I misunderstood the point of this ride

So a few weeks ago, when jjtaylor posted Nothing To Confess, I knew I was going to have to do some more art. The story was everything I wanted when I imagined a BLI!Patrick; seriously creepy and hot.


So uh, what I'm trying to say with this is basically ... unf. Maybe it's good to be getting this version out of my system before I go see the real Patrick in a few weeks.

( One more in color. )

Apart from that, this week I've been re-watching the second season of Angel (Gunn and Wesley are precious; I'd almost forgotten) and finishing up the first season of Castle, which I kind of adore. The dynamic between Beckett and Castle is kind of fabulous, particularly because I think it manages to do justice to both characters, rather than having either of them show the other up too consistently. Also, I would seem to be a sucker for father/daughter dynamics lately. Netflix can't send me the second season fast enough.

Oh hey, and if you liked the art above? Just a reminder that I'm up for auction at help_japan. :D I'll illustrate your fic (or just draw you something), or even make you a comic! All as a bonus for sending some aid and comfort where it's desperately needed.

I'm running around trying to get things in order at work so I can leave for the bus station; it's my mother's 60th, and she wants us all to head into New York City for the day tomorrow. Art museums, I expect.

Before I go, I just wanted to pass on links to the auction communities people are starting up to contribute to the Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief effort: help_japan and help_japan. When I get back and have time to figure it out, I definitely plan to offer something (probably a fancomic, and maybe some fic illustration or something too).

Come on, my beloved grad school of choice: post your 2011 application guidelines already! I am slow, I want to get started.

On a vaguely related subject, I've been thinking a lot about race, inclusiveness, and clarity of visual representation in art/comics. I would welcome thoughts from other artists - or anyone else, for that matter (so long as you don't dismiss the importance of the subject, which I take seriously).

I should note from the start that while I'm going to begin with some broad background, this isn't really a comprehensive piece of social commentary - I'm interested in comparing notes from a creative perspective, and have been pondering how best to improve inclusiveness within my own work. (Criticism of my approach, as well as the content of the post, is definitely welcome. This is an area of privilege for me.)

( On portraying characters of color in cartoons and comics. )

Mmm, that was a pretty nice long weekend, all things considered. I mostly took a break from the internet, cleaned up my room/part of my apartment in preparation for the new bookcases I'm getting next weekend (finally, my books will have a home), hung out and sung along to 1776 with a lot of wonderful people at omnia_mutantur's, perched on some MIT stairs with my roommate to watch Boston's best fireworks display in years, cooked some tasty things, and was grateful (if mildly guilty) for my apartment's AC. Also I didn't draw much, tsk. I need to try and be productive more steadily and less in bursts. I did get my comics anthology submission all wrapped up and submitted Friday night, though, so there's that - now I'm back at the point I was supposed to be at right after college. \o/ /o\

I have one last The Last Airbender-related link to share (for now), which I think is rather important: The Last Airbender: who is to blame? by glockgal at racebending. It's about the danger of scapegoating M. Night Shyamalan rather than focusing on the institutionalized racism that is really at the root of the TLA debacle, and even comes with handy visual aid. (Sure, Shyamalan has been showing his ass quite enthusiastically throughout, but he's not behind the decades of systematic whitewashing in American cinema, and his likely disgrace won't prevent more of the same in the future.)

I haven't found the energy to write about Wonder Woman and why the "reboot" bothers me so much ... probably because I find Wonder Woman so difficult to talk about in general? I've stayed away from past discussions of her because they tend to focus around how some people find her boring or unrelatable, whereas I have this lingering childhood hero-worship that makes their perspective very difficult to comprehend. Also, I find that it's hard to take off the lifelong comics-reader goggles to a certain extent; I've realized that Diana's previous lack of pants didn't bother me, depending entirely on how she was drawn/characterized in her individual appearances. I've had a lot of feminist anger about the portrayal of female characters in superhero comics since the age of eleven or so, but the star-spangled bathing suit doesn't entirely fit into that for me. Relatedly, I still haven't found the words to defend her importance to me as an icon, in spite of the fact that nostalgia for "classic" superheros has been an enormous issue with DC recently (and I've fallen squarely on the side of irritation with that attitude - would have even if I could put aside the rampant racefail that's been involved, which I can't).

It's much easier to explain my anger about the deaths of her mother and culture, and possibly my longtime irritation at most "grim and gritty" superhero revamping, but ... yeah, my thoughts are just not together on this. /o\ I love that I can write a huge paragraph about how I don't know how to write about this issue, too, sheesh. For now, though? Gloria Steinem sums it up. (Still behind on the coverage, too, but that caught my eye.)

Also, I'm starting to catch up on the current Vividcon warnings/ablism/etc discussion, though I feel like the posts I've read have been too scattered to give me a comprehensive picture yet. However, I generally tend to come down on the side of making fannish spaces as safe and comfortable for everyone as possible (except as regards being called out for fail), and against jumping on marginalized people (at all, but specifically) when they ask for what they need. This is one of those uncomfortable instances of fannish fail where some of the faily things are being said by people I've liked and respected over the years, which is always extra-fun.

Whew. I don't think it's necessarily that fandom is more full of fail than usual lately; I think it's getting more attention than it used to (at least, in my "corner" of fandom). The sheer volume is getting a bit hard to follow, with the increasing IRL/art obligations, but I want to keep up as much as possible. (It helps that I've developed an interest in an older fandom where the fic mostly doesn't mesh with my stylistic tastes! My life is clearly the hardest, pfft.)

So tomorrow, The Last Airbender opens in theaters across the United States and Canada. As I mentioned previously, I will be boycotting it.

Please, do not give this movie your money. The Last Airbender is an egregious example of institutional racism in action. That's really the important part, but just in case you've missed all the discussion and activism that's gone on since the casting was first announced, I'll try and provide a little background. This is not as thorough as I would have liked to be, but I'll also provide links to some fantastic resources and articles that are well-worth checking out.

( Believe me, this is in brief. )

When I've talked to people about The Last Airbender in person, I've been met with a fair amount of complacent shrugging - a whole lot of "what do I care? what does this have to do with me?" That's privilege talking. I understand that we all have to pick our battles; that this one movie may not be something you can focus all your energy or outrage on. But surely, you can care enough not to pay for one movie ticket. It's hardly a lot to ask.

As I noted above, there's an enormous amount of material out there on the topic; your best source of information would be the Racebending website, which is overflowing with information and resources. They have a primer on the whitewashing of The Last Airbender here, and most of my own thoughts on the topic have been informed by discussion and links posted at racebending. Most of the articles I've linked come from them.

Here are a few more links I'd recommend:

These Are My Colors, by ssj10.

a few (a lot of) words on racism and paramount and the last airbender, by starweather (also contains a lot of great links)

The Last Airbender Movie, by Gene Luen Yang (amazing creator of American Born Chinese, co-creator of The Eternal Smile, and more).

New day in politics, same old racist world on the silver screen, by Derek Kirk Kim (another fantastic cartoonist). (An older post, made back when the casting was first announced, but I think it's an extremely important read - even with all the image links broken.)

And, here's a quick list of the specific articles I linked within my post, for convenience:
-Paramount Pictures – Diversity in the 21st Century? (Racebending.com)
-Yellowface: A Story In Pictures (Racebending.com)
-FacePainting (Floating World on tumblr)
-Caucasian or Any Other Ethnicity (Racebending.com)
-The Problem With Colorblindness (Faith Bell, guest contributor at Racebending.com)

Not that this is an excuse, but I'm pretty tired and overwhelmed with comic work right now, and I feel like I've completely run out of steam at this point - so I'm about to hit post. If you find anything problematic, and you have the energy/inclination I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know.

Oh hey! I keep meaning to write a post and then not doing it, so this might be a little ridiculous.

IDK, real life has been ... not totally nutty, but work's been pretty tiring and busy (there was an accepted student open house, and my boss was out a whole lot). Also, there was even more rain (record amounts and lots of flooding, whee), and before that, there were beekeepers nosing around in my ceiling! Who did not actually find any bees (apparently the hive up and moved sometime in February/early March? there weren't even that many dead ones left), but we did find about 120 pounds of honey. (Eventually, this will make a good comic.) Also, I turned 26.

I've been trying to focus on my original comic work (as usual), with less than desired success, but I haven't been very consistently fannish either. A little while back there was this Gerard Way video, which provoked the usual WHAT IS HIS FACE reaction from me (it had been awhile, too!), and also Mikeyway was adorable. I miss them, but I'm trying not to dwell on MCR too much until we actually have a release date for that album. Whateverthefuck it's going to be, now.

Recently, I've found myself reading lots of DC comics; mostly Bat-books. (I find the current lack of Bruce Wayne weirdly approachable, or something?) While my comic reading habits are often pretty separate from my online fannish pursuits, I checked out Close To Home by iesika (which I really enjoyed), and now I find myself right back in a Tim/Kon sort of place. (Not that I wasn't already feeling it.) Does anyone happen to have some favorite recs to throw at me? They can totally be old; I was really haphazard about reading in the fandom when I was doing that actively, a few years back.

On the other hand, just as I was getting comfortable, there comes this news. Goddammit, Rucka. ;_; I was looking forward to more of your Batwoman SO MUCH. I really hope she gets picked up by someone who can write and who really gets her, but . . . well, it's DC. IDEK. :(((((

In happier news, I watched the new Doctor Who episode last night, and I pretty much enjoyed it! ( Spoilers here. )

I should wrap this ridiculous post up, but! On Friday oliviacirce posted Wordsworth's daffodil poem. While I've never really spent any time on the Romantics, that inevitably winds up reminding me of Philip "deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth" Larkin, so I promised I'd post something of his.

( A serious house on serious earth it is )

That was a lot more talking than I meant to do! I should try to post more often, so I don't post quite so much. Oh, and I did manage to miss it, but I hope everyone who observes had a lovely Passover or Easter, while I'm on the topic. ♥

I'm sincerely sorry, flist, for continuing to rant at you, but I guess I have a few more things to say about the warnings mess. I'll probably be stopping after this, though.

( I just don't understand where some people are coming from. )

Whew, okay, that was much longer than I expected. Briefly, I discussed: "your triggers are not my problem"/community sensibilities, the anger of pro-warning fans, survivors and pro-warning advocates "attacking" ficcers, censorship, and demands for consensus on a list of triggers to warn for. With lots of attempts to explain what I think the pro-warnings camp is attempting to say and to accomplish. (My understanding of the situation ultimately represents nobody's opinions but my own. Obviously.)

I think I'm done now--shit, I have so much to do that is NOT THIS--but here are a few more links. While I think that the analogies being thrown around are inherently problematic (fandom is neither a bookstore nor a supermarket), vassilissa's take on the food allergy analogy is at least better, IMO: "You'll have to find that out for yourself. You can always leave if you smell peanuts. It's your responsibility, not mine." kalpurna has a handy list of ways to make your warnings optional by hiding them. And lastly, the unfunnybusiness write-up has lots more links, including to a lot of the posts where the wank started and was primarily continued.

[ETA:] quettaser does the math. *_*

[ETA 2:] As usual, have not been able to pull myself away from haphazardly reading more posts on this subject. /o\ The more I do (and the calmer I am; I fully admit that my previous post in particular was written in a haze of rage), the more things seem to boil down to one simple issue. People don't like to be told what to do. Duh, I know. (And: a simplification, I know. But significant.) I don't have a lot of respect for that reaction (in this case), but I get it. However, this is not about people telling other people what to do: it's about people asking for help. I wish some people out there would read impertinence's post about triggers (again, if need be), and try to re-focus their perspective a little. In context, that contrary reaction is fucking selfish.

Oh man, so I've been mainlining Star Trek: TOS all week. I am giddy with new fandom love and entirely amused at myself, because well, "new." This is my mother's fandom that I've gone and fallen for here.

Actually, I think that's kind of awesome, though. I've always loved the whole history/community part of fandom so much, and the new movie has made Star Trek into this crazy generation-bridging thing. I mean, sure, plenty of new!Trek fans aren't interested in going back and exploring the older canon, and that's valid (as a comics fan--not to mention a new!Who fan--I'd be pretty hypocritical to say otherwise). For me, though, the existence of all that past canon is a huge part of the attraction, even though the fic I've been reading so far is all new!Trek. (The stuff I've been liking best is at least somewhat informed by TOS.)

I could flail on, but this is actually pretty terrible timing for a new fandom. /o\ I have so many fannish commitments this month, I am making to-do lists and schedules (and not letting myself look at any Star Trek fanart, because I will want to draw some and I can't).

It's kind of nice to be a bit multifannish again. I'm still quite in love with bandom, and there's been an awful lot of MCR-related flail lately (new album, new baby, Ray voiceposting about music, Frank tweeting about the Decemberists ♥♥♥). I'm sure it'll be easier to put Trek on the back burner (temporarily) once those BBBs start going up. :DDD (Goodness knows, I crave longfic in every fandom . . . I hope someone is writing the plotty epic with slow-building Kirk/Spock, kickass-with-her-own-plot Uhura, and generally fantastic ensemble-y Trek fic of my dreams, but I doubt they'll be posting it for awhile.)

I have to go bury myself in my sketchbook again now (so many deadlines), but a couple of things first. If you haven't, you really MUST check out the stunning fanart theopteryx did for "Heaven Help Us," here. (SPOILERS.) Meanwhile, oliviacirce has some intriguing fandom meta (with epic amounts of discussion in the comments) here, and a follow-up post here. And lastly, very long story short, there was some stomach-turning talk show radio transphobia the other day that is extremely worth responding to. It seriously doesn't take long to send a quick email off to advertisers; we don't need that kind of hate speech on our airwaves ever. (Directed at children! I won't lie; I couldn't even read that article all the way through, much less listen to the actual broadcast.)

Okay, sketchbook. It is really helpful to have "new" TV to watch while I'm drawing all this fanart. ;)