Comics2Film has a deleted scene from Iron Man, featuring Tony’s first excuse for taking his suit on a jaunt to Afghanistan. Spoilers after the jump.

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Free e-books! YAY! Tor.com is giving away a bunch of e-books, but they’re only free through Sunday, July 27th. So crank up your download manager and go book shopping!

MAN, I’ve got to update this more often. This month is kicking my ass, though; I’m taking a really awesome class on ethnicity and race in comics/graphic novels, but the reading is intense and I’ve got to write three papers in five weeks. Urk. Time for a media dump!

I’ve been to the movies a bit lately. WALL-E is beautiful and sweet and charming without being cloying. Kung Fu Panda was hilarious and touching and gorgeously animated. I… er, saw Iron Man again. For the fifth time. I am a fangirl, what can I say? I’ll probably see The Dark Knight on Thursday, and I’m definitely seeing The X-Files: I Want To Believe (or as it should be titled, The X-Files: Incredibly Clunky Subtitle) on Friday. Hellboy is here from Netflix, waiting for me to watch it so I can eventually see Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I want to see Tropic Thunder mainly for Robert Downey, Jr.

The movie industry is out to torture my wallet this summer, seriously.

I’ve been reading lots of comics for class. If you’re looking for some good indie comics, try the Love & Rockets series by the Hernandez brothers. I read Human Diastrophism and Perla La Loca over the weekend, and both are very well-written with interesting artwork. Next up on the comics reading list is four volumes of Lucifer’s Garden of Verses by Lance Tooks and the rest of Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse. In non-class-related reading, I’m in the middle of The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters. Amelia Peabody = ♥

In video game news, I’m playing Dark Cloud 2 whenever I have a free minute. I love the combination of RPG, dungeon fighter, and worldbuilder, and the animation–particularly the environments–is gorgeous.

So… I’ve wasted enough time that should be used for paper-writing. Well, I’ve wasted enough time blogging. Now I should waste some more time making icons…

There’s no better way to start the morning off right than with some good linkage.

First up: Paperback Writer posts Skiffy Ten, ten links about writing science fiction.

I’m somewhat of a stilted writer. I get ideas, I think about said ideas, and then sometimes I write them down, but I hardly ever bring them to fruition. This is a sucky writing habit, and it’s one I’m working at changing (I actually finished some poems this summer! Woo!). But, er, anyway, most of what I think about writing falls under the umbrella of speculative fiction, and PBW’s links are extremely helpful for anyone interested in dipping their toes (or diving headfirst into) the world of spec fic. My favorite links on this page are Bruce Sterling’s lexicon for SF writing workshops and China Miéville’s short essay on world building.

Which reminds me, I really should re-compile my list of world building resources and post it here.

Next! New promo image from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Pardon me for a moment, I need to drool over Hugh Jackman’s biceps and shoulders.

…Okay, I’m good. I’m digging all of the sexy shots of Wolvie, don’t get me wrong. I love the fangirl fanservice, but I keep hoping for official shots of the other characters. I want to see Liev Schrieber decked out as Sabretooth. That not-Native-American woman as Silver Fox. That kid from Friday Night Lights as Gambit. Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, for god’s sake!

C’mon, Fox, toss us a little more than just Jackman in a wifebeater. Though I in no way object to tossing us more Jackman in a wifebeater along the way.

And in very old news, Tom Cruise was approached a few years ago to play Tony Stark in a version of Iron Man that thankfully crashed and burned. Oh dear GOD, can you imagine how horrible that would have been? [clings to Robert Downey, Jr.]

I’m taking a summer class on multi-cultural comics, and that (along with a rather heated discussion in a children’s lit class last spring) got me thinking about labels for this particular form of media.

Do we call ‘em comics or graphic novels?

When I was first introduced to the concept of graphic novels, the term was used to refer to collected comics. Marvel takes six or so issues of X-Men, binds them together, and voilà! A graphic novel. Or a trade paperback. But it’s still comics.

So what the heck do we call this stuff?

Wikipedia defines a graphic novel as “a type of comic book, usually with a lengthy and complex storyline similar to those of novels, and often aimed at mature audiences.” The problem with this definition is that many comic books (single issue-based magazines with sequential art-based storylines) often have lengthy and complex plots. Hell, anyone who’s spent a year reading the X-Men comics can tell you that the plotlines are complex sometimes to the point of obscurity. Wikipedia acknowledges the mutability of the term “graphic novel” and also brings up a point that I think is incredibly important.

Some people use the term “graphic novel” to try to set apart certain titles on the basis of so-called artistic value. Now, this is a slippery slope on the best of days. Artistic value is incredibly subjective; each person is going to have a different view of what defines art. Remember that guy at the museum, bitching about Jackson Pollock? “My three-year-old could make that!” Or the woman who turns her nose up at anything that isn’t modern, because it’s passé?

Though I often use the term, it feels to me that many people do call ‘em graphic novels out of a sense of snobbery. “I don’t read comics. They’re for basement-dwelling fanboys. I read graphic novels.” Gee, you think that term might have been invented by publishers who were just dying to sell more comics, but wanted to paint on a veneer of respectability? Really, whatever the subject matter, it’s the same thing. It’s sequential art. Words and images juxtaposed to create a story. As with any storytelling form, there is an enormous variety of content, and each person is responsible for deciding what floats their boat, what’s valuable to them as a reader. Is it high art? Is it low art?

Who the hell cares? It’s all comics.

For further reading:

• Neil Gaiman’s thoughts on the matter. (scroll a bit to get to the question about comics v. graphic novels)
• Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Some recommended comics/graphic novels/whatever the heck you want to call them:

• Bill Willingham’s Fables series
• Maus by Art Spiegelman
• Wolverine: Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith

Also check out my Comics/Graphic Narrative shelf on my GoodReads profile. Graphic narrative! Ooh, how wanky! ;)

Because I need a break from redesigning my websites.

What was the first concert you ever went to? What was your favorite concert? And which concerts do you regret not going to?

My first, at least that I can remember, was New Kids on the Block. I won tickets off of the local pop station back when I was 11 or 12, and my mom took me. Row 27, haha!

My favorite was U2’s Popmart concert in ‘97. It was flashy and over the top, but at the core of it all, the band played a hell of a show. U2 concerts aren’t just concerts; they’re religious experiences.

I really regret missing three concerts. One was the David Bowie/Nine Inch Nails tour in the mid-nineties. ARGH. Second would be Smashing Pumpkins/Garbage, again in the mid-nineties. And the third I even had tickets for. [headdesk] It was the Blockbuster RockFest in 1997, held at the Texas Motor Speedway. It was HUGE. And it was free. And I let my mother talk me out of it. This is the missed concert that makes me want to throw myself down on the floor and have a hissy fit. I missed Bush, the Wallflowers… Counting Crows, for god’s sake, singing “Daylight Fading” as the sun went down. [sob]

Good morning, dear readers. I’m kicking back with a cup of Irish Breakfast tea, watching some documentary about The Queen Mary 2 (it came on after a documentary on Easter Island…), and thinking about getting up and getting ready for work. You’ll notice that I’m not watching The X-Files.

This is unusual, you see.

I started watching The X-Files in 1995, during the summer between seasons 2 and 3. I caught a rerun of “Die Hand Die Verletzt”, and it scared the holy crap out of me. It was awesome. I caught as many reruns as I could, then dove headfirst into season 3. I watched regularly through season 5, and because I was living in Germany during season 6, I watched those eps as a friend sent me videotapes. Unfortunately, season 7 started to lose me, and by the time 8 rolled around, I’d given up.

Like many fans, I watched the show not for the convoluted mythology or the monsters-of-the-week, but for the interaction between Mulder and Scully. When David Duchovny left for (theoretically) greener pastures, I lost interest. Not that Doggett wasn’t a good character (I refuse to say anything about Reyes), but… the show had lost the witty interaction, the tension that Mulder and Scully brought to the screen.

Years went by, rumors of a second film floating around the dark corners of the internet… and suddenly they weren’t rumors anymore.

Cue me doing an ecstatic fangirl dance. And spending way too much money on X-Files seasons on DVD from Amazon. Hey, I can’t keep watching old videotapes forever, can I? ;)

After helter skelter watching, I’ve settled down into a serious rewatch of seasons 1 through 6 (with Mulder/Scully shippery highlights in seasons 7 and 9, heh). If you’re curious, you can check out my rewatch commentary here.

The new movie is coming out in July, and I’m trying to stay as spoiler-free as possible, though the urge to run out and look for new pictures is sometimes overwhelming. It’s so exciting, to have a reunion looming on the horizon. Here’s hoping the movie is as awesome as, say, season 5.

I’ve been a fan of science fiction pretty much since before I could walk. My parents took me to see The Empire Strikes Back when I was a toddler, and I grew up on Star Wars, Star Trek, and other science fiction and fantasy staples. The thing is, most of the science fiction I consume is visual. I watch SF movies and TV shows or read comics. I don’t read a lot of SF, and by god, it’s time to change that.

I’ve always been interested in cyberpunk as a genre, though again mostly through films like Bladerunner and The Matrix. I got interested in William Gibson thanks to The X-Files episode “Kill Switch” in season 5. Hell, I’ve even studied feminist cyberpunk in a course on the supernatural in pop culture, but other than a couple of short stories, I’ve never read any.

So, dear readers, here is where I ask you to recommend your favorite cyberpunk books. I’m already collecting Gibson novels (I found The Difference Engine at a used bookstore, and snagged Virtual Light, Idoru, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and All Tomorrow’s Parties off of BookMooch), but which ones have I missed? How about Phillip K. Dick? What are some other awesome cyberpunk authors? I am particularly interested in cyberpunk (or science fiction in general) written by women, so I’d welcome those recommendations, too.

Currently:
Wearing: Nocturne Alchemy’s Tut Ankh Amun perfume oil
Listening to: Foo Fighters - “The Pretender”
Reading: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

After three weeks of studying how fairy tales are used in Holocaust novels, I found myself in serious need of comfort reading. I tried to pick up some of the paranormal romances in my To Read stack, but I just couldn’t focus on them. Having to delve so deeply into analyzing Holocaust narrative had left a big imprint on me, and I needed something familiar and comfortable… a literary woobie.

My literary woobie is the Harry Potter series series by J.K. Rowling. When I lived in Germany, I worked at a tiny shop that was quiet most of the time; we sold sweaters and teapots, so we only really had a rush of customers during the first cold snap of the year and Christmas. My manager used to quilt behind the counter. Being a reader and a writer, I’d bring books and notebooks. I discovered Harry Potter in the bookstore around the corner from my shop. I can’t remember the exact circumstances, but I’d probably forgotten to bring something to read, and so I ducked over there during a break. The second book had been out in paperback for a few months, and the display caught my eye. I picked up Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone and ploughed through it in less than a day. I ran back to the bookstore and bought Chamber of Secrets that afternoon and read it the next day.

And thus began my obsessive Harry Potter reading. After Prisoner of Azkaban was released, I’d bring at least two of the books with me to work and read my way through, over and over. I’ve read the first three books… oh god, at least thirty times apiece. I’m close to that on Goblet of Fire, too. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit it, sort of like admitting that you saw Star Wars Episode I about twenty times in the theatre. [cough] I certainly didn’t. [shifty eyes]

I never get tired of the Harry Potter series, no matter how many times I read it. Picking up those books is like getting to hang out with that old friend whom you only see every six months. It’s familiar, but every time I start to re-read, it’s like I’m being reintroduced to that loved one.

What are your literary woobies?

Currently…
Listening to: Bebel Gilberto - Aganjú
Reading: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Watching: The X-Files, season six

I just gave up reading a paranormal romance because I couldn’t deal with the historical inaccuracies. It always makes me sad when I can’t finish a book, because part of me wants to get some resolution. However, there are some things that just break the deal for me, things that I can’t ignore or just suspend a little more disbelief and move past.

My deal-breakers:
1. Loads of historical inaccuracies. I can put up with a few anachronisms, but in the last book I tried to read, the character talked about touching the Sphinx at Giza’s paws in 1818 or somewhere thereabouts. Being an Egyptology nerd, I threw my hands up in the air and bemoaned the author’s lack of research, as the Sphinx wasn’t fully excavated until 1925. Touching the Sphinx’s paws in 1818 would have involved being several meters underground. Argh.

2. That Certain Type Of Heroine. We all have this type of heroine, the one that will make you throw the book against the wall. My Certain Type of Heroine is usually too beautiful, too spunky, or too passive. If a book’s heroine would make Helen of Troy look like a cheap Whitechapel whore, if she can speak 15 languages and got her 6th Ph.D. by the age of 25, or if she swoons when her hero practically rapes her, I’m outta there.

3. Purple Prose. I’m a big fan of using dirtier euphemisms for love scenes, and if I run across too many “love passages,” “centers,” “manly members,” or god forbid, her “love button,” I run screaming from the pages. “Cock.” “Pussy.” These are good words. Do not fear them, authors. Use them judiciously!

What are your deal-breakers?

(And it’s been absolute ages since I’ve updated here. I’m sorry for that! In the past three months, I lost a job, started grad school, started a new job, and moved. I’m getting back into the swing of academia, which unfortunately doesn’t leave as much time for blogging… or maybe I’d have more time for blogging if I’d stop Simming so much when I’m wasting time that should be spent reading… Anyhoo, I’ve got to write a paper today, so enough blather.)