The Shared Universe

This is a round-up of Bay Area comic news from the last few weeks.

A number of comic books related events and signings are happening in October. Signings include Mike Mignola, Marjorie Liu, Hope Larson and more. See my round-up here.

Writing for The Bold Italic, Mel Burke (of Mel Reads Comics) showcases Four Bay Area Comic Shops You Gotta See. Mentions include Cape and Cowl Comics, Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge, Mission: Comics and Art, and Flying Colors.

Bay Area graphic novelist and cartoonist Gene Luen Yang is the recipient of MacArthur Foundation Genius grant. The grant gives each fellow $625,000 to spend how they see fit. Yang is the author of American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints, and is the current writer on DC’s New Super-Man.

Berkeley’s Doe Library’s Bernice Layne Brown Gallery is featuring an exhibit, Beyond Tintin and Superman: The Diversity of Global Comics, which focuses on how the comic book medium is used around the world. The exhibit includes comics from “Mexico, Egypt, Argentina, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Colombia, Poland, Israel and other nations.”  A video about the exhibit is below:

Steve Wozniak’s Silicon Valley Comic Con is preparing to return to San Jose in April of 2017. The tech and comics convention put general admission tickets on sale last month and has begun announcing guests.  Recent announcements include Buzz Aldrin, cast members from multiple iterations of Star Trek, Art Adams, Adam Savage, and more.

Berkeley’s Fantastic Comics is getting name dropped in articles discussing Greg Rucka’s recent clarification that Wonder Woman, for all intents and purposes, “must be queer.” In an interview with Comicosity the author said:

By the same token, going back to the question of sexuality on Themyscira, we spent a long time thinking about what this means. I did a talk at Fantastic Comics in Berkeley, California, where I said that no Amazon is going to look at another Amazon and say they are Amazoning wrong. Because that wouldn’t be paradise. The society accepts everyone in it. The requirement is, you’re here and you’re female.

Now, that opens up a separate question. For the purposes of Themyscira, as the Amazons experience it, and as we represent that experience, nobody looks at Io and says, “You’re too butch.” Nobody looks at Kasia and says, “You’re too femme.” Nobody says a dress is inappropriate. Nobody says, “Why are you wearing pants?” Nobody says you’re too heavy. Nobody says you’re too skinny, or not strong enough.

It has to be an inclusive and accepting society, for a number of reasons — paradise being one of them. But also because, Nicola, Liam, and I believe very strongly that Diana is beautifully and very actively inclusive.

That’s not to say Batman or Superman are not, but for Diana, it’s a very active inclusivity. That’s just part of what she is. Her arms are always open wide. There’s room for everybody. That’s an active part of her. I mean, Batman doesn’t have an issue, but he doesn’t spend his days thinking about how best can he understand his fellow man.