#LGBTSuperheroes is making sure All Heroes are Represented

Y'all know I love geek culture, so I was curious about this video I received in my email.

The video is called LGBT Superheroes. Here's a bit more from their press release

Why are LGBT Superheroes missing or desexualised in hollywood blockbusters? Iceman, Mystique, Catwoman and many other well known superheroes are written as LGBT in the comic books, only to then appear as straight when they hit the big screen.

Launching in partnership with MCM Comic Con today and following #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend trending last week, this trailer gives fans the first opportunity to see LGBT superheroes accurately brought to life.

“This project has been been completed created by volunteers,” said Director Mike Buonaiuto. “We hope that we can demonstrate to the studios that there is a huge audience for accurate LGBT portrayal on the big screen, and it won’t deter cinema­goers to buy tickets.”

It's a good start... Needs diversity, but it's a great effort.

New Wonder Woman '77 cover by Phil Jimenez!

I thought I would lighten the mood on the blog since it's been a lot of RFRA talk on here.

Check out this cover for Wonder Woman '77 by Phil Jimenez! This comic book is a continuation of the TV series (for the non-comic book geeks)

I LOOOOOVE it!

My List of the Top Black Heroines in Comics

The number of Black Super Heroes are growing. New and exciting stories that include Black comic book characters are becoming the norm, but sadly, our Black super heroines are still few and far between.

So I wanted to take this time to recognize some of my favorite Black Super Women after the jump

Comic Pic of the Day

Hero for Hire #9 1973

My Top 5 Interesting Dads in Comics

It's Father's Day and to celebrate the faux holiday, I have found my top 5 interesting Fathers in comic books.

Please check them out after the jump

BIG 'DEATH' in Justice League of America #4

I won't spoil it, but if you want to see... Check after the jump.

Is Gumroad Discriminating against Gay Erotic Writer Dale Lazarov?

Hey gay comic fans, I got some foolishness to tell you about. A buddy of mine, Dale Lazarov is a profound writer of gay erotica. Some of you may know of his works, but if you don't, please check him out.

Anywho, here's the story. Dale was selling his graphic novel, STICKY on a comic site called Gumroad. Days later, Dale received this letter…

hey,
i’m sahil – i work at gumroad.
i just wanted to reach out and say that i don’t think the stuff you’re selling on gumroad is a good fit for us at the moment. we’re a small, early company and we have to stay on the safe side in terms of the things that we allow on our platform. as we work with banks and other partners, we have to be pretty conservative, as they are.
we’ll keep your account going for 14 days so you get paid out fully. that should be enough time for you to find another provider.
hopefully our short terms losses lead to long term gains and we become a really good fit for you again.
best and sorry about all of this,
i hope you understand,
Sahil @ Gumroadgumroad.com // @gumroad // on Facebook”

Interesting, as if bankers and other partners are not gay or enjoy some skin from time to time. Dale called them out over selling another erotic book called Smut Peddler.
He said:

Dear Gumroad:

Why, if you have been selling SMUT PEDDLER for months, which is as explicit and often as gay as my comics, did you cancel distribution of mine in less than a month?
If you sell SMUT PEDLER for months but you dump mine in weeks, even after you tell me I am a big seller and pester me with marketing questions days earlier... What do I make of you dumping my comic?
EXPLAIN TO ME: How is SMUT PEDDLER a "good fit" but my comics aren't?

Sincerely, Dale Lazarov

Once they were put on blast, Gumroad responded with:

We do not discriminate in any way based on orientation of content on Gumroad, our TOS is purely based on restricting sales of illicit content because we do not have an age-restriction feature, which is required to protect sellers from minors purchasing content of this type.

Well, Gumroad, can you explain why this happened? Why single out STICKY and claim it wasn't a good fit? And what's a GOOD FIT?

However once the smoke (somewhat) cleared, SMUT PEDLER was removed from their list.

Very interesting trail of events. I think this story is just getting started.

Apple is banning Saga #12 because of Stamp-Sized Images of Gay Sex (NSFW) UPDATED

UPDATE  iOS comiXology app is now carrying Saga #12, it wasn't Apple's fault, please go here
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Apple is being very silly right now. Because of the small, small gay sex pics in these two pages, Apple will not carry the popular comic book Saga on their iOS comiXology app or on iPhones or iPads.

Here's more:

Alex Hern of the New Statesman said: “Issue twelve of the series opens with one of the characters, Prince Robot IV, injured on a battlefield. On his TV-screen head (look, it’s a thing in the series) images of gay porn are visible, as the damage takes its toll.”

He added: “while the small visible images are certainly explicit, they’re far from erotic. They work in humorous juxtaposition to the chaos of the battleground, and underline the artificial nature of the character in question.”

Brian Vaughan released a statement saying: “Unfortunately, because of two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex, Apple is banning tomorrow’s Saga #12 from being sold through any iOS apps. This is a drag, especially because our book has featured what I would consider much more graphic imagery in the past, but there you go.

“Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we’re not changing shit.”

Apple needs to explain why this is a big deal. If anything, their foolishness has placed a ugly pox on their house.
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WATCH the Diversity in Comics panel w/ Phil Jimenez, Son of Baldwin and others

This is a great discussion for those who love comics and social justice

Is Judge Dredd gay? Or is it just Fantasy?

Some of us comic fans were curious about Judge Dredd being a hot leather daddy after seeing a pic of him kissing another man.

But does it mean he's coming out? Or is this a fantasy scene. Take a look and 'judge' for yourself.

Here's more from the comic's spokesperson and the comic's writer:

A spokesman said: "We have had quite an extreme reaction.

"Dredd has always been satirical, while touching on serious issues. This is another example of this."

There is a twist in the tale, with all not being as it seems, the spokesman said.
Writer Rob Williams said Dredd's sexuality - whatever it is - was buried beneath his love for the law. He said: "Although, can you imagine what would happen if that repression ever fell away, just for an instant? Sure, Dredd could be gay.

"You can't look at the original costume design of leather and chains and not see a fetishistic edge there.

"But Dredd's feeling are so deeply hidden, he is extremely unlikely to ever let them show."

The writer said comics were a "great" place to deal with issues such as homophobia.
He said: "As long as you stay true to the character throughout - which I think 'Closet' does - you can deal with all sorts of issues in a story.

"And if they push people's buttons, fine.

"I'd rather a story be provocative than just, 'and they have a fight'.

I am interested to see how this turns out. Maybe this is like a Bobby Ewing shower moment.

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A New X-Men Comic Coming?

Yesterday, there was this teaser about the next Marvel Comic Book. But it's interesting to look at what this teaser means.

At first, it looks like a X-Men title... Actually, I'm saying it's probably a X-Men comic and the XX... Well, it means female.

So is this a X-Men comic about the X-Women?

We'll see.

When Wonder Woman supported Hostess snack cakes

MARVEL NOW: Uncanny Avengers and All New X-Men

Here are some more details on the new Marvel relaunch. Starting with the Uncanny Avengers

 UNCANNY AVENGERS: Writer Rick Remender mixes Avengers characters like Captain America and Thor together with such X-Men as Rogue and Havok in the flagship title of Marvel NOW!

 And more of Jean Grey's return with the All New X-Men:

ALL NEW X-MEN: Brian Bendis takes on the most eccenctric and controversy-baiting Marvel NOW! book. The pitch: The original five teenage X-Men time-travel to the present day. “Here’s the big question that the original X-Men are gonna be faced with: ‘We’re gonna grow up and this is what we’re going to to get? That is not acceptable.” NOV. 2012

So she does return, but how? And why? More to come comic fans.

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New Cover: AvX #8

Has the Phoenix Five one?

One Million Lonely Housewives goes after Comics Books

I knew DC and Marvel Comics' Gay initiative would get these tramps' attention. Seems like OMM are trying to attack the titans of comics over Northstar's wedding and DC Comics coming out story.

Here's some of  their press release:

 This is ridiculous! Why do adult gay men need comic superheroes as role models? They don't but do want to indoctrate impressionable young minds by placing these gay characters on pedestals in a positive light. These companies are heavily influencing our youth by using children's superheroes to desensitize and brainwash them in thinking that a gay lifestyle choice is normal and desirable. As Christians, we know that homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:26-27).

Unfortunately, children are now being exposed to homosexuality at an early age. Comic books would be one of the last places a parent would expect their child to be confronted with homosexual topics that are too complicated for them to understand. Children do not know what straight, homosexual, or coming out of the closet even means, but DC Comics and Marvel are using superheroes to confuse them on this topic to raise questions and awareness of an alternative lifestyle choice. These companies are prompting a premature discussion on sexual orientation.

Northstar's wedding will be the first same-sex wedding in the world of mainstream superhero comics, but not the first gay comic books character. Earlier this year One Million Moms emailed Toys 'R' Us concerning the "Life With Archie" No. 16 with two gay characters getting hitched. Toys 'R' Us had the audacity to display "Archie- Just Married" at the front of the store by the checkout counters.

TAKE ACTION

Please send DC Comics (Warner Bros. Entertainment Company) and Marvel (Disney) an email urging them to change and cancel all plans of homosexual superhero characters immediately. Ask them to do the right thing and reverse their decision to have sexual orientation displayed to readers.

Ladies, you will fail trying to attack comic books. We geeks are some fierce bitches.


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First Look at the First X-Men

Neal Adams and Christos Gage are bring the "First X-Men" a new comic from Marvel. Bleeding Cool reported this earlier, but now we have so info from the famed artist, Neal Adams:

“You guys probably know I was at one time associated with X-Men…then they canceled the book. I had great fondness for the original X-Men, had the time of my life, then they canceled it. At the beginning, Stan and Jack were experimenting. You had Professor X, bald and in a wheelchair. These strange kids already in costume. It seems to me like this was not the beginning of the story, but the middle. Of all the mutants on Earth, Professor X could easily pass as a human. Why would he want to get involved in this? Maybe all this was going on before Professor X was Professor X…when Professor X was a teenager. Maybe mutant kids were getting abused by the military, by the government. Somebody would have been looking out for them, but maybe that person came to Charles Xavier, realizing he couldn’t protect these kids. That was my pitch. Marvel was very generous to provide Christos Gage to me, who is an expert in all this stuff. He’s taking my pitch and turning it into scripts that are in my opinion groundbreaking. 

It’s the X-Men before there were X-Men. How deeply is Wolverine entrenched in the X-Men? Why was this first team…maybe a failure? Lots of questions to answer. The natural instinct is that this is like the ‘X-Men: First Class’ movie, but it’s not. We didn’t mind stealing the Nazi Hunter version of Magneto though. There’s a character who calls himself Bombastic Aghast, but they call him Bomb. Wolverine saves him from a cave-in then gives him a leather jacket that fits like a tent. He looks ridiculous, but he thinks it’s his costume. Later, Wolverine buys him a jacket that fits, but he throws it back in his face. That jacket means so much to him and represents his relationship with Wolverine. That’s the origin of his costume… There will be early versions of the Sentinels. I did the giant ones, now I’m getting to do different one."

I don't know about this. I mean, Wolverine? Let's stop using him for Goddess' sake! And why do we need an early X-Men story? I feel like we have enough back stories, let's move forward.

New Gay Geek Project: These Quiet Worlds

I supporting a fellow writer and his exciting new project. Dillon Bishop has created a fascinating story in his Graphic Novel, These Quiet Worlds

Dillon gives some info on his comic:

The Story: Set in two separate universes, the main character Dorian Rhodes has been taking anti-psychotics ever since Incident Zero when he was 13 years old. In the first universe, which is represented in photography, he goes off of medication and moves to California to start a new life on his own. In the second universe, Dorian goes through withdrawal to discover he is part of a small percentage of the population, along with his two best friends, who have mutant powers.

It's not a story about superpowers, as it is a story about the state of humanity today and how to exist in the current world.


I set out to tell a modern story, and set it apart by featuring characters who act like all people do. They do things out of self-interest, they have sex, they fall in love, they try and find who they are through experiencing what we all do.


This will be different because it features real living people in the first universe. It shows people acting as people which will give this graphic novel a new dimension.

I like the concept. It's something new and fresh.

Dillon is raising money for his project on Kickstarter. So, if you can help, please do. Also check out his tumblr.

My Top 5 Resurrected Comic Book Characters

Easter is all about resurrection and death... and church. But for me, I can't help but to think about my favorite comic book characters that died, came back and at times, died again.

So here are my top 5

Magneto brought back at least 4 times

Donna Troy/Wonder Girl/Troia died twice

Jean Grey has died and came back twice

Teen Titan's Raven, died and returned three times

Flash, well he travels in time

New Cover: Avengers vs X-Men #5 VARIANT

Gay Couple Hulkling & Wiccan Kiss in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #9

After 7 years together, we see their kiss

via CBM