GLBT Pride 2012: Thoughts and a superhero wedding!

So, after several years of missing it, I finally got to PRIDE this year.

It was much more fun than I had last time.
This was a surprise, since many of the people I hoped to run into were nowhere to be found. CLCC (City of Lakes Crossgender Community) didn't appear to even have a booth, much to my dismay.
But I did run into my old friend Debbie Davis, and we had a brief but lovely chat. Pleased to see her doing so well.
As always happens, there was a spate of upcoming events that sounded intriguing. Listened to some truly fun music, but I neglected to get the name of the band, or the stage they were on!
I was surprised at how much the atmosphere had changed. When I first came out, I found the queer communities very divided and almost hostile to one another. Then as I got more involved, that attitude appeared to dissipate.
It came and went in waves. Last time I was at PRIDE, there was so much of it, coupled with rampant corporatism, that I was put off going back for some time.
This year I had the opposite experience.
I don't know if it was the day and time I went, the mood I was in, the people I happened to run into, but this year I experienced none of that. Nothing but universal acceptance and everyone in a good mood!

 I heard some really good music, but I neglected to get the band's name or even the name of the stage so I could look it up later. Ah well, so be it.
I had only planned to stay till about 2 and then meet my summer students for a possible film outing. But then I stopped by the Gaylaxicon booth, and had a number of really pleasant chats. A very pleasant bear asked me if I was interested in stopping back around 3 PM.
"What's happening at 3?"
"We're re-enacting the X-Men gay wedding!"
So what the hey, I thought I'd hang out for it.
Making my way back around to the booth, I discovered that they were handing out copies of the comic to be used as scripts, courtesy of our friends at The Source Comics & Games in St. Paul (thanks, Nick!). These are the fine folks who are so helpful and work so hard on Spring Con and the one day Fall Comic Book Party, and who were so instrumental in the success of the CBLDF booth (more on that later this week).
Anyway, I went to the wedding!
Here's what it looked like in the comics:

And here's what it looked like live.

Some great folks having a great time.
All celebrating three things that mean so much to me: superheroes, comics and love.
The other person shooting video said he'd e-mail me the group photo I was in, and that he'd post it with the video soon, but I've seen none of either.
Still.
If I have the money, and am caught up on my personal obligations, I think I'll try to take in Gaylaxicon. It sounds like fun.
The news at the booth was that Guest of Honor Wendy Pini had bowed out for health reasons. However, they were trying to get P. Craig Russell!
Wow. If they get him, I'm definitely finding a way to go.

However belated it may be, I hope you all had a Happy Pride!

Best Comics of 2011 no. 4: Kevin Keller/ The Simpsons

Intending to quickly finish these, since circumstances have made me postpone them for more than two weeks.
Next up is a doubleheader.
First, an Archie treat: Veronica Presents Kevin Keller.

I've been doing a lot of research and academic writing on Archie Comics lately. Coupled with current events in the company, this has renewed my interest in the formerly tame comics.
What current events?
There's been a fair amount of talk about Archie comics of late, largely due to the dueling lawsuits of the company and its former CEO, Nancy Seiberkleit.
Whether any of these suits have merit or not, it does need to be said that within the rather rigid confines of the Archie brand, Nancy took some big chances that paid off very well. The stories got more interesting, despite the lack of tension required in the plucky Horation Alger meets Henry Aldrich world of Riverdale.
To that end, we had the two Archie Marries storylines, the Day in the Comics Shop mini that paid homage to the company's history in a rather fun way, and the current Archie Meets KISS mini.
Oh, and Kevin Keller.
As gay characters go, Kevin is rather innocuous, but makes up for it in two ways.

First, he's supposedly named after a gay porn star, according to a friend who is, ahem, an occasional consumer of same.
Second, he's got guts.

And style.

 The storylines have addressed significant issues, including politics and marriage, in a slightly watered down Archie fashion. And I find it both laudable and amusing that there's a gay character getting his own book from Archie Comics, the company that championed the Comics Code Authority to the end.
Dovetailing on this is The Simpsons No. 183.

This is a swipe at numerous Archie conventions accumulated over seven decades of stories, beginning with Archie no. 1.

This fun Simpsons issue includes swipes at The Archies, Sabrina, Captain Pureheart, and so many more staples from Archie's history. While Simpsons parodies sometimes feel forced, this one works. Random pages on point posted below.

While Archie is usually rather mundane, the line has evolved a substantial history and has taken a lot of chances (relative to their wholesome mission statement) in recent years. These issues are worth your time.
Next: Best of 2011 No. 3, a blessing and a curse from Allah

Top 10 Comics of 2009: # 3: Sandman: the Dream Hunters

In spring 1973, a Marvel anthology title, Amazing Adventures, debuted a storyline extending the concepts of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The story of the same title concerned the Martians returning to Earth and winning the war (a concept revised even further in the syndicated TV series of the same name from the late 80s/early 90s). The Martians had human gladiators engage in arena combat for their amusement. What should have been a silly space opera was redeemed by Don McGregor's smart characterization and by the art of relative newcomer P. Craig Russell.

Russell, who trained formally in painting at Ohio State University and apprenticed under 60s comic artist Dan Adkins, bought a delicate line and visual flourishes reminiscent of the Raphealites to his work. His fascination with opera, which resulted in numerous comic adaptations of operas, also showed in his staging of the work.
35 years after that run, Russell is established as a comics master. Some of his most successful collaboartions have been with Neil Gaiman.
This year, Russell adapted Gaiman's story Sandman: The Dream Hunters.

Spread out over four issues and recently collected as a HC, this is an adaptation of a Sandman story  published in HC years ago as an illustrated text, with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano.

This delightful story involves a fox who falls in love with a monk. Knowing her love will remain unrequited unless she acts, she takes her case to the Lord of Dreams, who...

But that would be telling. The book is in print and well worth a trip to your bookstore, comic store or library.

When the book was first published, admirers scurried to find the original Japanese fairy tale. Gaiman subsequently revealed that there wasn't one. No big scandal, as he never claimed there was!

My admiration for Gaiman and Russell notwithstanding, I was a bit nonplussed at first to see this. The original was fine, why adapt?

But as was the case with Russell's GN adaptation of Gaiman's Coraline, the images add a new dimension to the story, a welcome one that does not detract from the original.

 

 

 

And hey, it's P. Craig Russell. An artist who I've admired for decades, and the first out gay comics artist in the mainstream.

The old saw that a picture is worth a thousand words is dead wrong. Great pictures, like these, telling great stories, leave me wordless in reverent apprecitation.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Comics # 2 will be written. Or it won't, but you'll be able to read it anyway.

The Princess and the Princess?

Okay, I confess I'm quite excited about Disney's return to traditional feature animation.




However.
Snow White: boy gets girl. Sleeping Beauty: boy gets girl. Little Mermaid: boy gets (fishy) girl. Beauty and the Beast: (fuzzy, scary) boy gets girl. Hunchback of Notre Dame: (handsome) boy gets girl. Lady and the Tramp: boy gets girl.
Okay, that last one is just too wonderful for words.
Great stories all, but isn't there more than one note to played in the symphony of LOVE?
The closest animation has come to gay issues is the Showtime series Queer Duck. There are gay characters in Drawn Together, currently in rerun on Logo, which also has a gay anime' series and Rick and Steve, which is puppet animation a la George Pal.
But it's mostly pretty bad animation. It's what the great Chuck Jones called "illustrated radio", for the most part. Also,most of what is out there is pretty guy-with-guy centered.
There are a great many gay male stories in anime', and much about transgender cahracters, but few lesbian stories. Also, call me a snobbess, but something about the visual style of anime' leaves me cold at times. Not that I don't love Tezuka, but I'd rather read it than watch it.
I like traditional Western animation. And I'd like to see a braver use of the art form.
There are beautiful and sensual stories of men and men, and women and women, and people everywhere on the gender and sexuality spectra, hooking up for physical pleasure, affection and just plain sharing life.
Some studio is missing a bet by not trying to tell a genuine love story about GLBT people in good animation.

Ignatz!

Time to explain where the title comes from, part 3.
Ignatz is the mouse of the cat-and-mouse love/hate duet of Krazy and Ignatz in Krazy Kat.
3/4 of a century ago, George Herrimann created an iconic minimalist text in comic strip form that draws on primal aspects of love and fear.
When one first reads Krazy Kat, the usual reaction is "meh". But on extended exposure, one usually agrees with the popular perspective that it's the best comic strip ever done, possibly the best that ever will be done.
By blurring Krazy's gender in the strip, sometimes referring to Krazy as "he" and other times as "she", Herrimann established one of the first gay relationships in comics. This is wildly debated, but does need to be mentioned in passing, so to speak.
Whenever I want to remind myself how much can be done with this art form, I read Krazy Kat and just sit in wordless joy.