(King Cupcake by the awesome Polka Dot Cupcakery.)

I really liked the comic book miniseries Sweets, about a serial killer in New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina. I liked it so much, I bought an extra copy of the trade paperback to give away. What you might not know is that Sweets opens with a recipe for pecan pralines, and then launches in to a hard-boiled crime drama. What I'm about to tell you is that you can win a copy of the story for yourself, simply by telling us how to make your favorite sweets.

Continue reading "Sweets for Sweets!" »

It is as good a time as any on this this Memorial Day to remind you our next Comic Book Care Package is set to ship out in June. If you don't know what that is, every other month we collect gently used comics and paperback books, and we pick a military unit (at random) serving overseas to send them to. They usually need other items like snacks and toiletries, and we try to accommodate some of those requests, as well.

Continue reading "Comics Care Package #7" »

(Photo by Dania)

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Columbus, Ohio is May 14th. You've seen us fund-raise for the Hero Initiative and get comic books in to the hands of American soldiers serving overseas. Now we want to walk a 5K event to raise money to end breast cancer, and you can help!

This year we're forming our very own Geektress Team. If you live in the Central Ohio area and want to visit, consider clicking through our team page and signing up! Registration is $30, and you get the official race t-shirt, plus our Wonder Woman logo-d Official Geektress Team T-shirt (as you see above, modeled by moi.)

Last year, Columbus had over 50,000 racers in total and raised over $2.5 million for breast cancer research, which makes us the third largest Race for the Cure in the country! Each year the race gets bigger and breaks its fundraising record, so this is your chance to try and make our race the BIGGEST in the country.

Continue reading "Geek For A Cure" »

Our last comics & cookies care packages went out in December, and I think it may have even arrived in Afghanistan in time for Christmas, because I got the following thank you card in response:

Dear Brenda:

I recently got your package and I wanted to write you to tell you thank you. It really means a lot to me. Your Geektress website sounds great. I didn't know there were places or groups for females who were in to comic books and things. I can't wait to check it out. I've always enjoyed SciFi and other things considered "geeky" and being a female a lot of times I felt like I didn't fit in. So I think the website is really cool. I don't really have the means to listen to the podcast out here, but I'll have to check that out when I get back from my deployment.

Thanks again, God Bless,

SPC Heather VanHoose

Continue reading "Comics Care Package #5" »

Everyone has been very generous with their comics and money in helping us send care packages to soldiers serving in Afghanistan (and Iraq!) But one thing I think our servicemen and women really appreciate are the notes from you. And, we don't get many of those.

If you haven't been able to donate comics, books, dvds, or cash, this is one thing you can do for free that would mean a lot. If you're having a hard time figuring out what to say, start off by saying thank you. Then just write about yourself. Thanksgiving just passed, you could talk about what you did for the holiday, and what your plans for the upcoming holidays are. You may think it's weird to talk about yourself to someone you don't know, but honestly, the news of something real "back home" are the best gifts of all.

Please send any and all messages, even if they're short ones, to comments@geektress.com. I'll be sending out the latest shipment of cookies and comics (and paperbacks and dvds) this week. I'd like to include lots of email printouts. Don't let the men and women of B Company down!

With the spoils from our Burgers & Cupcakes donations, we are sending out our first shipment to Afghanistan. There's an Army unit from Kentucky that's asking for "Anything. Anything at all." With no PX and not much but their laptops to entertain them, we're sending them a box full of your donated trades (Some of you really stepped up -- check out the hardcover Akira, awesome), plus some Girl Scout cookies, paperback novels, and DVDs (I assume everyone loves Caddyshack, right?)

If you weren't at our party and would still like to help out, here's our donate button. The first 12 people to donate $20 or more will get a grab bag from our shindig (which contains goodies from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab plus some Geektress swag,) and a few other surprises. Thanks to everyone who donated today and helped rid me of all the extra BPAL grab bags! My house was starting to smell like Hellboy. :)

Also, because someone asked, our privacy policy is that if you give us any of your information, we do not give that out to anyone else without your permission. Partly because we have no idea how that works, but mostly because that's annoying.

Hey guys, did you know that we're only six two ONE episode of the podcast away from 100 episodes? And in September our website turned 3 years old? (Don't do the math with the site and the podcast. If you already did, yeah, we know, we're lazy.)

In order to celebrate, we're going to combine some of our favorite things. Firstly, our love of New York Comic Con. Thing the second: Burgers & Cupcakes.

On Friday, October 8th, (2010), we'll be at New York Comic Con in New York City. On Friday night, we'll be at 458 9th Avenue, between 35th and 36th streets. That's where Burgers & Cupcakes is, and that's what we'll be having. If you're interested in joining the party, bring some new (or gently used) comics with you to donate to our Comics Care Package project.

(Here is our party flyer! Click to embiggen / Print out / Share!)

We'll be enjoying burgers & cupcakes (and the cash bar) from 8pm until midnight. It's just down the street from the convention, so even if you have other plans, maybe stop on by and buy some raffle tickets. The proceeds will help with the cost of shipping all the comics and extra supplies we send to our troops overseas. Want to know what kind of prizes we've got for the raffle? Hit the jump link to find out.

Continue reading "Geektress Turns 100!" »

Click to Embiggen

First Lieutenant John Black got in touch with us after our last soldier care package drive to let us know that his unit can out-geek any other in Afghanistan. He proved it by including photos of the above golf cart, tricked out with Batman flair. They use it to get everywhere on their Forward Operating Base.

They specifically requested Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman & Robin, and Thin Mints. We couldn't possibly deny them, so due to generous donations of comics from the last drive and our friend Lynnda at the Ohio Girl Scout Council, we once again need some help paying for shipping. For example, the last round of Girl Scout cookies cost over $130 to ship. (Cookies be heavy, yo.)

If you missed out contributing last time and would like to help out this time, please donate what you can through our PayPal. If you can't help this time around but are interested in helping in the future, let us know at comments@geektress.com. We're trying to organize another drive for our anniversary party in October.

If you'd like to see more photos from Afghanistan, click the link to continue reading.

Continue reading "Comics Care Package 2: Now with more Batman!" »

As you can see, you done good.

If you're just tuning in, Geektress had a fundraiser this weekend to send comic books and assorted sundries to four female soldiers stationed in Iraq. Thanks to the kind contributions of our readers and my co-workers, I was able to put all this together. In total for this shipment, we had:

• Two identical boxes containing: Shampoo / Conditioners, Body wash, Tampons, Deodorant, Pulsar Toothbrushes, ponytail holders, Lysol antiseptic wipes
• A food box containing: Waffle Crisp cereal (requested by the whole unit), FiberOne cereal, Fruit & Nut snack bars, Cereal bars, Blueberry snack bars, Clif bars
• A wish list box containing: One mega ball ice cream maker, 20 pounds of rock salt, vanilla/chocolate ice cream mix, a 25-song gift card to Karaoke MP3 Downloads, letters, cards, and emails
• A box containing 12 pounds of comic books - including Morrison's entire Batman & Robin run to-date
• Ten cases of Girl Scout Cookies. (The non-melty in the desert kind.)**

In total we raised over $250 and there are still more comics on the way from people contributing back issues out of their personal stash (thanks, John Wiswell and Janelle Siegel!) As a result, we're taking all the surplus and putting it in a shipment to 30 Marines in Afghanistan who requested "toothpaste, socks, and lots of comic books." If you're interested in sending comics or supplies for that drive, email Laura@geektress.com.

This was so much fun and wouldn't have been possible without lots of support from you. Especially awesome was the help of PackRat Comics* and Bimmer Tools, for helping find missing back issues and covering the expense of shipping. Also we can't thank Lynnda at The Ohio Girl Scout Council enough for the cookies, and FilmDrunk & Gamma Squad for helping spread the word so quickly.

*(PackRat Comics also sends a monthly care package overseas, so if you're ever in Columbus, Ohio, make sure to check them out because they are awesome.)

** As it turns out, the Girl Scout Cookies are going to be expensive to ship. If you haven't contributed yet and are interested in sending Cookies to Soldiers, donate here. (I may also get more cookies for some soldiers in Afghanistan.)

Continue reading "Comics Care Package: THE PACKENING" »

Jim Lee from Superman 211. Click to embiggen.

Did you know there are soldiers stationed overseas that are missing out on weekly comics? And you can help get them the stories they're missing, plus a lot more? Kelly Sue DeConnick posted a guide in her blog to finding a soldier that wishes they had comic books to keep them company.

Using her guide, I found an Army unit in Iraq that has at least one female soldier looking for Batman and Robin comics. I plan to send that and a whole lot more! There are four women in the Broadcast Journalism unit. They need certain female toiletries, morale-boosting items, and reading material to pass the time (like comics). So I'm dipping in to my stash of back issues for Girl Comics, Gotham City Sirens, The Return of Bruce Wayne, Birds of Prey, and Batman & Robin, and I plan to buy anything that's missing and ship it out next week. There will be at least four boxes, one for each female soldier. If there's enough donations, I will try to do a fifth package for the male requests in the unit.

USPS Priority Mail flat rate shipping for the largest box is $11.95. So far I've received enough to ship two boxes. UPDATE!: Ken at Bimmer Tools just volunteered to pay all the shipping! Thanks Ken!

All that's left is to send letters / emails along with the shipments. If you'd like to send a good word along, just comment here or, if you'd rather keep it private, send an email to comments@geektress.com, and printouts will ship with each box.

Thanks to all who have already offered to help. If there's anyone else who still wants to donate, Laura is putting together a shipment of comics and supplies for a group of marines in Afghanistan, and if there's any extra left over, I hope to get my group something groovy from their wish list: an ice cream maker.

Okay, so this year for the first annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, Laura and I decided that -- instead of awkwardly handing over random single-issue comics, or mumbling and shuffling our feet trying to figure out how to tell our favorite creators that we love them -- we would show the writers and artists that make our lives enjoyable that we love them by having them sign an exclusive piece of artwork we'd made ourselves (with help from Tony Miello in the actual art making department.)

It gave us something to talk about other than "ZOMG I LOVE BIGBY WOLF." It would be a way for us to advertise the site, too. And most importantly, it was something we could give to someone who wasn't able to attend. The best part is, we decided to auction off the posters we got signed, and donate the profits to the Hero Initiative. Turns out, this idea worked out great. The posters look fantastic, and we got to meet a LOT of our favorite creators.

After the jump is a list of who all we got to sign, plus links to the auction pages on eBay.

Continue reading "Geektress Posters Rocked C2E2" »