30 Days of Night: How one graphic novel shapes the femicides of Juarez, Mexico

30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales: Juarez or Lex Nova & the Case of the 400 Dead Mexican Girls written by Matt Fraction takes a true life horror story and puts a vampiric twist on it. The real life story involves the gang rapes, mutilations, and other atrocities that resulted in the violent deaths of over 400 girls and women in Juarez, Mexico between 1993 and 2005 (Diana Washington Valdez, Deaths That Cry Out, 2006).

Do I think that this novel was sensitive to the true life story: hell no! First of all, the artist, Ben Templesmith, did an interview with UGO.com in which he states that his continuing work on this arc involves "pinups" of the clown ladies but he has to figure out "what they would have on their nipples." When asked what he would do if he did not have to work, Templesmith replied, "Just sit around painting pictures of nude women." Was it his intention to bring light to this massacre and bring some dignity back to its victims? Based on the fact that his time could be better spent painting nude women than getting justice for dead ones, probably not. Was it the writer's intention to do the same? If you gauge it by what critics got out of the story...maybe. "Honestly, there isn’t much to the plot and it’s a little drawn out. The mystery is solved without any fanfare and, in the end, those responsible aren’t really punished, but make amends. Of sorts." Soooo the case is "solved" in order to get those who are left behind off the backs of those responsible for finding the killers. That is like saying it is okay to violently murder women as long as you "repent." "Except, the case is solved...in the shadows with hints that it’s never over — and all that’s happened really is that a lot of girls have died and a family has been broken..." Oh, so the murderers are never found or brought to justice, great. We'll just cover it up and brush it off. After all, it is only a bunch of prostitutes, right? It will probably keep happening anyway, so why make a concerted effort for such lowlifes. In their thin, and I mean VERY thin defense, as one critic who panned the movie adaptation about the Juarez murders writes, "You can't make a thriller about indifference." Essentially you have to throw vampires in to make things sexy enough for people to read them, but f*ck the real story. You gotta make things spicy, I get it, but to whose detriment? Clearly the victims in this case have not been given their due by the government, by the law, or by the media that profits from them.

There is little criticism on the novel with reference to the real life killings and what I did find made no connection to women's rights. This parallels the Mexican Federal Attorney General's report that was largely viewed by human rights groups as a whitewash. In both cases, the murders were "solved" and nothing was accomplished with respect to women's rights. I say "boo" to the writers and pretty much everyone who collaborated on this project. Whether or not they had good intentions when starting out, the end product did little to shed light on a disgusting oversight by the Mexican government.

P.S. I am going to be taking a break from writing for a lil' bit sooooo see you next year!

X-Women, not Sex-Women please.

I enjoy reading about the X-Men and I love the characters. What is unsettling to me is how the title "X-Men" underscores the position of women on the team and in the Marvel universe. Though there are women in X-Men and in X-Force and in other X-team that exists, the fact remains that the team is ultimately about the Men. Up until recently the women of X-Men had no book of their own. That is until X-Women #1 was released in June of this year. And I cannot say that I like the looks of this book with relevance to how the women are portrayed. Yes, women (and men) are exaggerated in comics but this new title is downright porn. I will let this video by Brutally Honest do some of the talking for me on this issue.

Literature is a medium that has long been controlled by men. The literary canon that any English major reads from is saturated with literature written by men. Only in recent history has any attempt been made to balance the disparity of women’s contributions. In that respect, what is considered admissible to the literary canon is up for debate as well as what is considered literature. The graphic novel is a perfect example. Just as in the literary canon, the medium of the comic book and its offspring the graphic novel has largely been influenced, controlled by, and catered to men. And in the realm of culture, comics and graphic novels are considered to be on the “low” end of the spectrum, settling within the sphere of pop culture. I believe that graphic novels can be more than just pop culture amusement; in fact they are a perfect medium for postfeminist writing.

Essentially postfeminist writing describes women who are fallible yet capable and accept responsibility for who they have become. This type of writing is exemplified by Kiriko Nananan’s graphic novel Blue. The novel is a story about young girls discovering who they are and who they love. The characters definitely march to the beat of their own drummer which makes them a good example of an independent woman, but at the same time they are flawed which shows the side of their human weakness.

Blue is not characteristic of most comics and graphic novels. The overwhelmingly large majority of comics are written, lettered, drawn, and colored by men. The popular titles still feature women with unrealistic body proportions; however the men are drawn the same way. There is an underground of women centric comics that is growing which gives promise of opportunity for the female in the comics industry. If this group continues to rise in power and talent, which I believe it will, the old boys club of the comic book world will give way to a gender equal industry. Equally disturbing to the current absence of women centric comics is the lack of representation of non- white and/or gay, lesbian, and transgendered characters. Right now comics represent the interest of the men that are in power and by writing these “other” characters in the stories would help to disassemble the “boys club.”

X-Women #1 is beautiful artwork and I can appreciate that. Yet the dearth of female-centric comic books should not be requited by sex. In that sense, I would say yes to Brutally Honest's question of whether or not the release of X-Women #1 is a back step for Marvel. Let's give our X-Women more credit, because right now Marvel is saying that women don't deserve their own title or team unless it emphasizes sex. I would also say that because pop culture represents those who are in power, this reflects what gender group is in power.

Personally, I am really sad and confused by Marvel putting this title out in this manner. I would really like to hear how you feel about this matter. And since I have my feminist train of thought at full steam, I will continue in my next post with reference to 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales: Juarez or Lex Nova & the Case of 400 Dead Mexican Girls. This title is based on a true story where the murders of over 400 women were left unsolved.

Jimmy Corrigan: What is a Superhero?

F.C. Ware's The Adventure of Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth destabilizes the common definition of a superhero. I am going to begin by taking a look at how the title character, Jimmy Corrigan defines a superhero. I would argue that Jimmy is the same person as an adult that he is as a child and in his mind that person is a superhero.

The boy who grows up without a father idolizes a television superhero called "The Super-Man" who gives Jimmy his mask. The idea of a superhero is important to Jimmy for many reasons. Since Jimmy has no traditional males to fill the father figure role, he supplants that role with that of the superhero. "The Super-Man" reinforces this for Jimmy when he spends the night with Jimmy's mother. In this way, Jimmy was able to bring home a father for his mother, retaining his innocence while creating a source of strength for himself. It is at this point that Jimmy puts the mask on and begins to fantasize that he is a superhero otherwise known as "The Smartest Kid on Earth."

Jimmy's idea of a superhero is someone who is constant, never changing, and easily accessible to children. As Jimmy's costume and persona never change, it accounts for the constancy that is required to be a superhero. Also, Jimmy's perpetual childlike state evidenced by his smothering relationship with his mother and his permanent view of himself as a child, we see the way in which Jimmy's superhero countenance is easily accessible to children.

The non-linear way in which this graphic novel is written underscores Jimmy's idea of what a superhero is as well as twisting the form of the graphic novel itself. Since the story is constantly jumping back and forth, the reader is hard pressed to feel any manner of stability. It is through the leading chapter illustrations that the reader is able to simulate any structure or coherency. This is very much like Jimmy's life. The illustrations at the beginning of each chapter feature the title and Jimmy as a superhero. In many of these illustrations he is in a perpetual childlike state and his "costume" never changes. It is as if Jimmy is trying to create a sense of permanence in his unwavering role as the "smartest kid on earth" in order to fill the void left by his absent father. So the reader, like Jimmy, can find stability in an otherwise chaotic novel through the superhero at the beginning of each chapter.

Essentially Jimmy Corrigan creates a superhero when there is none. He fills a large hole in his life with that of a superhero image and when he cannot find someone tangible to fulfill that role for him, he creates one for himself. That is a very good reason indeed, why he is able to call himself, "The Smartest Kid on Earth."

Grendel as a model for a global community: frightening fact or fiction?

Matt Wagner's Grendel: Devil's Reign is an eerily accurate example of our future world (with the literal exception of vampires). The world has truly become a global economy in this case, but clearly unified. It is remarkable that the United States has in fact become the world leader, something that we are accused of trying to attempt even now. In order for you to see the broad scope of things I am going to a give brief plot summary before I go into specific moments in the novel. And for those of you who are big Batman fans, I think Orion has some similarities to Batman. The similarities can be quite interesting so I will talk a little about those too.

Grendel: Devil's Reign is set in the far future in a world plagued by vampires and nuclear power. The vampires have been cordoned off into a casino in a defunct Las Vegas, strictly regulated by the government after the country has seen a massive infestation. An unstable government was quickly unified when Orion Assante came into power bringing together North America, South and Central America, and Australia. This was a move that was viewed warily by the other world powers including China, Japan, and Africa. Shortly thereafter Africa, the country with the world's only nuclear power, supposedly kidnaps Orion's wife (also his co-ruler). Orion then disarms and takes control of Africa in order to free his wife, only to learn that the kidnapping was backed by Japan. A cold war began in which China aligned itself with Japan, resulting in a global war. As things were not going well, Orion felt he was possessed by the devil and disappeared for a while. During this dark time he had an inspiration for a new weapon called the Sun-Disk which he then used to devastate Japan. China then surrendered and Orion became ruler of the world. It is at this point that he embraces the name of Grendel, elevating the status of Grendel to an honorable one. During all of this the vampires found a way to escape from Vegas, setting the scene for future concerns within Orion's newly unified empire.

What I find interesting is the relationship the new world order has to the vampires. Clearly there has to be some lateral representation going on, but who are the vampires in our world? It isn't like America hasn't created prison camps before and with the threat of terrorism on the rise there is little to keep us from doing it again. We, as a country, do not tend to see people in the Middle East as humans. In fact it is not uncommon to hear ignorant people say that we should just bomb the Middle East to hell. This highlights another similarity between the real world and Grendel's, only in the graphic novel Orion just bombed the shit out of Japan instead. Oh wait, we did that already in 1945. So what is this all saying? Is a unified global world a good or a bad thing? And how do the vampires complicate things? Are they really representative of another country or are they more like our collective evil consciousness? I personally feel that globalization is inevitable and that we need to start looking at people from other countries as just humans like your neighbor down the street. A child in Africa deserves no less than a child in Wisconsin. I do think that cultural preservation is important and heritage is something to be proud of. On the same note, I think that die hard nationalism is immature and a little bit like high school football. But enough of this, I want to talk about Batman. As the Joker would say, "Why so serious?"

As you may have garnered from previous posts, I find the twisted nature of Batman fascinating. So it is no surprise that I find a similar twist in my favorite character of all time, Grendel. Both Orion and Batman are conflicted in their roles. Batman is unsure of who is in control, he or the Bat. Orion is unsure of the dark side of Grendel, fearing it may take over his person. Both characters are in fear of a possession by their alter egos. Are they leaders or just men? Are they good or are they evil? Do they have autonomy or are they puppets? And then there is that whole parallel between the vampires of Grendel and the bat of Batman. So much to ponder. And so fun to ponder it. And in my next post we shall ponder one man's idea of what it takes to be a superhero in Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth.