on-one remedials for him.

I tell my son to do mind maps before writing his essays at home. Why aren’t you following up with this in school?

Why are you asking me to monitor his homework? Isn’t that your job?

Some years ago, this would have pissed me off. Now, I just sigh and feel vaguely annoyed. Really, I think my theory is true – everyone thinks they can teach so they feel they can tell us how to do our job. Do they really think we don’t want to see our students do well in school? How can you stand there and tell me that the students who are failing are not as important as your child who can’t seem to break the 60% barrier? And it’s February only! Why are you asking how come they have only done 2 compositions?

Feb 9 2009

I’ll Miss You

It seems that Superman is off to space, which means he would be gone from his two main comics – Superman and Action Comics. These two are on my pull list and I don’t know if I plan to continue getting them. I read them for Supes not Flamebird or whoever is looking after Metropolis in his absense. Bah.

I suppose there is still Trinity and the Superman in space comics. I don’t know – comic publishers make it so difficult for me. I hate having to change my pull list.