Recommended daily reading – 13 September

Links & lists are amongst the lowest forms of blogging, but pointing to items of interest from sites I read on a regular basis is one of the reasons I decided to re-enter the blogosphere. So …

From today’s feeds:

A Torontoist interview with Guy Maddin about his installation, Hauntings I & II, at the Toronto International Film Festival’s new Lightbox Theater. The interview includes an embedded YouTube version of Maddin’s prior TIFF-commissioned work, the brilliant “The Heart of the World“. It also makes me want to go back to the festival. Anne-Marie and I attended in 2007, and one of the films we got to see was My Winnipeg with live narration from the filmmaker.

At Comic Book Resource‘s She Has No Head, Kelly Thompson conducts a wide-ranging conversation with DC Women Kicking Ass focused mostly on women, comics, and DC. I found the interview via Thompson’s blog. Here’s a key passage about comics, gender, and marketing:

DCWKA: Exactly!  Basically an investment in marketing, awareness outside the direct market would bring them new readers to already existing books. It kills me. I mean, Batgirl is just a huge opportunity. Batwoman huge, HUGE.  Go where the women are. Don’t expect them to find you. My god the Batwoman story is awesome. Why aren’t they having it reviewed in books/ magazines/publications women read?  And modify the pitch – Batwoman is a woman driven to serve after having to leave the army. She’s a detective, a vigilante. She has a great dad. The fact she’s a bat?  Tangent point.  Batgirl – college student by day, crime fighter by night.

I look at similar issues regarding marketing and women readers in one of my August “Worlds in Panels” at PopMatters. However, my focus is on this year’s “Women of Marvel” event rather than DC.

And, finally, a beautiful watercolor from Dylan Meconis at her Family Man site.