It's dangerous to go alone
(That’s me. Sneaking into your inbox.)
How are you guys doing? Holding up okay? Where I live, the tree pollen has coated everything and everyone. Language has broken down entirely, we all communicate via a peculiar language of snorts, sniffs, and sneezes. All is misery. How I long to sink beneath the waves of the ocean on a talking boat into an ancient city.
Hopefully, this newsletter will make a fair substitute.
Notable Breakfast
Fruit & granola and hard boiled egg with fresh basil. Which sounds weird, but it is not, it is incredible.
Dog Thing
The cat continues his bed-stealing reign of terror.
Mixed Media
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, most beloved of mystery shows, has returned to the airwaves. (In Australia.) (Did you know it was possible to trick your computer into thinking it’s in Australia?) Only one episode has aired, but I have watched it thrice, such is my love of Miss Fisher.
Miss Fisher, by the way, is about a lady detective in 1920s Melbourne, who solves crime with style, cunning, and the aid of a very handsome police detective. (Be prepared to ship the heck out of these two.)
What makes it remarkable to many is how sex-positive it is, with Phryne (that’s Miss F), flirting her way through cases and often gleefully tumbling into bed with suspects. The show never chastises her for it, and the other characters rarely do. The show also acknowledges and deals with some very progressive subjects. The very first episode deals with drug trafficking and illegal abortions, which gives you a pretty great idea of what to expect from the rest of it.
One of the most exciting things about it from my perspective, as a giant freaking decorative arts geek, is how careful and accurate the sets and costumes are. So much so that this week I started a blog specifically for looking closely at the sets and exteriors. There’s literally an exhibition about the costumes, so I consider that vacuum well filled.
The only critique I have of it (which is the same critique I often have of everything) is the lack of racial diversity. It’s dealt with specifically racial topics, but isn’t as great at including non-white background characters. But the first episode in the new season has given me some small hope that score. The first two seasons are on Netflix, and you should watch them! You owe it to yourself.
Also: NEW METRIC SINGLE. NOT A DRILL. I listened to the Palma Violet’s new album Danger in the Club a bunch this week, too. My bud put me onto this symphonic metal arrangement of music from Steven Universe, and I dig it.
I Read Comics For A Living
Southern Cross #3 Southern Cross hit that sweet spot this week where it stopped focusing mostly on setting up the story and building suspense (which is was doing very, very well) and clued us in a little to the weird-ass things happening on the ship. Southern Cross is about a woman journeying on a space ship to Titan in order to collect the body of her deceased sister, who worked in a mining facility there. She suspects that there was more to her death than she was told, and the suspicious things happening on the company ship only increase her suspicions. It’s spooky as heck, and I love it. There’s nothing like a good space mystery.
Also good:
Thor #8 We finally learn the identity of Thor and I just gotta say–I totally called it. I’m astonished they managed to drag out the mystery of her identity for 8 issues, but they did, and they also managed to reveal it in such a way that a new mystery has handily replaced the old one. Don’t listen to anyone who says this lady Thor thing is simply pandering–this is good comics, pure and simple.
Ms. Marvel #15 I’ve loved every minute of this Kamala-has-a-crush storyline, and I loved how it resolved. We got to see Kamala interact with the Inhumans some more, and the issue had some wonderfully nerdy moments with Kamala just casually tossing quotes at people, the way we all do.
Giant Days #3 In this issue, the girls take on a bunch of gross dudes when Ester is listed in the top ten on a hot undergrads site. A thing I loved about it is how real everyone’s various reactions felt–it resolves itself in a comicsy way, but the sense of hurt and betrayal the group felt at Ester feeling violated was incredibly authentic.
Frontier #7 - Jillian Tamaki Frontier is a series of one-shot mini-comics, each one by a different creator. This one, called Sexcoven, is by Jillian Tamaki, of Supermutant Magic Academy and This One Summer (incorrectly named in last week’s newsletter because I was exhaustion embodied) fame. It’s a fictional tale about a mysterious sound file uploaded to a file sharing service in the late 90s, and the legends that grew up around it. Tamaki uses a cool found-footage style of storytelling in this, which is one of my very favourite tricks. It goes without saying that the art is phenomenal. Y’all, I loved this mini so much I immediately bought the t-shirt.
Anxiety Pyjamas
Topshop Ducks in Row Print Pyjama Set
Fics I Shouted About (this was a week mostly of satisfying rereads)
Who Wears Short Shorts by lazarusthefirst Teen Wolf, Sterek. Stiles’ ex who he’s still buds with wears very short shorts. Sometimes he borrows them. The rest of the pack finds out. This is silly & cute & features one of my favourite Lydia moments.
Winter’s Tail by otter Teen Wolf, Sterek, Western AU. I repeat: WESTERN AU. A modern Western AU, but STILL. Stiles, Derek, cold mornings, horses, CANOODLING IN A BARN. I rest my case.
That time Stiles and Scott “competed” for Allison’s love on a reality TV show by otter Teen Wolf, Sterek, human AU. What it says on the tin, mostly.
Also! HowlNatural is writing a sort-of Grease AU right now, and every update is ripping me up. It’s a work-in-progress, but I have good faith that she’ll finish it, and it’s so satisfying to read as it comes out. There Ain’t No Such Thing. Teen Wolf & Sterek, for the record.
Lastly
There was a little tempest in the comics community this week when Jill Lepore, who is a professor at Harvard and wrote The Secret History of Wonder Woman, a book I’ve heard is fantastic but have yet to read, wrote a piece in the New Yorker about Marvel’s upcoming A-Force, which features an all-female Avengers team. It was poor journalism at best and lazy and offensive at worst. My friend & fellow Valkyrie Leia Calderon wrote an excellent open letter to Dr. Lepore, and G. Willow Wilson (one of the writers of A-Force, as well as Ms. Marvel) expanded on it further. Both pieces are well worth reading. Wilson’s piece goes into some depth about what makes genre fiction great.
And that’s all, I’m done now.
I for real love getting your messages, so send me feedback, or find me here: tumblr I twitter I instagram