Pixel Scroll 9/21/17 A Pixel Walks Into A Bar And Orders A Fifth

(1) CELEBRATE THE RADCH. Ann Leckie’s new book Provenance comes out on September 26, and the Imperial Radch fandom on Tumblr is asking people to create thematic fanworks as part of the celebration.

Each day, fans are encouraged to post work under the #Imperial Radch tag, and if you like, a new #Imperial Radch Week tag. Any medium is encouraged, and we selected days that hopefully highlight a wide range of skills!

  • Tuesday, Sept 19th: Ship Day
  • Wednesday, Sept 20th: Music Day
  • Friday, Sept 22nd: Fav Friday
  • Saturday: Sept 23rd: AU Day
  • Sunday, Sept 24th: Favorite Scene Day
  • Monday, Sept 25th: What the Heck is a Geck Day
  • Tuesday, Sept 26th: Release day

See this post for details of each day’s featured topic.

(2) RAISE YOUR TBR HIGHER. James Davis Nicoll foresees you will want to read “Twenty Core SF Works About Psionics and Awesome Mind Powers Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves”. Three of those works are –

  • The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman
  • Ingathering by Zenna Henderson
  • Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang

Next week – “Twenty Room Houses True Fans Need To Own To Accommodate All The Books True Fans Should Have On Their Shelves.”

(3) FINAL JEOPARDY REFERENCES LEN WEIN. Steven H Silver has the story: “Today’s Final Jeopardy question may be the first time there’s been a FJ question about the spouse of a former contestant.  The question asked about a character created by Len Wein.  Len was married to four-time Jeopardy! champion Christine Valada (2009).”

(4) DONATIONS NEEDED. Mica Sunday Deerfield, Linda Bushyager’s sister, suffered substantial damage to her Houston home from Hurricane Harvey, and has launched a GoFundMe to raise money to make it habitable again.

When hurricane Harvey struck the Gulf coast, it filled over capacity the reservoir that is behind Mica’s house in West Houston. There was about 3 1/2 feet of water in the house and the neighborhood was inaccessible until yesterday, when our friend Dan courageously went there to see what happened. After 7 days of floodwaters, virtually all her possessions were dissolved, covered with mold, and lost to the flood. It will cost approximately $25,000 to empty the house, tear out all of the drywall, and remove the appliances, kitchen cabinets, insulation, furniture and everything else. Then they will do drying out and mold remediation. She will end up with an empty shell of a house. She will also then need money to fix the house back up. Any donation at all will be much appreciated. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you don’t know Linda Bushyager, she’s a long-time fanzine fan (Granfalloon, Karass) and fantasy author. More than that, when she shut down her fannish newzine Karass in the mid-Seventies, she passed the torch to File 770. And we’re still here!

(5) GATEKEEPERS. Martin Wisse defines a problematic culture in “The real trouble with comix”.

Supporting small business is important, but Amazon won’t ask you if you’re buying X-Men for your boyfriend every week. I’ve lost count of the women I know who stopped going to comic shops after being hit on or patronized too many times.

That small aside from a story about online harassment in video gaming perfectly illustrates the challenge the socalled mainstream comics industry has created for itself. Like videogaming, comics culture is steeped in rightwing victim culture, where you convince yourself both that you and your hobby are horribly oppressed and bullied by the jocks, the popular clique, riajuu and that your particular brand of pop culture is superior to what the brainless masses consume because they don’t spent their Wednesday evenings waiting for the new issue of whatever The Avengers is called this week. So you get a culture and industry that bemoans the fact that nobody loves comics anymore, but resents any step made to make people feel welcome. In fact, people seem to feel personally insulted if others enjoy the wrong sort of comics, as this fortuitous tweet demonstrates.

(6) SHOULDN’T SALES MATTER? Barry Deutsch addresses the same problem in a tweetstorm that begins here —

It runs 21 tweets and along the way observes:

(7) AGENT SPILLS THE BEANS. Fantasy-Faction scored an interview with agent Harry Illingworth.

When you’re reading all of those submissions, trawling through the slush pile, what is it you are actually looking for? What type of story, point of view, writing sets fire to your super-agent synapses and makes you request the full manuscript or sign them up there and then?

First up I’m looking at whether the author has followed the submission guidelines. It may sound obvious that you follow the guidelines when you submit, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t. I then think about whether it’s a good cover letter as if it’s not a good cover letter I’m not inclined to be too hopeful about the book itself. I do find the authors I’ve taken on have all had really strong cover letters and the author knows their book and can express that in the letter. It all comes down to the actual writing though, and I’ll only ever call in the full manuscript based on my enjoyment of the first three chapters.

When writers search the internet for advice on how to create successful query it can be… overwhelming. So, help us out – what makes a good query letter, synopsis?

I think what makes a good query is research beforehand. You’ve written a book, so take care to find out who is writing similar kinds of books. Who can you compare to without saying you’re the next GRRM? Entice the agent but don’t tell the whole story of the book, and also carefully research the agent before you submit. Make sure you are putting your book in front of the right pair of eyes, and it doesn’t hurt to add a personal touch so the agent knows you haven’t just sent it out blindly.

(8) STINKIN’ BADGES. Jeff Somers names “Science Fiction & Fantasy’s Most Delightful Government Agencies” for readers of the B&N Sci-FI & Fantasy Blog.

SpecOps 27 (Thursday Next Series, by Jasper Fforde) What isn’t to love about a government agency charged with investigating literature-related crimes? Especially in an alternate universe where literature has the cultural heft of superhero movies, and the division between reality and fiction is so thin the two are easily mixed—with breathtaking results. All of the “Special Operations” units in the fictional world are pretty cool, actually, including SpecOps 12, in charge of investigating time travel-related events. For anyone who’s ever dreamed of falling into a book and waking up in their favorite story, SO-27 represents kind of the next best thing.

(9) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • September 21, 1937 — J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit published.
  • September 21, 2005 Invasion premiered to those interested TV audiences.
  • September 21, 2015 — Fox TV dished out the series premiere of Minority Report.  The premise was culled from the Steven Spielberg movie of the same name, based on a story by Philip K. Dick. By the end of the first season it had been learned that few people want to see precogs go incog.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS

  • Born September 21, 1866 – H.G. Wells
  • Born September 21, 1912 – Chuck Jones, famous animator
  • Born September 21, 1947 — Stephen King

(11) COMICS SECTION.

Mike Kennedy found someone who probably should have asked for help earlier, in Real Life Adventures.

(12) SCARED TO DEATH. In October, Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) has filled their calendar with all things spooky and magical. Their movie lineup that includes Interview with the Vampire, The Dark Crystal, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and a talk with Cheryl Henson (daughter of Jim and Jane Henson and President of The Henson Foundation).

Campout Cinema: Interview With the Vampire, October 6, 8:00 p.m. 21+ ($14, $11 MoPOP members)

A vampire tells the story of his life from widowed plantation owner to murderous immortal in this gothic classic based on Anne Rice’s best-selling novel starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater. Includes admission to Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film and Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction.

Campout Cinema: The Dark Crystal, October 13, 7:00 p.m. All ages. ($16, $12 MoPOP members)

The last of the Gelfings must journey to find the crystal shard that will create order and bring peace to his world in this Jim Henson classic. Includes admission to The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited and a pre-screening talk with Cheryl Henson (Henson Foundation President, and Jim and Jane’s daughter).

The Art of Puppetry with Cheryl Henson, October 14, 2:00pm Free with museum admission.

From Sesame Street and The Muppet Show to The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson’s creative imagination and enthusiasm for new technologies expanded the art of puppetry. Join Cheryl Henson (Henson Foundation President, and Jim and Jane’s daughter) as she looks at her parent’s dedication to the art form through a discussion and showcase of their impressive body of work.

 Campout Cinema: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, October 26, 8:00 p.m. ($14, $11 MoPOP members)

The dream warriors must work together to try and stop Freddy Krueger for good in the third installment of this classic horror franchise starring Robert Englund, Patricia Arquette, and Heather Langencamp. Includes admission to Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film and Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction.

MoPOP After Dark: On Thursdays and Fridays throughout the month of October, MoPOP will host After Dark Happy Hours with exclusive after-hours access to MoPOP’s newest exhibition Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film, plus MoPOP favorites Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds of Myth and Magic. Specialty, bone-chilling cocktails will be available for purchase. 5pm-8pm, MoPOP South Galleries. 21+, $15.

(12) ASGARD STYLE. About this time of year if I think of anyone wearing Marvel-themed clothing, I’m thinking about a Halloween costume. But no longer!

Josh Bennett, fashion designer and knitter extraordinaire, brings his passion for Marvel and its complex storytelling into a new sweater collection inspired by Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok. The new line will showcase Nordic influences, luxury fibers, and fantastical touches across a tight range of men’s sweaters available this holiday season.

…Bennett has always had a love for storytelling, and grew an appreciation for the robust worlds in Marvel stories as he immersed himself in Marvel films. When Thor: Ragnarok was announced as a November release, the unique settings, bold colors, and sense of wonder made it a perfect idea for a winter sweater collection.  Using references from the film, modern day trend influences, and new knitting techniques, Bennett has created a first-of-its-kind collection.

… The luxury limited edition collection includes four different styles, a chunky cardigan, v-neck tennis sweater, fisherman hoodie, and fair isle zip up, and uses yarns including 100% Italian cashmere and yarns from New Zealand, a nod to Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.  Each sweater is extremely limited to no more than three pieces per size for each style and is numbered and dated.

The Josh Bennett x Marvel collection ranges from $1095 – $1495 USD and is available to shop online at www.joshbennettnyc.com  beginning November 10 with a pre sale October 10.

(13) HOW TO BREAK IN. The BBC reports that “Game of Thrones’ Ellie Kendrick wants to open up ‘closed shop’ film industry”.

“I’ve worked in the film industry on and off for about half my life and I’ve noticed that the worlds that are represented on our screens by no means mirror the worlds that we see around us in our everyday lives,” the 27-year-old says.

“Part of that is because it’s such a difficult industry to break into and often it requires huge financial support from parents or jobs. Or it requires contacts you’ve made in film school – which again costs a lot of money.

“So it’s a bit of a closed shop.”

The piece ends with this prime quote about her GoT role:

“But also, you know, I get to wield an axe occasionally and kill some zombies. So, all in all, she’s a pretty well-rounded character.”

(14) DIFFERENT BOUNDARIES. Mel Brooks, currently preparing for the opening in London’s West End of a musical version of his film Young Frankenstein, told a reporter, “Blazing Saddles would never be made today”.

He said Blazing Saddles, his Western spoof about a black sheriff in a racist town, could never be made today.

“It’s OK not to hurt the feelings of various tribes and groups,” he said. “However, it’s not good for comedy.

“Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. It’s the lecherous little elf whispering in the king’s ear, telling the truth about human behaviour.”

(15) MICHELLE YEOH. A featurette with Star Trek: Discovery’s Captain Georgiou.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Steven H Silver, Carl Slaughter, Chip Hitchcock, David K.M. Klaus, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Niall McAuley.]

78 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/21/17 A Pixel Walks Into A Bar And Orders A Fifth

  1. (12) ASGARD STYLE.

    What am I missing? Those are ordinary knitted sweaters. What have they to do with Asgard?

  2. (6) SHOULDN’T SALES MATTER?
    Another (shorter) response I saw to the same complaint was something like
    “We want a world where grown men won’t have to walk into a comic store and believe every comic there is targeted at them.”

    (12) Hampus: It says the sweaters will “showcase Nordic influences”. So it’s basically about cultural appropriation – just like the Thor-as-comic-superhero thing. 😉

  3. I genuinely had no idea I had to buy a copy of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl every time I walked into a comic book store. What’s the statute of limitations on this crime? I might just try to stay in South East Asia while the clock ticks down on my innumerable “didn’t buy Squirrel Girl” charges. I hope the UK doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Indonesia!

  4. 6) Well, I’m a grown man with more comics cred than probably 99.9% of comics readers (seriously, I can’t even imagine any criteria by which I could deemed a “fake comics fan”) and I gladly buy The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl each month and consider it one of the best books currently on the market.

  5. (6) SHOULDN’T SALES MATTER?

    I liked this part of the tweet-rant:

    “I suspect the fact that floppy comics have a terrible hours-of-entertainment-per-dollar ratio, compared to almost any other form of entertainment. I mean, I can read an issue of “Avengers” in three minutes. Maybe five, if it’s @BRIANMBENDIS writing. For the cost of two floppies – which will take me at most fifteen minutes to read, if I go slow – I can go see a two hour movie instead.”

    We used to combine american comics into 64 page issues, not seldom 128 pages. And this to an acceptable price. When the Swedish comic market disappeared, I looked at the american market for floppies and quickly concluded that they weren’t a possible alternative. Too short and too expensive for the short.

    I do still buy graphic novels and compilations. But the floppy time is gone. Better a book, movie or game.

  6. (6) So that’s why Brust was tweeting about the awesomeness of Squirrel Girl. I mean, I’d always thought that went without saying.

    (2) I’m no James (as soon as I start making the list, I forget everything), but I can make a start:
    “And He Built A Crooked House”, Heinlein
    House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

    I flirted with manga very very briefly, until I realized I was paying $20 for what was essentially one chapter of a story that might end sometime after Wheel of Time did.

  7. I also would like to walk into a comic shop and not have to pay for Squirrel Girl Comics – which should be free to all, subsidized by the government to improve everybody’s well being and Tippy-Toe things so too.

  8. “I flirted with manga very very briefly, until I realized I was paying $20 for what was essentially one chapter of a story that might end sometime after Wheel of Time did.”

    A lot of them end after one or two volumes. But if you go with the larger ones like Naruto, they are more to be compared with comics like Spiderman. That never ends.

  9. 6) Digging into the guy’s (as opposed to the response’s) tweetstream, the guy has the Puppyish thought that publishers are catering to SJWs rather than himself, and that this will kill sales and publishers ultimately. As if any publisher isn’t going to chase the money. Books and comics are published beause the publisher thinks that they will sell.

    2)I’m glad Huang and Henderson were already listed. I’d also add James Schmitz’s Telsey Amberdon to the list. (or you could go with Schmitz’ Witches of Karres)

  10. (12) ASGARD STYLE.

    What am I missing? Those are ordinary knitted sweaters. What have they to do with Asgard?

    Those are the costumes from the new film. Everybody wears stylish knitwear like this for the whole running time. Hulk’s cardigan is adorable.

  11. 1) I got sent an early copy of Provenance. Having nearly finished it, I can’t say I’m much impressed. Solid world-building, but I found myself completely disinterested in the air-headed main character (who spends half the time either wanting to cry or being clueless about the painfully obvious), or anyone else around her. It says something about a book when mech bots have more likeability and chemistry than any of the humans do. Which isn’t to say it’s a bad book; just a meh one. Don’t understand praise all those books get.
    (I await the stampede of Radchaai fans to trample me to death.)

  12. Jeremy Szal on September 22, 2017 at 4:35 am said:I await the stampede of Radchaai fans to trample me to death.

    If you read the whole first trilogy and didn’t like them, I’m surprised you even read this one – that’s longer than my patience with authors/series I don’t like.

    Me, I loved them, and your review does not make me think I will like the new one any less.

  13. 2) — Hooray for the inclusion both of Sylvia Louise Engdahl and of Tanith Lee’s Birthgrave. I might also propose Andre Norton’s Forerunner Foray if that hasn’t already been listed elsewhere.

    As for a house big enough to store the books in, either Gormenghast or James Stoddard’s High House.

  14. @all At the very least, Squirrel Girl should be exempt from any local VAT or other taxation, as a necessary item for many women on a par with sanitary products and pumice stones. (Actually I say this having never read it… someone nominate it for a Hugo so I have motivation to catch up?)

    @Oneiros I just looked it up and there appear to be multiple Kinokuniya stores in Jakarta… better to go ground lest you get escorted over to one for mandatory Squirreling.


    2) I have only read one book in James’ list, how dismal. Although technically another couple are “on my shelves” if my kindle sample folder counts as a shelf.

  15. @2, I’ve read 11. Not as many as some categories, but more than others.

    @Nigel, I think Hulk’s cardigan is a one-off. After all, there aren’t likely to be three other people who are size XXXXXXXXXXXXXL to buy the rest of that particular sweater….

  16. Today is not only Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, but its also the birthday of Elizabeth Bear!

  17. The advantage to knitwear for the Hulk is that it’s far more expandable than cloth. So he can Hulk SMASH while still wearing his stylish sweater.

  18. I just realized I’ve had an American first edition of Disch’s The M. D. staring at me for some time now.

    I can’t find where someone had asked about a line in it, but if you’ll ask again, I’ll look it up for you.

  19. Re Witches of Karres
    I did read it years ago, perhaps the Suck Fairy would not be kind to it. I don’t know.

    I’ll slink away in shame now.

  20. I reread “Witches” relatively recently. It’s one of 20 Core Works in which the main character is impeded and aided by the whims of a Godlike being (it’s also in the subcategory of “and the Godlike being isn’t even sure the that main character exists” (a subcategory that also includes Budry’s “Michaelmas”)).

  21. Those are ordinary knitted sweaters. What have they to do with Asgard?
    They aren’t even Norwegian in style. The red-and-white pattern looks like something Komi (they’re in Russia).

  22. (14) nah, Blazing Saddles is still one of my favorite movies. The Suck Fairy could highlight an issue or two with women, and even my teen self didn’t find farting funny, but most of it is still gold.

  23. @2: Count this time ~10/20; I’ll have to look up a few of the others, but does anyone else remember either psionics or awesome mind powers in Ethan of Athos? I don’t remember Bujold ever touching those tropes, but it has been a while since I read EoA.

    @2 (editorializing): too right! The first fan to walk into my house on move-in day said “I see your problem: too many windows, not enough wall space.” (Most of the books are in the basement.)

    @7: the question the interviewer doesn’t ask is why anyone cares what Illingworth thinks — or is the UK system radically different from the US, where (per TNH et al) an agent isn’t much help until a publisher makes an offer? I know there’s a meme going around that agents are helpful, but I’ve seen a lot of counterargument.

    @Jamoche: The Heinlein doesn’t actually provide more space (in fact, what should be between spaces get erased), but Teal would probably make his next project bigger. I’d add much of L’Engle (who set a lot of her work in rundown rambling houses like the one she and her husband bought) and Bellairs (similar buildings, e.g. The House with the Clock in its Walls) Stoddard’s High House (I didn’t read the rest of the Evenmere Chronicles) (ninja’d by Joe H!), and “Betrayal at House on the Hill” (board game in which the house is ~built by random draw) — or one could just be a Vorkosigan (cf the large storage space Miles and Ekaterin dig through in A Civil campaign).

    @Arkansawyer: is that genre? Seems more like hallucinatory-weird mimetic from the review.

  24. @Chip —

    @2: Count this time ~10/20; I’ll have to look up a few of the others, but does anyone else remember either psionics or awesome mind powers in Ethan of Athos?

    Yes. I just recently did a reread of the entire series.

    Va gur fgbel, nsgre znal gjvfgf naq pbaibyhgvbaf, vg gheaf bhg gung bar bs gur trargvpf fnzcyrf gur Ngubfvnaf raq hc jvgu vf sebz gjb gryrcnguf jub jrer perngrq ba, V oryvrir, Wnpxfba’f Jubyr. Gur znyr gryrcngu vf fgvyy nyvir, naq raqf hc obaqvat jvgu Rguna naq tbvat onpx gb yvir ba Ngubf nf jryy. N yvggyr ovg bs gur fgbel cbaqref gur rssrpg gung gur tenqhny fcernq bs guvf genvg guebhtubhg gur Ngubfvna cbchyngvba jvyy unir abg bayl ba Ngubf ohg ba gur bgure uhzna jbeyqf nf jryy, bire gvzr.

  25. @8: A lot of good cites on that list. Referring back to my query a few weeks ago, I did end up reading …D.O.D.O; it steals from so many sources it can claim to be researched, but was much more fun than Anathem (kept interest because there are several different narrators, even though chapter ~1 tells you it’s going to end badly) and didn’t have a lot of I-just-don’t-believe-that moments — for me the worst was that n Inenatvna Thneq, rira n yngr-ren bar, jbhyq unir tenfcrq gur cbgragvny naq zrpunavpf bs gvzr geniry fb dhvpxyl. I realized afterward that Stephenson never even handwaved an early point: why do they have to time-travel so many times to make a present-day difference — is D.O.D.O. so Kalvanesque that none of the parallel worlds are also trying to fix the magic going away? (Multiple journeys let Stephenson rub our noses in how grungy past times were; IMO this is not a win.) I would be interested to hear from any women who read this whether the viewpoint female characters are too weak/supporting/POTOS-disturbed compared to the men, or whether that’s a deliberate reflection of the loss of (female-practiced) magic as there are some strong independent women in the pasts visited.

  26. @Chip Hitchcock: Ethan of Athos does a little more than touch on psi. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, so I don’t remember it well enough to spoil it, but it’s there.

    I’d call Harrington a magical realist, and that’s genre as far as I’m concerned. I know he read genre fiction, because I shopped at his garage sales, back in the day.

    ETA on re-reading your comment: I used to have dreams about big houses and buildings repurposed for housing all the time. I’m not sure I’ve had one in the last fifteen years. Odd, that. I miss those dreams. They were my favorites.

  27. @ Chip / 7): As far as I can tell, agents are significant gatekeepers, since (despite some disclaimers) there are publishers who will not really consider unagented MSS. I can testify (from close observation rather than personal experience) that getting an agent is now as difficult as getting picked out of the slush pile used to be, and that agents are deluged with pitch letters and sample chapters. And agents often present themselves to the prospective-client population the way editors used to: “I am looking for books like X and Y, not interested in Z.” (I note that Illingworth has just such a comment in the interview: “I’m also actively looking for high-concept crime and thrillers/mould-breaking genre fiction too, as this is a trend that has emerged lately, the popularity of this sort of fiction.”)

    Certainly an agent’s role as negotiator, advocate, and vetter-of-deals remains crucial, but I have heard from agents and editors that they are often now also the first-pass filter. This situation might be mitigated in SF/F thanks to the genre-magazine market, which serves to identify unagented players, but out in the mainstream (and, I suspect in non-SF/F genre spaces) the agent is the talent-spotter. (There’s a baseball metaphor lurking in there.)

  28. Jamoche

    I flirted with manga very very briefly, until I realized I was paying $20 for what was essentially one chapter of a story that might end sometime after Wheel of Time did

    Really depends on the series, but there’s a lot of ones with completed story arcs that aren’t huge. An ongoing one I’m enjoying is Assassination Classroom (which was completed in Japanese already and has an anime that’s finished so I’ve had to avoid spoilers) which will be done in 3 more books. Not really into the manga scene but I picked it up from the library and am invested now, hoping to find others like it.

    But yeah aside from trades and collections I skip individual comics because by the time I start getting into it, it’s already over.

  29. I did just re-read Witches of Karres fairly recently, and honestly, it’s more “tween creeping on adult”. I mean, yes, it was still a bit of a creepy thing to throw into the book (especially since it was completely unnecessary), but it would have been so much worse if it had been the other way around.

    Re-reading Schmitz in general, I frequently find myself torn between thinking he was really creepy in some way, and thinking that he was trying to write for young women, and just wasn’t very good at it. (Way too much male gaze, among other things.) I honestly can’t decide.

    In support of the latter theory, I point to several women I know, including my aunt (SF writer Melisa Michaels) and her sister (my mother) who love Witches of Karres and re-read it regularly.

    eta: I’ve asked, and they’re not sure either….

  30. I flirted with manga very very briefly, until I realized I was paying $20 for what was essentially one chapter of a story that might end sometime after Wheel of Time did.

    Yeah, the problem is that manga is overpriced in the US. As I was reading the comments, I was actually going to post about how good a deal manga is compared to “floppy” comics. Looking at a random example (the most recent completely scanslated tankobon volume of Moyashimon, which I’ve only recently began but am really enjoying) Japanese buyers get 12 chapters (the equivalent of 12 issues of a comic) and around 200 pages for 533 yen, or $4.75 at current exchange rates. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. It is US publisher’s fault that they charge 2 or 4 times as much for the official English translations.

    As for the story not ending, do you have the same problem with ongoing US comic series, which can run into several hundred issues before getting a reboot?

  31. Oooh, Randall Munroe is in Ely a week on Thursday, and unlike my trip to Norwich earlier this week I can actually get back home afterwards… Hmmm…

  32. A little bit of topic.
    About Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Somethink I believe since I Legends 2 got in my hand. I have the strong impresion that Funqbj vf Onyqre (should not be a major spoiler, but in root 13 to be sure).
    Is that a normal reaction or is that only in my head?

  33. 6. anyone remember Lewis Black’s bit on gay marriage? (There they are, the typical american family, safe and snug at home at the end of the cul de sac. And here come the gays, sneaking up to the house and (performing a sex act). oh the horror…or some such.)

    Switch out comic book store for house and squirrel girl for the gays and that bit would work just as well.

    What continually amazes me about this type of comment/this type of person is the complete and utter lack of self awareness (if you were self aware, you’d something like that and then erase it) and how completely bereft of logic the comments are.

    Unless, as others have suggested, there are gangs of thugs hanging out around comic stores, stealing their money and then forcing them to read Squirrel girl.

    A plausible scenario I suppose, but I want to know where the thugs get those eyelid clamps (aka Clockwork Orange)

  34. @StefanB: That’s a common theory, and I’m told that Gaiman confirmed it later in a novella called “The Monarch of the Glen” (which I haven’t read). (Although, per the rules of the novel, there isn’t really a one-to-one correspondence with any mythological figure since there can be multiple versions of each one.)

    @John A Arkansawyer: The Disch question was from me, but it was already answered – thanks anyway!

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