Battle of The Vampire Babes, Part Une

You could be forgiven for thinking we're in the midst of an unprecedented madness for vampires with True Blood, Vampire Diaries, and The Twilight Saga being all the rage these days. A better question might be, why vampires ever? Looking back, it's hard to think of a period when we weren't in the middle of a vampire craze.

Beginning in 1897 with Bram Stoker's gothic horror novel, Dracula, since then there have been numerous adaptations and appearances in the media. In 1922, the first vampire movie, Nosferatu was released in theater. Followed by numerous Dracula movies throughout the 1920s to 1960s. In the late 1970s, Anne Rice started raking in the money with Interview With the Vampire, and movies like Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre and the comedy Love at First Bite were critical hits. Then came The Lost Boys, Near Dark, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Innocent Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie), four more Anne Rice books, and Interview With the Vampire (the movie)—which could all be lumped into a rage for vampires that lasted clear through from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Vampires were back again in the mid-1990s, with Buffy (the TV show), the Blade movies, Southern Vampire Mysteries (the book series), and From Dusk Till Dawn. And now we've arrived at the highly touted mid- to late-2000s vogue of Underworld, Twilight (books and movies), True Blood (based on Southern Vampire Mysteries), and The Vampire Diaries. So you see, we might be further along in the vampire craze than what you have imagined.

However, I want to focus more on the contemporary occurrences (this is, after all, a pop-culture blog). Within the last decade there have only been, in my opinion, four significant vampire-madness-inducing franchises in the media. They are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Twilight Saga, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries. Now, we could go onto deep discussions concerning those four particular franchises, but we're not going to do that since it will only spark endless debates. I want to focus more on one aspect, which is the protagonists of each franchises. From my observation, I could gather that contemporary vampire franchises have shifted their focus on the vampire characters to the protagonists who are all happen to be females with the vampire characters being reduced to be the female protagonists' love interests or mere supporting characters. This might indicate a new wave of feminism in this era. What I want to do now is pit all these ladies together to find out who is THE best feminist cultural icon of the decade.Oh, and for those teenage girls who think Bella Swan is a good role model, I'm here to set things straight. Someone is going DOWN!!!

I'm gonna start with Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by Joss Whedon, Buffy is a high school cheerleader who learns that she is the Slayer, a Chosen One gifted with the strength and skills to fight vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. The character of Buffy was created to subvert the stereotypical and cliched female horror film victim, the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every film. Whedon wanted to create a strong female cultural icon.  Buffy avoids the "final girl" character trope seen in horror films, where the androgynous and celibate heroine gets to outlive her friends and exact revenge on their killer. She gets to have sex with boys and still kill the monster. 

Over the course of seven seasons and 144 episodes, Buffy has saved the world a lot of times, died twice, had sex with more than one vampire, lost loved ones, grew up without parents (her father left before the start of the series and her mother died during her sophomore year of college), and had to drop out to support her younger sister. She had to do all of these between battling forces of darkness on a daily basis and studying for exam, yet she still managed to find time to party.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer's thematic and metaphorical elements have inspired countless studies and academia. Buffy is notable for attracting the interest of scholars of popular culture as a subset of popular culture studies. Academic settings increasingly include the show as a topic of literary study and analysis. Buffy eventually led to the publication of around twenty books and hundreds of articles examining the themes of the show from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives including sociology, Speech Communication, psychology, philosophy, and women's studies.

Now if that's not amazing, I don't know what is.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Back to High School with Morning Glories

Fresh from getting excited about the Charmed comic books that I tweeted about sometime ago and Young Avengers' new season, now from Image Comics, comes the latest creation that piqued my interest too. Along with DC, Marvel and Dark Horse, Image Comics is one of the four largest comic book publishers in America. Its best-known series besides Spawn include two of my favorite graphic novels, Invincible and The Walking Dead (which is in production to be a new AMC TV series). They also publish several books from Top Cow Productions including Witchblade and The Darkness.

The Image Comics' new monthly series that I was talking about is called Morning Glory. The plot is centered around the prestigious and highly mysterious Morning Glory Academy prep school, and its newest crop of recruits. Written by Nick Spencer whose credits also include Existence 2.0, Forgetless, and Shuddertown, it was described as Runaways meets Lost, and like the latter, it’s intended as a long-form mystery. Morning Glory Academy is recruiting extraordinary teens from across the country, but we’re not sure why or what exactly is going on within the halls. 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

I forgot when I heard this poem, but from the second I heard it, I've fallen in love with it. This morning, it came up in my thoughts and I got to thinking, "Hey, why don't I post it in my blog? It'd be nice to be able to share this beautiful poem with all my friends."

Is Zombies The New Vampires?

I have always been a fan of zombies and post-apocalyptic fiction. That is why I was so excited when I found about this new series of books that comes from an author named Carrie Ryan. I was looking for a book where I can immerse myself into its world and so rarely I can find the kind of books that can make me stay up late at night and lose sleep over it. What I want is a new series with a good critical acclaim, which is what The Forest of Hands and Teeth is. I am making it a priority to hunt for these books!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a New York Times best-selling post-apocalyptic zombie novel by first-time author Carrie Ryan that is marketed to young-adults. This is the first volume of a projected trilogy. As the story opens, an unexplained disaster has turned much of the human race into mindless, cannibalistic undead. They roam the forest of the title, seeking to destroy a band of survivors barricaded inside a walled village deep in the woods. However, the fence that protects these villagers also imprisons them within a dystopian society marked by violence, secrecy, and repression.

Wonder Woman Gets Stylish With A Makeover

Okay, who doesn't know Wonder Woman? Wonder Woman has been one of the most recognizable face in comic books and pop culture. When you hear someone say the word "Superheroine", her face pops up in your mind. She is considered as one of The Holy Trinity in DC Universe, often featured alongside Superman and Batman. Wonder Woman has been the feminist icon for decades highlighting her strength, intelligence, and ideals as inspirations for women everywhere. In the 70s the character was made popular to mainstream audiences with her own TV Series starring Lynda Carter.

For 69 years since its inception, Wonder Woman has had few significant costume changes. And now with the comic book's 600th issue, incoming series writer J. Michael Straczynski and DC Co-Publisher (also an acclaimed penciller) Jim Lee, decided that Wonder Woman needs a new look and a new direction. This, in part, is attributed to DC's attempt to modernize their superheroes, making them more grounded and realistic. Superheroes who were created several decades ago need to stay relevant to this day and age and updating their costumes can make them more relate-able to new generation of readers. 

Meet Carrie Bradshaw before ‘Sex and the City!’

The Carrie Diaries is the coming-of-age story of one of the most iconic characters of our generation.

Before Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was a small town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school. Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture, and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything.

With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Carrie Diaries is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself, and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer. Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. Through adventures both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.

I'm currently reading this book. I will let you know more how I feel about it once I'm done ^_~*