Photo by Lin Workman; Puppetry by Kevin L. Williams

In happier news, today is Yvonne Craig’s birthday.  The original Barbara Gordon is 75 years old.  Happy Birthday!

Yvonne Craig Batgirl Sketch by Lin Workman

In other happy news, the Reading With Pictures Kickstarter campaign has exceeded its goal of $65,000 to publish The Graphic Textbook.  Reading With Pictures, founded by our friend Josh Elder, is committed to getting comics into classrooms as educational tools.  It’s a fantastic organization, and it’s not too late to contribute.

We officially became Mr. and Mrs. Lin Workman on October 29.  While we had a traditional ceremony, we couldn’t resist throwing in geek touches, especially since we met thanks to a Star Wars message board and a bad Wampa joke.

Mr. & Mrs. Workman

Lin designed and sculpted our “wedding cake” topper.  We opted for cupcakes instead of the traditional wedding cake, but the cupcakes were arranged in tiers similar to a cake.  Our baker even provided us with a 6″ cake for the topper to rest on.  Early in the wedding planning, Lin joked that we should have Batman and Batgirl as our cake topper.  I don’t like the idea of Bruce and Barbara paired romantically, and as much as I love Barbara Gordon, my first and truest superhero love is Wonder Woman.  I told Lin that the topper had to be Wonder Woman carrying Batman over the threshold.  At first he thought I was joking, but he became really excited when he realized that I was serious.

Sculpted & Designed by Lin Workman; Photo by S Fogle Photography

The line art that Lin created for the cake topper was also used on our programs and our invitations.  Lin has posted a series of pictures showing how a few strands of wire became our cake topper on his website.

Our Wedding Cake Topper - Designed & sculpted by Lin Workman

Lin really wanted me to walk down the aisle to a harp version of the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back, but I thought that wouldn’t fit with the traditional ceremony (and I didn’t want to be murdered at the altar by my mother).  As a compromise, we played the Throne Room music from Star Wars immediately after we walked back down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Workman.

The grooms cake couldn’t have anything else but the Bat Symbol.

The Groom's Bat-Cake

Everything I’ve seen so far looks promising. Please don’t suck.

Love,
Me

Click here to take the survey.  This is your chance to tell DC Comics what you think.  It’s also a chance to show DC just how many female comics fans are reading their product.

Help get the word out.  The survey closes Friday, October 7.

(Via Bleeding Cool)

Brigid Alverson at Robot 6 wrote that Justice League #1 was available online illegally almost an hour before the print edition went on sale on the east coast.  However, you cannot purchase a digital copy of the same comic until 2pm EST today.

Imagine my surprise when I received the following email at 3:01 AM CST this morning from DC Comics:

A little Marketing 101, DC.  You do NOT send an email with a clear call to action such as “Buy Now” if your customers cannot buy it immediately!

The digital version of Justice League #1 should have been available at midnight.  If you wanted to give the midnight launch to the brick-and-mortar retailers, then I’m ok with that, but the digital copy should have been available this morning.  DC has spent considerable time and money to build awareness of the The New 52 outside the comics community.  They are squandering those efforts by delaying the digital release.  Is a non-comics person more likely to walk into a comic shop to pick up Justice League #1 or purchase it through their iPad this morning before they head to work?

As Brigid said so succintly,

 If you’re going to do digital, dammit, do it right.

Many in the industry are under the wrong impression that we want to “win the month” at all costs with sales of DC Comics – The New 52.  Sure, we’d love to get our books into more hands than ever before, profitably.  But it’s most important that any industry growth comes in an additive manner, so that all publishers may succeed.  To be clear – DC is not a market-share-chaser.  If we were, we would not be creating a quality lasting direction across a controlled number of titles.  We would instead be flooding the market with over 200 titles a month, changing your prices with abandon, killing off a character every quarter or so, and/or randomly announcing decimal-pointed event-ish thingies.  We haven’t.

Ouch.

Sue at DC Women Kicking Ass is once again encouraging female comics fans to participate in the festivities with Women Read Comics in Public. It’s a great way to show your love of the medium and to reinforce to publishers, creators and fans that female fans exist and support what they love!

I will be participating again this year. I hope you will as well. Maybe you will encourage a loved one or a complete stranger to give comics a try.

Me @ Read Comics in Public Day 2010

“Meh” was my initial reaction.  I’m not fond of these crazy textures they are using on the superheroes.

It could be worse.  At least it is not this:

Definites

Wonder Woman - I’m not convinced that Brian Azzarello is the right choice for Diana, but I’ll give anything a chance after JMS’ horrific run.  I wish DC would have given Phil Hester a shot at the book without being handcuffed by JMS’ story.

Batgirl – I’m still torn over seeing Babs as Batgirl again, but there’s no way I’m not buying this.

Batwoman – Slam-dunk no-brainer.

Probables

Nightwing - I’m really enjoying Gates of Gotham, which is co-written by new Nightwing scribe Kyle Higgins.

Batman - I really wish DC had left Scott Snyder on Detective Comics, which he is knocking out of the park.  My only hesitation on adding this to the “Definite” category is Greg Capullo’s art.

Birds of Prey – This is a book that should be a no-brainer for me, but I’m not sold on any book that calls itself Birds of Prey that doesn’t star Barbara Gordon.  I also don’t like the absence of Huntress and Lady Blackhawk.  I’ve never read anything by Duane Swierczynski, so I don’t have full confidence in the creative team. 

On a Short Leash

These titles have 1-2 issues to convince me.

Suicide Squad – This title would have been an automatic buy for me if it was being written by John Ostrander or Gail Simone, but I know nothing about the creative team.  In addition, I loathe the new costumes that they have thrust upon poor Harley and Deadshot.  I want to love this book, DC, but crap like this doesn’t help.

The Fury of Firestorm – I don’t give a squat about Firestorm, but I’ll give anything written by Gail Simone a chance.

Action Comics – I’m not a big Grant Morrison fan, but I did enjoy All-Star Superman.  That’s enough for me to give this a shot.

Catwoman – I don’t generally like Judd Winick as a writer, but I’m hoping for the best.

Justice League Dark – Giving this a try for Zatanna.

Justice League – I’m not a big Geoff Johns fan, but it has Wonder Woman.

I’m going from about 10 definite purchases a month to 3.  Not good, DC.