Lez Geek Out!cast

Andi and Lise are super-stoked this week because they managed to score an interview with three ClexaCon directors/organizers (Ashley had to step out to conduct official ClexaCon business during the interview, but we appreciate her dedication to the cause).

Joining us is Holly W., Danielle J., and Ashley A., all of whom not only direct and organize this event, but coordinate with other team members to do whatever needs to be done.

ClexaCon officially launched in March, 2017 as a response to the myriad deaths of queer women characters in media, particularly the death of the character of Commander Lexa of the CW show The 100 (pronounced "the hundred"). That character died in an egregious example of the "bury your gays" trope, and in the wake of her death, LGBTQ fans and allies rallied in opposition to this trope and sparked a revolution of organizing and community outreach that continues unabated.

Named for the iconic ship of Clarke Griffin and Commander Lexa (Clexa), ClexaCon is the first and largest multi-fandom event for LGBTQ women and allies. It brings together thousands of diverse LGBTQ fans and content creators from around the world to celebrate and encourage positive media representation of and for LGBTQ women.

The event is scheduled for 5-9 April in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Andi and Lise are way into the award-winning Questionable Content webcomic (Lise got Andi started on it), by Jeph Jacques, which launched August 1, 2003 and has been since then. It's a slice-of-life comic populated by a diverse group of people and includes strong women and strong queer rep and all kinds of other rep. People of different ages and body types, backgrounds, and all kinds of things in between.

The comic is at times hilarious, moving, poignant, wacky, and overall an amazing amount of fun.

QC website

Jeph Jacques' Patreon

Andi and Lise rave over Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which opened in theaters in December. TLJ is the continuation of the Star Wars story from the movie The Force Awakens, which was released in Dec. 2015. TLJ is chock full of strong women characters, has a diverse cast (though we're still waiting on the overtly queer rep…), and these characters were integral to the story. Here, Rey continues her exploration of her abilities with The Force; General Leia and, later, Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) are trying to outrun The First Order; and Rose Tico the Resistance mechanic proves a mentor of sorts for Finn, the ex-Stormtrooper. The movie also explores Luke Skywalker's character arc in interesting ways.

TLJ provides a jumping-off point for new directions in the Star Wars movie universe and perhaps a launching of the new generation and both Andi and Lise are excited to see what happens.

See TLJ trailers HERE

Lise and Andi geek out over Delilah Dawson's novel Phasma set in the Star Wars universe. Just released in September through Penguin/Random House, Phasma provides a story of the enigmatic and imposing Captain Phasma, a leader in The First Order (another Star Wars evil empire). From the recent movies, she's the one dressed in a shiny chrome Stormtrooper outfit who trains First Order recruits.

Dawson's book provides glimpses of Phasma through two separate parties, which manages to further enhance Phasma's mystique because it obscures her motivations since we're not getting the story directly from here, but rather through a second and third party, both of whom have their own narrative arcs. It's a cleverly layered, intricate story that only makes us more intrigued about Phasma (and there totally needs to be more of her in the movie 'verse! Hint hint Star Wars movie people.).

Delilah Dawson's website

To buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

This week Andi and Lise get into the retro-cool mystery sci-fi comic series Paper Girls, in which four twelve-year-old girls have paper routes in 1988 and band together to deal with weird and crazy things happening in their town. So you've got monsters, strange beings, time travel…and what seems to be a conspiracy underneath it all. Appropriate for kids, strong female characters, and unpredictable plotlines. Have fun!

If you're interested in finding out more about Paper Girls (AND YOU TOTALLY ARE), see Image Comics.

Andi and Lise totally lose it over one of their joint fave movies, Galaxy Quest (1999), which is a delightful spoof of Star Trek and the Star Trek fandoms. It's a hilarious romp through sci-fi fandom, a clever nod to various plots and fun show tropes, and just a whole lot of fun in general.

The film stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman among others.

Seriously. It's well worth your time.

While Andi's away, Lise will play, and what better way to do so than by sitting down for a chat with Meghan O'Brien. Not only is Meghan a fantastic author of lesfic, but she is also an avid gamer.

Lise and Meghan discuss some of the obstacles of gaming as women, which games they've gotten into in the past, and the upcoming games they're itching to get their hands on.

Find Meghan O'Brien's website here

You can find Meghan O'Brien's books here

Andi and Lise totally geek out over the Netflix original series Stranger Things. The acting, the pacing, the tension, the writing – it's all brilliant. It's a hybrid horror/thriller/sci fi set in the early 1980s in the American Midwest.

Synopsis: A love letter to the '80s classics that captivated a generation, Stranger Things is set in 1983 Indiana, where a young boy vanishes into thin air. As friends, family and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one very strange little girl. –Rotten Tomatoes

Andi and Lise totally lose their minds over Hurley's latest, The Stars are Legion, in which warring worlds are populated only by women in decaying organic world-ships all known as The Legion. The main character, Zan, wakes up to find most of her memories gone, but soon finds out that she is being perpetually sent out to board another world-ship and each time, she comes closer.

Andi and Lise were blown away by Hurley's world-building – organic world-ships literally birthed by the women who inhabit them, and each with different levels/ecosystems all interrelated (omg the metaphors here!). The story is thus about Zan, who knows that she needs to board this other ship to save Jayd. Jayd, for her part, has her own agenda in bringing change into this warring, authoritarian context. The question is, can they do it and what precisely does "change" mean?

Synopsis: Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.

Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation - the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan's new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion's gravity well to the very belly of the world.

Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion's destruction - and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?

In the tradition of The Fall of Hyperion and Dune, The Stars Are Legion is an epic and thrilling tale about tragic love, revenge, and war as imagined by one of the genre's most celebrated new writers.

Get it on Amazon

Links: Kameron Hurley's website

The Stars are Legion info and buy links

Annalee Newitz thoughts on TSAL at Ars Technica

Andrew Liptak thoughts on TSAL at Verge

Andi and Lise talk about how fandoms have been both an escape and a support network during these troubling times, and they also note that fandoms allow for the expansion of imagination, finding new stories, and making new friends.