mblankier

The act of non-writing

noreply@blogger.com (Margot) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:58:00 +0000

I don't exactly believe in writer's block, James Frey says that if you approach writing like a job, you'll never get writer's block; after all, no one's ever heard of banker's block or lawyer's block. And I really don't think this is quite "writer's block" that I'm experiencing. Writer's apathy?

The upside to being unemployed is FREE TIME, why do I waste it watching America's Next Top Model marathons

I don't know. I can't exactly put my finger on it, it's just that my enthusiasm for the stories and characters I'm working on is at 0. The dial needs to be at 11

keep swimmin'

noreply@blogger.com (Margot) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:49:00 +0000

started work on a novel yesterday and for the first time, i felt the desire to continue working, even after a good night's sleep. this is terrific news and very promising. although it may have to be placed right back on the back burner while i revise another screenplay project that's a bit more time-sensitive.

don't you hate it when you have an awesome idea and hollywood beats you to it? and one will always be the winner. case in point: capote versus infamous. finding nemo versus a shark's tale.

Does whatever an iron can

noreply@blogger.com (Margot) — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:49:00 +0000

Yesterday was my birthday, so I went with a bunch of friends to see Iron Man. Up until now, I sort of hated this character, especially after Civil War... um, I think I seriously need to re-evaluate my feelings on Iron Man now. IT WAS SICK.

But, seriously, just look at this list of upcoming movies from Marvel... groce.

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy

noreply@blogger.com (Margot) — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:41:00 +0000

Thanks to the Costume Institute's new exhibition on superhero costumes and their relationships to avant-garde fashion, now everyone loves comic books, even the fashion elite. You can pick up this month's Vogue (with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover) or Nylon (with Blake Lively or Leighton Meester) for superheroine costume fashion spreads. I guess it's true what they say: the hipsters seize on something that is ordinarily perceived as unfashionable, then the fashion world follows suit, then everyone else. This time, it's comic books, and it feels a bit weird (especially in Vogue, where Aquaman is referred to as a Marvel hero rather than DC... ew, I can't believe I just said that).

I've made no secret in the past that I absolutely love superhero costumes. To me, they are one of the most appealing facets of the superhero identity and I think it's really great that they have been seized upon in such a mainstream way, thanks to the Met. It's very inspiring. But it falls apart a little bit in the execution. I picked up the exhibit's companion book, Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, which is worth perusing, but not necessarily worth actually plunking down fifty bucks for... depending, of course, on how much you care about fashion. I care a lot, so it was worth it for me. But in the context of examining the influence of superhero costumes on fashion (which is, after all, the exhibit's purpose), it falls short in some places.

Philippe de Montebello, the director of the Met, quotes Andrew Bolton (fyi, the Costume Institute's curator) in his foreword: "Fashion shares with the superhero an inherent metaphorical malleability that fuels its fascination with the idea and ideal of the superhero." Ignoring for the moment the fact that, um, that sentence doesn't really make complete sense, it's an intriguing statement. So much of what an individual hero stands for is represented in his or her costume. The outside must match the inside in definition, only exaggerated to the most flamboyant degree... sort of like the world of high fashion, which reinterprets cultural issues in visual, and ostentatious, ways. The preface says, "[Superheroes's] apparent triviality is the very thing that gives them the ability to address serious issues of merit and worth under the guise of entertainment." Yes, just like fashion. It's really a very provocative and interesting parallel; I like it. So I suppose the intention of the exhibit is really more to look at parallels like this, rather than examine the influence of superhero costumes on fashion more directly, which is ultimately a little disappointing. Therefore the most successful chapter of the book is "The Graphic Body," which looks at Superman and Spider-man; here, the influence is plain. With the Superman iconography, however, I feel that most of the designers were less influenced by Superman himself, more by the innate "American-ness" that Superman has come to represent (the exception being Moschino, complete with glasses-wearing hot nerd puling back his three-piece to reveal his costume undernearth). But "The Patriotic Body" falls short where the previous chapter succeeded. Yes, Captain America wears the American flag as his costume, but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with Bernard Wilhelm's 2006 designs; they're simply co-opting the same highly suggestive iconography, and this doesn't make them related or even evocative of one another. Again, in "The Virile Body," the bodies of the Hulk and the Thing are not related to the football-evocative fashion just because they're both hyper-masculine. The relationship just isn't there. A cultural coefficient does not mean that X and Y become comparable. The football uniform-inspired fashions are not a critique of anything having to do with comics; they're critical of football culture.

With that having been said, I sort of love the chapters "The Paradoxical Body" and "The Mutant Body." The essay paired with "Paradoxical" is all about Catwoman, and is a scathing, though ultimately indecisive, critique of the misogyny that is inherent in so many superheroine costumes. And Catwoman's influence on the fashion that follows is unmistakable; even if none of the designers were directly influenced by Catwoman's costume or the fetishism of superheroine costumes (as I imagine Gianni Verscae and Jean Paul Gaultier were not), the relationship is both clear and genuine. The same applies to "Mutant." The same inspiration for the X-Men, the concept of a missing link or the next stage of evolution, plays into the fashion featured in the chapter, and even more interesting, any of these bizarrely-clad characters would fit right into an X-Men comic.

I'm excited to see what the exhibition will contain, whether it will be more selective than the book has been on what particular outfits will be features. Whatever the case may be, all the essays, costumes, and clothing in the book are really fantastic and really inspiring. But if you don't want to shell out for the book and you can't get to NYC for the exhibition, check out Style.com's slideshow feature.

New blog, sorta

noreply@blogger.com (Margot) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:14:00 +0000

oooooomg. This layout took me forever to tweak, but it's done, and now the new and improved blog is up. Many more tweaks to come. Also, those links up thar don't work just yet. They will soon. In the coming days, I'll work on importing some old entries from Wordpress. WOO! Go meh!

New York Comic Con

noreply@blogger.com (Margot) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:58:00 +0000

I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Con, promoting Danger Signs, handing out postcards, and just generally roaming around the enormous nerdery-filled room. Cons are not really my thing generally, but Friday and Saturday were a lot of fun! It was nice to find some of my old Marvel folk and reconnect and see what people are up to these days.

Sunday was a little more nerve-wracking. The flush of excitement was over and at this point, I was just sort of overwhelmed, really. But I'm OVER IT, hah. Partly because of a whole host of amazing new books I picked up, including Ian Edington and D'Israeli's incredible Scarlet Traces. I love a lot of the stuff that Dark Horse is doing these days, or really, has been doing all along... but why's it all hardcover, damn it

I met some new people too, which was great. Shout out to Friends of Lulu's Valerie D'Orazio, who's probably the nicest person working in comics. And now I'm working on a couple of new projects, which I probably can talk about, but won't, because I believe in jinxes.