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I am not a comic book girl. I've read Alison Bechdel, and maybe one issue of Tank Girl, but that's about the long and short of my comic book experience.

However, I love Buffy. For an eighth season of Buffy, reading a comic is the least I can do. That being said, please take the following review as the opinion of someone who knows quite a lot about Buffy, but almost nothing about comics. For a great feminist blog dealing with comics more competently, check out Girls read comics (and they're pissed).

The Buffy Season 8 comics, now sixteen issues in, are a "canonical" (meaning the story line, as well as the actual writing of some of the issues, comes from Joss Whedon) continuation of the television series. Buffy is no longer a lone slayer, but the commander of an international slayer army, with the help of Willow and Xander. Given that comics aren't budget or time constrained the way television is, the technology (and magic) used in the comic is much more intense than what was reasonable to do on the show, and the action takes place in lots of exotic locales (including the Scottish castle home base of the new and improved Scoobies). The characters, however, remain consistent with those viewers of the show came to love, and the dialogue, particularly in the issues written by Joss, is very familiar. These are definitely the same characters, with both the strengths and flaws they had on television.

But, of course, they are drawn, and they are drawn like comic book characters.

Posted by Grace in Books and Graphic Novels
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I am reading a lot of the academic literature about Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and, to a lesser degree, Angel) and have come across something that might be of particular interest to Heroine Content readers. Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan is a gender analysis of Buffy written by British American Studies scholar Lorna Jowett. As the word "primer" in the title indicates, the book is written for an audience that does not necessarily have a background in academic gender studies, and is very accessible. It does, however, offer some fairly advanced analysis of gender roles in Buffy, and is particularly strong, I think, in its discussion of masculinity and men.

Ultimately, Jowett does not categorize Buffy as a transgressive show when it comes to gender roles of the characters, but does identify it as a program wherein traditional gender roles are called into question--sort of "pre-transgressive." Though I don't agree with every detail of Jowett's analysis, I think this conclusion is more-or-less correct. Even if you completely disagree, though, there are likely to be elements of Jowett's argument that appeal to you, or at least get you thinking (there certainly were for me), so if you're a Buffyophile who is interested in the ways in which the show plays with gender, it is definitely worth picking up. Jowett is also fairly cognizant of the race and class issues the show has (its white middle-class norm), which strengthens the book considerably.

Posted by Grace in Books and Graphic Novels
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The Action Heroine's Handbook, by Jennifer Worick and Joe Borgenicht, is supposed to be funny. It's not meant to be taken too seriously. And maybe I just didn't have the right sense of humor when reading it.

But maybe it's a trite piece of sexist crap. That's another possibility.

Posted by Grace in Books and Graphic Novels
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