It’s less than a week before Christmas and you may have a few (or like me, several) gifts left to purchase. The gift certificates and pre-paid credit cards hanging on the wrack at the grocery store check out lane are looking more tempting with each passing day. “Who doesn’t like scratch-offs and chocolate?” you ask…
Interview With Dean Trippe
Dean Trippe is the kind of creator with such an obvious passion for comics, it’s enough to make the most dedicated of fans feel lazy. We all dislike a character costume at some point, but have you ever inspired a campaign of redesigns amongst fellow artists and fans like Dean Trippe did? I would love…
Fall Reading
Fall is a good time for books that will destroy your everything. It’s not winter, when disaffection can stretch on into misery. Fall? There are pumpkins to carve, fallen leaves to jump into, and forget seasonal affective disorder–there’s still enough sun to keep you from the black pit of despair we call deep winter. I read a…
BOOM! Studios Artist Submission Page: A Progress Report
Since early June, BOOM! Studios has maintained a Facebook page allowing open artist submissions. Pencilers, colorists, and inkers have presented their work for the comic publisher and fans alike to evaluate. This certainly isn’t the first or only opportunity for creators to directly show their work to publishers; portfolio reviews at conventions have been a…
Summer Movie Roundtable: Part two
Our Megan Byrd, Mai Pucik, and Ashley Schmuecker, along with guest commentators/hecklers Shannon Rahe and Vicki Essex joined me to talk about summer movies. In this part we discuss Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, Wolverine, and the state of the comic book movie. You can find part one here. *** We haven’t talked at all about…
Summer Movie Roundtable 2013: Part one
Hey, it’s our second annual summer movie roundtable! This time we’ve got our own Megan Byrd, Mai Pucik, and Ashley Schmuecker on deck, along with guest commentators/hecklers Shannon Rahe and Vicki Essex. In part one (of two) we talk Pacific Rim, Kick-Ass 2, the Fast and Furious franchise, and so-called “diversity casting”. *** Ok team, let’s…
Interview With Kate Leth
Kate Leth is a renaissance woman of the internets: cartoonist, comic shop employee, trendsetter. Now she’s adding retail crusader to the list. Between creating comics and working a regular gig as an employee of the Strange Adventures comic shop, Kate Leth has been quietly recruiting. A few tweets here, a Facebook post there; nothing that…
(late) Summer Reading
Summer reading lists usually come out in late spring, early summer. Just as you’re starting to dream of a cold drink on a hot afternoon (or consuming your body weight in liquid, while being submerged in liquid, as one does). This ain’t no ordinary summer reading list though, it’s specifically, a late summer reading list,…
Tony Harris vs. Cosplayers, and the Fake Problem of the Fake Geek Girl
Women? On my internet? Tony Harris is worried about con- hot women demanding his attention at conventions. Games with female protagonists receive half the marketing budget of games with male protagonists. So it goes. Another day, another round of defensive flailing from geek men, bravely standing at the gates of geek culture. But guys, the…
Batwoman: How Far The Mighty Fall
When DC first introduced readers to Kate Kane, the character and her story were met with universal praise. Not only was the story unique for featuring a gay female super heroine, but she was headlining one of DC’s oldest properties, Detective Comics, and shocking above all else? It was really good. The stunning artwork of…
Carol Appreciation: Captain Marvel roundtable
This is the fifth (and final) post in our series of Carol Appreciation posts. Also check out Megan Byrd’s review of Captain Marvel #1, Valtyr’s ode to Ultimate Carol, Garrideb’s look at Carol and female friendship, and Damalur’s Love Letter to Carol. So I was chatting about the debut issue of Captain Marvel on Twitter,…
Review: Captain Marvel #1
Captain Marvel #1 Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick Artist: Dexter Soy Marvel Comics A debut issue is a challenging beast in comics; this is doubly so for a book that is re-introducing an established character to old and new fans alike. It is a delicate balance between showing what we know to be true while still…