Blog – Page 25 – Xaviar X. Xerexes

Tropes in Distress

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 9, 2013

This first entry in The Tropes vs Women in Video Games project from Anita Sarkeesian (successfully funded on Kickstarter) covers “damsels in distress” and is quite good: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q] We all grew up with videogames and while I don’t think any of it controls anyone’s behavior (as in the constant political grandstanding over violence in videogames) it does reflect and reinforce attitudes and patterns in society. Examining games with a critical feminist eye is fascinating both because we’re looking at vital pop culture and because Anita is a really good communicator making what could be pretty dry stuff into an interesting walk through …

STRIP SEARCH EPISODE 3: GTFO

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 8, 2013

So the first episode of the webcomic reality show where there is a contest with not only a winner but a loser. Today’s contest, as teased last time, is designing a t-shirt. First prize is getting the t-shirt produced and placed in the Penny Arcade store; winner keeps the profits. Seriously — nice prize and you could tell the contestant were happily surprised to hear it. I have to say; the producers of the show made watching 12 people sketch a t-shirt way more exciting than I would have predicted. The show is well done. The staff from Penny Arcade …

To Read Stack of Comix

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 7, 2013

Here’s a shot of my current list of graphic novels I’m reading. Working my way from the top down probably: Faith Erin Hick, Hope Larson, Kazu Kibushi, Vera Brosgol, Lewis Trondheim, Mark Siegel, Arne Bellstorf, Dean Haspiel, and Joe Sacco. That’s a pretty impressive list of creators’ work on my shelf right now.

First Second Slate of Books for 2013

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 6, 2013

I am still on many mailing lists for publishers even though I have cut back on reviewing comics in the last year. I just found the First Second Book catalogue that I probably got from them earlier in the year. They’ve got a lot of good stuff dropping this year. Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong – which I’m reading online comes out in print in May. Faith Erin Hicks working with author Prudence Shen Tune Volume 2 from Derek Kirk Kim – comes out in November of this year. I’m pretty excited about that one. I really enjoyed the first …

Bookmark: Faith Erin Hicks

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 6, 2013

I am a fairly big fan of Faith Erin Hicks’ comics. She got her start in pure webcomics but has since migrated to the webcomic collected into graphic novel approach. That approach is favored by several publishers now, including her most recent publisher First Second Books. She was recently interviewed on a Boing Boing podcast which is worth listening to. A lot of Hicks’ work is all from her but more recently she has collaborated with other creators on graphic novels, including Brain Camp, where she provided the art to a story by Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan; and the …

Strip Search Episode 2: Gary Should Never Encourage Me

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 6, 2013

The webcomic reality show, Strip Search, posted its second episode where its 12 contestants play “fax machine” a game where everyone writes a phrase in a notebook, passes it to the left, and then draws a picture based on the phrase and repeat. “Pictionary telephone” is what I think someone described it as. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoZdolO_Ew4] After everyone plays the fax machine game, the episode shows up some of the results. Which is good television (I doubt every drawing was funny or clever) but not good for evaluating the unofficial POWER LIST of Strip Search. Ericka Moen did nothing this week …

Bookmark: Neal Stephenson

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 4, 2013

These “Bookmark” posts are useful for me; hopefully a few other people get something out of them along the way. I really enjoy Neal Stephenson‘s books. Unlike Stephen King, another novelist where the length of the book increases with each new effort, I never read a Stephenson book and wonder how badly he beat the editors. Stephenson books revel in their research, the density of information jammed into the pages is part of what makes his novels work. You can divide up the novels of Neal Stephenson into maybe three categories. Scholars and critics can tell me why I’m wrong …

Strip Search Episode 1 – Not That Anyone Asked But Here Are My Thoughts

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 4, 2013

This is the true story… of seven twelve strangers… picked to live in a house…work on webcomics together and have their lives taped… to find out what happens… when people stop being polite… and start getting real…Strip Seach: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUScIuxZE90] I honestly do not watch much reality television, but it’s impossible to not be aware of the genre. I watched the first Survivor; I usually watch the latter half of American Idol seasons; what else? I guess I used to watch Iron Chef sometimes. Anyhow the last thing I think I ever would have lived to see is a web series with all of the Reality Show …