Gordon McAlpin (Multiplex) is this week’s guest host, joining Rosscott and Alex Heberling! Thanks to Eric Kimball for gathering our news links.

[display_podcast]

Music: Series of Tubes by ???

___________________________________
Top Stories

Steve Jobs heads to the great Apple Store in the sky.
Original Source: Fricken everywhere.

Sexual Assault Controversy in Evil Diva
Normally we do not include stories about the melodrama surrounding and individual comic but this one was a little interesting.  The webcomic Evil Diva went to a pay as you go funding system a little while back.  With this change in funding models the storytelling has shifted as well to be more like a soap opera with cliffhangers on the end of every page.  Lately one of these cliffhanger themes has been leading up to a sexual assault:

Starting here, ultimately getting to this. (Trigger Warning)

On the final page in that series the readers of the comic exploded in rage over then introduction of sexual assault in a comic that up until that point had been a light hearted and whimsical story for no better reason than to encourage donations.  See the comment thread on the last page.  The creators of the comic were unapologetic in response to the fan outrage.

While I deeply regret any discomfort any of you have with what could be described as the ‘…a very special’ tone of this issue, I do feel compelled to point out that [according to statistics] One quarter of the women in my wife’s college sorority were victims of rape or attempted rape.
… [Evil Diva is] about a young girl trying to find her power in a world which continually tries to take it from her, an ongoing challenge for women even in so-called ‘modern enlightened society.’ Occasionally we feel obligated to address that issue directly. If that’s too much fiber for your diet, there’s plenty of cotton candy and twinkies to be had elsewhere on the web.

Did the creators of Evil Diva made a huge mistake right? How do you feel about cartoonists inciting their audience? Has ANY webcomic ever done a “decent” rape story, where its not merely a plot device? To be fair, we only see an assault, as of the time of this writing, and we don’t know how far they will take the scene. But it is still a discussion worth having.

Original Source: Evil Diva

Movie Released Based On PHD Webcomic
Original Source: PHD Comics – Found via: The Daily Cartoonist
Continue for News Articles and Discussion Links…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download