Thursday, July 13, 2006

Visit Ashley's Ink On Paper

I get quite a few visitors each day. If you're reading this, there's something I want you to do: click on over to Ashley's Ink On Paper.

Ashley is an aspiring comic-book writer who is branching out into other areas of writing as well. Like all aspiring writers, the one thing she really needs are readers. Getting readers in the blog world is tough, since there are so many blogs out there and only so much time for cruising around reading. All of the blogs that I've linked on the side come with my personal stamp of approval. A couple are friend-of-a-friend blogs, but even they have passed the readability test. I may not agree with what is said in all of them - at least one I vehemently disagree with on many points - but I read all of them on a regular (or semi-regular) basis. And so should you.

So, right now, I'm asking you to visit Ashley's Ink On Paper. Ashley is someone who has the nerve to try to do something that other people might say is futile. She's trying to break into the male-dominated world of comics. I am an avid reader of comics myself. Some comics are brilliant and excellent, but in others there is an obvious boys'-club mentality - female characters will appear only as overdeveloped sex objects or bimbos in thongs. (Even Lois Lane was spotted in a recent comic wearing a thong - was it really necessary to show that?) Ashley can make a difference. She can bring a fresh perspective to a genre that is often hackneyed, repetitive, and sexist. But she needs encouragement. Please visit her site. Hell, she's been blogging for a short enough period of time that you can go through her archives and read every entry in chronological order, from beginning to end, in a single long afternoon at work.

By the way: I have a Sitemeter, and she has a Sitemeter. I'll know if you visited here and didn't visit there. I will be very disappointed in anyone who visits here and doesn't visit there. Don't make me disappointed. You wouldn't like me when I'm disappointed.

So please visit Ashley's Ink On Paper. Read her stuff, leave her comments. Go there again tomorrow, and the next day, and every day after that. Do it as a favor to me.*

*If you are a fan of The State, you are now morally obligated to visit. I mean, come on, how many times do you come across references to The State?

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