I love stories like this - it’s funny how the things we find important seem in retrospect to have found us - and it’s kind of a nice feeling. :)
I was telling Dan, earlier today, about my first real exposure to the world of independent music.
I was near the end of my second year of university - in London, living with a guy I was on the verge of breaking up with and two girls I’d met in fresher’s week who weren’t even speaking to me by…
For those of you who don’t know, Fleur is an awesome musician in her own right and will be touring the North American west coast in September and October. #kiwipower!
(Source: fleurjack)
Jhonen Vasquez: still the funniest guy in underground comix. #dementedforever
A crossover Jess Fink/ME fan sent me a link to this very old comic of mine from before I had a grizzled beard. This appeared in an issue of JTHM or Squee or who knows what, but just know that it appeared. There’s more to it than these two pages, but two pages is probably more than enough.
These are the first 2 pages of a strip by Jhonen Vasquez from his series SQUEE.
You can find the rest yourself as I don’t feel comfortable scanning the whole thing. I believe at some point the super ladies’ back snaps in half, unable to support her ridiculous tits. Good times! Remind anyone of Strong Female Characters?
This comic pops into my head often when I think about women in comics. The sad thing is this comic is from 1997. We are STILL complaining and making jokes like this about how ridiculous women look in comics FIFTEEN YEARS LATER. Jesus, I feel old.
I never read super hero comics. This comic made me laugh when I read it in high school just as much as it does now because it’s the REASON I never read them.The women in them didn’t look like they were made with me in mind, they weren’t made about or for real women.
The thing that is different today compared to 1997 is that there are so many more visible female creators making amazing things on the internet. I was inspired by the comics I read in high school like the MAXX, SCUDD and JTHM to go out and make my own things, tell my own stories. I never once even thought of working for DC or Marvel because the type of characters they featured had no appeal to me and I wasn’t interested in becoming a part of someone else’s story, I wanted to make my own.
EDIT: I guess I have to make clear that this comic is parody? It’s making FUN of super hero comics. I didn’t think I had to clarify that but that’s the internet.
Jordan Reyne, New Renaissance Woman 
2011 is proving to be an incredible year for Auckland’s own Jordan Reyne. On Monday, July 18th her song, “Long Way to Climb,” closed out Shortland Street’s feature-length episode to a high note that’s left Shorty fans buzzing, and she’s just announced a short story-writing competition for her fans to help develop the storyline of her upcoming concept album, Children of a Factory Nation. Last month she donned her wellies and braved acres of mud to play the UK’s largest outdoor summer festival at Glastonbury (mere few weeks after having relocated from Hamburg to London,) and a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign (with celebrity endorsement from Rosanne Cash) raised enough money this spring to ensure that her new album will be supported by a full UK tour when it’s released in the fall - not bad for a lone kiwi!
Machines have always factored prominently in her music so it’s no wonder that Jordan attributes so much of her recent success to technology. Since “Long Way to Climb” was originally released on her first album in 1997 the growth of the internet has allowed her to make a living as an indie musician. Her following has spread across 3 continents, and fans routinely meet up and interact during her weekly shows online in StreamJam, Ustream and Second Life. They flock to her from various and diverse internet communities - from steampunks, historians, and writers to comic fans and cinephiles - and every indication suggests that this is an ongoing trend.
ABOUT JORDAN REYNE
Jordan Reyne is the original devil’s apologist. The three-time New Zealand Music Awards nominee rewrites history’s grand narratives from the perspective of common people and overturns accepted historical assumptions to show us the forgotten tales of ordinary lives beneath. Like Grimm’s fairy tales set to music in Tolkien’s mines of Moria, Jordan’s songs blend elements of folklore, Celtic music, and industrial found sound into a style all her own.
Her last album, How the Dead Live, was commissioned by the New Zealand Arts Council and marked the beginning of her use of historical narratives in song. Other projects have included vocal work on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Café del Mar; various dance remixes, and other soundtracks for film and television. She performed a number of sets, including a slot on the Greenpeace stage, at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
Find out more about Jordan at her website www.jordanreyne.com
Yes, that’s right - the beloved comic, Heavy Metal, is releasing a new soundtrack to its first ever digital story, GATES - and our Jordan Reyne made the cut!
To honour the contribution of Ronnie James Dio to the first Heavy Metal film soundtrack, GATES creator Hal Hefner has said that all proceeds from the sale of the album (out August 9th) will be donated to Dio’s “Stand Up and Shout” cancer fund.
This just showed up on the Google Alert radar: Jordan Reyne gets a shout-out from a creative craftsperson for providing the soundtrack to a productive crafting session. Woohoo! Bloodthirsty Celtic industrial saves the day!
New live track!
“The Green Song” Recorded at the Cowshed Studio, Glastonbury Festival 2011.
Altered Realities Radio (a horror radio show) interviewed SoundCloud Local: Auckland alumni, Jordan Reyne, this month! If you remember, Jordan is a folklore, sonic landscape songstress, who actually has a new album set to release over the summer. So you know what that means: keep an eye on her SoundCloud page for updates.
You can catch more interviews with Jordan on her label’s SoundCloud page too: soundcloud.com/factorynation
Today is the day that “evil Celtic songstress,” Jordan Reyne, takes the stage at Glastonbury Festival, UK. Scheduled to play the Tadpole stage in Green Fields at 10 p.m. BST, one thing is certain: this is a show that people will tell stories about for a long time to come!
AND DAMN MY LUCK, I WON’T SEE IT! :S
So, please take pictures or something, people.
Boston-area horror program Altered Realities Radio has now posted the interview they did with Jordan on Wednesday. Woohoo!
