On November 6, Americans will choose between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney for the office of President of the United States. In the weeks leading up to the election, Drunk Monkeys presents reflections from its editors, staff writers, and regular contributors on the choice ahead and what it will mean for the future.
If you’re not a comic reader then you’re probably taken aback by the title. Rape in comic books? What’s going on? Cats and dogs living together? Palestine and Israel best friends? It sounds like an alternate universe, but it’s not. Comics have become increasingly adult since the 1980s and became remarkably darker in the 1990s when Superman was brutally killed (of course, he came back to life) and Batman’s back was broken by Bane. From that point on mainstream superhero comics began to address more controversial issues, something independent comics and standalone superhero comics, such as Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum, had already begun doing. Alan Moore’s Watchmen was perhaps the biggest influence, hitting on politics, what superheroes would be like in reality, and, yes, rape. It touched on the issue in a mature, rather than sensationalistic, manner, and played out the consequences of the act. It dealt with the manner appropriately, though others disagree.
So far, as the life coach of a female, I’ve noticed that most problems for women stem from not understanding some basic things about the male species—our thoughts (or lack thereof), our desires, our thought processes, why we find lighting our farts funny, etc.
Rumors are swirling that as consequence to Romney’s recent gaffes and miscalculations some of the more radical elements of the party are desperate to sabotage the current nominee-apparent and enliven what promises otherwise to be a rather moribund and desultory affair.
If there is a more friendly and loveable character in children’s fiction than Winnie the Pooh, I don’t know about it. A.A. Milne’s stuffed bear Winnie the Pooh has stood the test of time since he first appeared in 1926, and for good reason. Pooh is a simple minded, yet incredibly loving, character whose friends each have a distinct personality and appearance which make the Hundred Acre Woods feel like a real world despite its fantastical nature. Pooh’s importance goes beyond the fact that he has entertained children and adults for many years, though. The world of Winnie the Pooh is important because it subtly addresses something that is still rarely talked about today: children who suffer from mental health issues.
I’ve always had a propensity to put on weight easily, so I tip-toe through my life in fear of awakening the fat inside of me. While I’m consumed by vanity, at the time when I first noticed the growth of my man-titties, it was a conditional vanity. Although the concept of fat terrified me, this terror was complicated—more accurately, contradicted—by the fact that I did nothing to prevent fatness. In fact, I did the opposite: I drank excessively, ate fattening processed foods, and slept after large meals like a plump nursing child.
People always tell me that it’s easy to love a city when you don’t live there. I’ve lived in a couple of those cities, and I never grew particularly tired of it, so I think it just depends on the person.
I started attending Anime conventions along the east coast in the fall of 2004, and I staffed my first convention a year later in 2005. For some of the people I work with at conventions like Katsucon, Anime Mid-Atlantic, Anime USA, Balticon and others, that’s a single drop of water in a very deep bucket. For me it has encompassed several years of writing, acting, traveling, love, emotional breakdowns, good decisions, bad decisions, deliberate insanity, extraordinary coincidence and entirely too much else to cover in a simple rundown of activity.
There’s been a resurgence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict coverage in the United States media lately. It’s not particularly surprising because the media tends to address it every year or two for a couple of weeks before moving on to something else. Israeli president Netanyahu has gone to rather extravagant lengths to annoy the United States, even though the United States gives it billions of dollars, that the media now has to cover Israeli politics more often than the conflict itself.
In high school everyone wants to be liked – even if they claim they don’t care what people think of them (and those people really seem to care that we know they don’t care what others think). How many times have we seen movies about the lonely student who just wants to be liked by the popular person? The movie usually ends with the message that you just need to be yourself and not worry if the entire school likes you.