Welcome to Everything

A quick bit of comic book trivia for any non-comics fans: a few years back, a comics fan (and future comics writer) named Gail Simone set up a website dedicated to "Women in Refrigerators" -- women characters in comic books who got killed off, maimed, and abused solely as a method for giving male superheroes angst and drama. Gwen Stacy, Karen Page, Alex DeWitt -- all killed off so the lead character would get a chance to grit his teeth and swear vengeance.…

Also a 2017 action film starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins.

Before the spoilers, I will say this: GO AND SEE THIS MOVIE.

And before you forget, NO, SERIOUSLY, GO AND SEE THIS MOVIE. EVEN IF YOU READ THE SPOILERS AND KNOW THE STORY, GO SEE IT ANYWAY - IT IS THAT WELL DONE.

Let's get the plot out of the way first:

Diana, princess of the absolutely gorgeous island of Themyscira - lives in a literal Eden surrounded by only women. She is the only child…

The Stainless Steel Rat
by
Harry Harrison
Walker and Co., 1961.

When the office door opened suddenly, I knew the game was up. It had been a money-maker -- but it was all over. As the cop walked in I sat back in the chair and put on a happy grin. He had the same somber expression and heavy foot they all have -- and the same lack of humor. I almost knew to the word what he was going to say before he uttered a syllable.

A comic by Gary Brookins, the artist behind Shoe.

In the strip's parlance a "plugger" is someone who just goes to work day in day out - a blue collar, salt of the earth type. By extension it's also a reader of same who identifies with the midwestern, elderly, down-homey conservative blue collar type.

The fact that he uses anthropomorphic animals to represent "pluggers" (a chicken, a rhino, a cat) and some odd - firstly allows the portly animals to be realistically drawn as…