In which I reblog things that make me happy, things that make me angry, and things that make me lucid. Also, now with a little of my own existential angst to go along with it all.
Background Illustrations provided by: http://edison.rutgers.edu/
Reblogged from wylansvaneck  993 notes

LGBTQIA+ BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!!

gaysaey:

requested by anon 

it’s universally known that the gayer your reading list is, the merrier. also, your power & health bar definitely increases by at least ten. so from black bisexual zombie hunters to trans superheroes to lesbian pirates and all around wholesome & inspiring queer stories, this is a diverse list of books that center lgbtqia+ characters and lgbtqia+ themes. I hope this maybe introduces you to a new fav!

Keep reading

Reblogged from sebatsians  12 notes

what steve does while bucky’s in cryo

sebatsians:

  • bi-monthly visits to wakanda to catch up with t’challa
  • movie nights with sam (he notes the ones he has to watch again with bucky)
  • draws a lot of portraits
  • many of which share the same jawline and sad smile
  • occasionally writes to tony (he scraps a good portion of the letters)
  • visits peggy’s grave with her favorite flowers in hand
  • coffee with natasha
  • she teases him for actually liking the sugary concoctions they come up with at starbucks (but she doesn’t tell him she only gets hot chocolate)
  • wishes he could dream through sleepless nights, or at least hold somebody to feel a little less empty
  • looks at the torn up shield and lets the silent tears fall
Reblogged from smitethestate  79,996 notes

transgirlpinup:

letsplaysocialjustice:

theconcealedweapon:

“You want people who flip burgers to make more money than soldiers who fight for our freedom? What’s wrong with you?”

Really? I can do that too.

You want CEOs to make more money than soldiers who fight for our freedom? What’s wrong with you?

You want the cowards who create the wars to make more money than the soldiers themselves? What’s wrong with you?

You’re conveniently ignoring the homeless veterans who need a way to escape poverty? What’s wrong with you?

Everyone criticizes the poor for wanting to live, but no one criticizes the rich for wanting everything.

Everyone criticizes the poor for wanting to live, but no one criticizes the rich for wanting everything.

SLAMS THE REBLOG BUTTON SO GAWDAYUMED FAST

So About That Whole Thing

gwillow:

LONG COMIC BOOK RANT INCOMING:

Okay some things need to be said:

1. If you’re going to write a smug thunk-piece about the “failure” of “diversity” in comics, maybe don’t use the cover image of a book that’s had 4 collections on the NYT graphic books bestseller list, won a Hugo and cleaned up at Angouleme. Just because you HOPE it’s on the chopping block, oh Riders of the Brohirrim, doesn’t mean it is.

2. I will tell you exactly why Ms Marvel works: it didn’t set out to be Ms Marvel. We were originally going to pitch it as a 10 issue limited series. I had a 3 issue exit strategy because I assumed we were going to get canned. There was no “diversity initiative” anywhere–getting that thing made at all was a struggle. It was a given that any character without AT LEAST a 20-year history would tank. Everybody, myself included, assumed this series was going to work out the same way.

3. That freed us–by “us” I mean the whole creative team–to tell exactly the story we wanted to tell. We had nothing to lose, nothing to overcome but low expectations. That gave us room to break a lot of rules.

STUFF THAT IS DIFFICULT TO REPLICATE AND IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN:

1. Unexpected audiences. We are at a point in history when the role of religion is at a tremendous inflection point. What I didn’t realize was that the anxieties felt by young Muslims are also felt by young Mormons, evangelicals, orthodox Jews, and others. A h-u-g-e reason Ms Marvel has struck the chord it has is because it deals with the role of traditionalist faith in the context of social justice, and there was–apparently–an untapped audience of people from a wide variety of faith backgrounds who were eager for a story like this. Nobody could have predicted or planned for that. That’s being in the right place at the right time with the right story burning a hole in your pocket. Plenty of other stuff I’ve written and liked has fallen with a huge thud. That’s the norm. Exceptions are great when they happen, but hard to plan.

2. The paradox of low expectations. The bar was set pretty low for Ms Marvel, but because of Ms Marvel’s success, that bar got set much higher for similar books that came later.

STUFF THAT IS ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE:

1. This is a personal opinion, but IMO launching a legacy character by killing off or humiliating the original character sets the legacy character up for failure. Who wants a legacy if the legacy is shitty?

2. Diversity as a form of performative guilt doesn’t work. Let’s scrap the word diversity entirely and replace it with authenticity and realism. This is not a new world. This is *the world.*

3. Never try to be the next whoever. Be the first and only you. People smell BS a mile away.

4. The direct market and the book market have diverged. Never the twain shall meet. We need to accept this and move on, and market accordingly.

5. Not for nothing, but there is a direct correlation between the quote unquote “diverse” Big 2 properties that have done well (Luke Cage, Black Panther, Ms Marvel, Batgirl) and properties that have A STRONG SENSE OF PLACE. It’s not “diversity” that draws those elusive untapped audiences, it’s *particularity.* This is a vital distinction nobody seems to make. This goes back to authenticity and realism.

AND FINALLY

On a practical level, this is not really a story about “diversity” at all. It’s a story about the rise of YA comics. If you look at it that way, the things that sell and don’t sell (AND THE MARKETS THEY SELL IN VS THE MARKETS THEY DON’T SELL IN) start to make a different kind of sense.

Preach it

Reblogged from professorthorgi  13 notes
So I grabbed my copy of America today and it gave me so many feelings. As a queer, young adult Latinx woman, America has such a special meaning to me. I've kept up with her over the past couple years and am so stoked that she finally has her own series. She gives me hope during such a messed up time in the our world. So thank you for recommending Young Avengers to me when I was a lost comic newbie. I will always be grateful for you leading me to such a wonderful hero that I can finally relate to

professorthorgi:

*single happy tear drops down*

That means so much to hear you say that. Because I read it and I have my feelings about it, but none of that means anything because I’m a straight white dude and this is the first female Latinx LGBTQ hero with her own book, and as I was reading it I thought “This is aimed at an audience, how well does it work for that audience,” so it’s amazing to hear that it touched you so much and that lets me know it’s doing it’s job.

Yay comics!!