Meanwhile...

The comic blogosphere seems to grow larger every day and just like comics, sometimes it's pretty easy to get a little lost. "Meanwhile..." will act as your map pointing out what interesting discussions are happening out there while you're reading the Great Curve.

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. We have a few Easter suprises this week along with our normal links. Lets get to it.

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Fishing for Fangirls

Pretty, Fizzy Paradise shows up yet again this week with a look at Fangirl Bait. and Power Girls Body Image.

"Fangirl-bait" is what I use to describe the characters that I think are specifically designed to appeal to a certain idea about what women like to see in male characters. They are for us what characters like Starfire are for a lot of straight male fans. Not all "fangirl-bait" characters are directed toward female fans in the same way, but there is an obvious, I think, bias."

Links via When Fangirls Attack!

Mythological Semantics

The Visual Linguist discusses why superheroes are not mythology.

"A particularly stand-off-ish woman breaks the heart of a spirit because of her "poisonous" and "sharp" tongue. Out of despondency, the spirit transforms her into a plant with pointy leaves. Thus the plant is called a "heartbreaker," and is avoided at all cost.

Myths like this are found across the globe. It not only gives a name and reason that the plant is poisonous, but also offers a way to remember the plant through a purpose for its identifying features.

This is a practical function of mythology. These stories can then be passed on orally in a package that people can remember. It is far easier to remember a series of stories than to remember a catalog of encyclopedia entries.

Superheroes do none of these things."

Link via Yet Another Comics Blog.

That Figures!

Interested in comparing comic book pre-order sales figures over a period of time? Well now, thanks to John Jackson Miller you can view Diamond Pre-order Estimates from April 1997 to the present.

It's Olsen's World. We Just Live in it.

I swear Jimmy Olsen needs a world all to himself like Bizzaro does. I'm sure Kevin would agree given one of his recent posts on Superman's Pal.

Meme Me

Seven Soldiers of Memery from ADD and Roger.

The 15 Books Meme from Ye Olde Comic Book Blog puts you in the publisher seat and you can only choose 15 books to publish.

"What's Your First Comic?" asks 2 Guys Buying Comics.

Superman's 411

Need info on Superman? The blog to turn to is Kal-el.org.

Good Reviews this Week

Jog reviews Desolation Jones #6. His latest column is up at Komikwerks too.

Graeme McMillan reviews The Battle For Bloodhaven #1, Detective Comics #818, Ex Machina #19, Infinite Crisis #6, and others.

Fell Into A Good Thing

Johanna reports that Fell looks like a success due to recent sales figures.

This Goes Out to All My Peeps

Avengers Peeps, how cool is that? DC Fans? You can have JLA Peeps or Dead Blue Beetle Peeps. Thanks Scott!

Wow It's Not a DC Book!

Scipio takes a little time out from talking about DC Comics to give a little love to Age of Bronze.

Shojo What?

Funny Books has a good rundown on the difficulty of finding quality manga and the different varieties of Manga that are out there.

The "What The!" Moment of The Week

This week goes to Dave's Long Box for finally running out of things to talk about and resorting to making fun of his X-men comics. I kid. I'll be there reading like everyone else.

Illustration Blog of the Week

The I Spot is one stop shop for illustrators. You can find just about any style of illustration about any subject your looking for. It's fun to just poke around a bit, give it a try and see.