kate

With today's news that Fire Emblem's Lucina and Robin and a return Captain Falcon will be in the roster of Super Smash Bros., Nintendo has shared a special visual by Yusuke Kozaki, cover artist on Fire Emblem Awakening, original character designer on Speed Grapher and creator of post-apocalyptic donut cats doughnut-cats  Donyatsu.

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

Sailor Moon is inescapable. There’s the new anime of course, and the new musicals, the merchandise, and the retranslation of the manga. But it’s the emblem of a wider renaissance as well, a resurgence of love for mahou shoujo, or magical girl anime and manga — a movement led by women well out of their childhood years. A quick stroll through Tumblr reveals Sailor Moon cupcakes, punky Sailor Moon jackets, heartfelt essays about what the portrayal of lesbianism in Sailor Moon meant to the reader, dozens of artists working together to reanimate an episode of the anime, Sailor Moon nail art tutorials, cats named Luna, Beryl, Haruka and everything in between, hand-sculpted figurines, ornate embroidery projects, and an endless avalanche of fanart. Sailor Moon as an Adventure Time character. Sailor Moon cheekily clutching a Hitachi Magic Wand. Sailor Moon as a vicious biker chick. Sailor Moon protesting the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling.

Sailor Moon fans have not so much rediscovered their love for Naoko Takeuchi’s sword-and-sparkle epic as they have elected her queen mother of their imaginations and ultimate aspirational self. She is, simultaneously, symbol, cause, and leader.

This resurgence is animated by more than typical fannish passion. This is a need to return to a world where young women are in charge. This is an anger at the pabulum of Good Role Models for Girls, at boob windows and “fridging" and “tits or gtfo.” This is 15-year-olds covering their notebooks in “MERMAIDS AGAINST MISOGYNY” stickers, yet also gravely serious grad students applying bell hooks to Takeuchi’s use of Greco-Roman myth. This is a collective invoking of spirits, made more potent in their absence — Usagi Tsukino and all her friends as saints and saviors, carrying the light of childhood optimism to an adulthood in sore need of it. This is nostalgia as a weapon. “Pretty soldiers” indeed.

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Kanye West is a passionate dude.

The passion is what makes his art work. People connected to him because they can feel that passion. It’s visible through his work, whether it’s a banging beat or some deft observation about life. He has a habit of doing scheduled interludes at his concerts, where he talks about whatever’s on his mind. It’s the most direct way to view his passion, I think, because it feels relatively unfiltered—it isn’t, we know that, but it feels more raw than a song—and it’s not hidden behind layers of cleverness.

He’s talked about his struggle to gain traction in the fashion industry, despite his success with Nike. He’s talked about what he wants to be to society, who he respects, what he hates, and what he loves. It’s wide-ranging, but that makes sense, because West is self-admittedly a guy who is interested in a lot of things, from Margiela to Akira.

These interludes are almost always called “rants” by music journalists. Despite being planned, despite being a regular feature, they are “rants” because…Kanye West is a passionate dude, and sometimes he gets emotional when talking about things. You can see it when he goes in on Sway on Shade45 or when he got at George W Bush over Katrina.

By calling these interludes “rants,” the media is painting West with a very specific brush. The word rant implies that the thoughts are off-the-cuff, overly emotional, and therefore invalid. It’s “Look what this kooky guy said now!” instead of engaging with any of his points.

It happens to all of us, of course. We all have triggers that make us get weepy or excited in conversation, I know I have a lot of dumb ones, but that doesn’t make them invalid or malformed. It just means you care, right? And that your level of care exceeds your calm nature for a moment. The opinions you’re expressing aren’t invalid because you stumble over your words or have to pause to collect yourself.

Passion isn’t perfect. I think that’s pretty obvious. West isn’t 100% right about everything, but he has been 100% right about specific things. The presence of passion doesn’t mean that you have to believe everything someone says. It’s just a factor that will, or should, help you judge what they’re saying and where they’re coming from. By recognizing West’s passion, I can tell that he genuinely cares about the stuff he’s talking about, and that helps me evaluate how I feel about what he said and where he’s coming from.

But he’s not ranting. He’s speaking his mind.

Comics has an outrage problem.

I don’t mean people getting up in arms over things, either. That’s an issue unto itself, and like anything else, it could be better than it currently is in several different ways, but that’s not today’s conversation.

What I’m talking about is how we—the comics community—describe, talk about, and address the concerns of people who are upset about one thing or another. The way we talk about outrage fatigue, outrage-of-the-week, faux outrage, outrage-o-matic, misplaced outrage, another outrage, this outrage, that outrage, and why it’s gross and short-sighted. How we use “tumblr” as a pejorative but ignore the poison in our own forums and followers.

The way we use the word outrage suggests that the outrage in question is fake and irrational, on account of being poorly thought-out and overly emotional. It happens every time someone brings up a point to do with equality, sexism, racism, or justice. It’s the same tactic the music media uses to devalue Kanye’s rants. They’re invalid, an inconvenience, annoying, or fake because you can see the emotions driving it, and emotional reactions aren’t valid.

We use the presence of passion to first diminish and then dismiss arguments. The offended must play by the rules of the unoffended, or even worse, the offenders, in order to be heard. You have to tamp down that pain if you want to get help or fix it. You can see it when people say things like “Thank you for being civil” when arguing something heated with someone they disagree with. Civility is great, sure, but we’re forcing people who feel like they’re under attack to meet us on our own terms. In reality, passion shouldn’t be dismissed. Passion has a purpose.

The way we treat passionate reactions is unbalanced, too. We eat up gleeful reviews or tweets like they’re pudding and retweet them by the dozen. There are sites out there that have used the word “masterpiece” over ten thousand times. We promote fawning interviews and king-making, but never once question passionate praise the way we do passionate criticism.

Comics as a community tends to react to every new outrage with disbelief and scorn, lumping them in with “the crazy ones” or “tumblr” instead of looking at what they’re actually saying and figuring out what it means. Every once and a while we’ll band together like “Yeah! That IS bad!” when something is particularly egregious and “safe” to comment on, but a month later? We’re back to blindly propping up garbage men and ignoring people’s pain. The arc of the argument is the same, whether we’re talking sexual harassment or creators’ rights.

No matter how you feel about whichever issue is at hand, whether you agree or disagree or loathe both sides, you should think real hard before responding to anything. Think about what the person is saying and where they’re coming from. Think about why they’re saying it. Think about your position in society, our culture, or our dumb little hobby and think about the position of the person you’re about to put on blast. Think about what you’re about to bring to the conversation. Think about how your words will be received, even if—especially if—the originator didn’t.

That’s a bitter pill to swallow, the idea that you should take your lumps and do the work you think somebody else didn’t do. But life sucks, y’all, and if I have to choose between someone who doesn’t like somebody else’s tone or someone who doesn’t really know how to argue but has fascinating points about our culture, I’m going for the latter, even when I’m the one under the gun. One of those people has a lot to lose. The other is inconvenienced.

That power differential is important to keep in mind. Despite the petitions, despite the so-called outrage, fans have very little real control over the comics industry. As professionals, as journalists or creators or promoters or whoever we are, our voice generally has a much, much broader reach than the offended. The weight of our reactions when criticized often goes much, much farther. We have less to lose by virtue of being in a position of power by default, and that makes it exceedingly important to check yourself and your reactions.

A lot of people don’t feel welcome in the greater comics community. We created and create this environment with our words and actions. If it’s not people hassling you over taste or creeping on you at cons or making “funny” jokes about things you care about, it’s seeing how people respond to outrage. When you see a community consistently dis and dismiss people expressing their pain, you’re less likely to share your own pain when the time comes, because odds are good you’re gonna feel a lot worse when the usual suspects get ahold of your words and the blowback starts coming in.

The way we talk about outrage-in-the-abstract has a way of building further outrage in addition to diminishing other types. Where some people will shy away out of self-preservation, others will go even harder because they know you won’t listen. They know their words will be skimmed and stripped of context before being ignored and insulted. To have a point you care deeply about and then to be told that point is irrelevant and invalid—that warrants anger, doesn’t it?

I have friends who simply don’t talk about things or hold back because they know their words will fall on deaf ears or worse. My friends have been screwed with on a level that’s incredibly frustrating and continually disappointing. In watching how they’re treated and talking to them about it, in watching what happens to the men and women who would rather send out tough guy threats and harassment, I’ve learned that a lot of things don’t get said because the offended doesn’t have any real power but their words, and others with more power will eagerly leverage their power to crush the dissent in the name of “keeping the peace.”

But we talk and we share and we know who is receptive to our stories, who will pretend like they are to gain brownie points or satisfy their ego, and who’ll smile and nod and move along at their earliest convenience because they just don’t care. We pay attention to the reaction to the outrage because the odds are good we’ll be in those shoes one day, should we decide our stories are worth the cost of the telling.

We’re in a complex place right now, in terms of our culture and people who speak on it. Suddenly a lot of people who were limited by the hateful whims of our culture in the past—non-whites, women, trans persons, gay people, and more—are able to sign up for a platform to express their views and speak their truth in a way that the mainstream has largely never seen before and often doesn’t know how to react to.

As a result, we’re realizing the way we enable -isms and hate by simply going about our daily lives the way we always have. We’re seeing the anger and sadness and passion that has been tamped down and ignored for years bubble up, and the conversations are often fraught with tension thanks to both sides and every participant coming from different places and contexts. There are more moving parts in these conversations than in two Space Shuttles.

Case in point: I realized I had to put subtle disclaimers in this piece just so someone wouldn’t get at me on some “Well, I don’t think all outrage is valid like you do, and here’s why you’re dumb for thinking that.” I know for a fact that’ll happen if I don’t try to beat it, even though other adults are clearly capable of understanding that talking about a thing isn’t necessarily complete unquestioning support of that thing.

That’s what I mean about the reaction to outrage being enlightening. I know the countermoves, the derailing moves, and I have to spin my wheels trying to head off the “Why don’t you get mad about real things?” or “You’re just angry all the time” or “Oh great, more faux outrage” goons on an essay that is fundamentally about how everyone should think more, jeer less, and process things a little bit longer before they react.

It sucks right now. I get that, and I empathize, whether you’re talking about the hate for the social justice conversation or the deluge of complaints that you can’t control and wish would stop. But it’s not gonna get better by going out of your way to talk about outrage and the outraged as if they were basic children, full of fury and lacking in thought. It’s not gonna get better when we have more editorials decrying “outrage” in general than we do editorials actively discussing and dissecting the outrage itself.

It’s not gonna get better if we choose ego instead of empathy every single time we’re up at bat. It’s not gonna get better if we aren’t willing to at least appear to listen. It’s not gonna get better if we paint every passionate criticism as “outrage” and stick our tongues out at it. It won’t get better if we pre-reject what people have to say.

If we paint every outrage with scare quotes and pithy jokes about the internet churning up outrage for no good reason, regardless of the outrage in question, we’re blocking progress. We’re telling some people not to share their thoughts, and we’re telling others that we don’t deserve their respect and honesty. Both are embarrassing, frankly, and abhorrent.

We need to be more kind, and this brand of kindness takes conscious effort.Similar Posts:

• Seriously, They Need a Union or Something
• Freak-out Comix: East of West 09
• Zig-Zagging 2: The Case For Fan Outrage
• New York Comic-Con State of Mind
• Visitors and Fish

Here's something we have known for awhile; outside of Japan it seems like Sony does not know what to do with the PS Vita. Speaking to IGN at the Develop conference in Brighton this week, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House admitted that fact.

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A new survey released by Gamasutra reveals a disturbing fact about YouTube gaming personalities; of those who participated in a survey, around 26 percent admitted that they had taken money directly or indirectly to promote a game or brand from a publisher.

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If a client spends a certain amount, I offer a discount in order to encourage bulk ordering. Usually, it’s as (seemingly) simple as free shipping.

Client: I don’t understand why there was a shipping fee on this invoice. Last time I worked with you there was no shipping fee.

Me: If you remember, we agreed that if your order was over $50, I can offer you the shipping for free.

Client: Yes, I do. But this invoice is for $50 and it has a shipping fee on it.

Me: Because it was under $50 before the shipping fee.

Client: But you said anything over $50 would be free to ship.

Me: Yes. Anything more than $50 BEFORE the shipping fee is added.

Client: I don’t understand.

MOTHERFUCKERS WANT TO LEARN HOW TO CUT SHIT?

EVER WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO COOK FROM A WORLD-RENOWNED CHEF WHO RIVALS GORDON RAMSEY? 

BUTTER MY BUTT AND CALL ME A BISCUIT, HERE IS YOUR MAN~ 

THIS BADASS TEACHES YOU THE BASICS - HOW TO NOT SUCK AT COOKING, HOW TO SEASON THINGS, AND GENERALLY HOW TO BE SOMEONE WHO COULD KICK THE ASS OF ANYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE STABBED INTO SUBMISSION. 

ROCK ON MY FRIENDS. 

ROCK ON INTO THE ENDLESS NIGHT. 

TO PUT A CHERRY ON TOP, HE ALSO TEACHES YOU HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN NUGGETS FASTER AND CHEAPER THAN STORE-BOUGHT FROZEN NUGGETS. 

GOTTA HAVE DEM CHIKIN NUGGERS 

Q: G.I. Joe: Where do I even begin with their myriad continuities? -- @Eric_R_Wilson

A: I've spent the past few weeks catching up on recent G.I. Joe comics with a stack of paperbacks that I picked up at HeroesCon, and while I've been really interested in seeing all the changes and new characters that set the IDW books apart from the original Marvel series, I'm still pretty surprised by this question. I mean, yes, there's a lot of G.I. Joe out there and a lot of different takes on that core idea, but when you get right down to it, it's no more complicated than your average superhero comic.

Which is to say that it's actually very complicated. Especially when the ninjas start getting involved.

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You have to laugh at the half-subtlety of the Madoka Magica jeans coming from Cospa's bishoujo Nijigencospa label. While back pockets with Madoka and Homura's portraits are strikingly obvious, the two sets of pants hide the true extent of their power levels with full-color pics of the mahou shoujo sewn into the interiors of their front pockets.

Pre-sales take place at summer events such as Wonder Festival, with the pant going for 11,000 yen ahead of an October release.

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

CREDIT: shutterstock

A large umbrella group of churches representing more than half a billion Christians worldwide announced Thursday that it would pull all of its investments in fossil fuels, saying it had determined the investments were no longer ethical.

The World Council of Christians, a global coalition of 345 churches, made the decision to no longer fund oil, gas, or coal at its central committee meeting in Geneva, and recommended that its members do the same. “The committee discussed the ethical investment criteria, and considered that the list of sectors in which the WCC does not invest should be extended to include fossil fuels,” read the finance policy committee report.

The WCC’s member churches — which include the 25 million-member Church or England and the 48 million-member Ethiopian Orthadox Tewahedo Church, among others — will not be forced to divest themselves, but advocates say the announcement represents broad support among Christians for action to fight climate change.

“The World Council of Churches reminds us that morality demands thinking as much about the future as about ourselves — and that there’s no threat to the future greater than the unchecked burning of fossil fuels,” Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, said in a statement. “This is a remarkable moment for the 590 million Christians in its member denominations: a huge percentage of humanity says today ‘this far and no further.’”

Though the WCC’s announcement doesn’t require its member churches to divest, its recommendation may give some the push they need. The Church of England, for example, already announced that it was considering redirecting its investments in an effort to battle climate change. The Church of England holds an endowment of more than $9 billion.

The WCC is far from the first religious group to pledge divestment from fossil fuels. In June, New York’s Union Theological Seminary became the first seminary in the world to cut oil, gas and coal investments from its $108.4 million endowment. In 2013, The United Church of Christ became the first national denomination to do the same. And on June 29, The Unitarian Universalist Association’‍s national General Assembly voted to divest from any holdings in 200 fossil fuel companies included on climate activists’‍ Carbon Tracker list.

Preserving the climate and the environment is a growing concern among religious groups, many of which see the issue as not only ethical, but spiritual — a way to respect God’s creation. Though the Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, Pope Francis has spoken widely about his concern for the environment, most recently telling a group of fellow Catholics that rainforest destruction is a “sin.”

“This is one of the greatest challenges of our time: to convert ourselves to a type of development that knows how to respect creation,” the pope said. “When I look at America, also my own homeland (South America), so many forests, all cut, that have become land … that can longer give life (sic). This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to her (sic) give us what she has within her.”

The post Group Representing Half A Billion Christians Says It Will No Longer Support Fossil Fuels appeared first on ThinkProgress.

HBO sent out another reminder to the media that its documentary film about game addiction in South Korea will premiere on Monday, July 28 at 9:00 PM. The film, "Love Child," tells the story of two South Korean parents who were so addicted to the Korean MMO Prius that they neglected their three month old child to the point that he died. They were later charged by police.

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Ask Willie D, Houston Press, 3 July 2014:

Dear Willie D: I’m a 27-year-old man who doesn’t mind spoiling a woman, but the self-entitlement thing that’s going on with the women of today makes me want to be just as selfish as they are. Women today are lazy. They want everything but they don’t want to sacrifice anything to get it. They don’t want to work and even if they do they want to keep all of the money they make to themselves, and spend the man’s money. Since women are jumping up and down about equal rights for everything else, I think they should have equal rights to pay for their own meals, open their own doors and pay their [own] bills, or at least pay half if they’re living with a man. I just stopped seeing a young woman whom I had dated for two months because she slapped me for calling her needy. I could have hurt her, but again she got a free ride because she is a female. I’m sick of self-entitled females. Is this something that I’m supposed to accept as a man?

Man, once-a-fucking-gain a woman fails to get the physical assault she deserves from a nice guy who doesn’t mind spoiling a gold-digging, grabby bitch from time to time. Good thing you’re not as selfish as all those entitled, egomaniac broads. Women have it so good, never getting the ass-beatings they would otherwise deserve from a great, super perceptive dude like you. Never once on planet earth at any time or in any place has a man ever attacked a woman, and it’s super unfair. Bitches be over here flaunting their free rides, oppressing you every time you can’t beat them black and blue.

All women are exactly like this, and you have 100% accurately described literally all of these arrogant skirts who all they want is something for nothing, unlike you, the most generous and accommodating gentleman who ever lived.

Me: We can’t advise using this image for the banner you wanted. Do you have the original photo?

Client: No, this is all I have. Why can’t you use it?

Me: Because it’s a small, low-resolution image, it’ll look horrendous when blown up to the banner size.

Client: Can’t you use the computer to make it bigger?

Me:  That’s not how it works. Can you get hold of the original photo? I can see what I can do with that if you have it.

Client: Jesus, if you don’t want the work, then just say so. Don’t make up f***ing excuses. Are you going to do it or not?

Me: We can do it, but it’s going to look terrible unless you can send me a larger image

Client: Why?

CREDIT: Shutterstock

A Canadian high school student and her mother are taking their objections to abstinence-only education all the way to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, saying that making the teen sit through a Christian-based course about sexual purity violated her rights as a nonbeliever.

Last year, when Emily Dawson’s public school required her to attend a two-day abstinence education class delivered by a conservative religious group, she was shocked by what she heard from the speaker. “She did a lot of slut-shaming to the women, and pointed out the guys as horn-dogs,” Emily, who is now 18 years old, recounted to the Edmonton Journal. She also said that questions about same-sex relationships from LGBT students were immediately shut down.

Emily’s mother, Kathy Dawson, tried to pull her out of the course so she wouldn’t have to attend the second day. But school officials told her that attendance was mandatory in order for Emily to pass her Career and Life Management class. High school students in Alberta can’t graduate without passing that class.

So Dawson decided to sit in on the abstinence lecture to experience it for herself — and, as a single mother, she was personally offended by the messages about families like hers. Dawson told CBC News that the speakers were essentially “bashing” single parents, saying that their kids are “prone to depression, suicide, juvenile delinquency.”

The two-day course was provided by the Pregnancy Care Centre, an anti-abortion group that’s affiliated with a network of right-wing “crisis pregnancy centers” in the United States called Care-Net. Both groups advocate against sex before marriage and consider themselves to be part of the pro-life movement. Dawson, who identifies as an agnostic, signed a permission slip for her daughter to receive sex ed — but she had no idea that these groups were going to be providing it.

“It’s values-based sex ed and all the values are evangelical values,” Dawson told the Edmonton Journal. “It’s not even mainstream Christianity. I’m not against abstinence. But I think the message is diminished when it’s surrounded by misinformation and fear.” She alleges that Emily’s abstinence-only course told kids that most boys have HPV under their fingernails, gonorrhea can kill you in just three days, and girls need to dress modestly to avoid tempting boys.

Emily’s public school district maintains that the abstinence assembly meets school guidelines. So the mother and daughter brought their complaint to the human rights commission, citing a section of Alberta’s Human Right Act — legislation that was enacted in their province in 2009 — that gives parents the right to exempt their children from courses that cover sex, sexual orientation, or religion. This week, the commission agreed to review that complaint.

Here in the United States, similar faith-based groups are involved in developing abstinence education curricula implemented in school districts across the country. These courses typically tell students that sex will make them dirty, and drive that point home with exercises that compare sexually active individuals with chewed up gum, dirty chocolate, and spit. It’s not uncommon for public schools to host mandatory assemblies focusing on these topics. Last year, a West Virginia high schooler made national headlines after she protested being forced to attend a similar “slut-shaming” course.

Proponents of abstinence-only programs typically claim that teaching kids medically accurate information about their bodies will convince them to start having more sex. But there’s actually a large body of research that’s confirmed the kids who receive accurate information about sexuality, contraception, and STDs are more likely to delay having sex until they’re older. Nonetheless, there aren’t currently any national standards for implementing comprehensive sex education classes in public schools.

The post High Schooler Files Human Rights Complaint Over ‘Slut-Shaming’ Abstinence Education Class appeared first on ThinkProgress.

In his majority opinion in the recent Hobby Lobby case, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito took pains to frame the ruling, exempting companies from complying with Obamacare's contraceptive mandate if it violated the religious beliefs of their owners, as a narrow one. But gay and civil rights groups have long warned that a decision permitting such a religious exemption could have broad ramifications, potentially allowing employers to discriminate against gays. Now, their fears may be coming to pass.

"What we've seen since last week's decision came down is that opponents of LGBT equality have pushed a misreading of that decision as having broadly endorsed discrimination against people, including LGBT people in the workplace," says Ian Thompson, a legislative representative for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told Mother Jones that the Hobby Lobby ruling "opens the door for corporations to discriminate against anyone that doesn't look, sound, or share the religious beliefs that they do. This isn't a business agenda; it's an extreme social agenda and it is deeply unpopular with the American people."

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Archie Comics has developed a reputation for doing the unexpected and somehow pulling it off. The wholesome publisher pipped Marvel and DC to the lead in launching an ongoing book with a gay teen protagonist in Kevin Keller; it broke with the conventions of comic book continuity with its attention-grabbing Archie Marries... books; and it successfully brought zombies to Riverdale with its critically and commercially successful Afterlife With Archie books, potentially kicking off a new line of horror books.

So it feels in keeping with that spirit that Archie Comics announced yesterday that it plans to relaunch its cheery (and under-exposed) Red Circle superhero line as 'Dark Circle,' a line of adult-oriented series with the sophisticated narrative ambitions of HBO or Showtime. It's certainly unexpected. Can Archie Comics pull it off?

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It was a truly groundbreaking moment in television. Educationally driven science content was once anathema on primetime television, but earlier this year, Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson and company set out to prove that wrong with Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a remake of the classic Carl Sagan-hosted show from 1980.

And if today's Emmy nominations mean anything, the result is a major triumph. Cosmos has received 12 of them.

That's not quite as good as the 19 for Game of Thrones, or 16 for Breaking Bad, but it's a very significant number, and it includes nominations for "Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series," "Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming" (for writers Ann Druyan and Steven Soter), "Outstanding Direction for Nonfiction Programming" (for director Brannon Braga).

In fact, that's actually a tie with HBO's True Detective, which also got 12 nominations.

Recently, I interviewed Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the face of the new show, who remarked on how to interpret its success. "You had entertainment writers putting The Walking Dead in the same sentence as Cosmos," said Tyson. "Game of Thrones in the same sentence of Cosmos. 'How's Cosmos doing against Game of Thrones?' That is an extraordinary fact, no matter what ratings it earned."

The Emmy nominations will certainly give entertainment writers another such opportunity. In fact, it's already happening. And when a science television show is celebrated by the deacons of popular culture, that can only be good news for the place of science in American society. (Note: the Showtime climate change documentary Years of Living Dangerously also received 2 Emmy nominations.)

The Cosmos nominations are for:

Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series

Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Direction for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality Competition Program

Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Main Title Design

Outstanding Musical Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)

Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music

Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera)

Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming and

Outstanding Special and Visual Effects.

The full list of Emmy nominations can be found here.

To listen to our Inquiring Minds podcast interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, you can stream below:

An update about the Tesla Museum.

We've known for almost a year that Sir Ian McKellen would be the next actor to take on the mantle of Sherlock Holmes—albeit a much older Holmes, in Bill Condon's upcoming film Mr. Holmes. Now, we finally get our first look at him in-character!

[The suspense is killing us, too]

Yesterday, McKellen tweeted out this photo of himself as the great detective at the ripe old age of 93. Along with the photo, he wrote:

Over 70 actors have previously played Sherlock Holmes. Now he's 93 years old and it's my turn. #MrHolmes

Condon's film is based on Mitch Cullin's novel A Slight Trick of the Mind, which sees an aging Holmes obsessing over an unsolved case.

We guess it makes sense that Holmes would have outgrown the deerstalker in his twilight years. (And now we're imagining a second photo of McKellen in full beekeeper garb, as befits the older Holmes in canon.) But who will play Watson? While we would die if Patrick Stewart took on the role, so far there's been no news to encourage this particular fantasy. (And every indication that the movie is Watson-less.)

Mr. Holmes' release date is set for 2015.

Photo: Twitter/Ian McKellen

Since The New 52 set records three years ago, the DCU has adhered to a rather rigid house style, one primarily based on 90s comics. But things are DEFINITELY loosening up a bit, as a new team is taking over Batgirl, and it’s one based way more in tumblr culture than Wizard magazine.

Starting with issue #35, Cameron Stewart and Brendan Fletcher (Assassin’s Creed, Batman Inc) will writer the book, and Babs Tarr will draw it. Stewart will do covers and layouts. Jordie Bellaire will color the book

Tarr is a newcomer, but her style is way more in line with the YA/”cutecorp” style that has been running rampant everywhere but in the DCU. And just to make it clear where she’s coming from, the tells MTV:

Tarr: I am excited to bring some flirt, fun, and fashion to the title! I don’t think you see a lot of that in mainstream comics and I am excited to bring that to the table. Who doesn’t love a sassy super hero?

Wow, after years of girl-friendly YA proposals getting shot down at DC, first Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan and Karl Kerschl and now this? Wake-up everyone, it’s 2014!

And oh yeah, Batgirl got yellow Doc Martens to wear instead of high heeled boots. Because girl power. I have to confess it isn’t easy to run in Doc Martens, but that’s okay because IT IS TIME TO MARKET A YOUTHFUL FEMALE SUPERHERO CHARACTER TO TEEN-AGE GIRLS.

This does leave fan favorite writer Gail Simone off the book, but she has a new project yet to be announced, MTV assures us. Last time she left, there was a kerfuffle, but this seems to be more permanent.

More art from Tarr:

BATGIRL #35
Written by CAMERON STEWART and BRENDEN FLETCHER
Art by BABS TARR
Cover by CAMERON STEWART
MONSTERS Variant cover by KEVIN NOWLAN
On sale OCTOBER 8 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Barbara Gordon is no stranger to dusting herself off when disaster strikes… so when a fire destroys everything she owned, she spots the opportunity for a new lease on life — and seizes it! Following the rest of Gotham’s young adults to the hip border district of Burnside, Barbara sets about building an all-new Batgirl… and discovers all-new threats preying on her peers! It’s a re-invention of Batgirl from the boots up, by the incredible creative team of Cameron Stewart (BATMAN INC.), Brenden Fletcher (WEDNESDAY COMICS), and rising star artist Babs Tarr!

About two weeks ago, Electronic Arts boss Andrew Wilson talked about what a shame it was that EA made a mobile version of Dungeon Keeper that most fans of the franchise hated with a passion that burned hotter than the fire of a thousand suns.

Yesterday, in an interview with GamesIndustry International, EA Mobile big cheese Frank Gibeau suggests that EA might have innovated too much with Dungeon Keeper Mobile.

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GameStop CEO Paul Raines says that yesterday's news that the company wants to get more involved in the development process in order to bring exclusive content to the retailer may have been slightly misunderstood. The Raines interview with Time that comes on the heels of comments from a financial analyst with R.W. Baird who reported that GameStop management was discussing the possibility of ramping up the company's participation in game development during a recent investor meeting.

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Strap yourself in for another day of new anime announcements at Crunchyroll! The first title in today’s bumper crop is Season Two of Encouragement of Climb, based on the manga by Shiro.

Encouragement of Climb Season Two begins TODAY at 10:00am Pacific Time for premium members, with free members able to watch one week later. Future episodes will be broadcast at the regular time of Wednesdays at 8:30am Pacific Time. More information can be found on http://www.crunchyroll.com/encouragement-of-climb-season-2. 

Official Synopsis  

Do you want to see sunrise again from the top of mountain?

Aoi and Hinata are childhood friends. Aoi prefers staying indoors and is afraid of heights, whereas Hinata is outgoing and loves mountaineering. They both decide to climb a mountain in order to see a sunrise they saw together when they were younger.

Encouragement of Climb Season Two will be available to Crunchyroll’s audience in the following territories: U.S.A, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Demark, Iceland, Netherlands, Turkey, Latin America (Central and South America including Caribbean), Spain, Portugal, France and DOM/TOM, Belgium,Andorra, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany,Austria, Liechtenstein, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Romania, the Middle East and North Africa

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Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He is also the editor of Otaku USA magazine. Check out his rather amazing Tumblr at japanesefashioninferno.tumblr.com.

You know that chestnut of a scene in a sitcom where a person totally forgets their anniversary then has to scramble to pretend that they remembered the big day all along? In many ways, that is what this post is.

So yeah, we sort of forgot about the anniversary of the blog this year. In a way, it was the blog itself that made it so easy to forget.

The first five years of running the blog (and then podcast) seemed like more of a struggle; every few months was a desperate battle to build an identity and gain a following. Realizing we got into a bit of predictable pattern by our sixth year jump started a few changes in the site.

The Case Closed and Postmortem podcasts definitely came out of that. They’re not as popular as the SWAT Reviews but these new short podcasts make good and vital bookends to our first impressions.

Alain started the Riot Control Reviews because people love hearing about horrible things. If anything people are probably saddened that he doesn’t watch even worse shows at the start of the new season. Alain has also tried out video reviews of manga chapters with A Chapter a Day Keeps the Doctor Away on YouTube; it is currently on hiatus.

Our big push for 2014 has been to make the content on the blog and podcast more accessible. All the podcasts are now available on Stitcher and YouTube. We recently started a Tumblr account which cross-promotes all our content as well as other original musings.

A minor change but one worth noting is we started using our real names a bit more. Part of it was Kate being more comfortable with using her real name in print and part of it is being mildly tired of people mixing us up. (Also as always Kate trying to point out once and for all she knows next to nothing about Type-Moon no matter how much people insist otherwise.)

We don’t know what the future holds for the site, we certainly aren’t going anywhere, but how much things will continue to change rather than just honing what we have now will remain to be seen.

What do you all think about how Reverse Thieves has changed in the last seven years? How long have you been visiting? What’s the the #1 reason you visit the blog and/or listen to the podcast?

-Alain
~ kate

I was excited for Ms. Marvel from the moment it was announced. I reblogged it, retweeted it, called my mother about it, chatted it up at my local comic shop. But secretly, I was more than a little certain that it would suck in all the usual ways. Sure, the cover was splashy, and sure, I was hearing good things about G. Willow Wilson. But I was girded for — and expected — twenty or so lackluster issues before cancellation.

The first issue came out, and it was good. Really good. It was bright and fun and electric with personality in every way a comic can be, from its color palette to its ending splash. Still, though, I was unconvinced — fantastic first issues have given way to mediocrity before.

But the second issue was great. And the third. And the fourth. And with the fifth issue and the first arc completed, I feel that I can finally let out the breath I've been holding and say that Ms. Marvel is truly wonderful work.

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We don't call them teabirchers for nothing. For years, a whole lot of us have been saying that even though Charles and David Koch don't have membership cards to the John Birch Society, they're peddling the same message in a different format.

Now we have evidence of that. Democracy Now! and Progressive Magazine have unearthed documents showing that Charles Koch was a documented, card-carrying, activist member of the John Birch Society during the Civil Rights Era.

From the transcript:

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This April, for the first time in many years, Michael and Matthew Chapman, released a brand new Homestar Runner cartoon. It was wonderful. And now, here's even better news: the flash cartoon website will be churning back to life full time. Eeeeeemail!

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