VFcast! – Vestrymen from the Future!

Leland and I could spend infinity time making fun of strange conspiracy theories on the Interwebs! Seriously, guys, there is a whole group of people who are 100% convinced that we had a cultural exchange program with the aliens from a planet called Serpo. The whole damn brunt of this theory seems to go like this. “

Dude 1: “Hey Dude 2! I read a great book today. It scribed by da ACC, yo! What if Aliens visited us, man?”

Dude 2: “I am totally not about to fuck with you, Dude 1! That totally happened. Arthur Cdawg totes has an inside man in the gover’mint!”

Dude 1: *Mind Blown*

Dude 1: *Relaxes for a minute and then founds serpo.org*

Oh! If you are a Serpo believer, and you think the facts stand for themselves, email us, ask to join a podcast, or post a comment on the blog. Convince me, and I’ll convince Leland for you. It is well known that so goes Leland so goes the legitimacy of your conspiracy theory. [Your conspiracy theory is irrelevant. -L]

If you feel like we shorted you on Nick Spencer research listed to our last podcast. If you feel like we shorted you on Joe Eisma research, than you can suck it, you got great humor in its place!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Secret Boyfriend – “Jamaica Berlin” and Hunter Gatherer – “Junior Atlas”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Can anyone tell me anything about this TV show “Bedlam” that keeps gumming up my searches for Nick Spencer’s creepy comic book of the same name? The posters are so very, very generic that I can’t tell anything about the show. It looks a bit like a lawyer/police procedural show, but there is that one creepy dude in the mirror that suggests it might actually be a horror show. It wasn’t the subject of our podcast, and really didn’t touch on the thing we where supposed to be researching, so I did this rant instead. There are too many people in its posters for it to be a adaptation of Spencer’s work, I think.

Apropos of very little:

I hear you, Rainbow Dash. I feel that way every Friday night. I am awesome, but none of the fillies that hang out around my cloud want to talk to me, either. That might be because I call them “fillies.”

I am so very over the hard demographic delineation of certain things being “for” one group of people or another. Batman is not “for” little boys, nor is my little pony “not for” men 20-35. Good art is good art. Engaging writing can be targeted but people outside your target demographic are gonna love it. The loudest example of this, in geek culture of late, is the attack on “fake geek girls.”

The fact that Bronies are not accused of being “fake MLP fans,” illuminates the hypocrisy of geek culture’s entrenched misogyny. This (mostly) white, (definitionaly) male move into an assumedly female dominated fandom has elicited a few chuckles here and there, a little bit of gender baiting, but overwhelmingly Bronies have been welcomed with open arms by MLP’s established adult fan base. The Insecure Masculine assumes it is welcome anywhere its gaze decides to fall, but recoils in hate, fear, and loathing at the “invasion” of its “protected spaces” by outsiders (geek girls).

I’m not saying Bronies shouldn’t love what they love, or even that any individual Bronie is consciously pulling tools out of their napsack in order to feel more comfortable about their chosen passion. I would never tell someone that their love of a “kids” TV show for girls makes them less of a man. I would however ask male geekdom, particularly white male geekdom to offer the same welcoming hand to non-white, non-male fans of video games, superheroes, and miniatures, that their bronie brethren have received. Rage won’t make you happy, and exclusion won’t make your hobby or passion better. I’ll likely keep talking about this as long as there continues to be problems reported at cons, so if your a fan of our podcast be awesome rather than an asshole and we can talk about something else!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Plastic Flowers – “Fog Song” and Talk Less, Say More – “Black Eyes”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

This may be the season where the teaser image at the top of the podcast’s blog post is just something vaguely related to the material that I enjoy. Sometimes it will be a sweet picture of old Nick Fury chillin’. Sometimes it will be an even sweeter picture that makes me terrified that someday I might actually meat Jason Aaron and he will eat my liver. Perhaps it will be a picture of Venom Galactus, you never know what is coming in the future, boyz and gurlz[zz].

When I was a kid I used to think how sweet it would be if Superman and Spider-Man would just have more comics together. Well, really I was more of a Batman/Spidey guy, but it’s the same thing, you know? These days I imagine what it would be like if Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic made a comic book together. Alternatively, in my comic book fantasy world, David Aja could draw a story written by Matt Fraction.

...

What you say? All those things have happened? I really should spend more time wishing for world peace and less time wishing for strange comic book related things.

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Coconut Monkeyrocket – “Bloops, Bleeps, Bongos, Brass” and Still Pluto – “My Own God”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Even after after podcasting and more thought about Hack/Slash I’m just not sure that one can identify as a feminist and enjoy this book as much as I do. Its just ... exploitative. Perhaps it is problematic for models of female sexual awakening to be written and imagined by male authors, but I really don’t think that male authors have to constrain themselves to male protagonists. but something about the sexy, sexy, girl in danger upsets me, in a sexy and dangerous way. Then again, perhaps that is just the rectification of the chattel norm as perpetuated by the heteronormative power structure I am so subconsciously comfortable with. Perhaps Seeley’s examination of violence, de-sexualized, for the most part, stands as a criticism of the “violence against is always rape” script of mainstream superhero comics. Perhaps it is just fun to watch pretty girls hit monsters with bats!

Being a feminist comic book fan is hard, ya all! If you care about feminism and comics, read this one and tell me what you think?

[For those of you who noticed that this podcast posted late, you can blame Alan Kunts, our errant Vestrymen blonde correspondent. Homey got married last weekend, I was in the wedding, whole think sort of murdered my productivity.-lwebb]

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Jack Ruby – “ Hit and Run”, The Humberts – “Charlene”, and Whore Paint – “This Body”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.