Friday, December 4, 2009

"Yes, But How Do You Feel About Power Girl's Tits?"

Right, well, just as we were all grumbling about having to carry our asses back to work after the Thanksgiving holidays (in America, anyways--to my international readers, we ate a lot and had a few days off from work) it seems that once again, Power Girl's boobies have set the comics intelligentsia aflame with anger, defensiveness, and exactly the kind of awful displays of sexism that have made superhero comics fandom the mortifying writhing mass it often is.

It behooves me then, as I attempt to struggle for validity (or even the smallest bit of attention) that I get a marshmallow toasted on this bonfire before it's all burnt out. I will attempt (and likely fail) to avoid being put to the sword by one side or the other by dodging the whole sexism thing as much as possible and addressing another trend that comes from this whole thing that I actually find encouraging.

But before that, I'm going to ramble at length. Let's have a look (not that way) at Power Girl. Lost in all the debate over boobie windows or convoluted origins, it should be mentioned that Power Girl is a product of the zeitgeist of her age, specifically the feminist movement of the 70's.

Whenever superhero comics try to capture the spirit of the age, the results are more often as not cringe worthy stuff (how many black superheroes exploded onto the scene in the 70's? How many of them had nothing more to distinguish them except having "Black" before their name--just in case our attention wasn't drawn to that fact already) done with the best intentions and quite often from a position of white middle-class liberal guilt.

The results, looking back on things with the benefit of hindsight are often hilarious or time to facepalm--black superheroes seem to be constantly furious at Uncle Charlie, and every "feminist" or "liberated woman" (or Lady Liberator) is a serious ball-buster. Part of that could be down to the generally exaggerated nature of superhero comics (like pro wrestling, the phrase "theatre of the absurd" springs to mind--superhero comics deal in hightened, almost operatic, reality) but also the simple fact that it's very hard to get a sense of a social movement while it's happening around you--it's slightly too big to be easily perceived.

It was with equally well-meaning intentions that women characters began to hit the scene in the 70's and in deference to lessons learned (or not) a hell of a lot of them seemed to have "she-" in front of their names or "-woman" or "-girl" after them. Again--just in case we forgot.

Nevertheless, even with all the best intentions in the world, an outsider trying to write for a different gender, sexual orientation, or race will face a certain disconnect. I am not saying that straight writers can't write gay characters or white writers can't write black characters, I'm simply saying there may be subtleties that you can't get to owing to the fact that one is on the outside looking in. It can be mitigated, it can be compensated for, but it's not easily hurdled, and I struggle with it in my writing, too.

Also, a creator's experience and predilections also inform any creation, blatantly or subtly. For instance, a group of mostly old-line creators, raised in times where the gender roles and expectations were quite different are bound to have a certain subtext in their perceptions of women's liberation than someone who was born and raised in the midst of it, and he would have a different opinion than, say, Dave Sim. But who doesn't?

This idea of experience informing intent will become important . . .right now.

Wally Wood designed Power Girl's look. In addition to designing Daredevil's red suit and committing suicide, Wally Wood had quite a line in drawing women who were, if we're honest, built like brick shithouses. Some artists have pretty blatant obsessions, and whether they like it or not, they bleed onto their pages.

So, Power Girl, poster child for "feminism" in superhero comics (not easily defined then, possibly less so now) created with what were surely good intentions, ended up on the page as a bit of a ballbuster who was built like a brick shithouse.

Here's another example--nearly around the same time, Marvel created Ms. Marvel, who is very much Power Girl's opposite number--she's a distaff version of a male hero, she's a feminist who demonstrates it by being a ballbuster, origin and current status has been hopelessly muddled, and her costume's probably more famous than the character. I think they even fought in JLA/Avengers, just in case we missed the connection.

I once read an anecdote Dave Cockrum told about re-resdesigning Ms. Marvel's look. Her first outfit was lacking something and so he designed the second--and ultimately more enduring--costume and presented it to Marvel's head honcho (at least in the public eye) Stan Lee, who was elated and declared that this was what he'd been looking for--"Black leather and tits and ass."

He would know, I'd imagine--this is the Stan Lee who gave us Stripperella, for God's sake.

I present these things not to make any great point (except "this was nascent feminism in superhero comics 30+ years ago.") apart from how good intentions can often go awry in ways we may not be fully cognizant of. Mind you, there was still plenty of times to right the ship between then and now, but . . .well, as anyone who knows anything about comics will tell you, all too often things swing back to a permanent status quo. Part of that is the nature of the beast--to keep the soap opera running things can never fully resolve, after all.

Another part of it is that some ideas that should long ago have been tossed in the bin stick around, molder, and get a bit stinky.

However, that there's this much of a debate, and about Power Girl, to boot, gives me hope for one thing. For all the sturm und drang people throw about (me included) about how the comic market is shrinking and catering to the 30+ year old male geek is resulting in a slow countdown to extinction, that women would get this passionate about a character shows that there are characters that female readers would embrace and would take an interest in, if perhaps something could be done about the barnacles of intentional and unintentional sexism that have accrued on them over the years.

I very much hope those that have been most vocal will bring some of that to bear, perhaps, on creations that redress the problems with these character that prevent that vital connection from being made. Failing that, I hope they get their shot someday to do something with them on their own--I'm a big beleiver that at some point a new generation has to being its ideas to bear on these hoary old icons so it will speak to younger generations and there will be later generations of comics readers.

It's the only thing that's ever seemed to work.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post. Your point, "that women would get this passionate about a character shows that there are characters that female readers would embrace and would take an interest in" is a good one. I wonder, though (and hear me out), if women would be as interested in Power Girl if she didn't have the boob window? I ask because that window is kinda like a lightning rod (excuse the mixed metaphor) in how it draws attention to the character, which in turn leads to the complaint that "she could be so much more if ..."

To maybe put it more simply, if Power Girl's costume didn't draw complaints, would we be talking about Power Girl? I agree that the character has a lot of potential, and the boob window is a perpetual eyeroller for me - the current tactic of using internal monologue to show she's aware people are staring at her cleavage seems like kind of a cheat - but could she be separated from it any more easily than Batman could be separated from having a giant bat on his chest?

That's an unfortunate analogy, because it makes me realize that if Superman's emblem is a giant "S" and Batman's is a giant bat, then Power Girl's is a giant ... well, you know. But if DC was to change it, HOW would they change it?

Kazekage said...

Thanks! :) I'm led to beleive that even with a costume best described as a cross between a baton-twirler's and a hooker, Wonder Woman's been appropriated, somewhat passively now, as a feminist icon (so much so that when they've changed her look or depowered her, it's been a big deal) so a costume that should make all good people of conscience facepalm needn't be an impediment to connecting with the audience--in the article I linked to, the previous column she'd done was all about how much she liked Psylocke. Yes, back in her ninja days. So obviously there's something more to the connection than the visual appearance.

As to your second point . . .interesting conundrum. Maybe even a predestination paradox. :) Thing is, maybe the problem is one of emphasis. Rather than continually lampshading the fact that she has big boobs (which one would have to be blind to miss) Perhaps the best way to surmount that is to . . .not mention it. A Google search can get you big-boobed blonde women in .2 second. Big-boobed blonde women who can fly and bench-press a mountain? That's a taller order. I see no reason why, rather than trying to sneak a peek, people should just kinda be awed--she's like Superman, only hot, cock-diesel and has a short fuse. I mean she's Power Girl . . .why not emphasize that? The rest we surely can work out for ourselves.

Thing is, every time they've tried a new outfit, it never seems to work--the gold and white and later JLE outfits were short-lived, and several origins ago, she was using Arion's glyph as a symbol. They never stuck.

But I wonder if again, in absence of a symbol, the easiest way round it is to . . .not make a symbol one way or the other. Storm doesn't have a consistent visual symbol and she's a fairly popular female character--her popularity comes more from the fact that she's been rather consistently put over as a Big Deal. Typically, that's not how DC does things, but it is an option.

I mean, it worked with Oracle.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Speaking as someone who went through a whole Rage Against Sexist Comics phase a few years back, I don't think it's a hopeful sign at all that people are still getting worked up about Power Girl's tits; it's just underscoring the fact that nothing's changing. If it wasn't Power Girl, it was Mary Jane or Black Cat or whoever.

Apropos of Wonder Woman, I remember the last Dodson redesign that had Donna Troy looking like a cross between Xena and a Roman gladiator, and it was a huge step up from the stripper outfit. Look where we are now.

And yes, part of the problem with Power Girl specifically is that she's one of those DC characters who isn't high enough in the pecking order to warrant much interest, any more than Citizen Steel was a focal point for controversy outside of Crotchgate. To be honest, if she didn't have that ludicrous design, she'd likely be a footnote in some Official Handbook to the Official Handbook.

And I absolutely agree that Storm's popularity derives from the fact that she's one of the very few female characters who hadn't been subjected to that kind of sexist reduction: granted, that's pretty much due to Claremont's more... esoteric perspectives, but it's still fact that in the 1970's a black, independent woman - depicted as an incredibly powerful superhero in her own right - led what was arguably Marvel's most popular franchise for a considerably long time, without ever being undercut by male counterparts.

Of course, then Joe Quesada had her get married to some guy she met once somewhere in Africa because a black man marrying a black woman would MAKE OPRAH LOVE COMICS. So... yeah. :)

Kazekage said...

Well, I think it's a hopeful sign that ladies would actually like these characters, but for years of thoughtless sexism, in the sense that an audience does exist . . .they're just never catered to. At all. The lack of any meaningful change in this owes more to the fact that, well, one hates to use the words "glass ceiling," but . . .until women swing a lot more weight in the creation and presentation of comics, this will be a problem. By saying that I don't mean "it is what it is," as much as I mean "hurry up and take power, please." :)

That was a good and somewhat sensible design. Too bad they stuck it on Donna Troy, DC's own Scarlet Witch. Unfortunately, as the means of production of these things are held in the hands of people who want to aggressively roll back the clock and keep it there, Wonder Woman can't even get a sensible outfit. And no, I don't mean bicycle shorts and a jacket.

And also the controversy has defined the character now to some extent, as we can't seem to get a Power Girl story that doesn't have to call attention to how she dresses and how it informs on her character, and what favours does that do anyone?

And the difference was probably made due to the fact that no one higher up (or too entrenched in the old way of doing things) was paying much attention, and thus it was possible for Storm to achieve some kind of parity within the X-Men. Of course, she was eventually sacrificed on the altar of Claremont's weird-ass peccadilloes, but what X-character wasn't?

I'm glad you brought that up, because did anything about that marriage end up meaning a damn? Anything? Because we're about three years out (or more) and I can't see the point of it any more than M-day.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

See, I don't think it's about the characters inasmuch as it's about the types of stories these characters get involved in. Perfect example: Ed Brubaker's first few arcs on "Catwoman" were, I think, very much the kind of book I'd suggest to other women, as it basically turned Selina Kyle into a strong noir protagonist and set the more outlandish aspects of the DCU aside. Of course, then she got kidnapped by a Magikal Kat Kult and got chest implants courtesy of Cameron Stewart, so... yeah. And that was Brubaker too. Go figure.

But that's just it: Heinberg proved that you could take all of Donna Troy's backstory and toss it out the window - give her a sensible design, stress that she's a legacy character, and go from there. It could've worked, but as you've said, the dominant trend these days is "going back". Which, I suppose, is even more justification for moving away from the mainstream altogether.

Exactly. It's become a recurring plot point that she has to explain why she dresses like Tila Tequila. And since anything else she does is overshadowed by the fact that she really is a minor figure in the DC pantheon, that's all anyone remembers too.

Now that I think about it, Storm wasn't the only woman Claremont placed in a position of power: he established Mystique as the new leader of the Brotherhood around the same time, explicitly putting her on the same level as Magneto. And the three major additions to the team up to "Lifedeath 2" (which is as far as I've ever gotten) were Kitty, Rogue and Rachel Summers. The original New Mutants team had a female majority too. Of course, as you point out, the Perv Tentacles ended up seizing most (if not all) of them, which dims his accomplishments considerably...

Not that I can see. There's been no report of a major influx of black readers, Oprah still doesn't seem to have noticed, and while it may have provided "Black Panther" with a temporary sales boost, her post-marriage appearances in X-Men don't seem any different. The only contribution I can find is as TWOP snark bait, where a reviewer said of the Tennant Who finale: "Mickey and Martha are married for the same unfortunate reason Storm's the Queen of Wakanda." The thought that Marvel threw away one of their greatest female characters on a failed marketing gimmick is pretty infuriating.

Kazekage said...

That actually happened? That sounds . . .really painfully silly. I think one of the easiest way to get an audience that doesn't usually get catered to is to borrow a page from noted blaxploitation actor Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, who once suggested "Don't kill me off and have Stallone avenge my death, kill Stallone and have ME avenge him." As in pro wrestling, if a company gets behind a character and pushes him as a big deal, then the public will begin to see him as such.

Yeah . . .actually, I have a few of those early WWs and the idea of Donna as WW had a certain feeling of forward momentum to it and felt more sensible than her being, y'know, a Darkstar. ;)

And that's why stories like that are basically destructive. No one needs The Secret Origin Of Power Girl's Titty Window. To the extent that anyone can be said to need a Power Girl story, I personally would like to read a story wherein she's presented as a super-strong, competent, formidable force, potentially undone by her own temper as often as by a costumed criminal. Again--if you make someone seem like a big deal (and do it right) people will think they are a big deal. If you write them as a pair of funbags with a cape, then that's what come across as.

Actually, post #216 or whenever, wasn't the only guy on the X-Men Longshot? I mean, Havok, Wolverine, and Colossus showed up again later, but for awhile, the gals were pretty much in charge, weren't they? Mind you, Rogue, Dazzler, Psylocke, Longshot and Storm may not seem like the most effective team in the world, but again, if you present it the right way . . .

That was exactly what I said about Mickey and Martha in the finale as well, but honestly, that was the least of the finale's sins. :) On the comics thing, though . . .they've really marginalised her, haven't they? Black Panther s barely a blip on the radar now and no one seems to give a damn about Astonishing X-Men . . .

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Not only did it happen, but it came so completely out of the blue that it took me a while to react. I mean, one minute Selina's caught in a classic noir scenario, the next... well, this and she starts dressing like a bellydancer. (Also: breast enhancements courtesy of Paul Gulacy, not Cameron Stewart.) I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, because it was still Brubaker's story, but after a few months of this I just gave up. Apparently the book never improved afterwards, so no big loss.

Part of me knows that the definition of a Darkstar is just a click away, but another part is warning me to let sleeping dogs lie. :)

The problem may be that because she never had a coherent origin, like Superman's or Batman's, writers who want to tell a Power Girl story keep getting stuck at the start, and can't seem to find anything that sets her apart from other DC superheroes (because that "super-strong, competent, etc." description matches just about anyone in the upper DC pantheon, doesn't it?).

I never made it that far, but I wouldn't be at all surprised. To give Claremont his due credit, he does have a habit of making even seemingly-useless mutants like Dazzler powerful and dangerous in the right context.

It seems so - AXM is just another Warren Ellis comic, so no surprise there, and from what I've understood Black Panther has shifted to such an extent that T'Challa (and by extension Storm) aren't even the main characters anymore. I hate to sound like the Comic Book Guy, but honestly: that's twenty-something years down the drain for a sales gimmick that didn't even work.

Kazekage said...

That . . .ugh. I want to scrub my eyeballs now. Mind you, it's not as if Brubabker hasn't occasionally shown us his "magic touch" sometimes deserts him . . .I mean, Uncanny X-Men never ended up hitting the heights of his Captain America run, did it?

Geoff Johns will surely bring them back any day now, but you don't really need to know that much about them. They were basically off-brand Green Lanterns, and . . .yeah. That's it. :) You can do so much more productive stuff with your Internet time.

Very true, but then, that kind of power creep is pretty well endemic lately, eh? It never fails to amaze me how people seem to get healing factors or enhanced strength right about the time artists don't feel like drawing scenes of convalescence or workouts . . .funny that.

Well, if he tried to do it now, Dazzler would, I'm certain, be properly mind controlled and evil, as all Claremont women must eventually be. :)

Wow, really? Woof. I'm not sold on "cancel the book, then bring it back with a new hero who is explicitly NOT the previous version, but make it plain that there is every expectation previous version will return once we've explained in painful detail why primary version is so important." Either you wear on people's patience waiting for the main character to come the hell back already (as you've basically written off however many issues it takes to get them back as ultimately Not That Important) or you're basically saying "well, anyone can wear the suit," and where does that get you?

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Not really, no. In retrospect, perhaps they shouldn't have bothered with the Third Summers Brother, given how nothing especially significant came out of it. This would be the point where I'd make some generalization about Brubaker maybe fumbling the ball when it comes to super-teams, except his run on "The Authority" was quite good, all the moreso given that he'd inherited the mess Robbie Morrison had left behind.

Why, yes, that's another few hours of my life given over to TV Tropes. :)

Well, these days in the DCU it's more Power Ring Creep, but yes, it does seem that the more plot-convenient powers are turning up more and more often.

And wearing some kind of leather corset, of course. Mustn't forget that. :)

See, that takes me back to Robinson's very first issue of Starman, in which David Knight gets to be the Big Damn Legacy Hero for all of two pages before he's gunned down. There's nothing wrong with being The Next Guy In Line... unless it's just another sales gimmick to cover up the loss from the last sales gimmick that tried to fix the loss from the gimmick before that.

Kazekage said...

While Vulcan's paid off great for the cosmic books, I'm not sure if that couldn't have been filled by anyone, let alone a barely-remembered plot-element from the 90's

Time well spent to be sure!

Yeah, I like to think at its current rate of growth, it won't be long before everyone in the DCU has one kind of power ring or another. There's what--nine or ten different kinds of rings now?

I'm going to silently cringe now at the thought that that is, to use the internet parlance, "Relevant to Claremont's boner." :)

Well, there was the advantage with Starman that the continuity waters were so muddied by that point that there was no consistent Starman fandom to be annoyed one way or the other at their favourite Starman being replaced (twice) as that much of an imposition. That's usually not how it goes, of course . . .

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

I suppose the most damning indictment is the fact that he's not even mentioned in X-books anymore, despite initially being positioned as a Really Big Deal. Much like Annie Ghazatoothgrinder, the current batch of X-Men writers seem to have an unspoken agreement to just leave well enough alone.

It's scary how often I get tangled up following one link after another. I may need an intervention. :)

Probably ten, if only so they can do the obligatory cover with someone having a ring on each finger. Or they could just photoshop Elizabeth Taylor wearing all her wedding bands at once.

Likewise. But probably not silently - if you hear a great echoing crack across the Middle East, that's my body twisting every joint I've got into a knot of utter horror at the thought of Claremont having a boner, of any kind, for any reason.

Knowing DC, I find it hard to believe there wasn't some kind of Starman community crying foul from the first page of issue #0. And just think, 15 years later GAY FOR JUSTICE comes out and they all get to say "We told you so!" :)

Kazekage said...

Yeah. Hardly seems like it was ultimately worth the trouble, doesn't it?

I will go there to look up one thing and all of sudden I'm 10 tabs deep in other articles, so I totally sympathise.

Pity the Mandarin's not a DC character, eh?

Wow, that's . . .rather apocalyptic an image to be sure. :) I check in X-Men forever from time to time and I gotta say . . .it sure is a Chris Claremont book, innit? Kinda terrifying to see him let this loose.

There probably was, but the internet wasn't as big then, so The Starman Forever Message Boards weren't so vocal back in the day. :)

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

And all this from some discarded line of dialogue Fabian Nicieza tossed out in the early '90s. Oy.

Of course, credit where it's due: TV Tropes has introduced me to a lot of novels, TV series and video games that I wouldn't have even known about, simply by putting them together with things I already know I like. And some day I just might get around to reading/playing/watching them all. :)

Or this guy. That's a lot of bling.

I have a tentative - and admittedly optimistic - theory that if they keep letting Claremont have his way on that specific book, he'll get all that mind control bondage junk out of his system and finally get out of that rut. What do you think, too hopeful?

There's probably a bag or two of angry letters at the bottom of the Hudson River. :)

Kazekage said...

Yeah. Poor Fabian. Everything he does kinda backfires some way, somehow. :)

I have the same thing happen to me! Lately it's been more music than any of the others but . . .yeah, it'll turn you on to stuff you might not have considered.

Oh I'm sure Millar will create a manque of him sometime soonish.

Well, maybe he'll have to turn it over so many times he'll have to stop using it as a default because it's coming around too fast even for him.

Next to Jean Grey's cocoon, I think. ;)

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

I'd be more sympathetic if he hadn't started his Marvel career as a Liefeld Enabler...

Always a good thing, particularly since you have a much higher chance of actually liking it because it works on the same principles as things you already know you enjoy.

If he hasn't already. I'm pleased to say that I have absolutely no knowledge of anything Mark Millar is doing at the moment, and my mind's a better place for it. :)

I'm just waiting for the moment when his subplots start overlapping and suddenly he's stuck with an issue where every single character is being mind-controlled at the same time. :)

Let's hope she doesn't find them on her next trip up: the last thing we need is for James Robinson Circa "Cry For Justice" to go back to "Starman" and land that killing blow on his wounded, bleeding reputation. :)

Kazekage said...

Oh I dunno . . .was New Warriors before his collusion with Liefeld? I wanna say yes . . .that's how I first encountered him anyways.

That's it exactly, and good thing, as sometimes you need someone other than the die-hard fan to try and sell you on something.

If I went to Bleeding Cool less often, I might be up there with you. :)

We can call it the Claremont Event Horizon! :)

Oh God, let's not give them any ideas. If they thought GAY FOR JUSTICE was a worthwhile idea, they're obviously not operating on the same plane of logic as the rest of us.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Not sure... Speedball's traditional look doesn't include pouches, so probably not. :)

And how are things over at Johnsonland these days? Is he still shilling anyone who'll call him back?

Our very own TV Trope page. WE SHALL BE IMMORTAL. ;)

Seriously. I can just imagine Diane Nelson with her boxes still unpacked, realizing her office just published a comic where an eight-year-old girl is murdered for absolutely no reason. She might want to reconsider her career choices. :)

Kazekage said...

Although he did later get the requisite long trenchcoat . . .

Oh, so you have been there!

More like WE SHALL BE NOTABLE, which as low on the food chain as I am, that sounds like all I could hope for. :)

One would imagine, and one would hope the least little pangs of conscience about it, but she's high up enough in the tower to just see potential IPs scurrying around . . .

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Did it also have spikes on the inside? :)

No, but it's good to know that like Mount Rushmore, Johnson's ability to channel Suzanne Somers will endure forever.

Don't sell yourself short. ;)

Until some anal-retentive parental group starts making noise, and lord I can't believe I'm actually rooting for anal-retentive parental groups. What is the world coming to?!

Kazekage said...

Nahh. Cutting didn't come in until the turn of the century. :)

It's a universal constant. Like gravity. :)

Ahh. Blushing now. :)

I have to be honest--I've kind wondered the same thing myself. The fact that comics can be this outrageous and not show up as a target for the perennially indignant and outraged is probably the real most damning statistic when it comes to the decline of comics, isn't it?

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Unless Brad Stoker was sublimating... but I'd rather not go there. :)

There's a joke about gravity, black holes and Rich Johnston that's rather amusing but far too easy. ;)

Pretty much - I suppose Marvel's practically yearning for the days when Northstar's "I AM GAY!" set the nation ablaze. Or at least Wal-Mart.

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

Of course, on a scale of Stoker to Meyer, I'd still go with Stoker. :)

No, no, I simply can't. If we took every easy joke that came to us, we'd be... well, we'd be Mark Millar, wouldn't we? ;)

I'm not so sure that'd make any kind of splash - however few people cared about Northstar in 1992, I imagine there are even less in 2010...

Kazekage said...

Yes, between Meyer and that Anita Blake chic I think he's probably chaste by comparison . . .

Yes, but on the side of right, and so I feel like we could get away with it. :)

Well, given that his two powers are outstanding gayness and dying all the time . . .

Diana Kingston-Gabai said...

I never thought I'd see a comparison wherein Laurel K. Hamilton - the woman who regularly drives Chris Sims to the brink of despair - would emerge as the favorable option. I might need to lie down for a bit... :)

Ah, but that's how it starts. Soon we'll be blogging about blond Latina hookers and all-caps-pimping movie adaptations that completely tone down our vile audacity, the only thing that sets us apart from your average hack writer. :)

Seriously. I remember that month where he ended up dying three times, in three different books set in three different universes. If you look closely at recent con photos you might still see a hand imprint on Tom Brevoort's forehead.

Kazekage said...

Yeah. I think I need a couple aspirin too. *L*

True, and I'd hate to lose that. The blonde Latina hookers? Well, I'd have some explaining to do to certain people should that come up. :)

. . .and his tiny footprints in ol' Jean-Paul's brain. :)