Ay Literar Quarterly October 2015 X Vol. 5. No. 4

S pecial Focus: The Edge of Difference in Comics and Graphic Novels Essays Guest Editor: Tom Foster Out from the Underground by Susan Simensky Bietila Gender, Trauma, and Speculation in Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas by Regina Yung Lee Finder; Fan Culture and in this issue ­Non-Compliance T hird World by Taylor Boulware

Grandmother Magma Trying On Sex: Tits & Clits Comix X by Roberta Gregory

Carla Book Reviews

S Jennifer’s Journal: The Life peed M of a SubUrban Girl, Vol. 1 by Jennifer Cruté c

N Ava’s Demon e il by Michelle Czajkowski Supreme: Blue Rose by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore Ms. Marvel, Volumes 1/2/3 created by G. Willow Wilson and “Since its launch in 2011 The Cascadia Subduction Zone has emerged as one Adrian Alphona of the best critical journals the field has to offer.” h Jonathan McCalmont, February 18, 2013, Hugo Ballot Nomination Featured Artist $5.00 Carla Speed McNeil Managing Editor Ann Keefer

Reviews Editor Nisi Shawl Vol. 5 No. 4 — October 2015 Features Editor L. Timmel Duchamp Guest Editor: Tom Foster Arts Editor Kath Wilham Essays Out from the Underground h $5.00 by Susan Simensky Bietila 1 Gender, Trauma, and Speculation in Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas by Regina Yung Lee h 5 Fan Culture and Non-Compliance by Taylor Boulware h 9

Grandmother Magma Trying On Sex: Tits & Clits Comix by Roberta Gregory h 14

Book Reviews Jennifer’s Journal: The Life of a SubUrban Girl, Vol. 1, by Jennifer Cruté reviewed by S. Qiouyi Lu h 18 Ava’s Demon, by Michelle Czajkowski reviewed by Jamie Kingston h 20 Supreme: Blue Rose, by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay reviewed by Cynthia Ward h 22 The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore reviewed by Karen Burnham h 24 Ms. Marvel, Volumes 1/2/3, created by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona reviewed by Tili Solokov h 26

Featured Artist Carla Speed McNeil h 28

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Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode n y Out from the Underground by Susan Simensky Bietila Graphic novels of all kinds have Code: no immorality, no nudity, no se- reached unparalleled popularity and va- duction, profanity, perversion, or rape. riety. While traditional superhero com- No excessive violence, and no use of ics have continued to proliferate beyond the word “horror” or “terror” in the title. the serial magazine to film and video Nothing ghoulish — no vampires, were- games, alternative or indie “comix” have wolves, or zombies. And to top it off, converged with political cartooning and institutional authorities — police, judges, illustration to produce a wide variety government — had to be depicted as to- The graphic novel’s of fiction and nonfiction in the form of tally good and incorruptible, while any growth is exponential and drawn books. Many writer/artists, who opposition was by definition criminal. international… had for decades written and drawn short- Every story’s obligatory conclusion was a polar reversal for the er stories for anthologies or as serials, are capture and punishment of the evildoers.­ genre since the 1950s, now publishing full-length books, and Cold comics for the Cold War. The when Comic Books were these books are sold in fine bookstores Comic Code’s clout was financial, like censored…. and shelved in libraries. Graphic novels the Hays Code governing major studios’ are included in school curricula, starting motion pictures or the Comstock Law’s with the widespread use of Art Spiegel- postal policing. Distributors would not man’s Maus, to teach the Holocaust, and sell publications unless they bore the the author/artists of these works are be- Comics Code’s seal of approval. ing included in mainstream museum col- In the world of high art, when I was lections and gallery shows. The graphic an art student in the mid-60s, New York novel’s growth is exponential and inter- Abstract Expressionism reigned. Paint- national, with Japanese manga and an- ing for galleries and museums dominated i ime also having a worldwide following. American art. In the ’50s, McCarthyist College courses in sequential art or the kangaroo courts on college campuses fired 1 serial drawn narrative are offered in Art and blacklisted faculty for leftist sympa- and English departments. This trend is thies. Art Departments and Schools of a polar reversal for the genre since the Art were “cleansed” of political content 1950s, when Comic Books were cen- as well as regionalism, and narrative itself sored, blamed for juvenile delinquency, was shunned. Art that told a story, even and burned in bonfires. Many threads as allusion, was derided as propaganda or converged to bring Graphic Novels, par- illustration, as “commercial art,” not wel- ticularly those critical of conservative so- come in fine arts’ polite society. Despite The wave of radicalism that grew throughout the cial mores, into acceptance. this, the drawn narrative persisted as a re- 1960s saw the inception Growing up in the 1950s, I was not sistant strain. But politics and social com- of myriad underground allowed to read comic books or watch mentary were radically severed from the newspapers,…a venue cartoons on TV. My parents thought American art canon. It took decades and for wildly transgressive they were lowbrow, a bad influence. multiple social transformations to thaw comix…. America was propagandized with psy- this Cold War chill. chiatrist Frederic Wertham’s much-­cited The wave of radicalism that grew 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent. throughout the 1960s saw the incep- Congressional hearings concluded that tion of myriad underground newspapers, comics contributed to juvenile delin- both countercultural and political, united quency. Comic books were accused of by their refusal to obey authority. These having a covert agenda of promoting il- papers were highly visual and provided licit sexuality and political subversion… a venue for wildly transgressive comix, to children. And yes, there were book which violated each of the proscrip- burnings — bonfires of comic books. tions of the Comics Code with flam-

Comic book publishers then estab- boyance, by publishing crude, rude, and lished official censorship, the Comics grossly sexual sequential art. P­ropelled Cont. on p. 2 n Out from the by ­opposition to the Vietnam War, Alison Bechdel) or biography (Isadora Underground by Black, women’s, and gay liberation Duncan by Sabrina Jones). Many graphic movements, rock music, and the coun- novels, such as Maus, cross fictional and (cont. from p. 1) terculture, the constraints of the comics nonfictional genres and refer self-con- industry were blasted away. Despite this, sciously to other works and genres of the Comics Code was not completely art. They span straight representational abandoned until 2011. illustration to the fantastical invention Sequential narratives Sequential narratives are as old as the so possible in this medium, history and are as old as the cave cave paintings, painted tepees, or Illumi- journalism to myth, metaphor, and fancy. paintings, painted nated manuscripts. My political author/ There are books without words, includ- tepees, or Illuminated artist friends describe our historical ing The Arrival by Sean Tan, Flood by manuscripts. progenitors as Hogarth (A Rake’s Prog- Eric Drooker, and The System by Peter ress, 1732-33), Goya (Disasters of War, Kuper, and literary adaptations, such as 1810-1820), Rodolphe Topffer (Histoire Peter Kuper’s version of Franz Kafka’s de Mr. Jabot, 1835), and the proletarian Metamorphosis and the new Classics paintings and prints by Robert Henri, Illustrated series. John Sloan, and the Ashcan School at The current wave of graphic nov- the start of the 20th century. Iconic sto- els differs from comic books not only ries without words by Frans ­Masereel in content but also in creative method. (Passionate Journey, [Belgium] 1919) Mainstream comics publishers use the and Lynd Ward (God’s Man, 1929) have industrial model of Taylorist assembly been highly influential stylistically as lines, where there are separate writers, well as thematically. editors, pencilers, inkers, colorists, and The early 20th-century cartoons and letterers, a strict hierarchy of specialists. illustrations by Wobblies (the IWW-In- This model is profit-driven and has a Many graphic novels, such dustrial Workers of the World) modeled history of exploiting the artists and de- as Maus, cross fictional H the artist/activist’s role, creating art, po- nying creators’ rights to the ownership of and nonfictional genres and refer self-consciously etry, and songs in the midst of bloody la- their artwork. In contrast, contemporary 2 to other works and genres bor battles in the US. Another influential graphic novels are often the product of of art. locus of art activism was in post-WWI an individual artist/writer. Germany, where the ironic and satirical Self-published zines are a precursor art of comrades George Grosz and John of this creative process. A phenomenon Heartfield was created in close proxim- from the ’80s and ’90s to the present, ity to the barricades during the failed emerging out of the longer history of the 1919 German Revolution. They went on fanzine, riot grrrl, third-wave feminist, to create scathing work critiquing the queer punk, and personally-expressive or rise of fascism. So the participation of autobiographical zines grew out of the artists in radical social movements and d.i.y. (do it yourself ) anarchist youth cul- the making of art as part of their activ- ture. Zine fests are held in many cities. ism has precedents. Small copier runs or xeroxed booklets Book-length visual storybooks for are a subcultural phenomenon, not be- adults became a recognized form in the holden to publishers or stores. 1970s. Unique pioneering works like The personal zine morphed into the Will Eisner’s A Contract With God and autobiographical graphic novel as a large Spiegelman’s Maus established a genre. sub-genre. Works like Marjane Satrapi’s Today we have many subgenres: in non- Persepolis or Craig Thompson’s Blankets …contemporary graphic fiction, graphic journalism (Days of De- have been described as “coming of age novels are often the struction Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges nostalgia…delayed validation for kids product of an individual and Joe Sacco, Disaster and Resistance who felt different,” by Milo Miller, co- artist/writer. by Seth Tobocman); graphic history founder of QZAP, the Queer Zine Ar- (the anthology Wobblies!-A Graphic His- chive Project. tory of the Industrial Workers of the World, A comix anthology magazine in its

ed. Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman); 36th year, World War 3 Illustrated is

and graphic autobiography (Fun Home, located at the intersection of the sub- n by Eric Drooker genres of graphic journalism, history, The WW3 artists work in other forms, i fiction, and autobiography. Will Eisner do illustration, stage sets, banners, write, called this sub-genre “protest literature.” and teach. Their art appears in museum 3 (Disclosure: I am part of the rotating collections and galleries. Some of the collective that draws and co-edits the artists do spoken word performance ac- magazines.) Many stories have auto- companied with slide projection and biographical roots, telling stories that live music; some do puppet shows, paint remain faithful to the feminist slogan murals, illustrate magazine covers, or do “the personal is political” and unfold film animation. Many of the group now Many stories have analyses of injustice and resistance as have numerous individual books pub- autobiographical roots, we have experienced them. The initial lished: Peter Kuper, Seth Tobocman, telling stories that remain core of the magazine’s artists was in- Eric Drooker, Sabrina Jones, Sandy faithful to the feminist volved in the Squatter’s Movement on Jimenez, Kevin Pyle, and others. As the slogan “the personal is New York’s Lower East Side, a neigh- graphic novel has become even more of a political”…. borhood facing gentrification and police global phenomenon, WW3 has included violence. This story is told in co-founder work direct from the recent uprising in Seth Tobocman’s book War in the Neigh- the Mid-East and occupation of Egypt’s borhood (2000), scheduled to be rere- Tahrir Square. In a global context, the leased. Several WW3 Illustrated artists graphic novel in its more image-inten- went to New Orleans after Katrina and sive and wordless forms can transcend drew stories about the aftermath of the written language. flooding in the Lower 9th ward, as they Despite the WW3 collective’s success, volunteered in the recovery. Collective both as individuals and as a group, they members were, of course, part of the Oc- receive little note in the US histories of cupy Wall Street movement. comic, comix, or graphic novels. One A retrospective traveling art show, must wonder if the motivation is due to

“Graphic Radicals” was followed by a media conservatism, or merely avoid- full-color art anthology out last year. ance of controversy as a remnant of the Cont. on p. 4 n Out from the ­McCarthyite separation of politics and flat, with contorted angry faces. The rea- Underground art in the US. son for the demonstration is not identi- As I said earlier, I am clearly not the fied or even hinted at. The only sign held (cont. from p. 3) person to write about the history of the says “Thank You, Superman.” This is not more commercial superhero comics, but what a demonstration looks like. It is the I recently learned a bit about epic battles opposite of the leveling ethic and direct between the political Right and Left in democracy of any of the contemporary this genre. Evidently, Fox News has at- mass movements. Critics cluelessly la- tacked Superman as American culture beled it a “Black Lives Matter” demon- Fox News has attacked stration, despite no one being depicted Superman as American wars play out in the comics. On the left culture wars play out in is the appropriation of the Guy Fawkes with the raised arms (“Hands Up, Don’t the comics. mask from Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta Shoot”) gesture this movement made by the Anonymous group, and on the iconic and the fact that most of the right, Frank Miller, creator of Batman: crowd is white. For the grand finale to The Dark Knight Returns, blasts the Oc- this hollow narrative, Superman punches cupy movement. a cop. The demonstrators are silent and I bought my only Superman comic bland. Distorted and co-opted, this im- ever on August 2, 2015, because on the agery is a recognition of political comix cover Superman is standing defiant in gi- in the most mainstream of comics. Seth ant chains, locked-down a la Earth First, Tobocman’s Illustrating the Revolution at protecting people sitting down in the the Occupy.com website is the real thing, street from bloodthirsty riot squad police. art true to Occupy in content and form. The demonstrators are drawn stiff and Unfortunately, all too few people are privy to the art being imitated.

…on the cover Superman H is standing defiant in giant chains, locked-down a la Earth First, protecting 4 people sitting down in the street….

Susan Simensky Bietila has been a politicaI illustrator for the New Left Press, the 2nd Wave Femnist Press, and pirate Xeroxed political zines. She has written and drawn by Nicole Schulman stories and co-edited issues of World War 3 Illustrated, including a 2010 retrospective, and co-curated Drawing

Resistance, a d.i.y. traveling

art show. n y Gender, Trauma, and Speculation in Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas by Regina Yung Lee

What would it be like if speculative in Anglophone fan communities.1 Fan- fiction imagined the future by reimag- tagraphics Press published Matt Thorn’s 2 ining gender, sexuality, trauma, and translation of The Heart of Thomas in memory, as well as new technologies 2012, making it possible for Anglophone readers to experience this foundational and their social impacts? Moto Hagio’s 3 1974 manga The Heart of Thomas is one boys’ love text themselves. Embodying such speculation. This graphic novel tra- the pure spiritual love of shōjo tradition, verses but does not reinforce a binary rather than the explicit sexuality of later manga, The Heart of Thomas rests firmly construction of gender by decoupling in the tradition of girls’ comics while si- gender, sexuality, and sexual behaviors multaneously expanding its borders. from heteronormative entanglements Reading The Heart of Thomas requires within the world of the text. Simulta- setting aside existing constructions of neously, The Heart of Thomas presents its boy and girl, as a necessary precursor to readers with visual and narrative spec- the speculative leap. As Kazue Harada tacles deployed not to describe the so- argues in her dissertation, Hagio’s delib- cial impact of technological innovations, erately gender-fluid presentations queer but to show the working out of radical heteronormative and essentialist read- transformations in its characters’ subjec- ings of masculinity and femininity from tive interiorities, the remaking of death the text’s opening pages. In a similar way, into life again and again. In the process, scholar Mari Kotani links The Heart of it embodies a distinct employment of Thomas to Hagio’s later, more generically speculative works (Star Red, etc.) by nam- This graphic novel i speculative techniques that both link it traverses but does to and distinguish it from the traditions ing Juli’s and Thomas’s meditations on not reinforce a binary 5 of Anglophone speculative fictions. Christian myth as forms of speculation construction of gender…. The Heart of Thomas was part of a revo- about guilt and atonement. Kotani con- siders the text’s overlapping superficially lution in the genre of shōjo manga. An fanciful settings a form of speculative es- initial commercial flop for its magazine trangement, allowing clear consideration publisher, which specialized in stories of what might otherwise be too close to for elementary school girls, The Heart of see well. These separations permit read- Thomas gained considerable acclaim af- erly distance, while inviting speculative ter its republication in book form. The interpolation into the text’s persistent designation shōjo manga, or serialized ambiguities. The text’s major fictive en- girls’ comic, is a Japanese media market- gagements thus remain ­accessible not ing distinction, a genre whose products 1 Scholars remain divided on how close the connections are between the boys’ love historically reinforced a set of socially Reading The Heart of constructed expectations and meanings phenomenon, especially in its networked amateur incarnations, and Anglophone ho- Thomas requires setting for that specific gender and time of life. moerotic of slash fanfiction. See the 2013 aside existing constructions Shōnen-ai, or boys’ love comics — stories special issue of Transformative Works and of boy and girl, as a about beautiful boys in love with each Cultures v. 12, edited by Kazumi Nagaike and necessary precursor to the speculative leap. other — do not immediately suggest read­ Katsuhiko Suganuma, dedicated to transna- tional boys’ love fandom studies, for more ing material made for adolescent girls. information. But the publication of The Heart of Thom- 2 Thorn has noted a few errata on the text’s as inaugurated boys’ love as girls’ comics, Amazon comments page. 3 See Thorn’s translator’s introduction, and inciting many ongoing transformations. James Welker’s review of The Heart of Thom- This subgenre offers a complex com- as in Mechademia, for more on the text’s parison and contrast to the homoerotic publishing background, historical contexts, dynamics of the “slash” fiction produced and multigenerational reach. Cont. on p. 6 n The Heart only through identification but also be- I’ve been thinking for nearly of Thomas cause their initial strangeness permits a six months. (cont. from p. 5) certain distance: a gap to alleviate trau- Thinking about my life and matized anxiety, or an incitement to leap my death, right into the symptom. and about a certain friend. It would be easy to dismiss the plot’s operatic improbabilities, the characters’ I’m well aware that I am but an adolescent child. huge starry eyes, or their grandiose state- ments on love and death, as ridiculous. And so I know that this However, this impulse fades with the re- boyhood love alization that the text contains multiple will be flung against some sexless, visual and literary attempts to grapple unknown, transparent something. with historically feminized traumas, in- …the text contains This is not some simple gamble. cluding violent experiences of emergent multiple visual and literary And the problem is not that I attempts to grapple with sexuality. A central example is young loved him. historically feminized Prefect Juli’s abuse by senior student traumas…. Siegfried, presented primarily through He must love me. its traumatic repercussions: the memo- He must. ries of that experience trap Juli in cycles of corrosive guilt and self-hatred, ex- Right now, for all intents and pur- acerbating existing problems of racist poses, he is dead.…(5) objectification and religious obsession This ambiguous passage frames the into something approaching psychosis. death of 13-year-old Thomas Werner, and Whether he can be saved, and what that may or may not record his last thoughts. would mean, forms one of the text’s sev- Thomas’s death catalyzes the emergence H eral primary narrative arcs. The character of deep past traumas in the lives of his designs, which draw from the symbol- schoolmates Oskar, Erich, and Thomas’s 6 laden visual lexicon of shōjo manga, both beloved Juli, and the purpose of Thomas’s heighten this approach and threaten to death ultimately proposes itself as the trivialize its weighty content. But the text’s primary enigma. But the epigraph delicacy of the characters’ faces, their demonstrates divergent readings through fluttering clothes, the profusion of roses, its ambiguous narration; the tension lies pass through surface-feminized appeal between a speculation on the strength to land in a viscerally anxious sensuality, of love and a defeatist self-abnegation. …the tension lies between their flamboyance a passage toward the Reading the epigraph in Thomas’s voice a speculation on the text’s dark psychological heart. yields his clear-eyed yearning for that strength of love and a death to matter: by forcing a confronta- The twining subjective experiences of defeatist self-abnegation. tion with the undeniable tangibility of the boys at Schlotterbach Gymnasium Thomas’s love for him, Thomas hopes to combine to question the primacy of the heal Juli from his long trauma. The re- individual in the speculative encounter. jection of the “simple gamble” seems to Beyond its reformulations of gender, The refute a traditional definition for spec­ Heart of Thomas also comprises shift- ulation, the bidding of currency against ing protagonists and recursive narrative a randomly desirable future. But it may loops, including a central character who also indicate a rejection of the gam- dies in its opening pages. The resultant ble’s simplicity, for what Thomas (if confoundings of voices and points of the speaker is Thomas) is gambling for view, of death and life, immediately call is Juli’s future, as well as the ultimate into question who is narrating this text: meaning of his own sacrifice. Reread- ing the same text in Juli’s voice dramati- cally transforms its import, especially in

terms of referents for death and love. For

Juli, love itself is the problem; it led him n to his own “death,” and the ashen exis- These violent scars are visually refer­ tence he leads now. Juli’s violent intro- enced throughout the text. Oskar’s re- duction to sexual (vs. “­spiritual”) desire sponse to Juli’s paucitous letter home at the hands of his abuser Siegfried has accidentally reveals the scar on Juli’s degraded his trust in his own body and chest: “a deep scar, like a twisted grin…” the words of those around him; whether says the text (94); the chapter title page he can be restored forms an important emphasizes the moment’s gravity and narrative arc. The epigraph is eventu- frames Juli’s ensuing psychological break. ally revealed as an excerpt from one of The top of page 99 shows Thomas’s face Thomas’s letters, a sacred relic that pits with interference, as if through static, Juli’s exoticization and Thomas’s understanding of love against time, or wind; the white background of hypervisibility eventually Juli’s understanding of damnation. It is, his horizontal panel gives way to swirl- render him a target, not a as Juli correctly interprets, a challenge, as ing brushstrokes, a visual link with the person, a clear presentation well as a confession. background of the preceding page. The of how destructive In the meantime, Juli lingers in dark- repeated visual of Thomas’s face draws a minoritization can be. ness, a state that holds a crucial visual faint, mostly vertical line down the page, and thematic role throughout The Heart while Juli’s own face, in profile, describes a of Thomas. For example, while the major- tortured arc leftward, as if thrown down- ity of Schlotterbach’s students are ste- ward by the hands clutching at his face reotypically light-haired, Juli is dark. He and throat. The lit cigarette on the up- undergoes constant racist discrimination per left is clearly the source of the white, from his grandmother, clearly a relic of starlike splotches across the whole page, Hitler’s Germany, and must also deal forming a descending arc that eventually meets Juli’s screams, then intersects with with Siegfried’s exoticizing gaze: “Let his restlessly dreaming face. That face, at me guess. Your father’s Greek… Such the end of all this motion across the page, lovely black hair” (498). This distinction looks disturbingly as if it has just landed i follows Juli throughout the narrative as after a hard fall. The triple descents braid an unwanted, intrusive presence; read- around Juli’s central statement, a cry of 7 ing these images from Juli’s perspective pain framed in the jagged white shapes is to undergo his racialized visual differ- that characterize the cigarette’s lit stub ences, and the unwanted attentions they as well. The white starlike splotches re- consistently gain him. Juli’s exoticization peat throughout the text, almost always and hypervisibility eventually render him in the background to Juli’s thoughts. By a target, not a person, a clear presenta- the end of the text, their relation to Juli’s tion of how destructive minoritization own scarring is evident. In Juli’s case, he is can be. This undercurrent renders Sieg- unable to think past or move beyond the …he is unable to think fried’s overtly sexual attentions as con- arc of the violence of abuse as the totality past or move beyond the currently racist, an aspect of the text too of sexuality. He no longer trusts his body arc of the violence of often overlooked. As well, Juli’s outfits or its reactions and cannot rely on his abuse as the totality of are reliably depicted in stark black; be- mind or will — his “heart,” which is bro- sexuality. yond visual distinction of his figure from ken. The swirling circular visuals and star- the rest of the boys, his clothes mark Juli like splotches of his breakdowns indicates as racially and psychologically different the latent circularity of his reasoning: that from the other boys; as he might say, he Siegfried punished him, as he deserved; is of a different kind: “bad seed” (500), that the abuse was his own fault; that “unworthy” (507). The clothing also cov- there is no redemption or pardon pos- ers the physical evidence of his trauma sible. That his damnation has been com- and thus is never voluntarily loosened or plete for some time. removed. They remain, like the twining By dying, Thomas shatters the links stories of Thomas and Erich and Oskar, between one world and the next, break- protection around Juli’s emotional core ing the circle, forcing Juli into con- and the devastation of his physical and frontations with his own demons, and spiritual traumas. proposing (through his last message) that Cont. on p. 8 n The Heart the act is symbolic of his love. This final love does, and therein lies the depth of of Thomas confession brings Juli back to the chaos its speculation. What every reader must and madness of Juli’s relationship with ask is the question at the center of the (cont. from p. 7) the older student, Siegfried. In bring- text: what is the heart of Thomas? Love, ing Juli back to this moment of choice, and its gentler cousin empathy, requires Thomas reneges on time itself: by his a jump not into a linear future, but side- actions he forces Juli to relive the trau- ways, into the murky depths of the un- matic events again — providing the only fathomable other. In this construction, possibility for breaking through the be- love does not involve self-identification, wildering cycles of repetition that char- but presence. Thomas’s atonement for acterize the memory of trauma.4 That is, Juli’s missing heart, caught in the recur- through his sacrifice, Thomas gives Juli sive temporality of trauma itself, breaks back his future, making a way for Juli through (as he did) the borders of panels The Heart of Thomas to reclaim a sense of wonder around the and minds and eventually life itself in or- is, at its core, a set of possibility of love. The Heart of Thomas der to move the dead back to life. speculations about love is, at its core, a set of speculations about From within his symptoms, Juli con- itself… love itself: what it looks like, how it acts, tends with these objectifying represen- what it can do in the world, even after tations of himself. In the aftermath of death. Love functions as a principle of Siegfried’s abuses, he comes to believe futurity, even in the face of its seeming them. This is also a part of his trauma. foreclosure. But The Heart of Thomas’s There is no room for what if or what speculative elements do not tend to would it be like in this closed system, de- produce the effect of critical distance ceptively logical in its circularity. Only on readers’ norms; in contrast, Hagio’s repetition is possible, retracing the scar text relies on what look like a series of deeper each time. The subjunctive can- estrangements to bring about profound not exist there. But Thomas’s death H affective affiliations between the readers breaks open Juli’s heart again, introduc- and the text itself. These estrangements ing thereby the first in a series of painful 8 do not constitute a technological or skips, decelerations, and detours that all device-based alteration of social mores slowly lead out from the closed circuit of and capacities. But these subtle dislo- the traumatic event: an equivalent shock cations of gender, national belonging, that disrupts Juli’s swirling disaster of sexuality, and perhaps death itself pro- self-image. In turn, speculation offers an duce a near-cathartic passage through alternative, a request to reconsider going the dark early onset of human sexuality, down the same road; it is Thomas’s gift in all its terror, confusion, recrimination, to Juli, in the hopes that Juli can finally and self-hate — even if the reader did move past the abuses he has suffered, all A genuinely different not experience that onset in that way. those people (including himself ) who outcome requires Thus, the estrangements required in the have reduced him to a set of usable traits, speculation: creative activity joined to the reading the text eventually result in the a sullied or wasted impurity. The Heart of reconception of ethical speculative leap — not from one society Thomas requires the reader to speculate, relations between to another, but from self to self. along with Juli, that instead of these recognizably different A genuinely different outcome requires things, he might be worth dying for, be- beings…. speculation: creative activity joined to the cause he is who he is. Juli must then see reconception of ethical relations between himself first outside of all those previous recognizably different beings, in charting contexts and ideas — the racism, the sex- a way out of a brutal morass. Put another ualization, the abuse, the guilt, even the way, speculation is the path, the way be- perfection of his student veneer — and tween here and anywhere else. Thus, time accept that none of those defined him does not heal trauma in this text. Only to Thomas, or were the basis of Thomas’s 4 See the work of historian Dominick LaCapra love for him. Seen in light of these inter- and literary scholar Cathy Caruth for more mingled traumas, the words of Thomas

information on the cyclical nature of trau- Werner’s last letter gain resonance, their

matized experience. n demand to recognize and accept love Panel. WisCon 39. May 23, 2015. echoing across the entire text: Madison, WI. To Juli, one last time. Nagaike, Kazumi, and Katsuhiko Suganuma, eds. Transnational This is my love. Boys’ Love Fan Studies. Special This is the sound of issue of Transformative Works and Regina Yung Lee my heart. Surely Cultures 12 (2013). http://journal. is a Lecturer in the transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/ Department of Gender, you must understand. (11) article/view/504/394 Women & Sexuality Bibliography Thorn, Matt. Introduction. The Heart of Studies at the University Thomas. By Moto Hagio. Trans. Thorn. of Washington, where Hagio, Moto. The Heart of Thomas. Trans. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2012. Print. she teaches media studies Matt Thorn. Seattle: Fantagraphics and feminist theory. Her Welker, James. “Review of The Heart of Books, 2012. research interests also Thomas [Tōma no shinzō].” Mechademia. include speculative fiction, Harada, Kazue. Japanese Women’s Science http://mechademia.org/reviews/ transnational media, Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the james-welker-review-of-the-heart-of- and participatory online Representation of Gender. Dissertation. thomas-toma-no-shinzo-by-hagio- communities. 2015. http://openscholarship. moto-trans-matt-thorn-5202015/ wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=1442&context=art_sci_etds With thanks to Mari Kotani, whose Kotani, Mari and Kazue Harada. “Japanese scholarship and commentary at WisCon 39 Fans Discuss The Heart of Thomas.” first drew me to The Heart of Thomas, and to Kazue Harada, whose translation so clearly showed her own devotion. y Fan Culture and Non-Compliance by Taylor Boulware My first geeky tattoo acknowledges tattoo, in imitation of the tattoos forcibly i my devotion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, applied to female prisoners in the comic. the TV show I credit with rescuing me Non-Compliant is a label I eagerly em- 9 from a period of intense turmoil and brace, and getting it tattooed on my left depression. My second is for Battlestar ring finger — where I will never again Galactica, in recognition for another wear a ring from a man — is, to me, a take-no-shit feminist SF character, Kara powerful assertion: of solidarity with the “Starbuck” Thrace. My third, the most women of the comic and the empowering “literary” of my textually-inspired tat- resistance they represent, in celebration toos, is for The Handmaid’s Tale, Mar­garet of such a stunning and meaningful work, Atwood’s speculative fiction nov­el that and as a reminder of my own rejection of …one of the most imagines a regressive society in which patriarchal ideologies as I struggle to live remarkable and fascinating women deemed socially unfit are ren- within and against them. responses to Bitch Planet is the legion of readers dered “walking wombs” for the politically Kelly Sue, as she prefers to be called, in who… have enthusiastically and religiously powerful. order to emphasize her place as a woman embraced the comic and all Bitch Planet, the new comics series in a male-dominated industry and to it stands for with a defiant from writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and be more approachable to readers, is re- NC logo tattoo…. artist Valentine de Landro, inspired my nowned in comics for a bevy of feminist latest fandom tattoo: the blocky, geomet- feats and creative achievements, includ- ric letters NC, which stand for “Non- ing the spectacular reinvention of Carol Compliant.” And I’m not the only one. Danvers as Captain (rather than “Ms.”) In fact, one of the most remarkable and Marvel, a reworking of the character that fascinating responses to Bitch Planet is has inspired the Carol Corps, a cosplay the legion of readers who, starting im- phenomenon that allows women fans to mediately after the late 2014 debut, have produce a feminist presence in superhero enthusiastically embraced the comic and comics and to introduce their own varia- all it stands for with a defiant NC logo tions on the character by m­ ultiplying Cont. on p. 10 n Non-Compliance and diversifying the female body im- of prisoners from the ACO, who are (cont. from p. 9) ages that the character can embody. Her conspiring to use the creation of the latest work, Bitch Planet, has been de- team as an opportunity to assassinate the scribed by its publisher, Image Comics, leaders of the New Protectorate Council, as a “women in prison sci fi exploitation who will be in the audience. riff,” and as “Margaret Atwood meets Beautifully drawn and colored, and Inglorious Basterds.” Combining satire fully taking advantage of the comic form of patriarchal ideology and everyday to create and populate a richly detailed misogyny with a healthy, deeply satis- speculative future, Bitch Planet offers fying dose of unadulterated rage, Bitch searing, radical indictments of patriarchy Inconvenient women — Planet imagines a near-future society of and misogyny only barely — if at all — any woman who does not meet the narrow standards gender conservatism and male domina- exaggerated from our current moment. of feminine beauty and tion that hyperaggressively dehumanizes Over the course of the first four issues, behavior as determined women and regulates female bodies and the contours of the series’ narrative arc by men — are deemed behavior in the service of male interests are drawn in tandem with critiques of Non-Compliant…. and profit. Inconvenient women — any modern American sexism that enliven woman who does not meet the narrow every page, every panel, creating an over- standards of feminine beauty and behav- whelming, visceral sense of the pervasive ior as determined by men — are deemed pressures and disciplinary mechanisms Non-Compliant and sent to the ACO, of patriarchal control. a high-security women’s prison on a The first page of issue #1, for exam- neighboring planet (dubbed Bitch Plan- ple, presents us with a nameless, faceless et in common parlance), where they’re woman rushing through a crowded street, sentenced to “live out [their] lives in her path and the scene around her littered penitence and service” to the Fathers of with orders: OBEY, APOLOGIZE, the New Protectorate. YOU’RE FAT, WE GET BY WHEN H The series draws on exploitation films WE COMPLY, BECAUSE HE SAID and revenge fantasy for its generic inspi- SO — along with ubiquitous advertise- 10 ration, but its plot is more reminiscent ments for beauty products: “Eat less, of The Hunger Games, with a more radi- poop more,” “Buy this, it will fix you.” cal and subversive thrust. Bitch Planet’s The woman navigates this minefield twist on the propagandistic televised with practiced ease, and what makes this battle combines the fervor and aggres- opening both borderline-mundane and sive masculinity of American sports cul- deeply unsettling is just how normal this ture with the capitalist thirst for ratings scene of psychological and emotional as- and profit brought by spectacularized sault is to both her and to us. Turning violence, in the form of the New Pro- the page, we learn that the woman is a tectorate’s Duemila. Alternatively called voice actor rushing to work to record Beautifully drawn and Megaton, the sporting event “is one of ACO inmate indoctrination messages, colored…Bitch Planet many modern descendants of calcio fio- this time in the persona of an elemen- offers searing, radical rentino, a 16th-century Italian sport,” an tary school teacher lecturing her fellow indictments of patriarchy early version of what is now called Amer- women about their evilness. and misogyny…. ican football. In this version of the game, As they are suspended in hypersleep “teams may be comprised of any number on their journey, the women, stripped of players, but their combined weight naked and rendered immobile, are told can be no more than 2000 pounds”; “all by this recording that, “Earth is the Fa- manner and degree of grappling is al- ther. And your father has cast you out… lowed, [and] the only rule is that it must for your trespasses, your gluttony, your be one-on-one,” with judges awarding pride, your weakness, and your wicked- advantages based on “athleticism and ness are such that you are beyond cor- showmanship” (DeConnick & De Lan- rection or castigation. Like a cancer you dro, Issue #4). Within this setting, the must be excised from the world that

plot revolves around the creation of the bore you.” Of course, the “weakness” and

first all-women Duemila team, made up “wickedness” of which these women are n guilty include anything that challenges on her self-worth, cannot escape from the New Protectorate. Such offenses in- their deathgrip and is doomed to a life clude murder, assault, insubordination, on Bitch Planet. Kam and Meiko, along and political incitement, but also “aes- with the other inmates we’ve met so far, thetic offenses,” “wanton obesity,” “sexu- Violet, Fanny, and Renelle — are also al deviance,” “gender terrorism,” “marital each non-compliant in their own ways, withholding,” “ego dysphoria,” “nym- each finding ways to resist the system phomania,” “cyber infidelity,” “mockery,” that seeks their destruction while be- “patrilineal dishonor,” something called ing forced to live within in. They see the This totalizing force of “capillary disfigurement,” and my per- games as an opportunity for further re- patriarchy (along with sonal favorite, “criminal literacy.” sistance and rejection of the system that its patron and bedfellow, When the inmates arrive at the has imprisoned them; but they know capitalism) ensures that ACO, they are greeted by the Model, that they must, at least partially, consent no facet of life remains a pink-hued hologram of an idealized, to the power that seeks to destroy them unsullied by its ugly hyper-sexualized woman programmed in order to resist it. They must, quite lit- cruelties…. to chastise and lecture the prisoners at erally, play the man’s game. every turn. She reminds them, with the This totalizing force of patriarchy condescension of the men who created (along with its patron and bedfellow, her, that “non-compliance is not recom- capitalism) ensures that no facet of life mended.” This leads one new inmate remains unsullied by its ugly cruelties, to remark, “I hate that bitch,” and she’s leaving those of us who seek to struggle answered by another, “We all do. That’s against it with precious few options. This why they use her.” This exchange, and recognition of patriarchy’s inescapability the Model herself, are just two brief resonates powerfully and taps into the examples of the series’ preoccupation deep frustration and anger so many of us with exposing one of the most potent have with the misogyny and sexism that weapons of patriarchy: how women, in have wounded us in countless ways. It i countless ways, are manipulated to be helps to explain, I think, the embrace of complicit in the oppression and regula- the Non-Compliant label on the part of 11 tion of other women. This unflinching readers; why, so many of us have chosen examination is handled with deft nu- to permanently mark ourselves with this ance, never blaming women for partici- particular sign of defiance. pating in their own domination; rather, My fandom tattoos are four of my this is one of the primary ways in which nearly two dozen pieces, a hodgepodge the comic reveals the insidious nature collection that I’ve gathered over the past of patriarchal oppression, exposing not fifteen years. I’ve long been fascinated by just the bodily violence it inflicts, but the the relationship between fandom and psychological and emotional violence tattoos, particularly for women, whose …tattoos are a way to as well. It conveys, with aggressive, no- participation in both activities is fraught reclaim my body from the apologies prowess and vibrant creativity, with all manner of sexism and dismis- grips of patriarchal forces the devastatingly powerful and insidi- sive stereotyping. For me, tattoos are a that seek to regulate and ous forces of patriarchal control and way to reclaim my body from the grips discipline me…. the impossibility of not, at least to some of patriarchal forces that seek to regulate degree, participating in one’s own op- and discipline me, and fandom/geek tat- pression and the oppression of others in toos are an even more aggressively resis- order to survive, a point emphasized by tant act: not only will I mark by body as I the politics of language implicit in the choose, I will do so in celebration of texts title of the series, ambiguously balanced that dominant culture deems unworthy between reclaiming and reproducing a of such devotion and emotional attach- sexist term. ment, of such permanence. Even the most non-compliant char- I wanted to know more about my fel- acter, Penny Rolle, who adamantly low Non-Compliant tattoo-bearers and refuses to hate her fat, black body de- their reasons, to see how my own moti- spite the patriarchy’s constant assault vations might overlap with others’, and Cont. on p. 12 n Non-Compliance what that might tell us about the comic, and identify with the Non-Com- (cont. from p. 11) tattoos, and how women grapple with pliant concept, I didn’t want to in- living inside a system that profits from sult those who would see me more their subjugation and self-hatred. With as the one who would brand than the formidable reach of social media- as one who would be branded…. based comics fandom at my disposal, [But] when someone asked Kelly I was struck by the as well as some signal-boosting tweets Sue about a male getting the NC variety of experiences and from Kelly Sue, I was able to get in con- tattoo and she gave it her blessing, relationships to tattoos tact with six of my NC comrades and I decided to get mine. – S. amongst the people with asked them to share their experience Once I read the issue all about Pen- whom I spoke…. reading the comic and their decision to ny Rolle I just knew I had to have get the NC tattoo. [an NC tattoo]. I’m a very heavy I was struck by the variety of ex- person myself and…I’m good with periences and relationships to tattoos that. People have trouble with that. amongst the people with whom I spoke: They think fat people should want four cisgender women, one cis man, and to be thin, and if you don’t, then one person who identifies as gender neutral. Their ages range from 18 to 43, obviously you’re just crazy and some with dozens of tattoos like myself, need someone to tell you what is and some with only a couple; Dani can right and attractive. So as soon as proudly claim his NC tattoo as his first. I read about Penny and how she Their histories and relationships to com- felt about herself I cried to see that ics are varied as well; Liza, 23, and S., 43, Kelly Sue understood that, and have read comics almost daily for years; then I got angry that others don’t Carolyn, 18, reads comics frequently and seem to get it. Then I started plan- got her NC tattoo four days before high ning the tattoo.… [It’s] validation H … permanently bearing school graduation; Cory, 33, and Dani, of who and how I am, and a bit of a the NC logo signifies their 30, both read a handful of series regu- sneer at the patriarchy and societal 12 commitment to remaining “norms” that say that women can’t true to themselves…. larly; Bitch Planet is the first comic that Hek, 43, has ever read. be trusted to be in charge of their I was also deeply moved and im- own bodies. – Cory pressed by their generosity of spirit, en- These Non-Compliant readers also thusiasm, thoughtful self-reflection, and share the common experience of imme- astute insights. Despite their various diately recognizing and identifying with differences, they all spoke to the chal- the comic’s radical politics. Given the lenges and pain of being marginalized, mixed reactions I’ve received over the dismissed, and otherwise oppressed by years in response to my geeky tattoos, I the power structures and ideologies that was also curious about how others have Bitch Planet seeks to subvert and destroy, experienced explaining to non-geeks and how permanently bearing the NC and non-fans the meaning of theirs, es- logo signifies their commitment to re- pecially a Non-Compliant tattoo, which maining true to themselves and resisting is disruptive of norms surrounding both expectations: tattoos and comic books: These Non-Compliant This tattoo is my way of reminding The tattoo artist was asking me readers also share the myself, in a concrete manner, that about it and kinda shamed me for common experience of it really is OK to not be the person getting a tattoo for a comic book immediately recognizing you are expected to be. – Hek and identifying with the that only had one issue out. I told comic’s radical politics. I’m unabashedly feminist in every- him I had never related to a single thing I do and say, so this is an- piece of work more, and even if other extension of that. – Liza for some terrible, horrible reason, I hesitated before deciding to get another issue never came out, it

mine because I am a straight white would still mean the world to me.

American male. As much as I feel He was kinda a dick. – Liza n It’s funny because all my friends act as radical and meaningful as Penny’s of a female persuasion have had unwavering self-love. She continues: almost uniformly positive “that’s No, what gets me is that they think fucking awesome” responses, and they get what “non-co­ mpliant” the only shit I’ve gotten has been means; they don’t. from guys. One guy…in response And the thing is, as proud as I am to me explaining where the design of this book, as much as it means came from [said], “I hope [the to me, I know something that series] lasts a long time, for your these marked women know too: it sake.” – Carolyn isn’t about the book. The confusion, dismissal, and derision It’s not about adoration of Here’s how I articulated it in our the comic, although we do these women describe, while infuriating, newsletter and I think it bears re- adore it, wholeheartedly; is not all that surprising. While tattoos in peating: I can’t speak for the real …it’s an act of resistance, general may be gaining wider social ac- world men and women who have a reclamation of bodily ceptance, and while geek and comic book chosen to get the tattoos for themselves. autonomy and agency, culture has become more mainstream, I’m sure their reasons are as various when the two intersect in the form of as they are, but as the co-creator of the fandom/geeky tattoos, those who bear book that uses the term in this con- them are still often disdained for their ex- text, I can tell you what I think when cessive, disproportionate response to the I see someone wearing it. To me, it “wrong” thing, ridiculed for permanently says: “I am finding the courage to be marking themselves with something as my authentic self, whomever he or she “trivial” as a movie, tv show, or comic. may be. I do not fit the box assigned Kelly Sue has been incredibly vocal to me: I am too tall, too short, too fat, and active in her support of NC tattoos. too thin, too loud, too silly, too serious, She used the backmatter pages of issue too masculine, too feminine, too pas- i #4 to address criticisms of women for sionate, too shy, too angry, too proud, having gotten a tattoo for a series that too black, too brown, too devout, too 13 hadn’t “proven” itself yet. Responding to atheist, too slutty, too frumpy, too two men on Twitter, she wrote: gay, too WHATEVER THE FUCK The “fake geek girl” accusation is IT IS that my culture will condemn none-too-subtle (if you were real me for today and I refuse to cede my geeks, gals, you’d know not to jump power. I refuse to see myself through in so fast!), but that’s not really your eyes, just as I refuse to cast that what pushes my buttons. Neither is same lens on my brothers and sisters. the incredibly patronizing implica- I will hold my head high and you will tion that women are lemmings un- support me or get the fuck out.” clear on what exactly “permanent” means, or that this is even yet an- DeConnick, Kelly Sue (writer) and De other example of men, unsolicited, Landro, Valentine (art/covers). Bitch policing grown ass women for what Planet, Issues #1 – 4. Berkeley: Image they think they should or shouldn’t Comics, 2015. do with their own bodies. Goodyear, Sheena. “Why Bitch Planet This scathing takedown is incredibly sat- Is Inspiring Women to Get Badass Taylor Boulware is a PhD isfying, but what makes the letter truly Feminist Tattoos.” The Mary Sue. Candidate in English at remarkable is her insistence on the true Abrams Media Network. June 16, 2015. University Washington, where she studies American meaning of non-compliance, and what it literature and popular means for those of us who have chosen culture. Her dissertation to permanently wear that label. It’s not is an exploration of the about adoration of the comic, although motivations and effects of we do adore it, wholeheartedly; but writing slash fanfiction. rather, it’s an act of resistance, a reclama- She has two dozen tattoos, tion of bodily autonomy and agency, an many of them geeky. n y Trying On Sex: Tits & Clits Comix by Roberta Gregory

So, what is feminism, really? Those scrambling to distance themselves from Until recently, the rich the label seem to believe they have a history of these heady good idea, but the concept of feminism times seemed to be in can get a bit complicated, even for those danger of being lost as of us who have been in the movement these daring foremothers for the long haul. Early 1970s feminism grew old or passed away, produced the SCUM (Society for Cut- their stories untold. ting Up Men) Manifesto, the short lived Wages for Housework movement, Ms. Magazine, and Tits & Clits Comix. The first issue of the latter was pub- lished in 1972 by two women artists in Southern California, Lyn Chevli and writing a painstakingly researched book Joyce Farmer. Both identified as femi- on Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevli, and Nanny nists. Both wanted an alternative to the Goat Productions. sex-and-drugs, male-dominated world The groundbreaking title Tits & Clits of underground comics that had been presents a feminist message that is thriving since the late 1960s. (Under- woman-­oriented and distinctly sex-pos- ground comics often depicted women in itive. Nineteen seventy-two was a year a “Tits & Ass” style; hence their title.) steeped in the potent brew of the Sexual H So, having never written or drawn com- ics before, they created over two dozen Revolution, and it was also the year that Anselma Dell’Olio wrote her influential 14 pages of thought-provoking, sometimes sexually explicit graphic content with essay, “The Sexual Revolution Wasn’t Our their feminist message firmly attached War.” Sex and feminism have apparently and formed a publishing company, Nan- always been ambivalent partners. The ny Goat Productions, to help bring this content of Tits & Clits’ first few issues work to the world. reflects Lyn and Joyce’s vision of feminist Interestingly, Tits & Clits came out sexual liberation. The art is sometimes just weeks before the first issue of another crudely drawn and the writing clumsy landmark title, Wimmen’s Comix, which and heavy-handed, but they deal with was published in San Francisco by the topics never before shown in the context Wimmen’s Comix Collective. This was a of an underground comic book story, us- true collective effort inspired by a small ing all the genre’s directness, deliberate handful of earlier feminist underground crudity, and dark humor. And they were comics such as Trina Robbins’ Girl Fight drawn, written, and published by women. and the It Ain’t Me Babe “women’s lib- Sex is an intimate subject, and the eration” anthology produced by Trina medium of comics itself tends to be very and the Berkeley feminist collective of intimate, too, the precise lines on paper the same name. Until recently, the rich drawing in the viewer to participate in history of these heady times seemed to the unfolding of events in a very per- be in danger of being lost as these daring sonal manner; illustrated panels progress foremothers grew old or passed away, to tell a story, and the reader interprets their stories untold. Fortunately, next the information hidden in the artwork. year Fantagraphics will be publishing a Some of the drawn lines in Tits & Clits

Grandmother Magma complete facsimile edition of every one force the reader to look deeply at some

of the 17 Wimmen’s Comix anthology is- things that could be considered strange

sues, and historian Samantha Meier is and disturbing by many. n This was true from the first issue’s first owners was dropped in 1974, and both story. In “The Menses is the Massage,” Joyce and Lyn breathed big sighs of re- Mary Multipary (a somewhat flawed lief. The incident is illustrated in Joyce though knowledgeable Earth Mother Farmer’s 1988 comic story account of type who would become an ongoing the incident, “Busted,” first appearing in character for the series) deals with both Itchy Planet Comics. She strikes a blow against poverty and her menstrual period, and Actually, during the time of the ob- the economic exploitation devises a large, phallic tampon cut out of scenity accusation Nanny Goat was still of women while having one of her kitchen sponges. She strikes very actively publishing. In 1973, the an arousing good time in the process. a blow against the economic exploita- same year that Roe v. Wade legalized tion of women while having an arousing abortion, Joyce illustrated a full-length good time in the process. All goes well educational and political comic, Abortion until she forgets to take the sponge out Eve, following the stories of five different and after several days is chased home women who arrive at a clinic on the same by a pack of hungry dogs. Undaunted, day to terminate unwanted pregnancies, she invites her women friends over for expressing a variety of emotional and a party, and they happily sit around the intellectual reactions to the information table manufacturing feminine hygiene dispensed by Mary Multipary. products of their own. The second issue of Tits & Clits also Mary also stars in two surreal tales, came out in 1973, under the somewhat one a post-nuclear holocaust story in tamer title of Pandora’s Box Comix. It which she is left alone with (and boor- contained far less explicitly drawn het- ishly impregnated by) the Last Man on erosexual activity than the first issue, and Earth, resulting in an endless stream of more consistently written stories, fea- babies and breasts that transform into turing Fonda Peters and her two sisters, penises; the other a sequence in which Glinda and Wanda. The Adventures of …it also attracted the she squats to pee in a forest and is hap- the Perfectly Permeable Peters Sisters attention of a very i pily assaulted by spring flowers that turn was a feminist parody of The Fabu- ambitious local district into very active phalluses. lous Furry Freak Brothers with a focus attorney who declared it 15 Two other stories in this issue fea- on contemporary sex and relationships obscene… ture Fonda Peters, a modern woman rather than the drug culture. Roman- who contends not only with birth con- tic Wanda moves in with her boyfriend trol issues but also with a yeast infection and begins to be treated like a servant, resulting from her many sexual encoun- resulting in a wake-up call when his cat ters. After she is successfully cured of pees on her panda. Glinda brings home a the infection (with advice from Mary woman friend who comes out as a lesbian Multipary), the last panel shows Fonda and is then bombarded with a laughably in bed enjoying the attention of no less clueless interrogation by all three Sisters, than five gentlemen. and adventurous Fonda visits a “massage The abundance of explicitly cartooned parlor for women” in a story that dis- heterosexual activity ensured that Tits & solves into a sensually drawn erotic tale Clits would find its way onto the shelves with fountains, feasts, and three hunky of the more progressive bookstores, young men. The most serious story in the along with the rest of the underground comic is also drawn by Joyce Farmer (the comics of those days. Unfortunately, it most polished illustrator of the two) and For women this was the age also attracted the attention of a very titled “An American Dream.” It’s about of consciousness-raising and ambitious local district attorney who a married-with-children woman who questioning roles. declared it obscene, resulting in the ar- sacrifices a writing career for a successful rest of the shop’s owners, the seizure of husband and the “perfect” life; the end- other titles, and a lengthy legal battle ing is grim and disturbing. As simple as aided by the ACLU. During the course a tale like this may seem now, in 1973 it of all this Lyn and Joyce learned that was exploring new territory. For women they could face arrest and heavy fines this was the age of consciousness-raising as well. The case against the bookstore and questioning roles. Cont. on p. 16 n Trying On Sex Not all of Tits & Clits’ content would (cont. from p. 15) be considered feminist by all readers. Some of the material was clearly in- tended to be controversial (children are sometimes depicted being sexually pre- cocious), some issues of race and ho- mophobia seem to be a bit clumsily handled, and some simply tossed in on a creative whim. But in the sex-and-drugs adults-only and male-dominated world of the underground comics scene of the early 1970s, there were very few women …as they undress, they exploring formerly unmentionable sub- discover, to their delight, ject matter to this extent, or this graphi- that the man is really a cally. And both Lyn and Joyce gave sex woman and the woman is education workshops at the local Free really a man. Clinic in the past, so consciousness-rais- ing was obviously one of their goals. In 1976, Joyce and Lyn returned to Even taking into account all the the title of Tits & Clits, and published problems of the decade, this publication the official second issue, the last one that reflects the freedom of the Sexual Revo- would be their sole creation. It presents a lution from a feminist point of view. A very mixed collection of shorter stories: full-page illustration by Joyce Farmer in Persephone the cat contemplates get- Issue 2 depicts a little girl playing dress- ting older, and Mary Multipary returns, up in front of a mirror with crudely ap- driving the “Clitmobile” as she delivers plied makeup and a feather boa tucked H vibrators and similar appliances to vari- in a strategic location, surrounded by ous women in need. Far from just being low-cut dresses and strappy heels. Con- 16 a frivolous sex toy story, this piece shows fronting the reader she asks, “How can Mary outlining her expansion plan with you know for sure ’til you try it on?” several employees, creating a monthly In 1976, after having a story rejected magazine, and lobbying in Washington from Wimmen’s Comix I decided to self- for free birth control. Another ambitious publish my own full-length comic book, woman, “Fanny Sparks,” leaves her office Dynamite Damsels, and was inspired by the comics created by Lyn and Joyce. They job to go into business for herself as a gave me great advice and encouragement, highly successful and very exclusive sex and I consider them my mentors. worker who retires in luxury at the age x of 30, with a woman for a lover. An older Following Issue 2, Tits & Clits became married couple fall in love all over again an anthology comic open to other wom- after a day in a swinging “summer camp Even taking into account en contributors, now reflecting a wide all the problems of the for adults,” and a progressive mom goes variety of storytelling and experiences decade, this publication out to a movie so her teenage son can by female artists and writers, even as the reflects the freedom of the spend the evening alone with his girl- concept of feminism faced challenges Sexual Revolution from a friend, only to come home to an appall- and adapted to changing lives and times. feminist point of view. ing mess best left to the imagination. A Four of my comic stories were published man picks up a woman in a bar, and they in anthology issues of Tits & Clits: num- go home together: as they undress, they bers 3, 4, and 6. Lyn Chevli, whose true discover, to their delight, that the man is art was sculpture, dropped out of comics really a woman and the woman is really to spend more time writing. She created a man. Another serious but beautifully an erotic novel and two memoirs of her drawn piece, “The Secret,” depicts the very colorful life (besides publishing adult

harsh reality of an unwanted pregnancy comics, she lived in India in the 1950s).

among the very poor. The memoirs are still unpublished. Joyce n Farmer contributed stories to the remain- ing four issues of Tits & Clits, which were co-published by Nanny Goat Produc- tions and Last Gasp, the San Francisco publisher of Wimmen’s Comix, for which she was also a writer and editor. Farmer’s story in Issue 10 of Wimmen’s Comix is a One of these stories mini-masterpiece, a mostly wordless il- is a mini-masterpiece, lustration of the impact of sexual abuse a mostly wordless on several generations of one family. illustration of the impact Then, as is often the case with women, of sexual abuse on Farmer’s life took a different turn. She several generations of was forced to put her creativity on hold one family. for years, functioning as the caretaker for her aging parents as they grew old, suffered failing health, and passed away. Ever the artist, she spent the following ten-plus years on a lengthy, painstak- ingly illustrated graphic novel on the subject of aging and death, Special Exits, published in 2010. Once again, precisely drawn lines invite the reader onto the page, to intimately ex- perience subject matter that may not be the most comfortable, things better not …precisely drawn lines thought about. Only this time the topic invite the reader onto is failing health and mortality, not the the page, to intimately i exuberance of the Sexual Revolution that experience subject matter Lyn Chevli and Joyce Farmer laid bare in that may not be the most 17 the early issues of Tits & Clits. comfortable…

Roberta Gregory is an award-winning comics creator best known for her “Bitchy Bitch” character featured in Fantagraphics’ 13-year-long Naughty

Bits series. She lives and

works in Seattle. n y The Persistence of Memories Jennifer’s Journal: The Life of a SubUrban Girl, Vol. 1, by Jennifer Cruté Rosarium Publishing, May 2015, 94 pp., $8.95. reviewed by S. Qiouyi Lu

Jennifer’s Journal is a delightful series Then Jennifer walks us through other of personal anecdotes illustrated with scenes from her childhood, from stories sequential art. Although its narrative of being scared of the dark, to her mis- starts off light-hearted, Cruté introduces understandings as a kid, to quintessential The art is not so some heavier elements toward the mid- suburban life: pets, bike accidents, fam- much simple as it is dle of the book as Jennifer begins to ex- ily vacations, and family gatherings. Mo- deliberate — every line plore and experience depression, difficult ments from her friends’ lives interrupt serves a purpose. family dynamics, religion, and sexuality.1 Jennifer’s tales and offer glimpses into the The grayscale art in Jennifer’s Journal lives of other suburban children, many is deceptively simple — at first glance, also of color. Racial misunderstandings the round faces seem minimalist, but begin to dot Jennifer’s childhood, with the characters are all very expressive white children saying the N-word around and dynamic. Every background is care- her and her family. fully drawn. A close examination of the A family portrait starts the next chap- characters’ clothing reveals the stitches ter in Jennifer’s Journal, and here we see in jean seams and the drapes in billowy the first hint that all is not as harmoni- dresses. The art is not so much simple as ous as Jennifer has presented it to be: it is deliberate — every line serves a pur- over her smiling father’s head a thought pose. Cruté’s lettering is also fantastic. bubble reads, “I won’t be in this picture The various fonts, weights, and speech for long.” In the previous chapter, Jen- H bubble shapes convey tone and emotion, nifer characterizes her father as some- and visually underscore the actual text. one who pulls the occasional insensitive 18 Regardless of whether panels are clearly prank, but for the most part, he’s by her delineated, whether art extends past the side. After the family portrait, Jennifer panel boundary, or whether there are begins to muse more about her father’s any panels at all, the flow of the story irresponsibility and her parents’ constant is never confusing — the absence of read- fighting. It’s heartbreaking to see Jen- ing roadblocks reveals Cruté’s masterful nifer learning coping tactics at a young handling of page layouts. age — as spiky, angry yelling fills a panel, Jennifer welcomes us into her story Jennifer continues playing with her toy by introducing her family: her mother, a frog in another room and learns to avoid fashion designer who chose to work at her parents. Cruté creates palpable ten- a bank after marriage for stability; her sion through the juxtaposition of calm brother, whose art and creative sculp- narration with angry shouting and exag- tures inspire Jennifer to draw as well; and gerated emotions on her parents’ faces her father, a bus driver who encourages versus more neutral expressions on Jen- his children to doodle whenever they go nifer’s face. Although young Jennifer to work with him. Photographs of actual doesn’t fully understand what is hap- drawings and items from Cruté’s child- pening, readers — and a growing Jennifer hood punctuate the introduction and narrating — can see her struggle clearly. give Jennifer’s Journal a scrapbook feeling As a more mature Jennifer reflects on her while emphasizing its autobiographical parents as people with their own person- nature. alities and interests, she wonders how 1 Although the graphic novel is autobio- they ever became a couple. Page 50 in graphical, in this review, I distinguish be- particular weighs heavily: Jennifer nar-

Reviews tween “Cruté,” the author/artist, and “Jen- rates that she “understands certain deci-

nifer,” the main character in the graphic sions,” followed by a panel showing her

novel. smiling parents on their wedding day, n with a thought bubble coming off her nifer begins to realize that maybe she is father that shows a mouse in a wheel, homosexual herself. When Jennifer gets and a thought bubble coming off her to college, she lets go of her Christian mother that says, “He doesn’t hit me.” beliefs and explores Buddhism and Tao- Jennifer’s Journal then jumps back to ism. Her icon, Miss Buddha Bear, gradu- 1915 Georgia. Jennifer relates the story ally comes into existence within the last Cruté creates palpable of her great-grandmother Pearl, who pages, and Jennifer’s Journal ends with tension through eloped, and says on page 52, “From what Miss Buddha Bear teaching a lesson on the juxtaposition of I hear, they lived happily ever after — for heaven and hell to a samurai. calm narration with once in my family. Jeez.” She tells stories Jennifer’s Journal may feel a bit dis- angry shouting and exaggerated emotions on of Grandma Faye, who had eight chil- jointed, but that disjointedness serves the her parents’ faces versus dren. Although Grandma Faye’s domes- narrative. The back-and-forth between more neutral expressions tic life at first seems cheerful, that idyllic presenting a straightforward image from on Jennifer’s face. domesticity crumbles once Jennifer’s Jennifer’s childhood, then complicating controlling grandfather Jake enters the that image, reflects the processing that picture. Although these anecdotes may Jennifer does as she grows up. As a child, appear at first to be an unrelated tangent, she doesn’t realize that anything out of they actually come at a perfect time in the ordinary is happening, but with time the narrative: as Jennifer struggles to she comes to reflect and understand her understand her difficult home life, she experiences in context. That processing introspects and reaches back to find the hurts all the more when juxtaposed with intergenerational trauma that informed the naïveté of childhood, but it is also a her mother’s decisions. necessary part of growing up. The rest of the graphic novel discusses Although my individual experiences religion and spirituality. Even as a young were different, so much of the arc of child, Jennifer had questions about sto- Jennifer’s life resonates with me. Jenni- ries in the Bible. Some biblical stories fer’s Journal tells not just Jennifer Cruté’s As Jennifer struggles to i disturb Jennifer, and Cruté shows Jen- story, but also my story — the story of understand her difficult home life, she introspects nifer’s conflicted feelings by illustrating growing up in suburbia, yes, but also the 19 and reaches back to find quotes from the Bible, then having one stories of finding my own identity and the intergenerational of the characters deviate from the bibli- learning where toxic thoughts and abuse trauma that informed her cal text. Of all the pages in this section, originate from. The only people who mother’s decisions. and even in the whole book, page 75 won’t be able to relate to Jennifer’s Jour- stood out the most to me. Prior to this nal are those who have lived completely page, Jennifer wonders why Satan has perfect and happy lives, but I’m certain multiple names. When she gets older, those people don’t exist. she names various self-defeating person- alities within her and realizes that this is why Satan has multiple names: evil and misery manifest in many different forms, but they all serve to tear people down. Although this volume of Jennifer’s Jour- nal doesn’t discuss her experiences with depression, this illustration sets up an antagonist for the next volume and is an evocative, tragicomic representation of depression. Toward the end of Jennifer’s Journal, Jennifer finds herself pulling away from the church as she witnesses two-faced behavior, hypocrisy, and sexual abuse. Her S. Qiouyi Lu left both homosexuality also becomes a source of coasts to settle in cognitive dissonance — while the church Columbus, Ohio — for now. preaches that homosexuality is a sin, Jen- This is their first review. n y “You Should Read It!” Ava’s Demon, by Michelle Czajkowski Self-published webcomic updated twice weekly reviewed by Jamie Kingston

Ava’s Demon is a title that’s been Odin, whose motive seems to be that of floating about the Twittersphere for a a creeper with a crush, but develops into while, with nothing attached to it but something more as he interacts with his the recommendation, “You should read lively and boisterous twin sisters Raven it!” That’s a really oddly consistent thing and Crow. Shortly after those two step If you want to remain to hear about a webcomic. People are onstage we meet Gil, who appears to be a unaffected by spoilers, usually passionate about why they love a religious devotee with a genuine and sin- this is where you should comic, and what they love about it. Per- cere desire to help people. The big con- go make a cup of tea.... haps, I thought, as I opened my browser flict that affects the entire cast is that they to read it for this review, that’s just a approach the mystery of the entity known function of Twitter’s character limit, or as “TITAN” from different angles. Ava maybe I’m simply hearing from people discovers those variations quickly. who are having trouble articulating what TheAva’s Demon About page says more it is they love about it. So it was with no about the story’s creator than about the clue about the comic but its name that I comic itself, so what a reader knows of plunged into it. the universe of the story is only revealed I’m pretty cautious as a webcomic as she decides what to show. Let me tell reader. I like what I like, and that in- you: what she decides to show is worth cludes characterization, fairly faithful waiting for. Michelle Czajkowski’s About H Let me tell you: what she updates, fill-in artist text that isn’t just Page bona fides indicate she has worked decides to show is worth “read my webcomic too,” a story I can with both Pixar and DreamWorks. This 20 waiting for. follow, diversity, and art that catches is not mere puffery. ­Czajkowski’s style is and holds my eye. Not necessarily in her own: it has certain visual common- that order. alities with most animation, but it looks I see now why people just say, “You like her work, neither resembling those should read it.” If you want to remain uncannily similar fanarts that are easily unaffected by spoilers, this is where mistaken for Disney or any other recog- you should go make a cup of tea — but nizable name, nor some mishmash style I’d rather you keep reading. That’s what that randomly combines elements taken happened to me when I sat down to be- from elsewhere. Her grasp of lighting is gin Ava’s Demon. I meant to read it in a enviably capable. Her shifting of her pal- number of smaller sessions. I ended up ette to suit characters, mood, and story is The cinematic style of reading from the first post to the cur- like the weaving of a tapestry; visuals go the artist’s storytelling rent last, clicking “NEXT” eagerly until from subtle soft colors and swooshy gen- is one of the most there was nothing more to click. That’s captivating things about tle curves to ragged, jagged blacks and this webcomic. one of the primary hallmarks of a great sharp primary colors, only to fade into webcomic: it draws in the reader and gloomy, muddied browns lit by nothing keeps their attention until they’ve blazed but the vivid, fiery colors undulating in through the entire thing in what seems Ava’s psyche. only an eyeblink. The cinematic style of the artist’s sto- Despite a mighty 1400 panels online rytelling is one of the most captivat- to date, the story is obviously only in its ing things about this webcomic. Several early stages. As of August 2015 we have scenes are best viewed by clicking through gotten to meet Ava and her titular de- them rapidly one after the other, so you mon, and the rest of the cast. First we can experience the effect of persistence of

encounter reckless, conniving, mean-girl vision. Best of all, certain key moments

classmate Maggie. Then we encounter are fully animated, short scenes with n ­music quite obviously chosen for its at- partially animated ones I’ve seen. I un- mospheric and emotional resonance. The derstand now why the recommendations only spoiler I feel duty-bound to include were so short on words. It really is best is that a content warning for readers experienced with no preconceptions or sensitive to mental illness and violence expectations. I can echo in all sincer- should be considered. ity and confidence what I was told: You Ava’s Demon is a standout among should read it. webcomics, including many of the other

i

21

Jamie Kingston has been a fan since childhood. Her love of reading and all things science fiction and fantasy has only grown. The resulting opinionated New Yorker transplanted

to Georgia is now a senior staff writer

for womenwriteaboutcomics.com n y “Feminism made Wonder Woman. And then Wonder Woman remade feminism…” The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore Knopf, October 2014, 432 pp., $29.95 (hardcover). reviewed by Karen Burnham

when it was splitting off from philoso- phy. While there, he wrote a movie script that won a prize and was produced by the Edison Company. He married his high school sweetheart Sadie Holloway, who had gone to Mount Holyoke. Be- “Superheroes…are tween her and some of his Harvard pro- excellent at clobbering fessors, Marston was deeply committed people; they’re lousy at to the women’s suffrage movement, to fighting for equality” the point of often claiming that women were superior to men and should even- tually rule the world. Both Marston and Holloway went to law school. He passed the bar and also got his PhD in psychol- ogy, but fared poorly in both professions. In her book The Secret History of Won- His attempts to introduce the lie detec- der Woman, Jill Lepore wastes no time tor to criminal evidence resulted in an putting Wonder Woman in her histori- unfavorable and famous court ruling; he cal context: “Aside from Superman and ran a few companies into bankruptcy. H Batman, no other comic-book charac- Holloway got solid jobs in publishing to ter has lasted as long” (xi). Superman support them. 22 debuted in 1938, Batman in 1939, and As Marston fell down the academic Wonder Woman in 1941. Lepore writes: ladder, his reputation increasingly in tat- “Feminism made Wonder Woman. And ters, he took up with a female student, Ol- then Wonder Woman remade femi- ive Bryne, the niece of Margaret Sanger nism, which hasn’t been altogether good (of birth control fame). Byrne joined for feminism. Superheroes, who are sup- the Marston family in a secret capacity: posed to be better than everyone else, are despite the fact that all the adults (Mar- excellent at clobbering people; they’re ston, Holloway, Bryne, and occasionally a lousy at fighting for equality” (xiii). But woman named Marjorie Huntley) were Wonder Woman doesn’t just have a se- lovers, the pretense was that Bryne was cret identity; she also has a secret his- a widower living with a married couple. Marston was deeply tory: her creator “Charles Moulton” was She and Holloway had two children committed to the women’s actually William Moulton Marston, a each by Marston, but all maintained that suffrage movement, to the lawyer, psychologist, and patriarch of a Bryne’s children were really by a fictional, point of often claiming polyamorous household. His story, and deceased “Mr. Richards.” Bryne raised the that women were superior how it allows Wonder Woman to bridge children, which allowed Holloway the to men and should the divide between the women’s suffrage freedom to work and support the family, eventually rule the world. movement of the early 20th century and while for a long time Marston cast about the feminist movement of the 1960s and looking for a productive path forward. He ’70s, has been uncovered by Lepore’s in- eventually found it as a “consulting psy- depth and meticulous research. It’s a chologist” for a comic book company. story that is well worth learning. At first, Marston was there to give re- Marston’s life defies easy categoriza- spectability to the comics being produced tion or narrative. He was an excellent by Maxwell Charles Gaines. However,

student at Harvard in the 1910s, where he soon pitched a heroine of his own, a

he majored in psychology at the time woman, to defend against charges that n comics were too violent. Her origin sto- ing Ethel’s arrest and hunger strike), the ry was rooted both in Greek mythology Encyclopedia Britannica (where Hollo- and in the feminist utopian literature of way was an editor), the early comic book the late 19th and early 20th centuries. industry, the different psychologists en­ Although she wasn’t drawn by a wom- gaged in the war over comic books, wom- an (and there were plenty of qualified en in WWII, and of course the actual women available), she was illustrated by biographies of the principals. H. G. Peters, an artist from San Fran- All of this was interesting material I One of the dominant cisco who had drawn for several feminist was glad to learn, but I had taken the images of suffragette magazines. One of the dominant im- most interesting assertion of the intro- editorial comics was that ages of suffragette editorial comics was duction to be the aforementioned quota- of Woman being bound in that of Woman being bound in chains tion: “Feminism made Wonder Woman. chains by men, a situation by men, a situation in which Wonder And then Wonder Woman remade fem- in which Wonder Woman Woman found herself in almost every inism, which hasn’t been altogether good found herself in almost comic book written by Marston. Add for feminism.” Lepore does an excellent every comic book written to this the similarities between Wonder job of proving the first part of that state- by Marston. Woman and a particular brand of pin- ment, tracing the influence of the wom- up girls popular at the time, the Vargas en’s suffrage movement both through Girls, and it’s no wonder that Gaines Marston’s biography and other writings was fielding fan mail from fetishists, and and also through the iconography of the more disapproving psychologists were art used in the comics. Addressing the using her as ammunition in their war for last part of the statement seems to be “comics decency.” something of an afterthought, crammed In 1946, Marston contracted polio into the epilogue, because this is a biog- and fairly quickly succumbed to it, dying raphy more than it is a social history of at the age of 53. After Marston’s death, a particular comic book figure and her Holloway and Bryne lived together to the influence. As such, it is somewhat mis- i end of their days, never publicly breath- billed: both the title and the introduc- ing a hint that they might be a couple or tion lead one to think that this is a book 23 that their children shared the same father. about Wonder Woman. And it is, but Holloway attempted to gain control of it is her story centered around William the Wonder Woman legacy, but she was Moulton Marston and a very specific quickly sidelined, and the superhero- lineage of the feminist movement. ine was handed over to an anti-­feminist If this were a book about Wonder writer. Wonder Woman was rediscovered Woman primarily, it might have covered in the 1960s with the renewed feminist her entire history, not just from her first movement; she appears on the cover of appearance in 1941 to her reappear- the inaugural issue of Ms. Magazine. ance in Ms. Magazine in 1972, but also …this is a biography more Lepore’s book is interesting, read- her trajectory through the 1980s and than it is a social history able, and amazingly well researched. But beyond. After dismissing all the com- of a particular comic book while valuable, it is also a bit of a mess. ics written about her in the ’50s and figure and her influence. Although moderately sized at roughly ’60s, where she became plain old Diana 300 pages of main text in hardcover, it Prince and lost most of her superpowers feels like it’s trying to do too much. As (despite a series of six comics written by we bounce through Marston’s life, we get Samuel R. Delany which were so contro- capsule histories of the women’s suffrage versial that only the first was published), movement, certain Harvard professors, it would have been nice of the author to early psychology, women’s colleges, the tell us more about what Wonder Woman lie detector (including a detailed exami- has been up to in the last 35 years: her nation of the case Frye v. United States), scholarly reputation, all the Linda Carter motion pictures and screen writing, the lunchboxes, the war over trying to get early birth control movement, the strife her own movie, and the different ways between Ethel Bryne (Olive’s mother) she’s been drawn as the women’s move- and her sister Margaret Sanger (includ- ment has evolved over the decades. Cont. on p. 25 n y Provisional Realities, Frequent Revisions Supreme: Blue Rose, by Warren Ellis and Tula Lotay Image Comics, July 2015, 168 pp., $14.99. reviewed by Cynthia Ward

It’s not difficult to imagine a graphic novel centered on ace reporter Lois Lane, whose award-winning career spans more decades than the contemporary women’s liberation movement. After all, she’s the What would be truly best known superhero’s girlfriend/wife radical would be a Lois in the eighty-odd-year-old history of Lane graphic novel in comics, co-billed in the title of the ’90s which Clark Kent barely television series Lois & Clark: The New appears and his alter-ego, Adventures of Superman, and headliner of Superman, never actively her own mid-century comic book series, sets foot on stage. Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane. What vised out of existence circa 1970, Moore would be truly radical would be a Lois won the Eisner Award for best comics Lane graphic novel in which Clark Kent writer as he rebooted Diana Dane and barely appears and his alter-ego, Super- Supreme’s alter-ego, Ethan Crane, as man, never actively sets foot on stage. comic-book creators. This metafictional This is essentially what you get in Su- twist was just the tip of Moore’s multi- preme: Blue Rose, from superstar comics layered iceberg. Moore’s Supreme finds writer Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, his initially near-blank memory filling H The Authority) and artist Tula Lotay (El- itself in from moment to moment, finds ephantmen, The Witching Hour) — except himself battling earlier incarnations of 24 for the not-insignificant detail that the himself, and learns that previous versions award-winning ace reporter is Diana of the Supreme now inhabit an afterlife Dane, an inhabitant of the Image Comics environment known as the Supremacy. universe, in which the mightiest defender But, alas, all good things must come to of justice is the platinum-haired, red-­ an end, and a new team revised Moore and-white-spandexed superhero known and company’s Supreme out of existence. as Supreme. Two thousand and fifteen brings the Supreme, Diana Dane, and sev- eral other variations/commentaries on latest reboot. Ellis and Lotay follow iconic comic book characters (Wonder Moore’s metafictional lead. However, this Woman, Captain America, etc.) were time it’s not Supreme who begins to real- created by writer-artist Rob Liefeld in ize reality is provisional. It’s the mortals, the 1990s. His Superman-manqué Su- who have no access to the knowledge preme was a not-very-interesting violent contained in the Supremacy (in fact, Moore’s Supreme finds his spin on its inspiration. Supreme’s origin the golden arches of that para-celestial initially near-blank memory and nature were revisited and revised in city have crashed to Earth, leaving many filling itself in from a three-issue miniseries by Keith Giffen mortals convinced Heaven has been de- moment to moment, finds stroyed). Laid off, neurodiverse, and in- himself battling earlier and Robert Loren Fleming in the early creasingly desperate, ace reporter Diana incarnations of himself…. ’90s, but Liefeld’s Superman-knockoff would become of wide interest when the Dane is hired by Lex-Luthorish mystery series was turned over for an extended millionaire-businessman Darius Dax to run to Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, The investigate why the universe seems, im- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), possibly, to be only four months old. comics’ greatest writer. Jettisoning the The influence on this reboot is less

violence and paying homage to the Sil- Moore, or DC (or Marvel), than it is the

ver Age of DC Comics, which was re- multiverse of Michael Moorcock, the n alternate timelines of Joanna Russ’s The comic books). The seven-issue miniseries Female Man, the metafictional scenario collected in this volume ranks among the of Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren, the best science fiction of Warren Ellis’s writ- bleeding technocultural edge of Ellis’s ing career, who already has produced a Global Frequency, and the uncertain re- string of excellent progressive SF, steam­ The women characters alities of Philip K. Dick. The Supreme’s punk, and technothriller graphic novels are strong, nuanced, universe is subject to frequent revision, largely underappreciated by prose SF independent, relatively and the current rewrite has failed to in- readers. And newcomer Tula Lotay’s dig- numerous, and hetero- romantically-unentangled stall correctly. In an attempt to preserve ital/watercolor artwork is nothing short career women… itself, this universe’s future attempts to of breathtaking. avert its doom by forcing itself dam- This is not to say Diana Dane’s turn agingly into its chosen contemporary on center stage isn’t problematical. For oracle, a brilliant lesbian scientist. Mean- starters, she inevitably won’t be the star while, the Supreme universe’s oldest and of the next Supreme title. She’s unlikely most popular TV serial, Professor Night even to retain this graphic novel’s free- (an analog of the pirate serial in Alan dom from romantic attachment. Still, Moore and Dave Gibbons’s seminal she’s a radical figure as both the mortal comics miniseries Watchmen), is break- female investigator of a superhero mys- ing into the world in a fashion similar to tery and as an active female lead in a the Ubik commercials of Dick’s epony- multiversal PhilDickian existence. And Cynthia Ward has mous novel. And Supreme isn’t going to Tula Lotay’s phenomenal talent should published stories in fly in to save the day. establish her as a central creator in se- numerous anthologies Even for a completist fan of The Su- quential art. and magazines. With Nisi Shawl, she coauthored preme, the graphic novel Supreme: Blue Writing the Other: Rose isn’t likely to be smooth sledding. A Practical Approach Nonetheless, it’s recommended to both (Aqueduct Press, 2005). i comics and non-comics readers. The She lives in Los Angeles. women characters are strong, nuanced, independent, relatively numerous, and 25 hetero-romantically-unentangled career women (a state of existence consider- ably less common in the wider world of

Feminism made Wonder Woman… (cont. from p. 23)

While Marston’s history is fascinat- one had found and no one had connect- ing — Lepore does an amazing job of ed to Wonder Woman before. She set it tracking down all the ways he includ- all down in a well-written and passion- ed his own biography in everything he ate book. So it feels churlish to complain wrote, as when she points out that Won- that there’s more human biography here der Woman’s bracelets are replicas of the than comics social anthropology. This is ones Olive Bryne wore to symbolize her a book aimed at a fairly general audi- relationship with him — in many ways ence; anyone who is interested in comics Karen Burnham is this is Marston’s biography, not Wonder history or Wonder Woman specifically vocationally an engineer Woman’s. To someone who is used to will find interesting things here — just and avocationally a fiction writer. Her work has comic books being a source of study in maybe not all the interesting things their appeared in venues such their own right, there seems to be a lot hearts desire. as Locus, Strange Horizons, more time spent on odd corners of Mar- and SFSignal.com. Her ston’s life than on his creation’s legacy. book on the work of Greg Lepore’s book will be an invaluable re- Egan was published by the source for future researchers, and she has University of Illinois Press uncovered a wealth of material that no in 2014. n y “Good is not a thing you are. / It’s a thing you do.” Ms. Marvel, Volumes 1/2/3, created by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona October 2014/April 2015/June 2015, 120 pp./136 pp./112 pp., 15.99. reviewed by Tili Solokov

There is so much to love about Ms. collected into three volumes, one of Marvel. I could go on and on about the which also contains some material comics series’ artistry, telling you about from an issue of a different comic called how it walks a tightrope between serious S.H.I.E.L.D.) problems and funny adventures, about When Kamala initially uses her pow- Kamala gains the power the refreshing and complex friendship ers she transforms into a doppelganger to stretch and alter her body when a strange between its protagonist Kamala Khan of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, mist activates her latent and her best friend Bruno, about the the superhero she most idolizes. Though Inhuman abilities. deft hand with which Kamala’s conflicts she soon abandons Carol’s appearance, with her imam and her deeply religious she borrows her earlier title, Ms. Marvel, elder brother are portrayed. I could eas- and the blue-yellow-red color scheme of ily spend paragraphs on a single issue Carol’s current costume. The raw mate- or even a single page. Instead, I’ll give rial of the costume, however, is a burkini you an overview of the joys awaiting you Kamala once told her mother she’d never in the series’ first three collected vol- wear and a polymer her friend Bruno umes, No Normal, Generation Why, and discovered that allows it to stretch with Crushed, and hope that this short intro- her. Ms. Marvel’s costume encapsulates duction will help a new set of people dis- her superheroic approach: inspired by cover my favorite superhero. more famous heroes, but made by hand H Kamala gains the power to stretch and using materials given to her by her fam- alter her body when a strange mist acti- ily and friends. While groups like the 26 vates her latent Inhuman abilities. (There Avengers defend the world, Kamala de- is at least one heavily-researched article fends her community. waiting to be written about the splash Much of the media attention on Ms. page showing what Kamala sees when Marvel has focused on Kamala’s Pakistani-­ she wakes up from being knocked out American background. Although Marvel by the mist. I won’t spoil the surprise, but has featured Muslim characters before, simply say the vision of heroism, beauty, Kamala is the first to headline her own and belief it presents is moving.) Already series. Sana Amanat, the series’ editor, as dedicated a fan of superheroes as any and G. Willow Wilson, its writer, are of her real-world readers would be, Ka- both Muslim women and are clearly mala immediately begins to apply her conscious of the political and personal abilities to protecting her hometown, impact of broader representation in su- Jersey City. The series’ first story arc, cov- perhero comics. Though I (being white While groups like the ering the first eleven issues, sees Kamala and agnostic) am in no position to eval- Avengers defend the establish the superhero identity of Ms. uate the authenticity of Kamala’s depic- world, Kamala defends Marvel and face off against the Inven- tion, she and her family do ring true to her community. tor, a monomaniacal bird-man who has me as well-rounded people, whose cul- convinced Jersey City teens to carry out ture, race, and religion shape them but his bizarre plans. This is followed by a do not define them. In particular, Kama- four-issue arc focusing on romance and la’s conflicts with her protective parents its difficult effects on Kamala’s family show the consequences of maintaining a and her superheroing. secret as huge as, well, one of Ms. Mar- (A brief aside about comics publish- vel’s embiggened fists. What could easily ing: Ms. Marvel has been printed in have been played as the cliché of Muslim

monthly magazine-sized issues since immigrant parents who want to lock up

February 2014. These issues have been their daughter, instead comes across as a n humanizing element drawing on shared tations placed on her shoulders is one she common experiences. doesn’t even know about: the expectation The series’ writing is skillful and deep, that she’ll attract a new generation of but it is not subtle. Often, Kamala’s in- comics readers. Ms. Marvel’s integration Ms. Marvel makes ample ternal narration straightforwardly states with Millennial culture goes far beyond use of the freedom the the theme of an issue or outlines a dilem- the simple presence of a young heroine. superhero genre allows for ma she faces. This is very much not the Kamala’s references to her fanfic get- posing moral questions lit-fic method of evoking characteriza- ting upvotes could have come across as and showing characters tion slowly and via askance depictions. young-person-tinted window dressing, solving them…. Instead, Ms. Marvel makes ample use of but the themes and structure of the work the freedom the superhero genre allows actually reflect young people’s interests for posing moral questions and showing in a way mainstream comics’ attempts to characters solving them, and constructs allure young readers rarely do. Kamala its complexity within that straightfor- stands at the end of a lineage stretching wardness. One of my favorite moments from Peter Parker through Kitty Pryde: in the first volume is illustrative. Hav- she is Marvel Comics’ young audience ing decided to take on the mantle of surrogate for the 2010s. She couldn’t Ms. Marvel, Kamala experiments with be better suited for the job. Ms. Marvel her powers with Bruno’s assistance. The overflows with charm, poised to draw in last two panels of this training montage readers who might otherwise have no in- show Kamala adding the finishing touch terest in superhero comics. Even if you to her costume, focusing intently as she find primary-color­ ed tights a little silly, squirts out a lightning bolt in fabric I urge you to get to know Kamala Khan. glue. This symbol is an homage to Cap- tain Marvel — Kamala must be think- ing about superheroism. Her face and Kamala stands at the end posture as she crouches on her bedroom i of a lineage stretching floor are pure adolescent determination. from Peter Parker through The narration boxes for these two panels Kitty Pryde…. 27 tie up everything the images depict and everything Ms. Marvel stands for: “Good is not a thing you are. / It’s a thing you do.” And on the very next page, Kamala sets out to do good, to find out who is threatening her home. The sequence I just described demon- strates another hallmark of Ms. Marvel, in addition to its thematic clarity: its quotability. This has historically been a somewhat unusual quality for comics, since only a small fraction of their con- tent — the dialogue and narration — can be quoted in text. Ms. Marvel, though, was built for Tumblr photosets. The comic is structured beautifully for clip- Tili Sokolov lives in ping out a particular moment, whether Manhattan, where she inspiring or silly (and it is peppered with spends her time reading comics and cooking. both sorts), and sharing it online. By day, she works as a Kamala Khan has a lot to live up to. mild-mannered editorial Like any teenager, she has to balance her assistant at Oxford parents’ plans with her own hopes for her University Press. By night, future. Like any superhero, she knows she furiously reblogs that her powers come with responsibility. fanart. She can be found

But perhaps the weightiest set of expec- on Twitter @tgsokolov n y The World of Carla Speed McNeil

Carla Speed McNeil, author and art- their coming to understand that isn’t go- ist of the award-winning Finder series, ing to happen easily. started working in comics in 1997 and In addition to ten printed volumes of hasn’t stopped since. The images shown Finder, Speed has worked on a variety here are primarily from Finder: Third of projects like Queen & Country, Vol. 5. World, the first full-color volume — ini- Operation: Stormfront, written by Greg tially serialized and then published in Rucka (Oni Press Inc.). She adapted and full by Dark Horse Comics in 2014. This drew Pendragon: The Merchant of Death Finder adventure proves to be a massive, (based on the prose book by D. J. Mac­ eye-opening turning point in the life of Hale) for Simon & Schuster, drew for Jaeger, a major character in this mysteri- fan-favorite Frank Ironwine by Warren ous, complex, sci-fi world. Ellis (Apparat/Avatar), as well as two In addition, Speed has included here pages of Transmetropolitan, also by War- three black/white panels from her new ren Ellis (DC/Vertigo). Bad Houses, cre- story “Written in Stone,” which will ap- ated with writer Sara Ryan, was released pear in her latest sci-fi anthology proj- in 2013 by Dark Horse Comics. Then ect, New World, involving cultures in Speed began a series of collaborations collision. with writer Alex De Campi, drawing Finder is a long-running science fic- part of her book Ashes, an issue of My tion drama that Speed self-published for Little Pony (IDW), and a new miniseries called No Mercy (Image) that began in over a decade (including later issues seri- April 2015. alized through Lightspeed Press). Since Speed has been nominated eight times 2011, in addition to new volumes, Dark H for an Eisner award and won once. She Horse Comics has republished eight of has won two Ignatz awards and the Kim the earlier graphic novels as two lovely 28 Yale New Talent award from Friends Of Libraries. They follow various main char- Lulu. She also won the Los Angeles Times acters, including a young girl whose first Book Prize for graphic novel in 2012 and love is a book, a college girl majoring in three Stumptown Comic Arts Awards. The Art, which, when capitalized, makes her more like a geisha than Banksy, and a wandering pathfinder with one foot in http://www.carlaspeedmcneil.com/ another world. The collected editions of Finder contain extensive footnotes by the author, which expand upon the ideas and comment on their origins. Speed uses the phrase “aboriginal SF” to describe Finder. “Ab origine” is a pre- Roman term meaning “original inhab- itants.” It means, essentially, someone who’s been in a place since the earliest time and generally refers to people who lived close to the earth, or whose an- cestors did. People travel; people settle; people look at each other and embrace or else fight. People see kin; people see enemies. Push and shove over territory may not be as old as the hills, but it is as Finder: Third World, p. 104

Featured Artist old as King of the Mountain. Aboriginal

science fiction deals with alien societ-

ies. Finder’s aliens are all one family, but n Finder: Third World

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Finder: Third World, p. 101

Finder: Third World

Finder: Third World, p. 105 n $5.00 The Cascadia Subduction Zone PO Box 95787 Seattle, WA 98145-2787