Ask Your Library!

My buddy Jeff pointed out a neat way that you might be able to read a printed copy of Comic Book Fanthropology for free: ask your local library!

"But, Sean," you say, "wouldn't it be pretty unlikely that your well-written and insightful book would be available in a library? After all, you don't exactly have the same level of press coverage that a J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer has!"

Very true. HOWEVER, librarians tend to be really nice people who genuinely want to help. Which means that if you ask them about obtaining a book they might not have, they will often work to obtain a copy. That doesn't guarantee they'll be able to get one -- after all, their budgets are tight, too -- but they may well have enough resources for your request. In fact, if they do order a copy because of your request, they'll probably alert you as soon as it comes in and keep it on reserve until you pick it up!

This ends up being a win-win-win situation all the way around. You get to read the book in an easy, comfortable format for free, other people get to discover and read the book for free and I still get a bit of change for the copy that was sold to the library! A great deal all the way around!

Now, here's the beauty part -- if you're uncomfortable actually going up to your librarian (who are, again, often genuinely nice people) or happen to be stuck at home during a snowstorm or whatever, many libraries have forms you can fill out from the website that allow you to request the book from the comfort of you home office. I'm telling you: there is nary a downside anywhere to this!

So check out your local library and see if they'd be interested in getting a copy of Comic Book Fanthropology for you.

Chicago Happenin's?

Question out to anyone who might have some ideas...

I'll be in the Chicago area the week after Christmas. Are there any good comics-related events I should know about and try to attend?

Thanks in advance!

First Comic Book Fanthropology Review!

Daniel Peretti writes the first formal review of Comic Book Fanthropology. For me at least, it's very useful. He brings up some valid points that I could address in future editions, and raises some additional questions I'll have to ponder over. But Peretti provides a positive review on the whole, and says that he'll quote some of it in the book he is writing. I don't know about you, but I certainly take that as a high compliment.

You can read Peretti's full review here, read several chapters of Comic Book Fanthropology for free here and buy a printed copy for yourself here.

Where To Turn When You Run Out Of Pam Grier Movies

One of the S.O.'s heroes when she was growing up was Pam Grier. Like many young girls in the 1970s, the S.O. saw Grier as a supremely positive role model who embodied everything she aspired to. Grier, of course, is famous for her titular roles in movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown where she played a intelligent, fashionable, sexy, independent woman who kicked a lot of serious butt when she needed to. She was, in some respects, a female version of an Americanized James Bond. Men wanted her and women wanted to be her.

The fact that Grier was attractive and fit certainly helped, but that combined with her ability to get the job done was a powerful factor in her popularity. It wasn't so much that she was kicking ass in bar fights and gun battles, but it was the notion that, regardless of what was going on around her, Grier's characters were totally in control. She was dealt whatever crappy hand was possible, and she said, "Screw this; I'm going to fix this for my damn self!" It was very empowering to see a woman -- a black woman in the 1970s, no less -- stand up for herself and not take shit from anybody. (I think she's even got a line or two precisely to that effect.) The idea that she could still embody all the best aspects of femininity without ceding the self-direction and internal locus of control often thrust upon women is very appetizing.

However, when the S.O. and I started dating, she expressed a decided disinterest in comics. She said that everything she'd ever seen was decidedly more misogynistic and she couldn't see anything remotely resembling a positive role model for women. It was a hard claim to refute. But, to her credit, she's kept an open mind about the medium and has some appreciation that there ARE positive comics out there for/about/by women; they're just not in the mainstream. And while she's still not a fan of comics, by any real stretch of the imagination, she's more conscious of them now, I think, and can spot when there are good things to take advantage of.

Case in point: she caught and sent me a link to this article about Rashida Jones' Frenemy of the State. Five minutes later, she fires off another email to me: "So never mind about that last comic I sent you! I was reading the comments and someone pointed out NOLA, which judging by the cover, has about 300% more badassness!" She was, in effect, seeing a lot of what attracted her to Pam Grier in Nola.

That strong females like Rashida Jones and Rosario Dawson tie themselves to comics in any way is great, as it draws attention to non-mainstream comics. But those efforts tend to be more finite in scope (as in, limited series with little to no follow up efforts) so it falls to other folks to have other good stuff to act as follow-through material. "If you bought Frenemy because of Jones' name but still liked it as a comic, why not try these other titles by people you may not have heard of?" Using powerful names to lure people in is all well and good, but let's make sure there's more material to cater to their interests once they've stepped through the door!

Pam Grier is awesome, but where do you turn when you run out of Pam Grier movies?

Knowles On Red Ice Radio

Christopher Knowles, author of Our Gods Wear Spandex is interviewed by the Swedish program Red Ice Radio...

Dead Man Holiday #-1

Colin Panetta just gave me one of the hardest comics I've ever tried to review: Dead Man Holiday #-1. (Available in these fine comic shops on December 30!) This is the third issue of his series, and concludes what is effectively the prologue to the actual series proper, which will begin with #1 later in 2010. It's a difficult review because the book as a whole is pretty hard to explain. (I've already completely ditched and re-written this post 4 times, trying to put something coherent together!)

The story so far has been... unusual. Check out my reviews of #-3 and #-2 for the basic plot and general set-up. In this issue, Thad has a peanut butter sandwich and is attacked by a giant sludge monster, while a Mexican wrestler rushes to his aid. Oh, and a falcon flies through with a dismembered hand -- that seems like it's kind of important.

In a lot of respects, this issue resembles the previous ones. There's a lot of good things to like about the issue -- Panetta's art being a large part of that. But since it's difficult to tell where things are headed, it's equally difficult to tell how successful the book is. Panetta's narrative is decidedly more ethereal than most stories and with that dream-like quality also comes the potential for seeming nonsequitirs. That said, however, this particular issue is more linear than the previous two and will probably make more sense to new readers accordingly.

The story so far has definitely been intriguing, and it looks to be a good set-up for when Panetta really gets rolling with #1. I get the sense that things will really start coming together story-wise with the next few issues. As I've said before, it seems like Panetta's definitely going somewhere with this, and I'm sure that not being able to see that readily will frustrate a number of potential readers. But if you take a more traditionally Eastern philosophy (the journey is more important than the destination) I think there's something here that's worth paying attention to.

The first three issues so far have put some interesting ideas with regards to character and setting. I did find a few minor quibbles with the art in a couple of places, but it's the type of thing that you can totally run with (assuming you even notice) if you're liking the book already and is completely irrelevant if you're not keen on the structure in the first place. The ending of #-1 strikes me as a great launching point for the series as a whole, and I think Panetta has the means to do something really poignant. Even if it's not on the radar of most comic book fans.

Dead Man Holiday #-1 will be available on December 30.

Shelf Porn @ Robot 6

The Robot 6 gang over at Comic Book Resources have posted an article highlighting my comic book collection. Several more and newer photos than anything I've posted here. Plus, it somehow looks a lot cooler on somebody else's website!