About Valerie D’Orazio
Valerie D’Orazio (email) is…
A Writer:
Currently scripting “Cloak & Dagger” for Marvel Comics
Press For “Cloak & Dagger”:
A Blogger:
Maintains the popular Occasional Superheroine blog, which averages about 3,500 hits a day.
Press For Occasional Superheroine:
Praise for the blog series, “Goodbye To Comics”
Valerie also runs two other blogs:
Cool Aggregator — a waxy build-up of pop-culture ephemera
Comic Book Junction — the comics we read, the comics we create
The President Of Friends Of Lulu:
Friends of Lulu is a national organization for women in comics.
Coverage of 2008 Lulu Awards & MoCCA Art Fest
Coverage of Friends of Lulu @ New York Comic Con
A Social Media Specialist and Marketing/PR Consultant:
I’ve done social media consulting work for several companies, publishers, individuals, and organizations. This work includes:
* Corporate blogging
* Blog creation and consulation
* Social Media planning and outreach
* Please check out my LinkedIn profile for more details
Just a note to say I hope you’ll keep up the bloggy posts that have more than fluff content. I started following OS during Goodbye to Comics and have lurked more or less a few times a week ever since.
Write what you like to write. I’m sure there’s an audience out there for just about anything. But personally, I like reading more of the introspective than the pandering. I think you bring a nice sarcastic humor and some real insight into some issues that I think should be talked (and more importantly thought about).
Then again… I also became morbidly hypnotized by the leekspin… so what do I know?
I enjoy your page a lot. I’m 37 and I like to know the inner workings of the comic world and I agree with you about the level of violence in comics. I have an 8 year old that I will not let read the VAST majority of my books, which truth be told, are quite main stream and mostly Marvel at the moment. I wouldn’t let people dictate your direction either. You will gain and lose readers in the same #s I would imagine. At any rate, just keep doing what feels right.
I followed the link in your open letter.
I’m a student of corporate culture (I mean that literally; I get my bachelor’s in about seven months,) and I’m interested in what seems to be toxic management in the major comic book companies.
So what if people want fluff pieces? There’s no shortage of that. What there is a shortage of is educated commentary on these corporate madhouses. I say give ‘em hell.
Re: Open Letter
I don’t get the chance to read your blog everyday, but I try to visit a few times a week. Wanted to say, I absolutely would love to hear the important things, the serious stuff. I’ve always thought you have had a good mixture of the serious and the occasional (no pun intended) light stuff.
It’s what drew me to your blog in the first place. Well, that and the quality of writing.
So, keep the serious up. There are those of us out here who appreciate it. And, you may help prevent some of what has happened (the sexual harrassment, the negative dealings with health care, etc.) from happening to others.
Chris
Hi Val-
I’d like you to keep being you, please….
It’s….it’s why I came here in the first place.
Please.
Thanks, and all the best,
Joesmith(realname)
Yo. Just read your blog post on Occasional Superheroine. I had a longer response in mind, though I guess all I have to say is: If you have a whistle to blow, blow it. If there’s something you need to say, say it. If you have convictions you hold close to your heart, hold on to them, even if it means alienating a few naysayers. Besides, wouldn’t it be more worthwhile to spend those moments you cherish on people and things you love rather than drama with people who don’t even know you? Just a thought. There’s an old chestnut that’s been on the internet for awhile. Don’t feed the trolls.
Well I personally like reading your posts and I have other blogs I can go to for my fave Blue Beetle and would prefer that you didn’t go that route. I like your supposed “downer” posts. but good luck. And I suppose you can delete this as you don’t really want it in your about me section. though you did tell us to go here.
I want you to write what you alone can write. That’s what’s been bring me by to read your blog for months now. And frankly I hardly ever even read the comments. I couldn’t care less about what other think about what you write. I care about what you write and I care that I enjoy reading it. What else should really matter? Having been on the other side of the comic industry myself and not having it end well I find a real kinship with what you write. Do what you enjoy. If no one else does it’s their loss. Keep writing and keep fighting the good fight. More than “Occasional” Superheroine I think.
Best Mark
I visit this blog several times daily. It’s on my regular “rotation”, I guess. I don’t always get into everything that’s posted, but so what? More often than not I enjoy what’s there, whether it’s fluff or stuff (read: serious matter).
It’s your blog - post whatever you like. I think social blogs like this work best when they are a reflection of the author. If that means yours is a combination of whimsy and thought-provoking subject matter, go for it. That juxtaposition is infinitely more interesting to most regular readers than a steady stream of one or the other.
Keep sawing the arm off, PLEASE. Sure, sometimes it’s fun to talk Ted Kord vs Jaime Reyes, but that’s not why I come to your blog. So… just sayin. The dumbing-down is pervasive to a scary degree. If free exchange of ideas downshifts permanently to polls… shit, Great Depression II will be boring.
Since this seems to be the place to leave a comment for your “Open Letter” post at Occasional Superheroine, here I am. First, virtual hug. I can’t say that I’m completely aware of what’s going on with you beyond what we’re all going through as Americans and what you’ve put on the blog, but IMHO you can never have enough hugs. But I’m one of those wacky Southerns though, what do I know?
I know I’m more of a lurker reader and have been since I followed a link to Occasional Superheroine, but I lurked because I liked what I read. Your honesty about the industry, pointing out the misogyny without proposing that T&A doesn’t have a place in the market too, your bravery from “Goodbye to Comics” onward by letting your pain out through words, your sarcastic humor (I liked most of the Bush series though my own thoughts had to do with what a radio commenter on the speech had said on the air after I listened to it.); you got writing chops and I think you have the blog hits to prove it. (I’m saving the vampire novel for a slow day at work once I finish clearing out the Bloglines backlog. Don’t read for a week thanks to Gustav, spend a month catching up.) I even liked the reviews and critiques and snarks of what is going on in current comic continuity, even though it has been thrown in my face that I’m not a true fan because I don’t spend money any more on the printed crack. What you wrote is worthwhile to me.
I think I’ll repeat that because I rarely used comments or tried to join in with the others. What you wrote is worthwhile to me.
Now to “Open Letter.” There’s a lot of sarcasm in there but overall I feel pain. (Which makes me scared that I’m completely misreading the entry–guilty of that on more than one occasion–but I admitted that’s what I see.) It’s why I started off with a hug. Pain is what I feel reading this: “But the best part about becoming a Stepford blog — even with that hipster frosting on top, so I can court the crossover readership with BoingBoing, et al — will be that I will no longer be sawing that arm off for everyone to see like my professor in college warned me about. I will be making pleasant observations about food and stuff.”
Your professor was and probably still is full of SHIT. He probably wouldn’t like me either, since my greatest life goal is to have genre fiction published and not true literature. I wish I had my copy of Stephen King’s “On Writing” with me so I could give the exact quote. All I can recommend is that you run down the nearest copy of it, and read about the first adult who made a grade school boy ashamed of what he had written. And the adult Stephen King reminds you that you will be surround by assholes who will try to make you ashamed of what you write with passion and love, and for the love of everything that is right and good in the universe, you CANNOT listen to them. Not if you want any peace with yourself. Publish on the Internet and you can multiply that by the tenth power.
You have been fight with what to do with Occasional Superheroine for a while now. And it’s your words to do with as you please. But the very fact that you described turning it into a “Stepford blog” shows you don’t want to do that. And I’m an advocate for not doing what you don’t want to do, no matter how against the norm or popular opinion or “your best interest” it is.
And I don’t use BoingBoing except when following a link, so I never submit anything to those sites. And I have to wrap up now, so please write what makes you happy on Occasional Superheroine and ignore the trolls that tell you to do otherwise.
Even though I get all those “best blue beetle” feeds in the reader in case there’s something (occasionally) that pertains to my interests, more times than not I skip them. I always read your posts, even the downer ones, even if I don’t necessarily agree, because it’s honest and different.
Hey Valerie!
I read your recent blog (”downer!”). I want to say, as a reader of your blog, that I have really enjoyed reading whatever you write here. I prefer the meatier topics, but can also enjoy the lighter stuff.
I do wonder if your honesty in the blogs hampers you professionally. But you know what? I figure that it’s your business. For me, your blog makes me think and is free. Like a radio or TV, if I don’t like it, I can turn it off. I don’t read it to have my opinions validated. I read it to get other perspectives and news.
If you like what you’re doing, keep your eyes on the prize. I’ll keep you on my Google Reader until you decide to stop. I found you via comics; I realize you’re much more than that.
Look forward to reading more from you!
Hey Val,
Just finished reading your ‘Open Letter’ piece and I have to tell you I want you to keep writing and writing honestly. Are you going to piss people off? Of course you will; there are always those who see anyone challenging their comfort zone as a threat. The hardcore comicbook fans are never going to look outside their own personal bubble, because the bubble is what’s safe, what’s comfortable, what consoles them and provides a bit of powerfantasy in their otherwise weak and banal lives.
I work in the IT industry; day in and out I sit in a cubicle and generally feel like little more than a cog in the engine. I’ve aspirations toward becoming a writer, maybe even breaking into comics one day. Your blog has provided me with both entertainment and food for thought and I enjoy both aspects immensely. You have got to write honestly about what you experience, and if people give you grief for it, well that’s their drama, not yours.
One of the primary duties of all art, be it writing a novel or writing a blog, is to challenge the audience. You’ve got to get in their faces and ask the hard questions. Yeah, you can put on cap and bells and be the jester, but the threat of ending up on the chopping block shouldn’t prevent you from speaking your mind and pointing out when the court is full of it.
Ultimately, I want you to keep it real, and keep it relevant. You can’t please everyone and trying to do so is a mug’s game. Write honestly from where you’re sitting and if you’re concerned about backlash maybe tag the entries that are DOWNERs with smething like ‘Dispatches from the Desert of the Real’ or somesuch. Something that lets the comicbook kiddies stay in their bubble.
And yes I realize I’m being a smidge hard on my fellow fanboys, but let’s face facts. The bubble is a fantastic place to visit; I could wax poetic on Opal, Astro, Gotham, and Central City as much as the next fanboy. But you have to leave the bubble eventually, put on your growed-up clothes and go to work. There is a real world out there, one that the fantasy is meant to provide an oasis from, not substitute for. If you have more of one thing than the other, you’re going to be loopy. The key is balance. It’s a revelation that took me a while (say from sixth to seventh grade) but mileage may vary for the truly hardcore.
Again Val, you’re a skilled writer who deserves to have her voice heard. If it’s not all peaches and cream, so much the better. An angry voice is far more compelling and arresting than the usual background hum of ‘everything is wonderful’ or ‘this comic sucks and here’s how I’d improve it’ of the four-color blogosphere. Keep going, and I’ll be there to keep reading.
Sincerely,
Stacy Dooks
Long-winded but sincere
I’d like to encourage you to keep the heroine in occasional superheroine. I’m okay with picking your favorite Beetle (in theory, but who could choose, really?) and other fluff, but I come here for your opinions, outrage and (my perception) attempts at truth-telling.
It drives me nuts that in exposing my 8 year old son to comics (which he loves) I’m preparing him for misogynistic and voyeuristic reading later. Just this week we had our first, “but Wonder Woman wears…” discussion. And my voraciously reading 9 year old daughter who also sucks up his comics has already perceived the sexism.
So your cynicism ironically gives me hope. More power to you, OS.
-John
I’d hate to see you give up on the honest, personal perspective you have to offer. That’s basically why I read your blog. However, if you feel you need to choose a safer route at this point, I can certainly understand that.
Val said:
But I’m curious to see how many people there are who are reading this and agree.
Count me in.
re: blue beetle post. hi val, longtime reader, infrequent poster. over the past two weeks i was actually starting to think “man she’s been pretty negative lately so maybe i’ll just stop reading.” your blue beetle post totally opened my eyes — at first i was a bit angry b/c it was true that i was one of those guys who liked the silver age ha-ha-ha references. but i think now that i’d be shortchanging myself and my brain if i stop reading now. you’ve got your opinion and i’ve realized the one reason that i come back here is it’s the only comics-life site that actually has a POINT OF VIEW instead of “news”. so of course i won’t always agree, but i dig hearing your voice above the din. so keep the opinions coming, venomous or benign. — Craig (ps. TED KORD rules!)
I clicked on About Me, as you said to do at the end, at which I arrived by reading the whole thing. I count on you to do more than ask me which Blue Beetle I like (especially since I don’t really care). Comix are a paradigm, not a world–as you know. So help us see the world in that paradigm–we will understand better.
I don’t always agree with you, but you always fascinate me and make me think. DOWNER or which Blue Beetle is best…
Just perused your most recent post… not the one about the Blue Beatle, about whom I couldn’t care less unless they hire me to write an episode about him for the new Batman: The Brave and the Bold (which sounds like “code” for “smart and sassy”) TV show. (I write animation, amongst other things) Hilarious. The Blue Beatle post, not the “open letter.”
The open letter is fucking brilliant. Ferociously intelligent, though you don’t need me to tell you that. Rabble-rousing is tough work, not least because, as I told my kids the other day, if you look at who votes for national canditates, it’s clear that at least half the country are stupid enough to get fooled into voting against their interests - their own personal economic interests and their global-survival interests. It’s small comfort - and perhaps it’s actually greater reason for despair - but the median IQ of Americans is 100. And everyone below that very undemanding line… well, probably loves the Blue Beatle in one of his bitchin’ iterations. But there are those of us who feed on the fury of a unique point of few. I mean view. Whoa, there’s a Freudian typo which I actually made, corrected and put back.
Please don’t stop sawing off your arm. Suck it up, take an Aleve and keep firing.
Hey, please don’t stop writing the good stuff. Don’t stop writing the words that reveal, that expose, that inform.
Save the fluff for cool aggregator, and give us the real deal here.
If we all stopped writing what has to be said, then no one would be saying anything, and that would be sad.
And if there are only five pairs of eyes with a mind behind to appreciate it, then that is far better than a hundred thousand pairs joined to empty minds seeking some distraction from the real world…
Val,
You don’t know me, but I’m a fan of your blog. I rarely comment, but I read you daily.
The reason for that is because you are hard-hitting, opinionated, insightful, brazen, and don’t give a fuck what anybody else thinks.
Please stay that way.
I like articles like “Which Blue Beetle do you like better” as well–but I already have Newsarama for that.
More important stuff, please.
Thanks.
I believe that Mr. Bono Vox has put it much better than I ever could:
Don’t believe what you hear
Don’t believe what you see
If you just close your eyes
You can feel the enemy
When I first met you girl
You had fire in your soul
What happened your face of melting in snow?
Now it looks like this
And you can swallow
Or you can spit
You can throw it up
Or choke on it
And you can dream
So dream out loud
You know that your time is coming ’round
So don’t let the bastards grind you down
Didn’t you swear off serious comic commentary a few months ago? I remember, because I signed up for the Cool Aggegator at that time.
You’ll come back, and I’ll keep reading!
You’re amazing.
Hi I like your blog. I like the comic stuff and the personal stuff. I find both of them interesting and usually enjoy them. Please write more of both.
ArrrOOOooo!
I love one-armed Val.
I’ve been reading your blog for over a year. Posted a few comments here and there.
I find what you are saying quite relevant and remarkably important.
There is a lot that isn’t said. There are important points to be discussed about the roles of women. It’s incredibly clear that there isn’t a balance in the work place or the characters. There is no reason that this shouldn’t be brought to light.
I hope you don’t stop pointing it out.
I’m a cranky guy who loves comics and wants to read intelligent postings that will challenge me and often tell me things that I didn’t want to hear. Better that than stuffing my head in the sand and becoming a comic-drone that’s hypnotized by the comic publishing propaganda machine.
Hi Miss Val-
I am very much enjoying the tone of your blog. You’re rolling, and who doesn’t love latching on to a runaway train!?
Can I ask you a ??
How do you get started blogging? I am beginning to enjoy writing again after a bit away from the form, and I think I can write without plagiarizing or rehashing. I may have something to say.
I’d love some advice, if you have :30.
Thanks, and rock on-
Joesmith(realname)
You were the only site that never asked me for money thank you,
” Nobody expects the spanish inquistion!”
Valerie, your blog is brilliant.
Thank-you for reminding us that brains are something we have switched on all the time, and we shouldn’t be pretending they don’t matter in certain areas, or that “politics” is something that happens between 6.00 and 6.20 before the sports reports come on.
People like you affect the way we think about things in our daily lives. Sitting here on the internet, we may not be drawing up the most *solid* possible plans for the Revolution, but we are going to have a more powerful bullshit-detector behind our eyes. We are going to change what we accept and expect from our culture, and we are going to change what we put into it.
I think it’s fair to say that we walk away from blogs like your own into all sorts of walks-of-life, all sorts of positions, and some of us start viewing those positions differently when writers like yourself refuse to censor yourselves. Because when we see somebody else stripping away the self-censorship, it makes us more likely to feel safe doing the same.
Thank-you for being honest, open, and intelligent, and thank-you for doing something to raise the standard of discussion.
Sincerely,
David in Melbourne, Australia
I just came across your blog under recommendation of a friend. He directed me to your Open Letter entry, and I have to say, I’m impressed. Consider me a reader from here on out.
Have stayed away from comic blogs because I have more than enough to read for videogames (my particular interest). He suggested you are a person to read for intelligent discussion on gender, race, and other such important issues; all topics I’ll gladly read in other media every chance I get.