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Spidey: Too Racy for the Library?

Colleen Kane — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:51:00 GMT

When a 6-year-old boy brought home a Spider-Man graphic novel from his school library in Millard, Nebraska, his mother found it to be age-inappropriate and requested that it be removed from the library.

The offending comic is from 2002 and was rated PG, Ages 12+, and features Mary Jane (above) in a bikini and short skirt. Woah now! It's not like you can see that anywhere you turn like on TV, the Internet, movies, or real life.

The school district's head librarian is forming a committee to determine what course of action to take. And this will take how many resources...?

While we agree that a 6-year-old could be making more educational choices at a school library, we hate when parents try to get books of any kind banned, especially when the main offense is showing a little leg.

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Spider-Man Wants To Get Into Your Pants

This Week In Gayness: Two Major Male Movie Stars Make Out

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:01:00 GMT

As we've already mentioned, Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in prison for having sex with a male escort.

Strangest headline of the week: 'No son, your school can't have that new computer because gay people eat soup'

Stan Lee supports the gays... once more.

Speaking of comic books, was Tintin gay?

The above photo is of Ewan McGregor and Jim Carrey about to kiss in-- believe it or not-- the true story of two men who fall in love in prison.

"I Love You, Phillip Morris" is not the only gay-themed movie sweeping Sundance. Next up is "Humpday," a movie about a "bromance" that turns into gay porn, and which has already been sold.

The Reverend Al Sharpton lambasted the Mormon church for supporting California's Proposition 8.

And Dan Savage is going after Rick Warren in the same manner he did with Rick Santorum. Anyone up for some saddleback tonight?

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Accused Murderer Is Italy's Woman of the Year

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:12:00 GMT

You thought Natural Born Killers was a sick Tarantino-Oliver Stone fantasy that could never come true? The story of Amanda Knox, named Italy's "Woman of the Year" for 2008 proves it could, and sooner than you think...

Knox, a 21-year-old from Seattle (her current address is in an Italian prison), was living with fellow student Meredith Kircher at the time of Kircher's horrendous murder, which involve a slit throat and, according to the prosecution, an agonizingly slow demise. Knox claims that smoking a bit of hash that evening has made the events somehow confusing, although she claims to remember hearing Kircher's screams, during which a "scared" Knox covered her ears.

Actually, claim the authorities, Knox was the one causing the screaming, while her boyfriend and another friend cut the innocent girl's throat, as part of some sick manga-inspired experiment. Helping the state's case are the books found on the suspects, the contents of which include a passage about killing vampires. (Kircher had dressed as a vampire for Halloween 2007, which had taken place the night before.)

So, apparently, Italy has no famous women of its own (what happened to the hot model auctioning off her own virginity?) and must select visiting psychopaths. And really, is she so hot they couldn't have gone with the obvious #2, Sarah Palin, instead?

Italians Find Your G-Spot, Promptly Lose It Again

Madonna Has Sex With Herself To Benefit Louis Vuitton

Italian Model's Virginity For Sale (And For Only $1.5 Million!)

Nueve Inch Nails: Trent Reznor is Politically Incorrecto

The Top 10 Yahoo Searches of 2008

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:28:00 GMT

We never understand why year-end best of polls come out before the year is over (meaning: we understood that the media tries to capitalize on the year before everyone stops carrying, but not why anyone accepts them as fact.) Top 10 movies, as polled by the critics who have seen all the year's releases already, but what if there's a major prostitution scandal and everyone starts looking up someone named Joanna Esmerelda Dupois in absurd numbers?

Yahoo isn't worried about our pesky little inquiries. It has already released their top 10 list for 2008 and although we've already revealed their #1 choice, once we caught wind of the runner-ups, we felt an overwhelming urge to burden you with this information...

10. American Idol. You mean, people don't get enough of this shit in its four hours per week?

9. Angelina Jolie. Must've been those $14 million baby pictures everyone was trying to catch a glimpse of without having to buy a tabloid magazine. Say hello to the free world wide web, People.

8. Lindsay Lohan. She would've been our guess for the #1 slot, which shows you how much we know about what men find most attractive.

7. Naruto. Apparently, some sort of cartoon character. See #8.

6. Jessica Alba. Yes, she has her assets, but none of them include talent, interesting personality, or newsmaking lifestyle. Why, why, why?

5. RuneScape. We're starting to feel a little bit left out of the loop here...

4. Miley Cyrus. We're almost relieved to see Hannah, scion of the Montana's, on this rundown, for reasons of familiarity only.

3. Barack Obama. Here's hoping the most popular related searches do not include the phrases "is a Muslim" or "and mom's nude photos."

2. WWE. Scary... although we figured eight-year-old boys are computer-trained these days...

1. Britney Spears. What hasn't been said already about a woman who was a has-been at age 7 and hasn't done a damn thing worth paying attention to since? Let's make this her last appearance on this or any list, please...

Via Yahoo.

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It's About Damn Time The World Had a Black Wonder Woman

Emily Farris — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:41:00 GMT

There's talk of a new Wonder Woman movie. And when it happens, we think there's at least one Black actress who'd be perfect for it. She agrees. In fact, she's already met with DC Comics and Warner Bros to discuss the role.

Beyonce!

Are you ready for this jelly?

[Faded Youth: BEYONCE AS WONDER WOMAN?!?]

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Get Your Muslim On

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:13:00 GMT

The new animated version of David Rees' genius cartoon Get Your War On has had us cracking up since its premiere in late July.

Now comes its finest moment so far: Accounts Payable's reaction to the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States...

That's some good shit, right there. Although we've loaded our .22, just to be on the safe side.

Seriously, there are crazy racist fools out there that really believe this stuff. Strangely enough, they are all apparently hiding out in Austria:

Veteran Austrian television personality Klaus Emmerich has triggered a storm of criticism for his racist comments about Barack Obama, the US president-elect. [...]

...the respected US expert has stained his own report card with a string of blatantly racist remarks regarding the election of Barack Obama in the US. Speaking on a talk show on the Austrian public channel ORF on Wednesday, he said: "I wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man. When you say that is a racist remark: right, without a doubt."

Americans are "racists, now as before, and it must be going very badly for them that they so convincingly ... send a black man, and a black, very good-looking woman, into the White House," he said. [Queer Conservative]

Via 23/6.

Scanner Survey: Did You Have Election Night Sex?

The Election Is Over... And Now The Truth Comes Out

Last Night In Glorious Photos

This Week In Gayness: We Say No To That Yes On Prop 8

The Election Ain't Over Yet...

Video of the Day: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Comic-Con

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:20:00 GMT

Comic Con has fallen into exactly the same trap as Sundance: a festival that was formerly to celebrate one, somewhat holy, cultish thing. At Sundance, it was the independent film roster, shown by their makers and a skeleton crew from the cast and production. At Comic Con, it used to be the fans meeting their heroes and that was that.

Now, they've both turned into little more than corporate mega-productions, advertising the next year's slate of garbage.

Thankfully, we have Triump the Insult Comic Dog to save us. Although he can often be a mean little bastard (or, shall we say, Robert Smigel can be a mean little bastard), Triumph is always worth checking out. Apparently, NBC.com has the full video of the speech seen towards the end of this clip. Let us know if you think it's worth watching-- we're too lazy to get around to it right now...

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Bonkers Japanese Teen Sex Meta-Comic Will Haunt Our Holiday Weekend

Bryan Christian — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:51:00 GMT

... and now it will haunt yours, too! See ya next week!

It's a huge pic, so give it a sec to load -- but you can click here if it hangs.

Yet Another Comic Book About Multiracial HIV+ Superheroes!

Katie Halper — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:30:00 GMT

This is what an HIV positive Superhero looks like. (But, duh, you already knew that.)

Artist Robert Walker "wanted to show people that you could still be powerful with HIV" and "educate young people about the virus and how to avoid it, without being preachy." So he left his job at Marvel and created his own comic book O+Men, whose superheroes-- of all races, ethnicities, sexuality and gender-- are HIV+. O+Men: Negative came out last year, and O+ Men: Positive comes out later this month. Here's the full story

Independent comic book writer and artist Robert Walker has turned to comics as his medium to combat the physical and social epidemics that plague the globe, namely HIV/AIDS. Walker, who founded the comic studio DIGITAL NOIXE, is the creator of Delete, a super-hero epic that highlights racial issues and the dangers of technology. Delete led to the upcoming spinoff series The O+Men, about a team of superheroes afflicted with HIV/AIDS. The O+Men debuted in May 2007 with the first of two prologue issues entitled The O+Men: Negative. The second prologue issue, The O+Men: Positive, will be released in late May 2008.

Walker's interest in comic books with a social purpose first arose during a trip to a local comic book store.

"I saw a group of kids, all different cultures, and they were saying, 'I could be Batman, I could be Superman, I could be Wonder Woman.' And there was a little African American girl saying, 'I wish I was white, cause there are no heroes like me,'" Walker said. "It kind of blew my mind, because I hadn't really noticed--even though I am African American--that there weren't many profound African American women in the forefront of comics."

The eye-opening experience led Walker to the creation of Delete, which features an African American woman named Cynthia Hopps who begins to exhibit mysterious superpowers linked to technology. The series features characters representing a wide range of cultures including homosexual men and women, Latino artists and Hasidic Jews.

"I had to do it because I wanted it to be a comic book with purpose, some social meaning," Walker said regarding the inclusion of so many races and cultures in the pages of Delete.

The writer/artist's comic books would soon tackle an even more controversial topic: the widespread disease of HIV/AIDS.

"I'd always had issues with AIDS and HIV because I'd had family members and friends die of it," Walker said. "When I was doing the second issue [of Delete], a friend of mine told me he had contracted HIV. I felt I really needed to do something that talks about the issues—to make a statement to educate people about HIV/AIDS. I wanted to do a super-team because I wanted to show different people being affect by HIV/AIDS."

And thus The O+Men were born.

The book focuses on eight men and women that each contract the disease in different ways—through unsafe sex, rape, drug use, and even birth—and become volunteers for an alleged experiment that researches an HIV/AIDS antidote. Rather than alleviating their symptoms, the volunteers experience an accelerated form of the virus that threatens to end their lives even more rapidly. However, in addition to the deadly pace of the disease, some of the volunteers become endowed with new and unusual superpowers. These survivors of the project join together and form The O+Men in order to exact vengeance upon the nefarious researchers and to help others across the globe who suffer from HIV/AIDS.

"I'm putting [the series] together to show that you can still be powerful even with HIV," Walker said. "You can be a powerful being and do amazing things. I'm trying to cater both to people who don't have the virus and to educate them, and to people who do have the virus to uplift them while reading the book."
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When asked why he chose the medium of comic books to address issues of HIV/AIDS, Walker said that it was in order to appeal to the group at the greatest risk: youth.

"It's an epidemic that is spreading among our young people at an accelerating rate. A lot of people running around don't know that they're HIV positive until it's too late," Walker said. "I don't think the younger generation really understands the [severity] of it."

Walker has included a plethora of HIV/AIDS related information in the back of each issue of The O+Men. The articles—which include myths and facts about the disease, a listing of Web sites with detailed information and hotlines that readers can call—are included in the book to assist young readers who may suffer from HIV/AIDS or simply wish to understand it better.

"Some people hear about AIDS and are afraid to get tested," Walker explained. "They don't know where to go if they found that they are infected. That listing is in the book so people can be aware of where they can get tested and can get help and support about the virus."

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In spite of its important social message, The O+Men also promises to have all of the elements that draw so many readers to comic books in the first place.

"There's action, power, the excitement of any other comic book that's out there," Walker said. "The characters are gonna fight like any character from Marvel or DC, there will be villains—it just has a different story [than some might be used to].

"I'm going to hit a lot about sexuality, different cultures, global issues," Walker continued. "How other countries deal with the virus and how it differs here in America. Why the epidemic is bigger in some places and not in certain areas. It's going to be an exciting ride for everybody, including myself."

Ultimately, however, Walker is hoping to create a book that will educate and inspire people, and even himself. The writer said that he is always learning more about the virus as well.
"When I got tested myself, I found out how young these kids are," the scribe confessed. "I saw this little girl crying. She was maybe twelve or thirteen and she found out she was positive. It's really educated me about what's really happening...what's not being discussed about the virus.

"I want people to be inspired by The O+Men," Walker continued. "We go through our daily lives—we gotta go to work, got to do this—but when all is said and done, we all have to help each other to better the world. That's what I'm thinking. In my opinion, we are all here to help each other, no matter what background. We can help make the world a better place if we try. If we help each other, the world could be better. That's what I want people to get from my book."

The O+Men: Positive hits shelves in late May.

CONFIRMED: No Nerds in the Vogue Fact Checking Department

Bryan Christian — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:12:00 GMT

Or did some cutrate, non-DC-Comics Aquaman really make an appearance in Marvel's obscure and shortlived continuation of the Disney film The Little Mermaid? <extremesarcasm>'Cause we kind of doubt it.</extremesarcasm>

Daring Do ("Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" at the Costume Institute / Metropolitan Museum of Art) [style.com/Vogue]

Comic Book Buffy Gives Body, if Not Heart, to Fellow Slayer. LADY Slayer.

Bryan Christian — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Even though college didn't exactly work out for former cheerleader Buffy Summers, she's still finding time to experiment with same-sex hookups. That is, when she's not slaying vampires and doing all other sorts of mystical whatnot in the comic book continuation of her eponymous TV show.

“It puts the reader in this ‘Oh my God’ moment,” [creator Joss] Whedon said during a telephone interview. “And it puts Buffy in an ‘Oh my God, what did I just do?’ moment.”

But before fans start blogging frantically, they should know that Mr. Whedon is clear where this is headed. “We’re not going to make her gay, nor are we going to take the next 50 issues explaining that she’s not. She’s young and experimenting, and did I mention open-minded?”

Bravo, Mr. Whedon: yet again, you've managed to tread the line between appealing to the pubescent urges of your fans and being totally progressive. You may, in fact, be our hero. (Assuming you don't kill off Buffy's new f-buddy in, like, the next panel.)