You can read all about it from the event's originator, Zechs, at the Outhousers. It's a post full of nice art from various Cass-starring comics. Fight On, Cass didn't come off exactly as planned, apparently, but a number of fans submitted their favorite moments with Cassandra Cain in a heartwarming outpouring of support, even if the major point of the event-- buying Batgirl #37 from Comixology on January 26th-- proved something of a bust.
Well, that's Cass all over. Even a fan day involving her goes its own way and does its own little thing. There's no real controlling of such things (unless you're some kind of industry big boss type with the PR resources to stoke the fandom flames like the boilers of a riverboat about to explode or some such simile) and no real controlling of a character like Cass.
We can hope at least a little message went to the powers-that-be at DC, that if only for five seconds someone in an office there thought, "Cass Cain." Even if that person was in human resources or an intern.
What next? Another fan day? Not for this Cass fan, not for a while. I'm just going to keep drawing Cass, analyzing her series and guest appearances, looking for other blog posts and essay about her to share with you and keep building my digital Batgirl collection.
Showing posts with label Fight On Cass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fight On Cass. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Did you Fight On, Cass?
Thanks to super-correspondant Madeleine M. we have this link to a Twitter feed discussing the Fight On, Cass movement, that special event suggested by Zechs at the Outhousers where millions of Cass fans were supposed to buy Batgirl #37 on Comixology. We don't seem to have gathered quite that many participants...
My favorite response has to be the person who took advantage of a "$75 longbox sale" at a local comic book store to fill it to the brim with Cass Cain Batgirl. Because I'm a dimwit about how the comic book distribution system works, I don't know if those sales get reported back to DC, where we need to push up the Cass bottom line in order to inspire positive editorial action. Whatever, I still like it. I buy every paper-printed Cass book I find over here. Which is why it's rare to find any. I've got them all.
As for me, I've been using my poor, overtaxed credit card to slowly accumulate about 30 or so digital issues of Batgirl. While I already own every print issue from the series' original run and all the trade collections, my ultimate goal is to own the entire series at Comixology, plus a few other books in which she's appeared. I'm throwing new money after bad. As Cass's number one fan in Japan, I feel I've gone above and beyond the Fight On, Cass brief.
Obviously, not everyone can be as fanatic as I am. I won't rest until Tom Chaney's barking in he-- I mean, I won't rest until Cass comes back to DC's ongoing continuity!
My favorite response has to be the person who took advantage of a "$75 longbox sale" at a local comic book store to fill it to the brim with Cass Cain Batgirl. Because I'm a dimwit about how the comic book distribution system works, I don't know if those sales get reported back to DC, where we need to push up the Cass bottom line in order to inspire positive editorial action. Whatever, I still like it. I buy every paper-printed Cass book I find over here. Which is why it's rare to find any. I've got them all.
As for me, I've been using my poor, overtaxed credit card to slowly accumulate about 30 or so digital issues of Batgirl. While I already own every print issue from the series' original run and all the trade collections, my ultimate goal is to own the entire series at Comixology, plus a few other books in which she's appeared. I'm throwing new money after bad. As Cass's number one fan in Japan, I feel I've gone above and beyond the Fight On, Cass brief.
Obviously, not everyone can be as fanatic as I am. I won't rest until Tom Chaney's barking in he-- I mean, I won't rest until Cass comes back to DC's ongoing continuity!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Cassandra Cain's 2012: A Look Back at a Year in Review!
January: Cass begins the year missing from the overall DC narrative in the wake of the re-boot that we dare not call a re-boot. Fans still anticipate her return; after all, they largely approved of her debut the previous year as Black Bat. With a supporting role in the continuation of Batman Incorporated, this seems all but assured.
February: The future continues to look bright for Cass as The Beat reports "Static and Cassandra Cain are Coming Back." No details are forthcoming.
April: DC writer Scott Snyder gives Cass fans a reason to hope when he tells attendees of C2E2, "We talk about where in the stories they're going to show up," referring also to similarly missing character Stephanie Brown.
May: Batman Incorporated returns from hiatus with a second volume retro-fitted to the New 52 continuity. Despite having an important supporting role in the first volume, this time out Cass is nowhere to be found. Organizers of the Save Cass Campaign ask fans to buy digital copies of her first issue from Comixology in hopes enough will participate to make the title a bestseller for the month and give DC motivation to bring her back into the narrative flow. Sales don't explode as the effort fails to hit the company's retail exhaust port and just impacts on the surface.
July: Word goes around the Internet insiders at DC Comics have labeled both Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain (among other characters) "toxic."
August: Cass's biological mother Lady Shiva shows up in the New 52 as a contemporary of Nightwing, who is in his early 20s. This pretty much slams the door on Cass's reappearance in the DC universe for the foreseeable future. A trailer for a fan-produced Stephanie Brown video series causes at least one person to ponder a future appearance for Cass as Black Bat.
September: I start this blog. It immediately sinks to the bottom of the Google search results/popularity rankings. A blogger writes a think-piece sharply analyzing Cass's narrative arc.
October: Batgirl: Spoiled debuts to mixed reaction. No Cass. Cass probably doesn't appear in Li'l Gotham, but her inclusion (or lack thereof) barely registers in the uproar at DC changing a tiny background character so she doesn't resemble Stephanie Brown.
November: Eaglemoss announces a Cass Cain Black Bat chess piece (arriving March, 2013) is available for pre-order.
December: Cass makes Comicbook.com's list of "Most Divisive Characters." DC fires Gail Simone from Batgirl, which causes no little controversy; soon after, Bleeding Cool teases she's set to "break the Internet again;" Jude Terror at The Outhouse uses this announcement to joke Simone's set to write a Stephanie Brown book, or possibly one starring Cass. Instead, DC re-hires Simone to write Batgirl. Another writer at The Outhouse proposes a special day for buying Batgirl #37. Another blogger writes a wonderfully thoughtful pro-Cass essay. I find Batgirl: Fists of Fury and Batgirl: Destruction's Daughter for sale at Blister in Tokyo. Cass ends the year in limbo, not doing the limbo (as some might have expected).
February: The future continues to look bright for Cass as The Beat reports "Static and Cassandra Cain are Coming Back." No details are forthcoming.
April: DC writer Scott Snyder gives Cass fans a reason to hope when he tells attendees of C2E2, "We talk about where in the stories they're going to show up," referring also to similarly missing character Stephanie Brown.
May: Batman Incorporated returns from hiatus with a second volume retro-fitted to the New 52 continuity. Despite having an important supporting role in the first volume, this time out Cass is nowhere to be found. Organizers of the Save Cass Campaign ask fans to buy digital copies of her first issue from Comixology in hopes enough will participate to make the title a bestseller for the month and give DC motivation to bring her back into the narrative flow. Sales don't explode as the effort fails to hit the company's retail exhaust port and just impacts on the surface.
July: Word goes around the Internet insiders at DC Comics have labeled both Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain (among other characters) "toxic."
August: Cass's biological mother Lady Shiva shows up in the New 52 as a contemporary of Nightwing, who is in his early 20s. This pretty much slams the door on Cass's reappearance in the DC universe for the foreseeable future. A trailer for a fan-produced Stephanie Brown video series causes at least one person to ponder a future appearance for Cass as Black Bat.
September: I start this blog. It immediately sinks to the bottom of the Google search results/popularity rankings. A blogger writes a think-piece sharply analyzing Cass's narrative arc.
October: Batgirl: Spoiled debuts to mixed reaction. No Cass. Cass probably doesn't appear in Li'l Gotham, but her inclusion (or lack thereof) barely registers in the uproar at DC changing a tiny background character so she doesn't resemble Stephanie Brown.
November: Eaglemoss announces a Cass Cain Black Bat chess piece (arriving March, 2013) is available for pre-order.
December: Cass makes Comicbook.com's list of "Most Divisive Characters." DC fires Gail Simone from Batgirl, which causes no little controversy; soon after, Bleeding Cool teases she's set to "break the Internet again;" Jude Terror at The Outhouse uses this announcement to joke Simone's set to write a Stephanie Brown book, or possibly one starring Cass. Instead, DC re-hires Simone to write Batgirl. Another writer at The Outhouse proposes a special day for buying Batgirl #37. Another blogger writes a wonderfully thoughtful pro-Cass essay. I find Batgirl: Fists of Fury and Batgirl: Destruction's Daughter for sale at Blister in Tokyo. Cass ends the year in limbo, not doing the limbo (as some might have expected).
Thursday, January 3, 2013
I had to "Fight On, Cass" a little early!
So what I did was get on Comixology yesterday and buy the heck out of a BUNCH of Cassandra Cain Batgirl issues. I bought the first twelve because I wanted the first year (and because I couldn't buy #1 during the Save Cass campaign and needed to make it up to the nice people who came up with that idea), then #37 like a good little Cass fan and a smattering of other issues I simply enjoy for my own reasons. Of course, I own all of these issues in print form and many of them in trade collections, but the point is to show a little financial love for Cass so maybe-- just maybe-- DC will decide she's not so toxic after all. And it's better to do than just to complain.
Here's what part of my Batgirl digital library looks like:
I'd have posted the entire thing, but it's pretty long.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Another Cass voice silenced...
We're about a month away from the Fight On, Cass target date (January 26th), but sadly I have to report the disappearance of Support Cass!/Cass Cain Campaign, the Tumblr dedicated to the last effort to re-interest DC in Cass by inspiring people to buy a digital issue of her series. I just tried to visit the site and it is gone, gone, gone. Like Cass herself.
It's a little bit of a downer. Cass gets a mention here and there, usually as an aside in an item discussing Stephanie Brown, Wally West or Donna Troy and the occasional think piece or fan art, but there's just not a whole lot of Cass buzz out there at the moment. At least not much I can detect from over here in Japan.
It's really difficult to gauge how much of a fanbase the character has left. I can count four I've interacted with recently, plus Zechs (assuming he's on the level) which gives me a hard number of six (including myself). Let's go ahead and figure on a few more based on some of the message board posts I come across (these are harder to tally because they require deeper Internet sleuthing than I'm able to devote time and effort to; I'm not Oracle, for crying out loud, but then, neither is anyone else these days).
So. Two dozen? Or is that being optimistic?
Well, I'm going to keep on. That's what Cass would have done if she hadn't been eliminated from continuity.
It's a little bit of a downer. Cass gets a mention here and there, usually as an aside in an item discussing Stephanie Brown, Wally West or Donna Troy and the occasional think piece or fan art, but there's just not a whole lot of Cass buzz out there at the moment. At least not much I can detect from over here in Japan.
It's really difficult to gauge how much of a fanbase the character has left. I can count four I've interacted with recently, plus Zechs (assuming he's on the level) which gives me a hard number of six (including myself). Let's go ahead and figure on a few more based on some of the message board posts I come across (these are harder to tally because they require deeper Internet sleuthing than I'm able to devote time and effort to; I'm not Oracle, for crying out loud, but then, neither is anyone else these days).
So. Two dozen? Or is that being optimistic?
Well, I'm going to keep on. That's what Cass would have done if she hadn't been eliminated from continuity.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
One of the nicest things ever written about Cassandra Cain
I love this! I do a Cass Google search every single day in hopes of finding exactly these kinds of things. In this case, it's a short, friendly-voiced essay that explains exactly why DC needs Cass now more than ever.
You know, it's kind of a downer to be practically the only pro-Cass voice still out here, trying to keep the character alive in fandom. Every so often I see a little light in the darkness, like "Fight On, Cass" the other day and now this. Just a random comic opened, out tumbles Cass, new fan. It's similar to how I became a Cass fan. I impulse bought an issue of Batgirl at a supermarket and found myself instantly hooked.
And I have to echo Ms. Chan's final sentiment-- please bring back Cassandra Cain, DC!
You know, it's kind of a downer to be practically the only pro-Cass voice still out here, trying to keep the character alive in fandom. Every so often I see a little light in the darkness, like "Fight On, Cass" the other day and now this. Just a random comic opened, out tumbles Cass, new fan. It's similar to how I became a Cass fan. I impulse bought an issue of Batgirl at a supermarket and found myself instantly hooked.
And I have to echo Ms. Chan's final sentiment-- please bring back Cassandra Cain, DC!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
January 26, 2013-- Another pro-Cassandra Cain campaign!
There are only two places that regularly talk about Cass these days and if you're reading this, then you've found one of them. The other is The Outhouse, which usually pokes satirical fun at both Cass and Stephanie Brown's fanbase in Sean O'Neal-Onion A/V Club-newsfeed-style posts by someone calling himself Jude Terror. Terror, as his nom de guerre implies, practices a type of slash-and-burn humor. Since I sometimes do the same thing and because I try to be laid back about these things and poke fun at myself as well, Terror's posts aren't anything I get upset about. At least he's writing about Cass.
Zechs, however, seems to be genuine. Either that, or he is weaving the silken web of deceit into a cloak of devilishly subtle satirical artistry (in which case I must kneel and kiss the ring of a true master). Here's Zech's new pro-Cass suggestion, which will probably prove about as successful as the Save Cass Campaign from last fall but is worth a shot because at this point anything is better than nothing.
Come January 26, 2013, Zechs asks all Cass fans everywhere to go to Comixology and buy Batgirl #37. Why that issue and not #1 again? Because it's Cass's birthday (I need to go back and read this again because I'm not sure if that's her biological birthday; I'm pretty sure in #36 she and Batman arbitrarily chose another day as a kiss off to bio-dad David Cain). It's also the final issue by Kelley Puckett and Damian Scott. Zechs also has a few other smart reasons contrasted with last August's Support Cass Day. If you're in, you should try to publicize this far and wide, on your blogs, your Tumblrs, various message boards. Reach out to other Cass fans and stir things up.
So, are we up for this? All twenty of us?
Zechs, however, seems to be genuine. Either that, or he is weaving the silken web of deceit into a cloak of devilishly subtle satirical artistry (in which case I must kneel and kiss the ring of a true master). Here's Zech's new pro-Cass suggestion, which will probably prove about as successful as the Save Cass Campaign from last fall but is worth a shot because at this point anything is better than nothing.
Come January 26, 2013, Zechs asks all Cass fans everywhere to go to Comixology and buy Batgirl #37. Why that issue and not #1 again? Because it's Cass's birthday (I need to go back and read this again because I'm not sure if that's her biological birthday; I'm pretty sure in #36 she and Batman arbitrarily chose another day as a kiss off to bio-dad David Cain). It's also the final issue by Kelley Puckett and Damian Scott. Zechs also has a few other smart reasons contrasted with last August's Support Cass Day. If you're in, you should try to publicize this far and wide, on your blogs, your Tumblrs, various message boards. Reach out to other Cass fans and stir things up.
So, are we up for this? All twenty of us?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)