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dcwomenkickingass:

When she left DC Comics in September of last year, Janelle Asselin was one of the few female editors at the company. Asselin, who worked on the Batman line, was an editor on Birds of Prey as well as an associate editor on Batwoman, Detective, Batman and few other books. During her time at DC Comics, Asselin began work on graduate thesis in publishing at Pace University. The topic was one that I have a lot of interest in — increasing the sales of comics among women. I follow Asselin on Twitter and kept tabs on her progress over several months. With the thesis finished, I set up some time to speak to her about her findings. The following is an interview with her about the findings of her thesis and thoughts about women in comics.

Janelle, you took on this thesis when you were an editor at DC Comics, which as you say in your piece, focuses on male readers. Tell me about how you came up with the topic.

I knew when I started my masters program that I wanted to do as much as I could to turn what was a generally focused publishing program into being comics related. I often used comic companies for assignments and things like that. So I knew that I wanted my thesis to be about comics from the very beginning. My thesis advisor had me come up with two possible topics, so I chose women and comics as one and copyright and comics as the other. Through the course of doing some basic research and talking through both topics with friends and family, it became clear that while both interested me, the topic of women and comics was the one I was really passionate about. I worry that a lot of times, commentary on the topic of women and comics veers into the negative, w

hich is so easily dismissed by people on the other side. I wanted to write something positive - something that admitted the problems in the industry (which are plentiful) but more importantly offered what I saw as solutions. And certainly being in the midst of the early days of planning the New 52 and watching, from the inside, as DC hatched marketing plans and all that as I came up with my topic was…influential.

That seems to imply you had some questions about how they were choosing their targets for the new 52. Were you surprised about the lack of targeting of female readers (i.e. the identification of the male 18-34 target)?

I wasn’t surprised, but it was hard to think - I’m working on a book like Birds of Prey which I’m OBVIOUSLY pushing to be aimed at women 18-34, and instead the whole part and parcel was aimed at one narrow demographic. I don’t think it’s a good idea to ignore a demographic that could be so valuable and which is largely so untapped at this point.

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eloise-:

Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the bottom half of the planet. It is recognizable from orbit because of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of it’s southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge deep into the girting sea. Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology and plate tectonics, but they still call it the “Great Australian Bight” proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory, but they can’t spell either.

The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other land masses and soverign lands are classified as either continent, island, or country, Australia is considered all three. Typically, it is unique in this.

The second confusing thing about Australia are the animals. They can be divided into three categories. Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep. It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. Though, there are curiously few snakes, possibly because the spiders have killed them all. Even the spiders won’t go near the sea. Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on) under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else. A stick is very useful for this task.

Strangely, it tends to be the second class of animals (the Odd) that are more dangerous. The creature that kills the most people each year is the common Wombat. It is nearly as ridiculous as it’s name, and spends it’s life digging holes in the ground, in which it hides. During the night it comes out to eat worms and grubs. The wombat kills people in two ways: First, the animal is indestructible. Digging holes in the hard Australian clay builds muscles that outclass Olympic weightlifters. At night, they often wander the roads. Semi-trailers (Road Trains) have hit them at high speed, with all 9 wheels on one side, and this merely makes them very annoyed. They express this by snorting, glaring, and walking away. Alas, to smaller cars, the wombat becomes an asymmetrical high-speed launching pad, with results that can be imagined.

The second way the wombat kills people relates to it’s burrowing behavior. If a person happens to put their hand down a Wombat hole, the Wombat will feel the disturbance and think “Ho! My hole is collapsing!” at which it will brace its muscled legs and push up against the roof of it’s burrow, with incredible force, to prevent it’s collapse. Any unfortunate hand will be crushed, and attempts to withdraw will cause the Wombat to simply bear down harder. The unfortunate will then bleed to death through their crushed hand as the wombat prevents him from seeking assistance. This is considered the third most embarrassing known way to die, and Australians don’t talk about it much.

At this point, we would like to mention the Platypus, estranged relative of the mammal, which has a duck-bill, otter’s tail, webbed feet, lays eggs, detects it’s aquatic prey in the same way as the electric eel, and has venemous barbs attached to its hind legs, thus combining all ‘typical’ Australian attributes into a single improbable creature.

The last confusing thing about Australia is the inhabitants. First, a short history: Some time around 40,000 years ago, some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and lot of them died. The ones that survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man’s proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in, and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories.

Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged and stupid people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in Autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons when moving from the top half of the planet to the bottom) ate all their food, and a lot of them died. About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since.

It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter since they can lie, cheat, steal, and litigate (marks of a civilized culture, they say) whereas all the aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.

Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on Extended Holliday and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside your boots every morning for fatal surprises. They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.

There is also the matter of the beaches.

Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the entire world. Alhough anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock, and has venomous barbs sticking out of it’s back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk.

As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst, and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful, and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger unless they are an American. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick. Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrigated iron, string, and mud.

Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the ‘Grass is Greener on the other side of the fence’ syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land “Oz”, “Godzone” (a verbal contraction of “God’s own country”) and “Best bloody place on earth, bar none, strewth.” The irritating thing about this is they may be right.

There are some traps for the unsuspecting traveller, though. Do not under any circumstances suggest that the beer is imperfect, unless you are comparing it to another kind of Australian beer. Do not wear a Hawaiian shirt. Religion and Politics are safe topics of conversation (Australians don’t care too much about either) but Sport is a minefield. The only correct answer to “So, howdya’ like our country, eh?” is “Best {insert your own regional swear word here} country in the world!”.

It is very likely that, on arriving, some cheerful Australians will ‘adopt’ you, and on your first night, and take you to a pub where Australian Beer is served. Despite the obvious danger, do not refuse. It is a form of initiation rite. You will wake up late the next day with an astonishing hangover, a foul-taste in your mouth, and wearing strange clothes. (Your hosts will usually make sure you get home, and waive off any legal difficulties with “It’s his first time in Australia, so we took him to the pub.” to which the policeman will sagely nod and close his notebook.) Be sure to tell the story of these events to every other Australian you encounter, adding new embellishments at every stage, and noting how strong the beer was. Thus you will be accepted into this unique culture.

Most Australians are now urban dewllers, having discovered the primary use of electricity, which is airconditioning and refrigerators.

Typical Australian sayings

• “G’Day”
• “It’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick”
• “She’ll be right”
• “And down from Kosiosco, where the pine clad ridges raise their torn and rugged battlements on high, where the air is clear is crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze at midnight in the cold and frosty sky. And where, around the overflow, the reed beds sweep and sway to the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide. The Man from Snowy River is a household word today, and the stockmen tell the story of his ride.”

Tips to Surviving Australia

• Don’t ever put your hand down a hole for any reason whatsoever.
• The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
• Always carry a stick.
• Airconditioning.
• Do not attempt to use Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and good in a fistfight.
• Thick socks.
• Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.
• If you leave the urban areas, carry several lites of water with you at all times, or you will die.
• Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.

See Also: ”Deserts: How to die in them”, “The Stick: Second most useful thing ever” and “Poisonous and Venomous arachnids, insects, animals, trees, shrubs, fish and sheep of Australia, volumes 1-42”

Jeremy Lee, aka Orinoco

 

benbarnesworld:

This is probably gonna be a long post, but I NEED you to read it and spread the word. Everybody needs to know how low FanFusion plays and what they’re capable of when you refuse to give them what they want - and what belongs to you, simply because you bought it.

It all started on Dec 30th, 2011. My friend is the owner of 2 really popular websites, both hosted by FanFusion. I was a co-web in one fo them. On that day, we tried to log in in our WordPress dashboards, and we couldn’t. So they sent her an e-mail asking her to transfer her domains to them:

Unlocking the domains mean they would be able to keep the domains, and they would belong to FanFusion. Something WE paid for, would belong to them.

When she asked what they meant, that’s what she got in reply:

“Nothing has changed, it just means that the site would be hosted here forever.” FOREVER. That basically means that if we decide to close the website, we wouldn’t be able to. It would be open forever and would just be passed to someone else.

And we didn’t want it. They never said the websites hosted with them HAD to be transferred to them, and when we refused to give them the domains, both websites were simply DELETED. They didn’t give us a chance to change hosts or anything - remember we couldn’t log in to make a backup of our files. They deleted everything. Everything.

The funny thing is… There wasn’t a single line on the rules stating that tranferring the domain was mandatory - we have caps to prove it. They made it up and expect us to accept it. And when we didn’t, they deleted our sites.

But… alright. I mean, we were mad, but we got new hosts and we are working on the websites again. That would have been alright if it had stopped there.

But it didn’t.

About 5 days ago, FanFusion deleted my website, WITHOUT LETTING ME KNOW ANYTHING, and put up an OFFENSIVE website on my domain. It contained pictures of me, my friend and other people, as well as her address and phone number. I immediately deleted the DNS information, so it would be down.

They were also threatening me, saying that if I removed the DNS from the offensive site, other websites would be used. And so they used my literary blog, also hosted with them.

Again, I put it down, but obviously they wouldn’t stop.

So FanFusion started spamming us and our contact lists with new websites and offensive pictures:

Also, they made twitter accounts:

As you can see, that’s number 5. There were 4 before that one, and other 2 followed after.

We quickly reported all of them as spams, and the pages got suspended.

Then we got a new one and we were threatened again!

And they actually made an offensive Tumblr:

Now, let me show you how the e-mails looked like:

And so on…

As you can see, they used different e-mail accounts to send the spams, trying to hide their asses. Well, the thing is: in one of the e-mails, they forgot to change the sender address:

See? FanFusion.

Now, would you trust a host who commits the CRIME of defamation, just because you don’t wanna give them a domain you paid for?

After that, we decided to further investigate the e-mails, checking the original message, just to make sure we had more proofs. And guess what we got?

YES, you were right! Fanfusion again!

So, you see… the thing here isn’t about deleting a fansite anymore. It’s about violating the law that states defamation as a CRIME. They post offensive pictures, post her address, phone number, pics of her house… They actually SPEND THEIR TIME to hurt people. What kind of people are those?

Now, if you have a fansite hosted by FanFusion, I suggest you to move away as soon as possible.

It happened to us. It can happen to you too.