there's probably something wrong with my growing love of white boy hip hop.

I’m a very cynical person -more because I find it amusing, than any other reason. But the articles we’ve been reading for class about publishing have been poking at one of the spots I’ve chosen to remain gloriously naive about, e.g. that artists care more about their vision than they do about the mass consumerism of their work.

Freeman’s guide to writing comics makes me want to stick my fingers in my ears and go “la la la la la la.” He makes sure that you know, “If you want to shine in the unsolicited slush pile your work must be polished, take on board the current trends in the market and particularly those of the company you're aiming at.” (emphasis mine) You must take on current trends. So, write a comic book about vampires if you want it to sell. (Thanks Twilight franchise for ruining one of my favorite mythical creatures.) Never mind how you personally feel about the subject, it’s all about getting your name out there, and your work published... UGH. No, no, no! Let me go on believing, ignorantly, perhaps, that people care about their own creative vision and remain uncompromising to trends. Please?

Freeman even wants you to be prepared to know the line you won’t cross - which, okay, compromise of some sort is probably necessary - but to remember, “If it was good enough to be accepted, it's good enough to sell elsewhere if things are going horribly wrong for you.” How about having FAITH IN YOURSELF, instead of thinking ‘well, someone else likes it so it must be at least kind of okay.’ Grrrr.

I’m glad that Bennett, in her article about writing for comics makes sure that we know “comics are not a genre, but a medium of expression — like movies or prose — that can communicate a wealth of ideas and emotions spanning all genres.” Umm, pretty sure that’s incorrect, considering comic books and prose are genres of writing. And, uh, “mysteries, science fiction, autobiography, or even surrealist montages” would be then be their sub-genres, if that’s what topic they cover. Just sayin’. Pet Peeve - When someone tells you what you can and can’t do in a work of art. Thanks for letting me know that if I decide to create my own comic book that I have the artistic license to make it “verbose or wordless, serialized or self-contained, funny or tragic, color or black-and-white.” I really needed you to let me know that.

Okay, I’m also being kind of mean because she insulted my favorite part of comic books, the campy sound effects. “Biff! Bang! Pow!” are not trite, thank you very much. They’re awesome.

Women In Refrigerators = bad ass. Okay, so being me I have to have at least one point of disagreement, so I’ll get that out of the way. Did no one actually think about the fact that women in general are statistically more likely to be sexually assaulted then men? Which means, by default, that female characters would also be more likely to be shown as sexually assaulted. There’s also the fact that men can’t have babies, so of course the female characters are going to be the ones that deal with magical insemination, and miscarriage. This isn’t sexist, it’s realistic and people are stupid. As for more super heroines being depowered, that’s just because women don’t need super powers. Without ‘em we’re still pretty much better than men with them. (Which is probably why Batwoman is now a lesbian. Yay feminism?)

If I didn’t already know what I was going to be for Halloween this year, (Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction - post needle injection, of course.) then I would totally have picked an obscure super heroine from the list, post horrible injury. Could’ve been epic.