Another one of my therapy purchases came today. I wanted to donate to Aigue so I got prints. Still wish I could have given more because she’s pretty damn amazing
Alton tries to burn Smallville #1
I don’t think it’s any secret that I hate the way comics handle both their female characters and their female creators. The idea that writing and portraying women in a way that does not objectify or demean them will make men buy fewer comics demonstrates that the major companies do not know how to market their product. That they can’t make something sexy without also objectifying the woman demonstrates they’ve done a poor job hiring or instructing creators. And it’s not just Didio, although he does deserve quite a bit of the blame for the current problems. You have creators like Gail Simone saying that a story will be good even though she’s just admitted the only change they needed to make when switching out two female characters was to change the name. To them female characters are interchangable sex objects and ways to appease what they consider to me a minority of angry fans. Marvel is a little better, but not by much.
But that wasn’t why I promised to burn my copy of Smallville. The week of Comic-Con a report came out that DC was replacing Stephanie Brown with Barbara Gordon in Smallville. It was later revealed that Steph is off limits to creators because the people at the top of DC associate her with angry female fans and don’t want her included. I did not burn Smallville because of this. I am desensitized to being treated like shit for expecting the thing I spend a vast majority of my disposable income on to try stop being sexist.
No I burned it because of the events at the Batman panel. The rumor had been out for 3 days. Now none of those creators on that panel have ever worked on Smallville. However a fan asked about the rumor. This is the fan who last year asked Didio why there weren’t more female creators in the reboot and was shouted at to tell him who he should have hired. I understand there was some good natured ribbing when she came up to ask a question. Scott Lobdell, possibly the worst writer at DC or Marvel told the woman that there were never any reports that Steph Brown was in Smallville. There in fact were. He then told her who she should believe, some art online, that DC themselves had released, or the creators on stage. At which point the crowd of people laughed at this woman.
Con’s are expensive as shit. They’re a chance for fans to hang out celebrate something they love that they’re already spending money on. No one who attends deserves to be laughed at. This woman was a fan who spends her money on their product. On Bryan Q Miller’s product. A product he openly advertised to her through various mediums. And when a decision was made to change the character he had told fans would appear in the book he wrote, he could not be bothered to in any way comment on it even though his twitter was filled with upset fans.
He could be bothered an hour later though to try and sell me something over twitter. He could be bothered to announce “Hey Steph fans…” buy this sketchbook. Even as the fans who supported him were laughed at during an event to celebrate his work because he couldn’t be bothered with responding, he felt it appropriate to try and sell me more shit.
So I made the promise to burn my copy of Smallville #1 and use it to light my cigarette. I don’t smoke cigarettes. I smoke a tobacco pipe. I was going to buy some just for this, but they’ve outlawed the ones I used to smoke so you’re getting my tobacco pipe.
I spent $3.99 on this, and also bought the digital copy(I will not be burning my Galaxy). I don’t really like Smallville. I wanted to, and I loved Green Arrow and the Justice League episodes, but overall the show took too many liberties. Seriously, what doesn’t kryptonite do on that show? And I also feel like BQM left so much of the history of Stephanie Brown out of his Batgirl run to make it more palatable for readers. What ended up happening was a hope filled shell of a character replaced an empowered young woman who had overcome so much. But I was okay with it because it was so much better than the Anarky arc.
Fun fact, comics don’t really burn. They kind of melt. In the first picture you can see a tiny flame around the phantom mask, but that was really all I could do. So I went over to my grill and got some lighter fluid. This didn’t really help, but it allowed me enough time to do….
This. It was really hard and I inhaled like crazy to get the tiny flame down into the pipe, but it worked. I smoked using the issue of Smallville I’d bought to support BQM as a glorified lighter. When it’s cold again I’ll throw it into the fireplace and just let it all melt, but I did like how this page turned out. Symbolism, folks
Reblogging myself like a boss
“I bet you would do this if Dick was going it.”
“No. No I wouldn’t. And give me my scarf back— You know what? Nevermind. It’s probably wet and cold anyways.”
I haven’t draw anything DC related in a long time. I was going to draw Dick and Damian, but then I realize the world needs more of Steph and Damian’s interactions. I love Damian and Stephanie’s relationship: the older sister with the bratty lil bro.
Steph has spoiled me…
Oh, why hello there! That’s me.
Taken in July 2011. Back then I didn’t have my cowl yet. Looks rather cheap, doesn’t it? I really have to remake this…(Photo + Edit by Acorea; Costume made by Aigue-Marine)
