Tag, You're It

I’m going to be away for the next week or so starting Saturday, doing various things at the National Audio Theater Workshop in West Plains, MO. So you won’t see updates until next Saturday at earliest.

Before I go, though, I’ve been tagged with the “Thinking Blogger Award” by Jim Magovern over at his Talkingmoviezzz blog, which is something given to blogs you read regularly and that make you think. In turn, I have to tag five more. Pinning down the more “intellectual” entries on my regular blogreading rounds was a bit difficult, since nobody takes themselves *too* seriously, but on reflection many of them present things from new perspectives, and smartly enough to make it interesting.

I ended up with all comics blogs, since I mostly read those and I think Moviezzz covered the movie ones I read already.

The rules:

1) If, and only if your blog is one that is tagged on my list below, you must write a post with links to five other blogs you like that consistently make you think (hence, the Thinking Blogger’s Award).

2) Link to this post so people will know whose good idea all this was.

3) Proudly display the “Thinking Blogger Award” logo with a link to the post you wrote.

And here goes:

Written World- “Ragnell the Foul” blogs on comics and comic fandom from a feminist perspective (as well as a connoisseur of Green Lantern butts, but that’s another issue altogether.) Though I take a sort of Cronenbergian “an artist has no social responsibility whatsoever” approach to the issue of how sociopolitical concerns should influence the shaping of art/entertainment, American comics are a bit of a boys’ club at the moment, and it’s nice to hear from female fans what the industry could be doing to not push them away so much. I don’t always agree with her on specific issues, but her reasoning is sound and her ideas worth considering.

Comics Should Be Good- A group blog founded on the premise that, well, see the title. Which is to say the thrust of the blog is looking at comics in a way that’s more about quality than continuity or how specific characters are faring. There’s praise for what the writers think deserves it, snark for what doesn’t, and the standard of writing and criticism is generally high. Vaguely academic, but not so much that they can’t devote an entry to singing the praises of Hoppy the Marvel Bunny.

Postmodern Barney- Dorian is a comic store worker, a comic fan, and a gay man, and blogs with an urbane, snarky combination of these perspectives and others. Some politics (at least in the sense of looking at, again, the mostly male and heterosexual orientation of mainstream US comics), peppered with funny images and beefcake. (I also like the layout quite a bit for some reason.)

Progressive Ruin- Mike Sterling writes from his perspective as a guy who sells comics for a living, often commenting on how titles are doing, what he thinks will come of X development in terms of the industry and whatnot, and most enjoyably the weird crap that gets solicited in PREVIEWS every month. There’s a nice “behind the desk” quality to it.

Polite Dissent- And to round it off, comics (and HOUSE episodes) from a medical perspective. This one is just plain informative- Scott manages to note all sorts of little errors and medical trivia without it actually seeming too nitpicky. And in the process, you learn a lot, often about things other than medicine.

So, there you go, five blogs that make you think. Or make me think, anyway. Enjoy them. And see you in a bit.