Category Archives: Comics
Gamer Girl & Vixen – Meet the Characters
Gamer Girl & Vixen is a story about love and shenanigans. It’s a story about finding someone to love through all the obstacles that both we and the world put in our way — especially for same sex couples, for whom those obstacles are more vast and obtrusive than anyone else might realize. But those obstacles can be overcome no matter who we are or who we love. Whether it’s a disapproving parent or a misinterpreted text, women like Bianca Crowley and Liz Jaczynski can still be with one another.
When they’re not busy committing super-crime, of course.
All the crime!
Gamer Girl & Vixen is a supervillain lesbian love story. It’s about two costumed criminals whose crime spree turns to romance — and they just happen to both be women. It’s got burglaries, betrayal and superhero battles, but it’s also got a lot of love and tenderness.
The goal behind Gamer Girl & Vixen is to tell a fun and exciting comic book story — one that also just happens to be about not only women, but gay women. Because, quite simply, there aren’t enough of these types of stories out there, even in superhero comics. There is a strong movement in the comics community these days to feature more comics about women, to acknowledge that women and girls read and love comics. We whole-heartedly agree, and we want to get our comic in the hands of all kinds of readers.
That’s why we’re on the Road to Kickstarter later this Spring. I’ve written a lot about the comics making process on my blog, and now it’s about time that everyone got a better look at our characters and story!
Vixen
Name: Bianca Crowley
Age: 18
About: Bianca Crowley is gay, but it’s a secret. Don’t tell her boyfriend. And definitely don’t tell her mother. Mommy dearest doesn’t approve, and Bianca has locked herself in the closet since high school. Now in college, she’s a cheerleader, the darling of her sorority and is dating a track star. She’s living the perfect life, just like her mother always wanted.
But Bianca’s got another secret: she likes to steal stuff. Her father used to be a notorious thief, and her mother has a lot of rich friends. So most of Bianca’s late nights involve dressing in black and committing a little felony burglary. It’s her own little rebellion.
Bianca is about to embark on her biggest heist to date, and whether she realizes it or not, she could use a helping hand.
Gamer Girl
Name: Elizabeth “Liz” Jaczynski
Age: 20
About: Liz Jaczynski is an out and proud lesbian, an engineering student and a self-proclaimed video game fanatic. She resents the fact that Sega lost the original video game war, has started petitions to have a female protagonist in the next GTA, and is holding out hopes for an Angry Birds/My Little Pony crossover. She’s also a budding superhero with dreams of glory.
When she was younger, Liz’s dad was a bit of a con man, and she used to help out on jobs. But when he was killed in a grift gone wrong, Liz decided she had to do better and succeed beyond his wildest dreams. Liz designed a set of gauntlets capable of producing hard-light hologram constructs, programmable for whatever sort of weapons or equipment she might need. That she programmed in a bunch of video game weaponry is just how she rolls.
Now as Gamer Girl, Liz is ready to achieve the glory she was always destined for — it just might not be the destiny she was expecting.
Bianca and Liz are our two main characters, but the story isn’t just about them. Join me after the jump to meet the supporting players of Gamer Girl & Vixen, and learn a bit more about the story’s premise.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/31/15
Nobody panic. Deep breaths. Calm yourselves. I’m just as shocked as you are. Batman Eternal has just released the single best issue of it’s entire 40+ issue run so far. It came out this week and it is very, very entertaining. It helps that Batman Eternal #43 forgoes any focus on the ongoing story and instead delivers an issue where Stephanie Brown and Harper Row hang out and talk about the coolness of Catwoman, but still, it’s progress.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this…but Batman Eternal #43 wins Comic Book of the Week. Wow. That took a lot of effort. There are a ton of very good comics this week, plenty of enjoyable reads. But when I really thought about it, I had to give it to Batman Eternal, because this team-up is a revelation.
I think I’m going to use this panel every time I write a Batman article
Spoiler and Bluebird need to get their own comic after this. They need to go on to team up all the time, the new crime-fighting buddies of the Bat-family. These two need to be the new foundation for the Birds of Prey. Throw in Red Robin for some love triangling and you’ve got the sort of comic that could really matter to people.
I can’t tell if this is a good day or a bad day for comics. Batman Eternal…winning Comic Book of the Week…man. I just don’t know anymore. I can’t even.
While we’re adjusting, feel free to check out my review of Uncanny Avengers #1 over at Word of the Nerd. It was a relatively mediocre start.
Comic Reviews: Batman Eternal #43, Bitch Planet #2, Gotham Academy #4, Harley Quinn #14, Thor #4 and Uncanny X-Men #30.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/24/15
Time to ease off the massive reviews, finally! We’ve just got a few comics this week – or at least the few comics I was in the mood to buy and read – and they’re all Batman and Spider-Man comics! How cool is that? Those two are arguably my two favorite mainstream superheroes, so this is kind of a big deal.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Amazing Spider-Man #13 for another entertaining chapter of Spider-Verse, though it’s not necessarily a spectacular standout. This is still just a Big Event I enjoy reading.
I’ve missed you, Superior Spider-Man!
We’ve also got the Spider-Verse tie-in that is Scarlet Spiders, as well as new issues of Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin. In fact, I didn’t hate this week’s Batman Eternal for once! I would say this is a solidly cool week.
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #13, Batman and Robin #38, Batman Eternal #42 and Scarlet Spiders #3.
Gamer Girl & Vixen – Punching Out a Script
Good news, everybody! This week, co-writer Kristi McDowell and I will have completed the first draft of our 100 (or so) page graphic novel for Gamer Girl & Vixen. We’d originally planned the story as a 6-issue mini-series, but minds changed, ideas shifted, and now we’re going to have it all in one big, wonderful collection. This tpb is going to sit proudly on my shelf — and hopefully yours too — for the rest of my life, a testament to kicking butt, doing good work and making your dreams come true.
So I thought this week I’d share with you all a little bit about the writing process.
The fan art that won Gemma Moody the job!
I can’t exactly post the entire script on my blog, that would give everything away! But I think I can share a page or two, along with the accompanying art, so you can see how we go from the written word to the drawn picture. It’s a neat process, and I’ve definitely learned so much about making comics just from doing it myself.
So join me after the jump to get a crash course in scripting Gamer Girl & Vixen!
Review: Teen Titans #6
Let’s all welcome the new Power Girl to the Teen Titans! Hooray! Good, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to talking about Manchester Black. What’s that? You’d rather talk more about the interesting new Power Girl and how she might fit in the Teen Titans? I don’t know…Manchester Black is Manchester Black. He’s got a lot of really interesting stuff going on, and writer Will Pfeifer is pretty sure we should focus on Manchester Black.
Teen Titans #6
The new Power Girl is going to have to wait, everybody, because Pfeifer really really needs to write another giant Manchester Black monologue.
Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.
How badly does Pfeifer need to talk about Manchester Black? He literally has Black just pop in and interrupt the new Power Girl’s introductory scene. After that, Power Girl becomes nothing more than a background character. And that’s almost a perfect summation of Pfeifer’s short run on Teen Titans so far.
But I will give the man credit: there’s a glimmer of evidence about where Pfeifer might be going with all of this, and if I’m right, then he may be forgiven.
What remains unforgivable, though, is how little Pfeifer actually seems to care about the Teen Titans. Every opportunity he has in this issue to explore the Titans and their lives is interrupted. He’s constantly cutting himself off instead of staying with a scene or a moment. Pfefier actually starts several conversations exploring the Titans’ living situations and motivations, but then he cuts himself off to move on, usually towards Manchester Black. What he does write is actually pretty good, and I was prepared to give this issue a higher score, but then Pfeifer just flatlines in the entire second half of the issue.
At least Scott Hepburn is still around on art. He’s weird and funky, and I like him.
Join me after the jump for the full synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire