Pumped for Stump: Black and White and Read All Over

Fabulous Felt Desert Barrette

Fabulous Felt Black and White Roses Barrette

Over the Rain-blow Necklace

If I can (nearly) recycle this post title, then I can recycle this necklace (and these barrettes) too.  Also, the joke is on newspapers because I never read them.

I don't read comic books (excuse me, graphic novels) either, but this last dress kind of makes me want to.  Why is it that kitschy comic prints always feature romance instead of sci-fi?  Don't get me wrong; I prefer the romance.  But heroes and bad guys and death rays are a dime a dozen in the genre, and I can't think of a single such story that centers around amour.  I know what you're thinking.  Tote Trove lady, these pop art prints aren't based on comic books or even newspapers.  They're based on the work of renowned pop artist Lichtenstein. Touché dear readers, touché.  Still, would it kill Marvel to do something about star-crossed lovers?  Maybe a Romeo and Juliet style intergalactic battle.  Or at the very least, a prom where the punch bowl explodes. 

Girly biases aside, there is a graphic novel-inspired thing that I like, and not just because it weaves a little romance in with its intrigue.  "Stumptown" is the quirkiest show about Portland since, well, "Portlandia."  It's about the adventures of rough-around-the-edges, Marine-turned-PI Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders), who has a dark past and a heart of gold (aw).  She's one of those take-no-prisoners broads who lives on the edge but always does what's right, especially for her younger brother Ansel, who has Down syndrome.  She also has two dudes in her life: buttoned-up detective Miles Hoffman (Michael Ealy) and ex con-come-bar-owner Grey McConnell (Jake Johnson).  Watching her waver between them (and also some ladies; it's complicated) while solving mysteries only adds to the fun.  Will she pick squeaky clean Miles and right her self-destructive ways?  Or will she steer into the skid and choose fellow trainwreck Grey?  There's less suspense here than one might think because, as Dex indelicately quips to her suitors while staging a sting operation, both of them have "already been inside her."

Oh, Dex.

The artistic touches in this show are cool, too.  Dex drives a beat-up old car with a radio that spontaneously bursts into '70s and '80s pop hits.  She wears a navy satin bomber jacket with a retro orange and yellow sunburst.  And the first scene of each episode freezes into a comic book page just before "Stumptown" splashes across the screen.  Best of all, Dex is witty and ballsy and always gets the last laugh.  I don't usually watch crime shows and didn't think that I'd like this one, but its style and substance won me over.

So, if I have to gulp down my comic book bites with heaping spoonfuls of small screen sugar, then so be it.

I'd rather get cavities than court Comic-con.