Articles by elayne-riggs
Sun Apr 13, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending April 14, 2008
Five days and counting!
I've printed out the NYCC panel schedule but I don't feel nearly ready for this coming weekend. Stay tuned to these pages to find out where you can locate your favorite ComicMix people, including the ones who wrote these columns this past week:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #61: Money
- Dennis O'Neill - The Four-Color Answer #60: On Beowulf and Catechism
- Me - It's All Good #60: The Way The Music Died
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #61: Things That Suck
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #61: The Way We Were
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #24: Two Yen, Joe!
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #52: Harlan Ellison, Norman Mailer and the Underdog
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #52: Skipalong Rosenbloom
So, it's going to be a weekend of questions like "why did they schedule the Black Panel opposite Bryan Hitch's spotlight and the Jenna Jameson 'kick ass' fiasco," isn't it?
Wed Apr 9, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
The Way the Music Died, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #60
The older I get, the more there is to keep track of. I realized this some time ago; part of being a grown-up, particularly if you're on your own, is making hard choices. When I moved out of my parents' house, I suddenly had to consider expenditures like rent, food, cat litter... and something had to give.
It wasn't going to be my zine, INSIDE JOKE was my baby and my outlet and my connection to like-minded folk, and I knew that'd take up the majority of my disposable income. (See, in those days you couldn't self-publish for free like you can do today with blogging and so forth, so those of us who tended to be responsible about our hobbies knew enough to apportion x-amount of dollars that we knew we'd never see again due to printing and postage costs, even if we charged subscribers the requisite buck or two for each issue.) And I couldn't give up my books, I needed something to do on the subways. I just can't stare into space, even wearing a Walkman. So music was what went by the wayside. Not kicking and screaming, just sort of fading away.
I'd chosen my hobbies. And reading and writing are activities for which I need silence, which is why to this day it irks me when religious wackos and wandering troubadors come traipsing through the subway car in which I happen to be sitting. (Why do I always get the ones with the bongos? And honestly, religious wackos with bongos are just not going to convert a lot of people, ba dum bum.) Music seemed too important to be treated as background; it demanded my aural attention in the same way reading demands attention from my eyes and imagination. And I just couldn't spare the awareness any more.
Sun Apr 6, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending April 6, 2008
Salute to a cinematic legend
Hollywood icon Charlton Heston is no longer with us. Cineleet has a nice overview of his roles in three classic sf movies, but of course he was so much more, both on the screen and in real life. Whatever one might think of his politics, the fact that he and his now-widow Lydia were married for 64 years is enough to earn my respect and admiration. As April is National Poetry Month, feel free to add your poetic thoughts about Heston in the comments section, and don't forget to check out this past week's ComicMix columns:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #60: Breaking The Mirror
- Dennis O'Neill - The Four-Color Answer #59: The Writes of Spring
- Me - It's All Good #59: The Oppression Olympics
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #60: Finishing Therapy
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #60: The Race Card
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #23: Osamu Tezuka's Dororo
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #51: The Rights Stuff
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #51: Mel Brooks and Woody Allen and Drew Friedman
Godspeed, Chuck - not that you need it, you probably have the inside track after all those Biblical epics...
Wed Apr 2, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
The Oppression Olympics, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #59
As much as I'd like to use this column's title to segue into a discussion about Beijing and Tibet and Stephen Spielberg and so forth, that's not my chosen subject matter this time. Although I reserve the right to swipe my own header again once the XXIX Olympiad gets going. No, the title refers to the phenomenon of all kinds of different people believing, and loudly proclaiming, that systemic discrimination against the particular group with which they identify (and sometimes, if they're "concern trolls," against a group of which they're not a member but with which they've chosen to sympathize to the point of condescension) is "the last acceptable prejudice."
A few weeks ago, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wrote and presented his now-famous speech about dealing with questions of race as though citizens were, you know, adults. As hoped for, it started a lot of interesting discussions, as adults who'd been speaking about race and gender and privilege all along were once more thrust into the consciousness of others who hadn't. One of the more interesting comments I read came from a Native American rights activist who was disappointed that the speech seemed to define the issue of race as, once again, mostly a black and white divide. While I believe Obama did include Asians and Latinos in his speech, I'm pretty sure Native Americans received no mention. However, I'm not prepared to ascribe this omission to deliberate exclusionism; any orator knows there's a point where your rhetorical cadence gets bogged down by too many "and"s.
And yet, that commenter had a point. When we're talking about rights and justice for everyone in this country, it's not a good idea to leave out an entire series of cultures that flourished on this continent before Europeans came along, many of which have managed against all genocidal odds to continue to exist. Nor is it a good idea to belittle those same cultures in bad analogies. Even speeches about racial divides can't "win" sometimes. It's a tricky tightrope we all walk, ever since the days when "politically correct" was defined as "well-meaning (usually white) liberals who bend over backwards so much to include everyone that they wind up saying nothing at all." There were jokes about breaking down identity politics into such absurd subcategories one wound up worrying about catering to one-eyed left-handed lesbian Inuit vegans. At some point, most of these subcategories must be assumed to exist for purposes of receiving social justice, without needing to be the recipient of shout-outs at every single turn.
Sun Mar 30, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending March 30, 2008
Outed like a lamb!
Wow, March seemed to fly by even faster than February, didn't it? But opening day is finally upon us, allergy season is already in full swing and ComicMix columnists are nipping things in the bud as usual:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #59: To Boldly Go Backward Again
- Me - It's All Good #58: In My Ears and In My Eyes, Part 2
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #59: Absolutely Free Speech
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #59: The Story of O 2 (kinda)
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #22: A Random Walk
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #50: It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #50: "Prowling" - Juggling the Blues with the Comics
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #41: A Time Warrior to India
Congrats to Martha and Michael on their columns reaching the Big Five-Oh! Presumably Dennis O'Neill is on spring break, and we look forward to his return.
Wed Mar 26, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
In My Ears and In My Eyes (Part 2), by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #58
So as I was saying last week, by the time I hit college I went full-force into my first round of Beatlemania. I must have frequented my share of Beatlefests (as noted in the comments to last week's column, there's one coming up in NJ this weekend), but really only remember going to one because that's where I got Harry Nilsson's autograph, on the cover of his album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (for a reason I no longer remember, I have Jimmy Webb's autograph on the back). From what I hear, they're still going on. But the Beatles started influencing pretty much everything else in my life.
I named my fictitious corporation Pen-Elayne (wordplay on "Penny Lane" and "the pen of Elayne") Enterprises, which pun I borrowed again for my weekly comics reviews Pen-Elayne for Your Thoughts and my current blog Pen-Elayne on the Web. Penny Lane really became my theme song; I'd always envisaged something I can only describe as God's Hidden Camera following my every move, so the line "And though she feels as if she's in a play, she is anyway" really resonated. Particularly now with Google's Street View!
Having already gone through two years of Shakespeare in high school, I was primed to expand my Anglophilia, and the Beatles were a perfect outlet for my fascination of all things English. That interest has since culminated in marriage to an actual Englishman who, although four years my junior, is probably more knowledgeable about Beatles trivia than I'll ever be, has hundreds of bootleg songs, keeps up on all the news items of what's happening with their music, and generally makes my head spin. Oh, and even though Robin is a southern country boy, we like to goof around with pretty bad imitations of Liverpool accents (okay, his is better than mine, as you'd expect). Through Rob I also met artist Alan Davis and my lettering goddess Pat Prentice, who both share a birthday with Sir Paul. I seem to remember Alan introducing me to Pat by joking that she "sounds like Ringo," since she's also from Mersey-way. (She doesn't, although I find a female Liverpool accent as cute as a male one.)
Continue reading In My Ears and In My Eyes (Part 2), by Elayne Riggs ›
Sun Mar 23, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending March 23, 2008
So let it be written, so let it be done!
I'm still recovering from my yearly giggle-fest as my husband and I spent last night MST-ing the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, which for some reason was shown on Easter weekend rather than Passover weekend. Always remember, Eliezar, he passed over your holiday! So many great quotable lines in that film. ComicMix columnists have been serving up their own quotables this week as well:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #58: Being A Sport
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #58: Our Comics Community
- Me - It's All Good #57: In My Ears and In My Eyes, Part 1
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #58: Faith Based Economics
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #58: The Story Of O
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #21: Fairy Tail
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #49: Cheeseburger in Paradise
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #49: Superhero Movie Review
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #40: 30 Days of Wakeful Nights
Here at ComicMix, love is not an art to us, it is life to us!
Wed Mar 19, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
In My Ears and In My Eyes (Part 1), by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #57
Last week we were casting about, as usual, for something interesting to watch in the 100-200 channel range of our cable system. The local PBS stations were hip-deep in pledge drives, which meant 20-minute breaks between segments of shows that would otherwise have been enjoyable but which we'd mostly seen anyway by this point. (Did anyone else think it just a tad disconcerting that WLIW, the Long Island-based PBS station, could afford to send its two high muckety-mucks out to broadcast from Innsbruck during the pledge breaks for Visions of Austria, but made sure to keep reminding us that Viewers Like You made all that possible? Oh great, I should give to their station to sponsor their executives' vacations?)
The few writers' strike-delayed shows that we usually watch on the networks haven't begun running new episodes, and in their place were the same tired crop of cringeworthy reality shows. Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are turning into FOX-lite (but that's another column). And how many times can I watch the Ghana episode of Tony Bourdain's No Reservations? (Not including subconscious reruns during REM sleep, approximately ten, but not consecutively; give me a break, Travel Channel!)
So it was that we found our way up the dial to a delightful programme all about amber hosted by "Dickie-Love's" brother David Attenborough -- and now little impressionable ol' me suddenly wants some new amber earrings -- which we then followed up with a Biography Channel episode on The Beatles' Wives, which itself preceded two recent Paul McCartney concerts, one from 2005 and the other from 2007, on that same channel, both horribly chopped from the originals. And suddenly there I was, fascinated all over again.
Continue reading In My Ears and In My Eyes (Part 1), by Elayne Riggs ›
Sun Mar 16, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending March 16, 2008
Con-tractually obligated!
Can it be? Is convention season well and truly underway? No, I'm not ready yet! Need job first! Hello to everyone at WizWorld LA, LunaCon and everywhere else I can't afford to be. At least I and our other weekly ComicMix columnists can engage you from the comparative safety of our home keyboards:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #57: Hope versus Fear
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #57: Generic Respect
- Me - It's All Good #56: Confessions of an Armchair Feminist
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #57: Sex and the Citizens
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #57: The Moment of Truth
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #20: With the Light
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #48: Money changes everything
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #47: Blues Poetry: Rough-And-Raw
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #39: Gattaca Tales
Forecast for the last half of March: more pavement-pounding, but at least it won't be in the snow any more!
Wed Mar 12, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Confessions of an Armchair Feminist, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #56
Last Saturday was International Women's Day, the first IWD where women in the United States were facing the very strong possibility that an Estrogen-American would become their next President -- and the equally strong reality that lots of people (mostly men, but a surprising number of women as well) are committed to seeing that she never breaks that ultimate glass ceiling. Not because they (like me) don't necessarily consider her the best person for the job; it's not like the Presidency has been a meritocracy for a long time. But because many harbor a deep and irrational resentment of the very idea of a woman in power, particularly wielding the type of nigh-imperial power that the current administration and its cronies in the other two branches of government have ceded to the executive branch.
This resentment, nay, this seething hatred, has manifested itself in some scary ways that us second-wave feminists could have sworn went out with disco. One prominent pundit speculated that Senator Clinton was "pimping out" her daughter for working on her campaign, like pretty much every adult child of a candidate from Mary Cheney to the Romney boys has done. That same daughter was once the butt of a particularly nasty joke from the current Republican Presidential candidate, who made the sexist jape a two-fer by including a reference to the "manliness" of Janet Reno. These days it's former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who receives remarks about how cadaverish she appears (funny, she looked fine to me when I saw her on The Daily Show last month).
Of course, the progressives who once espoused Stokeley Carmichael's adage that "the only position for women in [the movement] is prone" aren't immune from sexist remarks either. Folks who should know better choose to attack right-wing lunatics like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin not on their lunacy but on their looks. Even for some on "our side," biology would appear to be destiny.
And while a part of me seethes at all this with the same rage I felt in high school and college every time I heard "women can't" do one thing or the other, with no further explanation needed but that we were women -- I also confess that a part of me just doesn't care any more. After fifty years of this stuff, I'm more than suffering from outrage burnout.
Continue reading Confessions of an Armchair Feminist, by Elayne Riggs ›
Sun Mar 9, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending Mar. 9, 2008
The answers, my friends, are blowing in the wind
Where does the time go? Why does nobody complain about having an extra hour to sleep in the autumn? And does anyone really feel the need to answer rhetorical questions? Our weekly ComicMix columnists may not have the answers, but they still make for good reading on a truncated Sunday:
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #56: Son Of Filling The Big Shoes
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #56: Primary Sources
- Me - It's All Good #55: The Lost Art of Longhand
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #56: Kim 2008
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #56: I Want To Be Like Mike
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #19: I've Got a Yen
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #47: Still The One
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #47: Allan Turner's Folklife Treasures
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #38: No, You're Outta Order…!
And don't forget our special ComicMix TV broadcast covering the midnight release of the Dark Tower comic sequel! Now can that wind stop howling please? Some of us are trying to catch an afternoon kip.
Wed Mar 5, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
The Lost Art of Longhand, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #55
8:30 AM, Bx7 bus southbound to subway: It's favored by Luddites and techies alike. Early adopter Neil Gaiman, for instance, writes all his first drafts this way, using various fancy pens. (Me, I use my Uniball blue roller 'cause it's what I carry in my pocketbook.) It's physically draining, at least if you're not used to it. It requires both concentration to keep your hand steady, and a heightened awareness of your surroundings, particularly on moving vehicles. It certainly isn't for everyone; I'd rarely recommend it for myself. But a pad of paper is a lot lighter and more flexible than my laptop, and not having the distractions of checking email and blogs and playing online games forces me to focus on the here-and-now of completing this week's column. Besides, I need the practice in transcribing relatively illegible handwriting.
My Dad had beautiful longhand. Which amazed me, because he was naturally left-handed which was a no-no in hyper-superstitious Romania in the '30s. His schoolteachers beat that left-handedness out of him -- not entirely, I think he still shaved and did a few other things lefty, but he became right-handed for purposes of writing. I inherited his "sinister" gene, but by 1960s secular America children were allowed to retain such peculiar proclivities.
8:55 AM, "1" train southbound into Manhattan: Unfortunately, I never inherited Dad's longhand flair. I can add a few flourishes here and there, but only if I slow down and write very carefully and deliberately, and that starts my hand aching again. I figure I'm okay as long as I'm just legible enough to make out a check (I'm mired enough in the 20th century to still use checks on occasion). Damn, I have to put this away now, someone just sat down next to me and I can no longer comfortably use my right arm to prop this up...
Continue reading The Lost Art of Longhand, by Elayne Riggs ›
Sun Mar 2, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
ComicMix Columns for the Week Ending Mar. 2, 2008
Coming in like a lion...
I love March, particularly the way the winds blow in such promise for the year to come. Spring training, buds on the trees, the hope that we can avoid any more snowstorms, it's all fraught with positivity. Even our weekly ComicMix columnists seem to be more enthusiastic than usual (particularly Michael Davis with his Obama-at-SDCC teaser):
- Mike Gold - Whizzy's Wazoo #55: Filling The Big Shoes
- Dennis O'Neil - The Four-Color Answer #55: The Super-Hero Car
- Me - It's All Good #54: I, the Jury Duty
- John Ostrander - Tales From The O-zone #55: Other People's Sandboxes
- Michael Davis - Straight, No Chaser #55: The Silly Season
- Andrew Wheeler - Manga Friday #18: The Luck of the Draw
- Martha Thomases - Brilliant Disguise #46: If I Had a Hammer
- Michael H. Price - Forgotten Horrors #46: Still More Modern Art
- Ric Meyers - DVD XTra #39: Human Giant Blood+
Spring forward, fall back into bed now...
Fri Feb 29, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
Wonder Woman: Objectified and Subjectified
Collector participation encouraged
Here's a good illustration of the difference between subjectifying and objectifying comic book characters.
On the one hand, io9 reports on a paper published by feminist comics blogger Karen Healey (who's writing a dissertation on the fan culture of American superhero comics) and Terry Johnson on the Comparative Sex-Specific Body Mass Index (BMI) in the Marvel Universe and the “Real” World.
As you might expect, the BMI range for the fictional women is much less varied and more unrealistic than the other three groups (fictional men, real men, real women), particularly if these characters are supposed to be athletes. You can think up any in-story explanations you want, but they only cover up the limited range (or imagination) of many artists who draw these characters.
On the other hand, there's DC's iconic female character Wonder Woman. Seen here as portrayed by Lynda Carter and as part of the newly-revealed Alex Ross cover for the book The Age of TV Heroes, to be published in November by Two Morrows, WW has certainly had her share of objectification and questionable storylines, even from her inception.
But she's also been more of the subject of her own story than any other female comic book character, inspiring not only countless feminists but avid collectors as well. One of them, Kyall Coulton, has created an entire site of WW memorabilia, The Ultimate Wonder Woman Collector's Guide. The site currently features over 1200 items, the largest online index of its kind, as well as short biographies of participating collectors. And the categories! Everything from original art to jewelry, bedding, food items, clocks and watches, even cookie jars! (If you're seeking contributor Joel Thingvall's famed WW gallery of original and commissioned art, it's accessible from the links page.) You can even enter a trivia competition to win a memorabilia pack!
Recent coverage by the NY Times and other mass media can only inspire more collectables to come.
Wed Feb 27, 2008 — by Elayne Riggs
I, the Jury Duty, by Elayne Riggs
It's All Good #54
It's been a hell of a winter for me. Under the Lennonesque heading of life being what happens to you whilst you're busy making other plans, the latest in a series of stumbling blocks that have come between me and my ability to participate more in ComicMix's news section -- including the still-ongoing detox from my former job (which kept calling me back in through the end of last year), the nearly-full-time search for a new means of income, and a nasty lingering flu – was last week's call to jury duty. It was inevitable, but given my temporary unemployment period I'm glad it happened when it did. It's been over four years since I last served, and now it'll be another four years at least until they call me up again, which should gladden any potential employer.
I had no excuse to postpone this, but I still wasn't looking forward to it. The one time I've actually served on a jury was on a criminal case, a murder trial, and we wound up convicting the accused, during a time when the death penalty was still in effect. The knowledge that I and my fellow jurors may have contributed in sending this guy to the electric chair, however guilty we may have thought him for his crime, unnerved me to the point where I don't think I can ever serve again on that sort of a criminal case.
I was lucky in subsequent call-ups, in that most of the cases where my name came up for the jury pool were civil ones. One was settled before it commenced to trial, and I got out of the pool for the other one, I think, because I knew Cheryl Harris. You see, folks, you never know when your comic book connections will come in handy! Cheryl and I had both held the Membership Secretary position on the Friends of Lulu National Board, and saw each other socially besides, ever since our CompuServe days. But in this case I had to admit, during the initial jury questioning from the attorneys and the judge, that I also knew that she worked in the Bronx County court system, and so I was excused back to the jury assembly room and my name wasn't picked again during that round.
In those days I think the typical jury service, if you weren't picked to go on a case, was three days, and you got $15 per day which the state sent to your employer and your employer deducted from your paycheck, or something like that. It works differently with each state, and the rules seem to change all the time. As a matter of fact, this round even the venue changed.
