WOMEN IN COMIX!!!

It’s Thursday night and March break is almost over. At the end of every school break I end up really upset with myself for accomplishing not even half of my goals that I had written in my planner on the first day of break. On school breaks I spend all my time doing pointless internet research and eating sleeves of cookies (it’s not that different than when school is in session after all). Today my self-assigned internet research project was to learn about women who made/make comics. I decided to do this because I realized that most of the comic books I read are made by men (Daniel Clowes, Matthew Thurber, etc.) and although I don’t know many old comic book artists, the ones I do know are all male.

While researching (a nicer way of saying googling “women comics”) I found a lot of articles on various comic devoted websites about Wimmen’s Comix, an underground comic anthology that ran from 1972 to 1992. Wimmen’s Comix was created a few years after It Ain’t Me Babe, the first American comic produced entirely by women. I was browsing through the Wimmen’s Comix covers and this one is particularly amusing, “The 21st Century Woman.”

It Ain’t Me Babe was put together by Trina Robbins, and after a few clicks I ended up buying her book From Girls to Grrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens To Zines. I think I’m particularly interested in teen girls interactions with comics since being teenaged already makes you particularly self conscious of your interests, never mind if you are interested in comics which is currently a male dominated interest. In the preview for the book I read that back in the 1940s and ’50s comics were mostly for girls… I didn’t get to finish the whole chapter about this, though because the preview was only a few pages!

I also browsed around to look for some rad current day women comic book artists. I really like EA Bethea’s work, although I’ve never bought any of her comics yet but last time I ordered from Domino Books it came with a free newspaper and her work was featured in the newspaper. I think I’m going to order Bethea’s Illustrated soon because I really enjoyed what I saw in the paper. I also found Inés Estrada’s work via Domino Books and browsed around her website and her work seems very cool too. Becca Kacanda is another comic book artist that is really amazing artist- I love how surreal and bright her drawings are, and she has a mega cool Etsy shop, Ultra Terrestrial.

I HAVE TO RETURN TO THE DARK PIT THAT IS HIGH SCHOOL ON MONDAY, AT LEAST I WILL HAVE MY COMICS.

Teddy Bears

Hello!!!!!! It has been a while since I visited this section of the internet and I have yet to figure out whether I actually WANT to blog but I guess actions speak louder than words. This past weekend I went to America overnight to shop and eat and breathe. It turns out that thrifting south of the border is 10x better and I spent $50 at Salvation Army. I bought two pairs of high waisted jeans because I only have slacks or velvet leggings, as well as a teddy bear turtleneck, and an RCMP sweater. I’ve never encountered Royal Canadian Mounted Police merchandise until my first time thrifting in America but at least now I have something to wear on Canada Day. I also bought a coat that reminds me of Indiana Jones and it makes everything I do feel 10x more adventurous.

teddy bear turtleneck feat. Canadian flag

We also made a stop at Barnes and Noble and I FINALLY got I Think I Am In Friend Love With You by Yumi Sukugawa. The book is really amazing and I’ve reread it so many times already. I’ve never felt so touched by something related to Tumblr reblogs.

A few weeks ago I bought my first issue of Lone Wolf magazine. There are numerous collages in the issue and they are all really beautiful. I loved the “Badass Babes Through History” section featuring a female biker from the 1910’s, the founder of Girl Scouts, and a girl pirate. An added bonus is that this magazine is based in Canada!

 

ANYWAY, see y’all later!!! I have a big weekend ahead of me so I will probably be blogging about it sometime soon! I have two pieces up on Pop Culture Puke this week so ~stay tuned~.

-RACHEL

Oooooo

Hello!!!! This past Thursday I took a day off school to go to Toronto with my sister! While my sister was in class I went shopping. I went to the area that Ali showed me earlier this month, Kensington Market, and it was another successful trip! I bought a knit sweater, a cheerleader skirt, and patches for my backpack. I’ve had my backpack for over a year now so it has a little hole in it so I’ve been looking for patches for a while! My backpack is also just a plain orange canvas so it needs some enhancements. I ate lunch at a burrito restaurant, and then met up with Jessica again. We went to a vintage store where I bought Jessica a jacket for her birthday, and I bought myself a vintage Indy 500 sweater. The store didn’t have a cash register for some reason so the shopkeeper had to dig around in his pockets for change for a while which was odd.

indy 500 sweater!!!!!

We went to a store called Good Egg that has a lot of cook books and cool cooking supplies. I bought Jessica a cook book as another birthday gift and we bought cheesecloth so we can make almond milk. We also went to Black Market Vintage again and I bought a t shirt, and a coat!

Earlier this week I received my package from Domino Books and it was just as awesome as I’d hoped! I bought a few books and it came with a free newspaper of comics, and there was one by Elizabeth Bethea that was amazing. I’d never seen her work before but what I saw in the newspaper was awesome!

domino books package

HONOURABLE MENTION TO JANE MORGAN BECAUSE SHE SENT ME BLACK LIPSTICK AND HAIR PINS FOR CHRISTMAS AND THEY ARE SO IMPT<3<3<3

some faces I drew earlier this month

 

CHRISTMAS BREAK IS OVER

HELLO, WORLD!

I am here starting this blog for a number of reasons:

• I feel like there’s some things I would like to write about but can’t post on Pop Culture Puke because they don’t fit the theme (like personal pictures/stories)
• I had a really good day and I feel like sharing it with the ‘net
• I am avoiding homework (isn’t that why all blogs are created in the first place?)

Last night I slept over at my friend Ali’s house in Toronto. Ali and me have been ~real life~ friends since we met at the Rookie meetup party at Magic Pony in October. I am from a different part of Ontario so everytime we get to see each other it is super fun and we do cool stuff that I don’t get a chance to do in my hometown.

Last night was pretty uneventful, we took a lot of selfies and watched a few episodes of Portlandia, caught up with each other, and complained about our part time jobs and school. We also creeped a lot of people on Facebook, as to be expected at a sleepover.

ali doing the ezra drop in an alleyway (stay tuned for more info)

Today was  a very long, awesome, and tiring day. We woke up and ate waffles and watched Beyonce’s Drunk In Love video, I highly recommend starting your day with Beyonce. Ali was planning on donating clothes and she let me pick a few items (see upcoming pictures). We took the subway to a vintage store that Ali wanted to show me called Black Market Vintage. The store had tons of rad clothes and everything was only $10 so I was disappointed that I was low on $$$.

me and ali at black market vintage

Once we were done at Black Market Vintage we walked to the American Apparel warehouse and I bought my first pair of sweatpants as a teenager!!!! We had a long time left until I had to take the train back home so we walked to Kensington, a really cool area in Toronto that Ali has texted me about showing me for a while. We ate lunch at a really great burrito restaurant that was very quiet and I felt obnoxious for saying a word (but I got over it and ended up saying a lot of words). We then went in this really great cooking store that had beautiful cook books and some other cool ones like the Rookie yearbooks! We went to a few more great stores, but I didn’t end up buying anything else. We took pictures in an alley way but it was snowy so we put our bags in a little doorway/staircase of a comic store which resulted in an awkward encounter with some strangers who were trying to walk down the staircase.

me thinking about how cold it is in the wild

So that’s all for today, folks! Maybe I will end up blogging regularly or maybe this blog will begin and end with this post. WHO’S TO SAY. Anyway, thank you for reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS!!