comics

Inspired | September 2018

Links

Every month, I share the articles and sites that I found most interesting. Here’s what caught my attention in September.

• Debut Advice: Self-care, Reviews, and Shifting from Reader to Writer by Paper Kyoko: “But in my experience, the sooner you put up boundaries and make a permanent mental shift from reader to writer, the better.”

• Strictly analogue: Polaroid’s past, present and future – a photo essay by Christian Sinibaldi and Mee-Lai Stone: Guardian photographer Christian Sinibaldi tours the world’s last Polaroid film factory, in the Netherlands, the only remaining factory still making film for the much-loved instant cameras

• Procrastination: It’s pretty much all in the mind by Nazima Pathan: “Experts say the study, in Psychological Science, underlines procrastination is more about managing emotions than time.”

• (Deliberate) practice makes perfect: how to become an expert in anything by Aytekin Tank: “And for most areas in our lives, a baseline level of skill is enough. But if we want to truly excel, we have to push past this complacency and out of our comfort zone.”

• Captain Marvel, explained by the people who reimagined her by Susana Polo

“Carol falls down all the time,” DeConnick says, “but she always gets back up — we say that about Captain America as well, but Captain America gets back up because it’s the right thing to do. Carol gets back up because ‘Fuck you.’

• The Victorian Cards That Explained How to Use a Book to Flirt by Natasha Frost: “Young people wanted to flirt with one another; the cards were just one very small part of what the pearl-clutching Morning Oregonian, in 1871, called “apparently innocent indulgences” that paved the way “to ruin.””

• It’s been a while since I talked about the music I’m listening to, hasn’t it? (Besides Talking Heads, I mean.) I’m kind of loving this video from Nadine Shah. (Via. The interview is good, too.)

What’s the most interesting thing you saw online this month?

Inspired | May 2018

Links

Every month, I share the articles, videos, and sites that I found most interesting. Here’s what caught my attention in May.

• My friend Bethany just launched her site! Go take a look—it’s fantastic, and full of advice for us busy writers.

• Are ebooks dying or thriving? The answer is yes by Thu-Huong Ha: “Nobody—industry experts, authors, publishers—can gauge the true size of the self-publishing market. So no one can say for sure what’s going on in the larger book industry.”

• It’s Okay to Give Up on Mediocre Books Because We’re All Going to Die by Janet Frishberg: “One, I realized literally NO ONE cares if I give up on a book except me. (And maybe the author, if I told them, which I wouldn’t do because…no.) Two, I realized that I’m going to die.”

• The Cartoonists of Color Database and The Queer Cartoonists Database, spotlighting marginalized comics creators.

• Why I’m Done With Guest Posting by Margo Aaron: “We’re tacitly participating in a system that’s designed to make readers reactive, angry, and thoughtless.”

• The Myth of Authenticity Is Killing Tex-Mex by Meghan McCarron

Waves of cheesy, spicy, frankly pleasurable Texas-Mexican dishes, with many regional variations, continued to spiral outward in the 20th century and into the 21st: sizzling fajitas, cheese enchiladas, frozen margaritas, queso, breakfast tacos, Frito pie, barbacoa, puffy tacos. Along with the crispy tacos and burritos of Cal-Mex, Tex-Mex became one of America’s most beloved and important regional cuisines, even if most Americans didn’t realize that was what they were eating.

• [SPOILERS!] Heads I Win, Tails YOU DIE: Thanos’ Plan is Even Worse Than You Know by Michael Carlisle

• Do You Know Where Your Healing Crystals Come From? by Emily Atkin: “If shop owners can’t disclose their sourcing without risking business, how can consumers know that their healing crystals didn’t contribute to human trauma or environmental destruction?”

• The New Passport-Poor by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian: “Passports, in other words, were invented not to let us roam freely, but to keep us in place—and in check. They represent the borders and boundaries countries draw around themselves, and the lines they draw around people, too.”

• I love this video so much: ‘Dynamite’ by Tami Neilson. (Someone linked to this on Twitter earlier in the month, but I can’t remember who. If it was you: thanks! You’re awesome!)

What’s the most interesting thing you saw online this month?

Inspired | February 2018

Links

A roundup of all the things I can’t stop thinking about this month.

• What’s the biggest challenge novelists face when switching to screenwriting? by Scott Myers

• How I Write a Comic Book Script by Greg Pak

• We Need to Start Taking Young Women’s Love Stories Seriously by Marian Crotty

• Conjuring Creative Permission from Our Tools by Craig Mod

• To Feel Strong by Lucy Bellwood

• Detailed London Transport Map including closed and never opened stations, platforms, and lines

• The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence | Forbes

Inspired | January 2018

Links

I thought that this was going to be a new monthly feature for the blog, but it’s really just a revamp of one that I let slide two years ago. This time, instead of sharing one cool thing every week, I’ll be doing a monthly roundup of all the things (articles, videos, et cetera) that I can’t stop thinking about. Enjoy!

• Learning to Write Fluffy, Glittery Violence from My Little Pony by Seanan McGuire

You could get away with anything, if you made it fluffy and pink enough. You could destroy the whole world, as long as you were willing to cover it in glitter first.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

• How Comic Book Storytelling is Changing Movies by Patrick (H) Willems (via TMS)

• Do You Want to Be Known For Your Writing, or For Your Swift Email Responses? by Melissa Febos: How Patriarchy Has Fucked Up Your Priorities

• The Organized Writer by Antony Johnston

• Meet the original single lady, who wrote the book on living alone by Laura Smith: Marjorie Hillis was the “spinster-in-chief” who showed women that they could make it on their own

• Frances Glessner Lee revolutionized forensic science by building mini crime scenes an excerpt from ‘BRAZEN: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World’ by Pénélope Bagieu

• I Choose My Pearls: On Feminism, Fashion, and Disneyland by Tabitha Blankenbiller

Women don’t need laws to repress their fashion, comfort, identity, or preference. Our society’s deft ability to shame does all the heavy lifting. Frontierland Feminist didn’t dismantle a patriarchal demand to regulate clothing; she picked up the baton.

• Losing its sparkle: the dark side of glitter by Ellie Violet Bramley

• Twitter’s Great Depression by Mike Monteiro

• The Incredible Possibility of a Year by Paul Jun

• You’re Most Likely to Do Something Extreme Right Before You Turn 30 by Daniel H. Pink (via The Art of Non-Conformity)

• Growing apart and losing touch is human and healthy by DHH

What allowed me to change and prosper was the freedom to grow apart and lose touch with people. It’s hard to change yourself if you’re stuck in the same social orbit. There’s a gravitational force that pulls you into repeating the same circular pattern over and over again. Breaking out of that takes tremendous force.

• My inner 15-year-old just found her new favourite band:

Snapshot #79 | 10 Things for 18 June 2017

Personal

Currently…

1. going… to see Wonder Woman. Twice. (It’s so good! I assume at some point I’ll stop tearing up at the end of the No Man’s Land scene? Eventually?)
2. feeling… lazy and unmotivated. It’s time for a reboot.
3. planning… my first batch of ice cream for the year. I don’t care if it’s rainy and gloomy and not particularly warm. It was stupidly hot earlier in the week, and I have made up my mind. (The base is mixed, and ready for freezing later today. I can’t wait.)
4. watching… the Black Panther teaser trailer. Maybe more than twice.
5. starting… to do some planting, but now the rest of it is on hold (for very stupid reasons).
6. having… a really busy week. I’m not sure what I was thinking.
7. remembering… how to format a screenplay. It took a day or so to find the rhythm, but then I fell back in love with the form.
8. making… it through two whole weeks without having to adjust my C25K schedule because of rain. This is A Big Deal.
9. thinking… about which comics I want to start next.
10. buying… pens.

Snapshot #68 | 10 Things for 15 January 2017

Personal

Currently…

1. starting… my second photo project for the year. I’ll be talking about it soon.
2. getting… back on track. Everything that I neglected over the holidays is falling back into place, and it’s fantastic.
3. wishing… for better weather. Every time I make up my mind to go out and do something, it’s either raining or cold. Stupid winter.
4. making… bread. It’s been a few weeks; it’s time to get back in the habit.
5. watching… Class. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting going in, but it’s a lot of fun. (That said, as far as Doctor Who spinoffs go, what I really want is more Torchwood.)
6. trying… to read more comics this year. (It’s not exactly difficult. It’s not a medium I read a lot.) If you have recs, please let me know!
7. thinking… up lots of new and exciting ideas.
8. feeling… annoyed. The downside of being (relatively) organized: when I do drop the ball, even on something minor, it really bothers me.
9. catching…a glimpse of the finish line on my NaNoWriMo draft. I’m so close—I should be wrapping it up this week.
10. starting… to feel like I need to cut my hair.