Feature: Trina Robbins talks Nell Brinkley

For over 40 years, Trina Robbins has been a vital, almost unstoppable force in comics.  It would be hard to overstate her importance in raising the profile and treatment of women in comics -- from forming the first all-women anthology to championing some of the lost voices in the history (or, as she would have it, "herstory") of comics.  The latter drive led her to produce The Brinkley Girls with Fantagraphics Books -- a gorgeous retrospective of the best of Nell Brinkley's comics from the 1920s.  Despite having defined the look of the flapper, and producing immensely popular work for Hearst newspapers, Brinkley had all but disappeared from popular memory.

On a recent visit to Seattle for Geek Girl Con, Trina stopped off at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery to give a lively, engaging presentation about Nell Brinkley.

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Review: Catwoman #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March

Catwoman #1 – Judd Winick (w) Guillem March (a)

DC Comics, $2.99

If we are to believe the hype and marketing machine of Time Warner, all their future movie comic properties are returning to square one with the “New 52”.  That adjective is supposed to instill us with confidence, like New Coke and “Nu” Metal — remember how much you loved those?  But, snark aside, labels are the least of the problems facing DC’s relaunch. More problematic is how to smoothly reintroduce an entire universe of characters in the space of four weeks, simultaneously appeasing the vocal Internet fanboys and attracting new readers.  More problematic still is how to establish, in 22 pages, morally ambiguous figures like Catwoman that depend on their storied history for depth and nuance.  In short: How do you solve a problem like Selena?

Tits.

No, really.  While Judd Winick may be a reality TV douchebag with a dubious track record of quality writing (see: Batman and Robin, Power Girl, or his shameless cash-in on his friend's death) but here, he nails it… with tits.

Without DC history to fall back upon, he instead turns to the wider world of Barthesian structuralism and the ancient art of the striptease.  Catwoman is the classic noir femme fatale, a bad girl who tries to be good, but ultimately still holds selfish ideals.  It’s taken over 40 years to establish that depth to her character.  Winick and artist Guillem March do it in three panels, by having Selena show us some cleavage:

According to Roland Barthes, in Parisian striptease the aim is:

[T]o signify, through the shedding of an incongruous and artificial clothing, nakedness as a natural vesture of woman, which amounts in the end to regaining a perfectly chaste state of the flesh.

The costumes and accessories of the performance serve to characterize the artiste as sinful and immoral, so through the shedding of clothes she once again becomes wholesome and moral.  So, to introduce us to Selena half-naked, mid-dressing is really the opposite of eroticism.  Rather, we see the woman beneath the cat — vulnerable and wholesome, saving kittens from an explosion.  That we don’t see her face is less an objectification of the body than it is drawing focus away from the make-up and codified lust that Catwoman — the costumed persona — represents.

In Barthes’ examination of French striptease, the danger and sinfulness of the outfit was often exotic, playing upon the ethnic or societal characteristics of the performer — opium pipes or dresses with panniers.  So, when fully clothed as Catwoman, Selena takes on the signifiers of modern American dangerous sexuality.  The catsuit and whip with their connotation of bourgeois S&M play places her as a distant, yet magical figure (that she is depicted on the cover showering herself in diamonds only adds to this image of careless wealth and pleasures beyond the reach of most;) while the dark-red lips and heavily kohled eyes — the only visible features behind the costume — are classic symbols of lust and sexuality.

It’s not until page 14 that we see the fully-costumed Catwoman, enough time to establish some backstory in the plot, and allow us to view Selena as a de-sexualised character.  While this may seem like an opportunity for voyeurism or fan-service, the fact that the reveal happens during an action sequence again resists sexualisation.  Again, Barthes:

[T]he dance, consisting of ritual gestures which have been seen a thousand times, acts on movements as cosmetic, it hides nudity, and smothers the spectacle under a glaze of superfluous yet essential gestures...haughtily taking refuge in the sureness of their technique: their science clothes them like a garment.

After all, what are superhero fight sequences but ritual dances of surefooted technique?  By keeping in motion, our gaze is averted.  Of course, in the subsequent, final scene, she has stopped moving and we witness the (new) first encounter between Catwoman and Batman.  In the ensuing scene (and this is possibly a spoiler, unless you've been deaf to the selective outrage of the comics blogosphere over these few pages) she seduces Batman and they undress, locked in a passionate embrace.

Thereby, through the codification that has been established, we come to understand their relationship and characters.  Selena becomes Catwoman and does dangerous, exotic things that transcend her humble, vulnerable background; Batman sees the villain in the costume and desires her because her appearance speaks to his bourgeois background, and he succumbs to her because the hero in him wants to see the bad girl become good.

Perhaps framing the issue as an elaborate striptease was too risque for a comic rated "teen plus", but as a mature, effective solution to a complex problem, it was a mild stroke of genius.

-- Gavin Lees

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Review: Troop 142 by Mike Dawson

Troop 142 - Mike Dawson (w/a)
Secret Acres, $20, ISBN: 978-0979960994

There are two distinct voices at work in Troop 142 — Mike Dawson’s latest graphic novel about, of all things, a Boy Scout camp.  There is the authorial voice of Alan, father of two of the scouts, and awkward chaperone of the camp. For him, the experience is uncomfortable, seemingly casting him back to his own adolescence and much of his narration deals with his social insecurity.  His is a view of the Scouts through cynical, questioning eyes (even though his actual eyes are often  obscured, Sacco-like, by his glasses) and whether the positive experiences offered at the camp are worth the frequent moral lectures and religious bullying.

Then, of course, there are the boys themselves. Through Alan’s eyes, the boys are good-natured teens cast into the outdoors, but when the focus shifts to let us see the boys in their own world, away from adult eyes, a more multi-faceted and altogether less naïve picture of adolescence is revealed.  From experimenting with drugs, to dealing with their own insecurities and burgeoning sexuality, it’s a familiar milieu that we can all relate to.

In fact, the book often makes us wonder just how removed we actually are from adolescence.  There’s a very telling moment when one of the scouts’ tent is vandalized with the word “FAG” in giant letters.  Although the boys are quick to decide who it’s directed at — and take their frustrations out through scuffling and squabbling — Alan’s first thought is that it may be directed at him.  He feels all too distinctly the awkwardness of being at close quarters with a group of young boys, and how he’s viewed by them.

Sometimes, though, this uneasiness is translated into brilliant humour.  One such episode sees Alan using the very open latrine for the first time — finding time while the boys are out at activities to have a quiet dump by himself.  Of course, he’s joined at the next stall by the one scout left behind, and in one panel, Dawson manages to wrangle so much pathos and uncomfortable laughter that you can practically hear the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme playing in the background.

More than just being skilled with his writing, Dawson also has tremendous artistic chops to support it. Even though his characters’ faces are very simplistic — with sparingly used lines and mere dots for eyes — he manages to extract a wealth of nuanced emotions from them.  Moreover, though, is he a master of grey tone.  The whole book uses one shade of grey to offset the black and white, but it is used to spectacular effect.  The scenes around the campfire are particularly moody and bring real depth to the page in a way that’s elegant and unobtrusive.

Indeed, those qualities — elegant, unobtrusive — could be applied to Dawson’s work in general.  He’s never flashy or overly didactic with his purpose, but through fun and entertaining storylines, he lets us quietly reflect on some very big ideas.  Even if you were never a scout (or a boy) there’s still a lot to ponder in Troop 142.

-- Gavin Lees

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Comics: All the Dead Superheroes #3

Click for full-size image

All the Dead Superheroes is a continuing strip in fortnightly installments.  Full issues of the comic can be found at: www.allthedeadsuperheroes.blogspot.com

Story and art © 2011 Iain Laurie

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Feature: Craig Thompson presents Habibi

It would be difficult to top Larry Reid's introduction to Craig Thompson's lecture (recorded at the Seattle Public Library, 5th October 2011) so please just sit back and enjoy the video:
Craig Thompson presents HABIBI

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