Comics Wrap-Up - I'll Stop Wearing Black When They Make a Darker Colour

Tomorrow is Avengers: Infinity War release day!!!!!!!!!!!! 

(Also, I know I've said this a lot, but MAN they need to not f**k this up!!!! Seriously Marvel.)

And say no to spoilers! (Espec. people who have managed to see previews!!!!)

The Play's The Thing!

I was watching the BBC version of Hamlet starring Andrew Scott the other day (y'know, the Irish guy who plays Moriarty?) and a thought popped into my head:

Plays should count for the Goodreads Challenge!

(My Goodreads account is private. Sorry.)

Friday Fics Fix - A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far, Away...

I, personally, love the current Star Wars set-up.

There's angst, lightsabers, spaceships and sh**, and a dude with his shirt off - honestly, I don't expect anything beyond that.

(Sorry die-hard Star Wars fans, but let's face it, the stories and dialogue were never what your nostalgia-happy brains purport them to be... Please don't hurt me.)

Comics Wrap-Up - I'm Here At The Beginning of The End

(Expect extreme fangirling in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...)

Comics Wrap-Up - She Said My Boy It's Dagger

Let's see what I have for you this week...

Comics Wrap-Up - You're Gonna Hear Me Roar

Firstly, my dearest nerdlets, Happy St. David's Day/Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus! You can check out some Welsh-language music in a blogpost I wrote on Sunday to celebrate.


Yes, I have now seen Black Panther! It was totally awesome-ful! XD (And most of what I have for you this week is Black Panther-related!)


And this week is one of those weeks where everything I have for you comes under the 'other stuff' category. Blame Loki. #AlwaysBlameLoki

Comics Wrap-Up - My Heart Is In Danger From Shadows and Strangers Now

No, I haven't seen Black Panther yet - I'm going to go see it Monday, hopefully! :)

So on with the rest of this week's comics wrap-up:

Comics Wrap-Up - If This Is What You Want Then Fire At Will

I'm writing this week's wrap-up with the flu. So if I say things that don't make any sense, just smile and pat me on the head, k? 😉

Friday Fics Fix - Dumbledore is Gay. Dumbledore is Gay. Dumbledore. Is. Gay. Deal With It.

You may or may not know that the chance has once again been lost to allow the Harry Potter universe's Albus Dumbledore to BE gay on-screen.

Why is that important when J K Rowling has already said (over ten years ago,) that Prof. Dumbledore is a gay dude? Because word-of-God/author is not the same as on-screen canonisation (official-ness.) It comes across as queer-baiting. At best.

Comics Wrap-Up - I'm Not a Perfect Person

A bunch of Marvel movie stuff for you this week, my nerdlets - check it out:

Friday Fics Fix - Combined Forces

Here we are then, in 2018! And it's time for the first Friday Fics Fix of the year!

In case you don't know (because the internet has a short memory, and also you might be new to Dora Reads - in which case, welcome! Please stay! Lol,) Friday Fics Fix is a weekly post where I recommend (or 'rec') a piece of fanfiction.

Basically, I started this post series because fanfiction totally counts as reading! And it should be completely counted as such! #EffTheSnobs





So with that established, let's take a look at this week's rec!

OK, I have some Star Wars for you this week - which I haven't done before, because while I like Star Wars, it's not like my be-all-and-end-all. And I know people take Star Wars pretty seriously!

Friday Fics Fix - B-A-B-Y Baby

Something a li'l different for you this week my nerdlets!

This week I've got a fic based on the awesome film Baby Driver - if you haven't seen it, it's pretty damned cool!

For those not in the know (or in need of a reminder,) Baby Driver is about a getaway driver called Baby who plays music (LOUD) on a semi-permanent basis to drown out his tinnitus (and the whiny bank robbers he works with.)

Comics Wrap-Up - I Think It Looked a Little Better On Me

TV Trailers




New little trailers for the CW's DC shows guys!!!

Comics Wrap-Up - Miss Atomic Bomb

Film Trailers and Films

I'm actually gonna give you some slightly older trailers for two based-on-comics films I've seen over the past two weeks*

*Yes, two films in two weeks. I bought a year cinema pass, so I literally go there every week; after the first 20 films, it's paid for itself.

And I've seen like 24 or 25 now. If you're a movie fan, maybe look at similar deals where you are? #BudgetTipsWithCee - lol! ;)

Comics Wrap-Up - Where Were You When All of the Embers Fell?

Graphic Novels

This week, I read Doom Patrol, Volume 1: Brick by Brick, one of the DC Young Animal/Gerard Way titles.

And yes, I bl**dy loved it!

(Amazon: UK - US)

It's already out in the US and will be out in the UK on the 13th - so my review will be appearing sometime on or around the UK release date (I haven't decided precisely when yet.)

If you're a fan of surreal-ness and/or any of Gerard Way's other comics, you're gonna love it.

Friday Fics Fix - Mr Scamander

Once again, my nerdlets, I bring you a great piece of #ownvoices fanfiction.

Fanfiction is often the place where diverse stories can find a voice - which isn't always possible in mainstream media.

This fic is awesome. It's heart-wrenching, heart-breaking, but also spirit-lifting.

And it's supremely well-written. Simply put, it's beautiful.

Simply put, it's beautiful. Click to Tweet.

Comics Wrap-Up - If I Could Save Time In A Bottle

OK, due to a) a sh**ty cold that makes it hard for me to concentrate, and b) Loki (alwaaays blame Loki guys, 9/10 times, it was him,) everything I have for you today falls under the heading of 'Other Stuff.'

So, on to the Other Stuff!

#DisabilityDiaries2017 | Harry Potter and the Representation of Scarring

(Flashing Images Warning: there are some gifs with flashing images in this blogpost which may cause problems for those with photosensitive conditions such as epilepsy or migraines.)



Let's kick off Disability Diaries 2017 with something a little different. Let's talk about scars.

(The lovely Ely @ Tea and Titles came up with the idea of Disability Diaries - a week long event running from 14th-21st Jan 2017, discussing disability, books, and disability in books. 

Ely, myself, Angel @ Angel Reads, Dina @ Dinasoaur, Jolien @ The Fictional Reader, and Lara @ Another Teen Reader are running it.)

Scars. A physical sign of illness and injury. Not a disability, but often an indication of one, and often made into one by the way society treats them.

I have a lot of scars.

My scars are mundane - sorry, but there's no cool story of danger and adventure, neither is there any trauma you can romanticise.

But I'm covered in lines of silver, purple, and pink.

I scar easily - my skin is 'sensitive,' which is another way of saying 'my skin reacts to numerous substances and allergens, because my immune system treats them as a threat.' But that's not as pithy, I agree.

My skin also takes a long time to heal. So a simple scratch from my cat may leave a reddish purpleish line for 6 months or more.

So, with my variety of permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary scars, I notice the way we portray scars, in books and elsewhere.

Guess what? Society and media is cr*p at representation of scars. And for someone with low self-esteem (hello there! 🙋) it can have a really negative affect on how you view yourself.

Shall we take our most well-known scarred hero as an example?

(And I'd like to just point out that, like most people, I love Harry Potter and simply want to use this as an example to discuss scarring. It's really not an attack on anyone's enjoyment of anything.)

via GIPHY

What do we know about Harry Potter's famous scar?

• it's lightning shaped
• it's the result of a magical curse that rebounded
• it's on his forehead
• it gives him magical Spidey-sense to let him know when Voldemort's faffing about
• it's permanent

And what does that tell us, my nerdlets, about the representation of scarring here?

His scar might be shaped like a lightning bolt, but it's a clean line.

Scars are often jagged, uneven, and/or unsightly.

Rowling falls into the trope of Good Scars vs Evil Scars - good scars, the kind heroes get, are either attractive or barely noticeable.

They are clean lines, as if made by a precision instrument, and healed evenly.

The villains get to have 'scary' jagged or unsightly scars, to show that they're evil inside and out (*sighs*.)

via GIPHY

It gives Harry a dramatic backstory.

It's a sign that he's 'the Chosen One' - it's derring-do and noble-suffering bound into one little line on his head.

And, just to be handy, it never dries out and flakes in the winter, forcing him to use non-heroic moisturiser.

Harry's scar is easily hidden.

Harry wears his hair long to hide his scar. While I would defend the right of anyone with a scar to either hide it, or display it, as they choose, why does Rowling choose to hide Harry's scar?

Is it, perhaps, because society sees facial imperfections and scars as something shameful, some sign of corruption? 

By hiding his scar, he can hide his imperfection. Rowling's hero is flawed, but not where anyone can see it.

But guess what? Scars are ok. They are not a corruption, or a flaw of character. They are simply damaged skin.

Harry's scar 'aches.'

OK, I'm about to blow your mind - SCARS DON'T HURT. Yes, yes, magic and all that. But scars have limited pain receptors.

Unless you cut through all the skin layers, they will very rarely actually hurt. The skin around them might ache or hurt, especially if they've dried out and tightened, but the scar itself? Not usually.

Scars are simply the result of collagen healing the skin. Yeah - collagen, that stuff they put in dermal fillers? Very few pain receptors.







And Harry's scar has magical Voldy Spider-sense.

Granted, this is handy plot-wise, and has the added 'oh, poor Harry!' effect that Rowling was clearly going for.

But what is this saying, really?

That scars are a constant reminder of the bad parts of your life and your past? That physical scars and psychological ones are directly linked?

That scars have to be (as Dumbledore says) 'useful' in order to be present on a hero instead of on a villain?

via GIPHY

Scars actually change over time, you know that?

They can change vastly for about 2 years after the injury or other damage to the skin, and can change in appearance after that as your body ages.

You wouldn't think that, given that scars in so many books etc. are either healed completely within a week or two, or permanently in a specific state for the rest of the character's life.



If your character ages, their scar should too.

Stretch marks in particular will silver as you get older (and no, stretch marks aren't just from pregnancies - they also occur in growth spurts, and sometimes around injuries where the skin has had to grow more quickly than normal in order to heal the wound.)

I have a small indented scar above my eye from where I had some face-time with a table aged six (it had staples sticking out of it, and accident-prone Cee over here just had to connect with the stapled portion of the table.)

It looks different all the freaking time. If I'm tired, it really stands out. Some days, it's barely there at all. Skin is stretchy and crinkly - especially on your face.






So, there I am as a kid, reading Harry Potter, and wondering why the hell his scar looks the same all the time? Why doesn't it flake? Why is it aching, but never pulling with skin tightness?

Facial skin moves a lot, and you know those lines you get in your forehead when you're making expressions? They should've made Harry's scar look different all the time.





Ms Rowling chose to give Harry a facial scar, yet doesn't seem to know what that entails.

I would've loved it if he wandered down to Madame Pomfrey every now and then in winter to ask for lotion of some kind.

Or maybe a description of the weird feeling of not-feeling when you move a joint or a muscle (like, in your forehead, for example) with a scar overlapping it?





Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Harry, or against J K Rowling. It just would've been nice if, when writing a kid with a scar, she thought about what that was like.

Like this post? Try these:

• The Harry Potter Tag
• Nerd Church! - 5 Things Characters Do That You Shouldn't

Comics Wrap-Up - Something Strange

Film Trailers

A bunch more Doctor Strange trailers/clips for you guys:

I actually saw Doctor Strange on Monday - it was awesome BUT there are two things which CAN'T be ignored:

Tilda Swinton's character is whitewashed. (I love her, but it's true.)

And this film fails Bechdel.

via GIPHY

Get your act together Marvel.

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And there's a new Wonder Woman trailer:

Looks pretty cool, and clears up that this is supposed to be WW1 not WW2.

(The uniforms still look more WW2 in places guys, I know, but *sighs* anachronisms)

-0-

And the trailer for Logan came out last week!

This is the wonderful Hugh Jackman's last film as Wolverine :'O

It looks really awesome, and I always love me an Old Man Logan storyline.

(Oh, and the reason he looks older than Prof X? That's because he is older than Prof X - see X-Men Origins: Wolverine for details ;P )

Single Issues

This week I read Suicide Squad #1 of the 2011-2014 run. (US link)

One thing in particular I liked about this issue? Diablo doesn't speak much English in stressful situations (because why the hell would he?!)

Graphic Novels

This week I reviewed Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah by Nicolas Otero (UK - US.)

It's an interesting read, but I did have some issues with it. Check out my review here.










Like this post? Try these:

• Wonder Woman and the UN
• Review! (Graphic Novel Edition!) - Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah by Nicolas Otero

5 Spoopy Book-To-Film Adaptations For Halloween

Hello dearest nerdlets! Halloween is coming up (which, if you've spent 5 minutes on social media lately, you've probably noticed,) so I decided to give you a little list of 5 book-to-film adaptations in the Halloween-y spirit!

1. The Crow

The adaptation of James O'Barr's amazing graphic novel is a) violent and b) awesome. Not for kids, this is... rough... but is still, most definitely, worth the watch.

Brandon Lee played the title role of Eric Draven, and, infamously, was sadly killed on set by a freak set of circumstances which resulted in live ammo being used. He was amazing in this film.

Amazon: UK - US

2. Secret Window

This comes from a Stephen King short story/novella-type-thing called Secret Window, Secret Garden, and stars Johnny Depp.

Book nerds will especially love this one (yes guys, I know my audience dammit!) because it follows a writer, and deals with imagination, the power of stories, and characters/plot.

The denouement (fancy words!) is different in the short story - but, to be honest, I love both (but did find it ironic that a plot obsessed with story endings changed the ending of the story.)

Amazon: UK - US

3. Harry Potter (series)

Yes, this counts! There are witches and wizards and sh**!

And not everyone wants things to be too scary on Halloween - so, to them, I give the notion of a Harry Potter marathon. My gift to you. ;)

Amazon: UK - US

4. Interview With The Vampire

My friends, Lestat started my love affair with all things vamp, and to that I will always thank this film (which I saw before I read the book! Shocking! But I actually do that a lot.)

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt playing two exceptionally sexy vampires - truly, what more could you want?

And yes, the queer aspects of the story are toned down - but there is no denying* the homoeroticism here. (Fans self.)

*although, someone I went to school with did think they were 'just being friendly' - because, y'know, we all stroke our friends' faces lovingly and breathe lustily in their faces every now and then. (Eye rolls.)

Amazon: UK - US

5. Constantine

The Bestie would kill me if this wasn't on the list.

Therefore I give in to the higher power that is my friend's wrath, and give you this comic-book-based tale of hell and damnation. Plus Keanu Reeves. #JobDone.

Oh, and I've actually reviewed this! (I really need to do more bookish film reviews... I just keep forgetting!) You can check out that review here.

Amazon: UK - US

Like this post? Try these:

• Popcorn Review! - Constantine (2005)
• Welsh Halloween Traditions