Dyke comix, from Second Wave counter-culture to the New 52

My Diva magazine feature on the herstory of lesbians in comics is out today. I'm not ashamed to say that writing it sent me a little crazy. Its such a niche branch of comics, with roots in Second Wave feminsim and late 60s underground counter-culture publishing, so all those early artists and volumes proved tricky to track down and draw out. The power of the lesbian phone tree came good, and I ended up e-talking with Mary Wings, Trina Robbins and Roberta Gregory, the real 70s matriarchs of dyke comix. Can you imagine emailing with women who were creating lesbian legacies in a pre-internet world? Seeing the PDF panels of 'Sandy Comes Out' in my inbox one chilly November morning was a BIG deal. I spent an obsessive amount of time drawing up timelines and cruising Amazon and Ebay, to moderately successful ends, for obscure issues, and spent a lot of cash padding out my collection with volumes I could ill-afford. I plan on pouring everything I've amassed into a bumper-sized zine at some point.

In the mean time, head to Queer Zine Archive Project to download a copy of Roberta Gregory's Dynamite Damsels. 
  

And because there appears to be a tag limit in Blogger: Wimmins Comix, Gay Comix, Tits N Clits, The 24 Group, Dianne DiMassa, Leanne Franson, Erica Smith, Girl Frenzy, Alison Bechdel, Erika Moen, Carrie McNinch, Arial Schrag, Michelle Tea, Laurenn McCubbin, the Hernandez Bros, Jennifer Camper, Nicole J Georges, Cristy C Road, Ross Campbell, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Gail Simone.

Womanthology - all-female comix anthology

"Mutant and proud"

Jennifer Lawrence should get a medal for managing to make a totally cringe-worthy line of script, which she was forced to say not once but twice, sound only moderately sappy.

Things I liked:

Jennifer Lawrence and her totally rad acting skills.
Fassbender, turning out a smokin' young Magneto.
January Jones in diamond form. Hot damn.

Things I did not like

Kevin Bacon as Shaw. No cravat! Shaw is hulking, hairy, intimidating and charismatic. Bacon is far too lean/serpentine to pull this off.
January Jones as Emma Frost. JJ has that ice-blonde thing down fer sure, but Emma, for all her coolness, is also mad sexy and totally at ease in ridiculously teeny outfits. Felt like I was watching a super frigid Betty Draper play dress-up. Uncomfortable.
Moira MacTaggert. WHERE WAS THE ACCENT PLEASE?
The script. Painful in places. See above.
Travel sickness. Too many scene/location/era changes.
Pervading lack of atmosphere/true suspense. 
Too many plots spoil the broth/film etc.
You know things are bad when you find yourself willing the montages to be over. Zero fun!

 Things I am undecided on:

James McAvoy, doing Xavier's early smugness exceeding justice. I suppose I prefer to think of Charles as a wizened prof, bald and nobly transcending the ego/mistakes of his youth.