Ironman does the B&B

The "boob and butt" pose, that is. A rare example of the male of the species.

Love Pillow Butterflies

"Love Pillows" are basically body pillows with covers showing sexually posed manga/anime characters.  Usually women posed in explicit ways.

As per Amazon rules the vendors have to cover their nipples and genitals.  but I find it hilarious that they chose to do so with little blue butterflies.

It makes it look like these unfortunate women are being molested by gangs of pervert butterflies.

NSFW ADULT links 

• Bestfyou® Decorative Body Pillow 
• Bestfyou® Decorative Body Pillow Anime To Love Ru
• Bestfyou® Decorative Body Pillow Anime One Piece

Not so Wonderful...

Under-appreciated Villainesses: Dansen Macabre

Dansen Macabre is a Marvel Comics villain in search of an artist who appreciates her pin up perfection.  I mean most comic books turn even the most unassuming female character into a burlesque nightmare.  But Dansen Macabre is a Kali-Cult, exotic dancer who hypnotised men with her routine.  Also she dresses in what appears to be a totally form-fitting white catsuit and a black ribbon so dynamic it puts Coca-Cola's trademarked logo to shame.  And the depictions of her are uninspired, at best.

If I have to put up with phallocentric comic books they should at least be able deliver the one thing they are mean to be good at--the objectification of fantasy women.

BOOK REVIEW: Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics by Hillary L. Chute

My taste in female-authored comics is pretty obvious from the sidebar of this blog.  Colleen Doran (A Distant Soil), Wendy Pini (Elfquest), Donna Barr (Stinz, Desert Peach) and I am also a fan of women embedded in the production line comics (such as artist Lily Renee Phillips).  But I have never been much drawn to the rather sordid memoirs of the overtly feminist artists covered in the book I am reviewing today (Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Phoebe Gloeckner, Lynda Barry, Marjane Satrapi, Alison Bechdel).

My first impression of Graphic Women was not over-whelmingly positive, it is written in the convoluted, polysyllabic jargon that is the academic version of purple prose. And it did not help that, to my eye, Chute simplifies some things that are complicated and complicates some things that are simple.  For example she frequently attributes the different levels of critical such of Husband (Crumb) and wife (Kominsky-Crumb) to sexism.  While there is no doubt that sexism plays a role it is a complex one in which commercial appropriateness and the development of associated skills are involved--not just the crass biases of critics.  Meanwhile the blocking of Gloeckner's work from spaces like public libraries has less to do with its complex and uncomfortable themes than the depiction of erect penises which has always been a problem whether the context is high art or Playgirl magazine.

There is good and proportional use of excepts from the works being discussed, embroidering upon their composition, meaning and context. It seems to me that Chute varies in how much she illuminates the various author-artists. For example, she is revealing in discussing Kominsky-Crumb, and settles into a more plain-spoken and almost journalistic tone in the chapter on Marjane Satrapi. I think the best balance is struck in the final chapter on Alison Bechdel where the complexity of Chute's language and of the subject are best married together. 

 

But there seems to be a very persistent self-involved strain such as when Alison Bechdel asserts that cartooning is "inherently autobiographical"--when the format as a whole clearly leans more towards the fantastical. Overall, it seems to me that the non-literary graphic novel and comic communities aware of and while not embracing, certainly respect, the literary and memoir aspects of the format.  however it seems that the reverse is not true.  The bold fantasies mainstream of comics is almost completely absent from considerations of the context for the author-artists in this volume and their intricate and neurotic disclosures.

Overall, after reading this book, I did find their work of these female comic artists rather more appealing when 'taken from behind' in terms of motivation, biography and wider social context--than when Ii had taken them at face value. I was convinced, for example, for the first time that Kominsky-Crumb's naive style is a fully deliberate choice--albeit one I still find off-putting. I did however use my limited funds to buy a copy of Kominsky-Crumbs graphic memoir and of Persepolis.  On the whole I would say this book is dense, informative and useful in understanding a rather isolated but important strand of graphic novel development, but that this book embodies rather than explains its peculiar and irritating pretensions.

Cross-posted to Feminist Review

What do Batman and Teddy Roosevelt have in Common?

So today my writer's groups failed to group (and, I suspect, also failed to write). Fortunately their lack of cohesion was apparent by Friday night. So I slept in, and then I got up and went to Borders (where we meet) anyway.

This was not entirely because I am a creature of habit--although I am, but it was too late to cancel the dog walker, so I thought I might as well go somewhere. It was also because I had a Borders gift card. And I have learned that I need to spend these things before I lose them, so--like--within about a week. (If you could see my apartment you would understand).

I had decided that I wanted to buy a copy of Persepolis by whats-er-name. I looked around hopelessly in the graphic novel section. I wasn't sure where to look because comics are shelved by character name, not author.  But anyway, I can't find it. So I went to the helpful staff person who told me it was shelved as memoir, upstairs.

So, there I am upstairs.  The equally helpful staff member upstairs tells me that all of the sections in Borders are shelved alphabetically by author, except one.  Because biograpy and memoir is shelved by the name of the subject of the book.  So if someone wants a biography of Teddy Roosevelt they can see them all together in one place. Those of you who were paying attention will know he wasn't quite right about that. 

I wanted to read Persepolis because I am trying to get over my bad attitude about these feminist memoir comics that are being embraced by the pretentious classes, who continue to think comic books in general are sexist pap of interest only to mouth-breathers with a spandex fetish and a single digit IQ.  Finding it being given special treatment (being shelved by genre not format) didn't help with that.