Designated Sidekick

Missing Attachment

A quick round up of things comic book and internet based 

• Comic Gays
  • Links regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender topics in comic books, science fiction and fantasy.  It’s early days, but well worth getting on the RSS feeds now, and helping bring the content to them, and really open up another channel of discussion.
• Project Rooftop
  • Edited by Dean Trippe and Chris Arrant Project Rooftop is “cartoonists and illustrators bring their costume design skills to task in tribute to the superheroes and villains we’ve grown up with. This site is intended to promote excellence in costume design as well as foster continued interest for these amazing characters.”  They’re also hosting the costume contest for Fights, Flights and Tights 2
• Comic Book Logos and the Longevity of the Robin Logo
  • Todd Klein endorsing the Robin logo as a sign of good logo with great longevity.  I have to admit, one of the reasons I adore the Robin franchise is the logo.  Todd has also done a great analysis of the Batman logos (which, ironically, is easier to access via the kottke.org post than directly off Todd’s site.
• Stashmycomics.com
  • From their site description “If you have a comic book collection, or are just starting one, then you are in the right place. We provide a free comic book database to help you keep track of your entire comic book collection”. I need to find time to track down my comics then input and…oh man.
• Eyemelt
  • Digital comics vendor. The site is a little clumsy (okay, very clumsy) but, I’ve just bought four comics for $2.76 and had them delivered to my inbox.  I like this approach as a platform for making legitimate and legal electronic comics a viable commercial approach.
• Designated Sidekick Twitter
  • Yes, I am really am that annoying and that much of a geek.  Everytime I post on DS, it updates the Twitter, and when I do twitter, it eventually collates that into a post.  Later, I’ll be using the DS twitter as a links round up device. Right now? I just like being a geek.

Now, a follow up announcement…

Survey Reminder

 Still collecting data, and now requiring an assist from the audience.
I have around 150 responses. If you’ve taken the survey, and wouldn’t mind passing the word around to comic book readers you know, or putting out the word to get more people into the survey, please feel free to link them

http://tinyurl.com/3yp8af
[Open in new window]

or

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=UYrW8zlKYbNQVAIKT8MWw_3d_3d

I’m going to close the survey off at the end of the month and run the analysis.  Suffice to say, right now, Edna was wrong. It’s all about the capes

And to close out

I’ve read a couple of posts about the prospect of “What if Tim “Robin III/RobinV” was bisexual?” I think it’d be great if it was part of the DCU, and done even moderately well.  As someone who grew up reading the Robin series, and really identifying with Tim Drake, and being a massive Tim fanboy, I’d be thrilled to pieces to see him written as a genuinely bisexual character.  He has always had an interest, with varying levels of confusion, with the female characters in his life - Stephanie Brown, Darla Aquista and  Cassie Sandsmark.  At the same time, he’s had some fantastic close (and awkward) relationships with the men in his life - Bart Allen and Connor Kent.

If Tim was to be written as a young man who genuinely felt equal attraction to men and women would be an amazing step forward for comics, not just for a positive portrayal of bisexuality (which is damn hard to find usually), but as a fairly natural flow from what’s been hinted at for a while now.

As for me as the Robin fanboy? (My car is named after Tim’s car. I have a RobinIII heroclix on the dashboard)  I’m a confidently heterosexual male, I’d  be damn happy to see a male character written as comfortable with their sexuality, sexual orientation, and love interest(s).  Be comfortable with who you are, accepting who you are, and being accepted by your peers and friends for who you are is something that the DCU could explore - let’s face it, that’s a universe where death is temporary, people fly, are demons, and are aliens with no nudity taboos - and that’s just the Teen Titans cast.  Being accepted as bisexual in a society which accepts aliens, demons, undead/recently dead and the rest of the metahumanity would be a natural event.  Plus, Tim’s already got a track record of asking out cute guys he’s just met recently for a date (and giving them his number)

Tell me now, how much more sense does that make if Tim’s not just interested in saving a depressed guy from a ledge, but on making a connection with a cute boy he met on patrol?