Archive for the ‘space girls’ Category
Filed Under avatar, fighter, katara, space girls
Action Girl Pulp of the Day
By Robert Gibson Jones.
Fighter
I don’t talk a lot about it here, but in addition to booty-kicking women, I also love human drama and gorgeous, arthouse cinema (no, that’s not a joke; shut up). Now there’s a movie that combines all three.
Meet your new Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender
/Film has a look at the cast from the upcoming live-action Avatar movie. I caught a few episodes with my nephew when he was younger and liked them, but didn’t stick with the show. I’ve been meaning to rent the DVDs and I’m certainly interested in checking out the film.
All of the main characters have been cast, but the pertinent one to this blog is Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) as the Waterbender Katara.
Filed Under alien, fables, ripley, space girls
“Trail of the Astrogar”
By Robert Gibson Jones.
The Chronicles of Ripley?
Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott are interested in doing more with the character of Ripley, but wisely think that the AvP movies have devalued the Aliens as serious nemeses. I, for one, am totally up for an Alienless Ripley franchise.
Fables: The Series
In the Best News I’ve Heard All Week Department, ABC has greenlit a pilot based on Bill Willingham’s Fables comic. If you’ve read it and fallen in love with Willingham’s version of Snow White like I have, you totally get why this is Action Girl-related. They should get Rachel Weisz to play Snow White.
I say “totally” too much.
Filed Under action girls, grant gould, space girls, submarines
“Undersea Guardians”
By James B. Settles.
The Ghosts of Ice Planet Omega
Oh, how I wish this was a real comic. What it really is is the latest in a series of annual portraits Grant Gould does of his pal Zoetica Ebb, which are all very cool too, but don’t satisfy my need to see Zoetica swinging that weapon at some space spectres.
Filed Under jungle, queen la, space girls, tarzan
Empire of Jegga
By Robert Gibson Jones.
La
By J Allen St. John.
La’s single-minded obsession with having sex with Tarzan disqualifies her as an Action Girl, but I have a nostalgic soft-spot for her. She’s beautiful, cunning, deadly, and she lives in a lost jungle city. And it’s been a while since I’ve read those stories, but isn’t her lust for Tarzan born out of her desire to continue her race? If true, that makes her more noble than just a hot chick who’s tired of fighting off beast-men who want to mate with her.
Rulah the Jungle Goddess
Here’s another one who’s more cheesecake than adventure, but it’s nice cheesecake. The Comic Book Catacombs has three Rulah stories:
“The Secret of the Leathermen” (Part One. Part Two.)
“The Stalking Death” (Part One. Part Two.)
“Devil Ladies” (Part One. Part Two.)
Filed Under amber atoms, atomic robo, courtney crumrin, cownt, kitty hawk, lost, resident evil, space girls, ted naifeh
The Hathor Legacy
Paul Taylor, one of the artists on The Cownt, was recently interviewed for the Hathor Legacy site about his popular webcomic Wapsi Square. It’s a cool article with some great insight into Paul and his work, but I’m also linking to it because it introduced me to the Hathor Legacy site itself.
I haven’t browsed much yet to see how much our specific tastes and opinions align, but I love the concept and the tag-line, “the search for good female characters.” You can read their mission statement here and catch up on the conversation here. What I can’t seem to find there is any mention of who Hathor is, but a quick Google tells me that she was the Egyptian goddess of love, music, and beauty.
The Bechdel Rule
One of the things the Hathor Legacy mentions is Alison Bechdel’s famous movie test. It’s an easy test to remember and sets up some great criteria that more writers should implement. To pass it, a movie just needs to have 1) at least two women in it who 2) talk to each other about 3) something besides a man. The Hathor Legacy adds that the women should be named characters, which I suppose is an okay amendment, but it’s worth noting that it’s not in the original comic strip that the Rule came from.
Also not in the original strip is any sort of suggestion about what this Rule should be used for. It’s in the context of one woman sharing her personal preferences with another woman and it’s never said that all movies should have these elements. I don’t see that suggestion in my initial look-over of the Hathor Legacy either. What I’m getting – and what I totally agree with – is simply that more movies should be that way. The Hathor Legacy also includes TV shows, books, and comics, but admits that this is less of a problem in those formats.
I’m looking forward to finding out what the Hathor Legacy writers are into and what they think should be better. In the meantime, NPR also recently had this discussion and came up with its own, short list of shows that meet the Rule’s criteria (giving special mention to The Middleman, yay!).
Did you know NPR had a pop culture blog? How have I been missing that?
Okay, on to other stuff that may or may not meet the Bechdel Rule, but that’s okay too…
Kitty Hawk
I started reading this webcomic expecting a typical action/adventure story, but it’s a lot more than just that. Sure there are jet packs and robot pilots and mysteries, but there’s also a beautiful, quiet story about a young woman trying to figure out where she fits into the world around her. And the art’s amazing. Start here and click Next.
Atomic Robo and the Sparrow
I’ll have more to say about Atomic Robo’s awesome Sparrow character later, but for now, you can see what her creators have to say about her here, including how she was initially going to be a dude until it became apparent that a lot of Atomic Robo readers are girls. Very cool.
Miss America
Pappy’s got a Golden Age story about everyone’s favorite teen super-heroine from the ’40s.
Lost: Season Five
Gettin’ excited! (Thanks, /Film!)
Courtney Crumrin and the Prince of Nowhere
Newsarama talks with Ted Naifeh about the latest installment in his awesome series of charmingly spooky graphic novels.
Resident Evil 4
It’s coming. I’m nervous about it, but I liked the first two enough that I’m still excited to see more. (The third one was okay.)
Amber Atoms
Coming in February from Image Comics.
AMBER ATOMS #1
story, art & cover KELLY YATES
colors MICHAEL E. WIGGAM
“CHAPTER ONE”
Blast-off with the newest sci-fi adventure heroine Amber Atoms! Follow the ongoing adventures of this modern day “Flash Gordon” as Amber dreams of leaving her mundane life, but not exactly how she imagined. Mercenaries and aliens suddenly invade Amber’s world as she learns that her family history could decide the fate of the galaxy.
FEBRUARY 18 – 32 PAGES – FC – $3.50
CBR has more info here.
Filed Under fantasy, space girls
I’m headed to Nashville for a wedding this weekend, so content will be tiny. I should have enough scheduled though to have at least something up every day while I’m gone.
Today, it’s links to Golden Age Comic Book Stories’ galleries of Planet Stories covers. I don’t know a lot about Planet Stories, but apparently they weren’t afraid to have women kick some butt on their covers instead of just fainting or cowering from evil robots and aliens. Here are a couple of samples, but there’s a lot more Action Girliness in the links.
Filed Under faeries, futura, gail simone, jungle, kelly sue deconnick, lady snowblood, runaways, space girls, ted naifeh, wonder woman
Good Neighbors Review
I reviewed Kin, the first volume of Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles) and Ted Naifeh’s (Polly and the Pirates) graphic novel series The Good Neighbors, at Newsarama. It features a promising, young Action Girl named Rue. And it’s very good.
Runaways
Humberto Ramos reminds me why I’m buying Runaways again when he starts drawing it. It’s partly because he’s Awesome anyway, but mostly because his version of Molly makes me remember how much I miss her.
Cave Girl
The Fortress of Fortitude has a complete Cave Girl story for your politically incorrect reading enjoyment.
Kelly Sue loves women (and mythology)
The Capital Kelly Sue DeConnick contributes to the Newsarama blog’s summertime “I (Heart) Comics” feature by focusing on her love for female characters and mythology. It’s a great essay, but I especially love this part where she talks about her attraction to female characters, regardless of how feminist they are:
Here’s the thing, I’m not going to say powerful women, or smart women or whatever because… well, that’s not always the case. Politics is politics but the heart wants what it wants and, in my case anyway, has no use for reason.
I love Kelly Sue for a lot of reasons, but her honesty is the best of them.
She mentions Wonder Woman, naturally, and introduces that fantastic panel above, but she also reminds me that I’ve been meaning to try Lady Snowblood.
Gail Simone talking about Wonder Woman
I never get tired of hearing Simone talk about Wonder Woman. I stay far, far away from the DC Message Boards these days, but Mujer Maravilla was cool enough to repost a message Simone wrote there. Among other things, Simone talks about how she thinks we’re missing out by not having a Joss Whedon-written Wonder Woman movie. Based on the little I’ve heard about Whedon’s take, I’ve been of the opposite opinion, but Simone’s lamenting it makes me wonder if Whedon had something that I was missing. It’s a moot point now, obviously, but still…
Futura
Sleestak’s been posting a lot more Futura stuff since I first discovered what he was doing. Thanks, Sleestak!
Filed Under giant monsters, giant robots, space girls, space quint
Robot Girl
By Michelle Valigura.
Giant monster
By Tebe Interesno.
Spacemen
By Wally Wood.
Tales of Three Planets
By Roy G. Krenkel.
Space Quint
By Jess Hickman. And you can see a lot of other interpretations of Space Quint here. In addition to those by real artists, there’s even one by me.
Filed Under batman, dr. horrible, indiana jones, next men, space girls, spider-man, star trek, star wars, voodoo
“And you’re a crazy, flying fool!”
I wish I was a member of the Aviator’s Club that Link Thorne belongs to. Their cigarette girls are Awesome.
Custom-made Indiana Jones DVD case
I wish there was a picture of it open, but even so… holy mackerel that’s cool.
Indy Voodoo doll
As long as I’m wishing, I wish this was a replica and not the actual prop from the movie. Then I might be able to afford it.
John Byrne’s Compleat Next Men
IDW is collecting the entire series of John Byrne’s Next Men, including the 2110 prequel one-shot and a bunch of extras. I hope it does well and attracts a lot of new readers because Byrne is not-quite-promising that he’ll continue the story if the collections do well.
Joanna asks if that kind of promise is a sort of blackmail and sums it up as, “Buy my old unfinished series — and if enough of you do, maybe I’ll finish it.” I don’t think it’s quite as nefarious as that. Next Men works beautifully well just like it is. It doesn’t need to be finished to get a complete story.
But, as someone who really loved the series – it’s the best thought-out time travel story I’ve ever read, and it features the first appearance of Hellboy (pre-dating even “Seed of Destruction”) – I’d love to see more of it. I interpret Byrne’s statement as wishing-out-loud, not blackmail. Buy it because it’s good; not because Byrne may or may not make a sequel if you do.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
…is live.
Haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet
Would’ve fought the midnight crowds if the movie was going to be more like this…
Actually, I’m getting more and more excited about it. Or maybe “curious” is a better adjective. Looking forward to Thursday when I’ll finally be able to see it.
Spectacular Spider-Man: Attack of the Lizard
Now this I’m looking forward to. My son is going to freak.
Cartoon Network Saturday nights
Cartoon Network announced its Saturday evening programming block that will include the Clone Wars cartoon, Ben 10, and “a new animated incarnation of Batman.” Presumably the Brave and the Bold series that’ll team him up with different superheroes each week.
Hallmark’s Nerdaments
Hallmark has unveiled its line-up of nerd-themed ornaments for the year. Topless Robot – as always – has the right perspective on it in their post title.
Filed Under futura, jungle, monkeys, sally volt, space girls
Bad Monkeys
That’s the British cover to Matt Ruff’s novel Bad Monkeys. It’s about a secret organization of evil-fighters and the female agent who decides to give them up. You can read a sample chapter at the website, but I’m warning you that you’ll be hooked.
Dorothy Lamour: Jungle Girl
Golden Age Comic Books has the complete story of another monkey-fighter starting here and finishing here.
Sally Volt: Space Jungle Girl
If I haven’t said it before (I so have): Gene Gonzales is a genius. Space Jungle Girl… amazing.
Futura
Segueing into space girls now, Sleestak introduces us to one I’d never heard of before: Futura. He even has her entire first adventure here.
