Bunkyface

I need more Black Widow in my life.

The Avengers was such a good movie. D: D: D: <3 <3 <3

//CUE INTENSE LADYCRUSH THAT WON’T QUIT EVER//

mingdoyle:

The Hero Initiative does good work, so join their ranks by helping the creators who’ve given us some of our most beloved characters!

benito-cereno:

calamityjon:

The Avengers opens in theaters in the US on May 4th, and it’s going to do blockbuster business. The individual films featuring these characters have already  grossed more than $2.2 billion dollars - that’s greater than the Gross National Product of almost half the countries on Earth - and it’s not unlikely that The Avengers will earn a hundred million dollars on its opening day alone.

This represents a pretty big payday to a lot of people - the actors, obviously, will take home pretty big paychecks. The director and the writers are well-compensated, and certainly the executives who greenlighted this project get to sit back and rake in large bonuses and healthy salaries.

Well, you know where this is going; shamefully, the people who aren’t making a big profit from these movies are the people (and the families of the people) who did the essential work of creating them in the first place. It’s not just Jack Kirby, either, or (Black Widow and Hawkeye co-creator) Don Heck, but also Steve Engelhart, Peter David, Herb Trimpe, Jim Steranko, Roy Thomas and dozens more - the artists and writers who refined and defined the characters appearing in this movie, who fleshed out the original creations and molded them into the figures we cheer for when we see them on the screen.

Some very sensible people are calling for a boycott of this film on those grounds, but I think it’s fairly obvious that a boycott of idealistic comic fans isn’t going to accomplish much - it’s not only comic book fans who’ll be dropping a collective billion dollars over the next eight weeks to see this movie, it’s going to be a lot of movie-goers who haven’t read a comic since they were kids, much less know anything of the controversy.

Plus, of course, you - the collective “you”, representing comic book fans all over the world - want to see this movie. And you’re going to, most likely, right? Even though you know of the morally shady practices of Marvel towards its creators, they’ve got you hooked. Don’t be ashamed, they’ve had you hooked for years. It’s what they do.

So how about this: You’re probably going to go see The Avengers and, judging by the early reviews, you’ll probably enjoy it. How about - as a thank you to the creators who brought you these characters in the first place, who gave you something to enjoy so much - you match your ticket price as a donation to The Hero Initiative? 

THI is a charity which provides essential financial assistance to comic book professionals who have fallen on hard times; for decades, the comic industry provided no financial safety net to its employees, most of whom it regarded only as freelancers and journeymen, meaning they were offered no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no retirement plans - none of the financial support most of us enjoy from our jobs and careers. A small donation will help this agency provide a valuable safety net in times of need to these beloved entertainers.

I don’t plan on seeing The Avengers, but I’ve donated $15 - the price of a 3-D ticket - to Hero. If every concerned comic fan - every superhero aficionado who learned to live by the lessons of altruism and sacrifice taught by these comics - donated the price of their ticket, well, it may not hit a billion dollars but it’ll bring in a lot of money for a good and relevant cause.

One last note: Remember what Spider-Man always says? “With great power comes great responsibility”. The lesson in that is that everyone has great power. Spider-Man’s great power is being able to lift a bus. Your great power is the ability to help good causes do good work for good reasons - so why not go be a superhero instead of just watching them on the screen…

(PS: “Liking” this post is nice, thank you, but reblogging/retweeting it helps get the message out and would be even more appreciated)

Fully endorsed.

Last night was super fun!

Good nights for laughter and comedy!

’ u ’ So, it was easier this time. I still shook like a seizing squirrel for like 4 hours though!

Hooray!

Hopefully I have a pretty decent set next week too. T u T”’ Maybe I will panic about that for the whole week until I do it again.

I’m an idiot!

I attempted stand-up comedy!

…Despite my crippling social anxiety!

It literally prevents me from doing so many cool things because if I feel like I made even a little bit of a butt of myself, I DON’T GET TO SLEEP AT NIGHT!

I’M SCARED OF EVERYTHING!

ESPECIALLY BEING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Okay!

Anyway, so I tried it, and it is like…

I think I did pretty okay! I was told, “yes, you did pretty alright for your first time!” I was SHAKING SO BAD THE WHOLE NIGHT.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

Oh my gosh!

I don’t know, maybe try again next week? YEAAAAH LET’S DO THIS! TRY AGAIN!

PUNCH SOCIAL ANXIETY RIGHT IN THE FACE

GAIN A THOUSAND NEW INSECURITIES

ATTEMPT TO CONVINCE SELF THAT IT WAS OKAY AND TOTALLY WORTH IT BECAUSE AT LEAST YOUR FRIENDS WERE LAUGHING

HAVE TROUBLE SLEEPING THE WHOLE NIGHT ANYWAY

LIVE THE FUCKING NIGHTMARE PARTY DREAM ALL OVER AGAIN

thedailywhat:

On Kony 2012: The Visible Victims Speak: Considering that Kony 2012 — the most viral video in Internet history — exploits the suffering of northern Ugandans to raise money, Victor Ochen, a victim of the Lord’s Resistance Army and a founder of the nonprofit African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET), thought it only right that they should get to see it too.

Ochen traveled to the city of Lira, where he and his NGO set up a makeshift outdoor theater so locals could watch Invisible Children’s much-discussed fundraising campaign, and decide for themselves if it helps or hurts.

According to a statement released by AYINET, over 35,000 people attended the screening, many of whom rode in on bikes from neighboring villages. Additionally, some two million northern Uganda residents tuned in to a live broadcast of the audio aired simultaneously on five FM radio stations.

Al Jazeera reporter Malcolm Webb, who was on hand to gauge people’s reactions, filed the following account:

People I spoke to anticipated seeing a video that showed the world the terrible atrocities that they had suffered during the conflict, and the ongoing struggles they still face trying to rebuild their lives after two lost decades.

The audience was at first puzzled to see the narrative lead by an American man – Jason Russell – and his young son.

Towards the end of the film, the mood turned more to anger at what many people saw as a foreign, inaccurate account that belittled and commercialised their suffering, as the film promotes Kony bracelets and other fundraising merchandise, with the aim of making Kony infamous.

A woman Webb spoke with afterwards compared IC’s approach of selling products with Kony’s image to “selling Osama Bin Laden paraphernalia post 9/11,” which she felt would be offensive to many Americans, irrespective of how “well-intentioned” the fundraising campaign was.

Last night’s screening was AYINET’s first and last. It announced this morning that it had suspended further screenings of Kony 2012 in light of the outrage it caused.   Wrote Ochen: “It was very hurtful for victims and their families to see posters, bracelets and t-shirts, all looking like a slick marketing campaign, promoting the person most responsible for their shattered lives.”

“Why give such criminals celebrity status?” asked people in attendance, according to AYINET. “Why not make the plight of the victims and the war-ravaged communities, people whose sufferings are real and visible, the focus of a campaign to help?”

[aljazeera / ayinet.]

bemusedlybespectacled:

This is hormonal birth control.

As you can see on the box, you take exactly one pill per day. To make sure it works, you need to take one pill every day at the same time, or it stops working. You take only one pill, and you keep taking them regardless of what you…

Then suddenly season two of Archer was available on Netflix.

What’s Supernatural again?

I don’t even care anymore.

I’m only on the second episode of Supernatural and I keep on pausing it because I’m all NO IT’S TOO SCARY AAAAAAAAAH

Thanks for taking all of three games to start marketing the female character that you can play in the Mass Effect series.

You know, FemShep. The one who has her own nickname indicating that she is not Commander Shepard, but actually just a female version of the real Shepard who is totally a guy. Oh, sorry. That was the impression I got, because for the first two games, all you ever did was show me how cool Commander Shepard is but like, only as a guy. I assumed. My bad.

Back to my point: It’s nice that I’ve read articles about how this “marketing” will happen.

But I’m disappointed.

Because, to you, “marketing” seems to mean “We’ll put her on the cover of the special edition and she will be in a trailer when the game comes out!” and not “We’re for real going to put her in trailers to get people psyched for the game! And we’re going to put her on posters! And standees! And she’ll be playable in the gameplay demos! And she’ll be on the regular game cover too! Like, we’re totally going to acknowledge that MaleShep shouldn’t have more visibility than FemShep because um, it’s totes up to you which one saves the universe so they are like super equally important!”

I understand that you’re trying to expand your marketing so you can appeal to a wider demographic, but you’ve done nothing to back that up.

You’re still appealing to guys and guys alone. You’re not even trying to grab the attention of the many ladies who play your games. It seems kind of insulting to be like “We want more people to play our games!” and then get all, “So we’re going to further try to secure the white-male-ages-18-35 demographic instead of actually expanding our audience! What demographic could we possibly be neglecting?”

Just bear with me on one more thought: Leaving the default design for FemShep up to voters on Facebook?* That was kind of a stupid idea. You already had a default design for FemShep - and it was great. She looked more mature, like she’s had a lot of experience, and it fit her voice actress perfectly. Why did she need to be changed? Of the five options you gave people to vote on, why did they all look young and pouty-lipped with flawless skin and make-up? Why couldn’t she have her ME2 age-lines to indicate that she’s older than 19 and maybe saved the universe a couple of times?

Oh right. If she’s not super pretty, she can’t be eyecandy. If she doesn’t look like she was made to appeal to men why should she even be marketed? If you’re going to market her, she should most definitely not look like a normal woman- while MaleShep can look as average as average can be. What a totally understandable double-standard.

Listen. I want to love you, Bioware.

I know you can do better than that. I believe so strongly that you can do better than that.

Why couldn’t you just follow through and actually market FemShep? Preferably in the many, many months before your game releases? Why even bother in the first place if you’re still going to act like MaleShep is the only Commander Shepard you can play as?

IT JUST SEEMS A LITTLE PATRONIZING TO HAVE HER IN ONLY TWO OR THREE THINGS OF MARKETING AND ACT LIKE YOU’RE REALLY MAKING A DIFFERENCE. THAT’S ALL I’M SAYING.

*I think it’d be interesting to see how many of those votes on Facebook were from male users. I would like the statistics at some point, if they are available.

Aaaaaand one more thing:

Some Examples of Past and Current Marketing For MaleShep (including official posters, shirts, figures, artbook covers, game covers, screenshots, standees, trailers, and being featured on the official store page for Bioware merch - also, MaleShep will be the Shepard that saves the universe in the film adaptation)