Comics have long been (incorrectly) seen as the realm of homogeneous white male creators. It’s not that marginalized creators haven’t always been making incredible comics, but that they have been exactly that: marginalized. Whether it’s the lack of representation in Big Two comics—Marvel infamously didn’t hire a black woman to write a single comic until…
A Silent Voice is a Perfect Film
A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) Naoko Yamada (director), Reiko Yoshida (screenplay), Kazuya Takao (cinematographer), Kengo Shigemura (editor) Miyu Irino, Saori Hayami, Aoi Yūki, Kenshō Ono, Yūki Kaneko (voice cast) Adapted from the manga A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima October 20, 2017 (USA)
The Book of Joan
The Book of Joan Lidia Yuknavitch HarperCollins April 18, 2017 A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Better, more eloquent people than me have reviewed Lidia Yuknavitch’s latest novel, The Book of Joan. It’s been covered by Publishers Weekly, NPR, and the New York Times. For just about…
Remakes, Remasters, and the Myth of Gamer Illegitimacy
I often say that I’ve been playing games since I was a toddler, but that’s a lie. I grew up poor; we didn’t have money for luxuries like video games and especially not consoles, so while I trained my thumbs on Super Mario Bros. and spent countless hours exploring Donkey Kong Country, after that everything…
What Would Trumpcare Do To U.S. Comics?
The senate will vote on the AHCA (American Health Care Act) bill after they return from their July fourth recess. The controversy surrounding this bill is vast and has many Americans concerned about their future. Rightly so, as it seeks to overturn protections put in place by the previous administration to help cover people who may…
Politically Cartoonish: May In Review
Hello, and welcome to the May edition of Politically Cartoonish. As with the rest of WWAC, the Politically Cartoonish column is working to include analyses of non-U.S. and non-Western issues. Readers are encouraged to send political cartoon suggestions to the author via her Twitter handle @youandyourego. May opened up with International Workers Day on May 1st,…
LA Zine Fest Got Everything Right
It’s rare to find a great comic convention. From the huge halls of the Javits centre where the world’s most attended comic-con NYCC is held to the Disneyland adjacent building site of WonderCon, comic cons are often huge, inaccessible with line-ups that are ninety percent straight white people. Though smaller zine fests seem like they…
Review: Six Days in Cincinnati
Six Days in Cincinnati Dan Mendez Moore (writer & illustrator), Matt Gouck (cover artist) Microcosm Publishing June 2017 Six Days in Cincinnati was reviewed using an advanced reader copy provided by Microcosm Publishing. Originally published as Mark Twain Was Right: The 2001 Cincinnati Riots in 2012, Six Days in Cincinnati reprints Dan Moore’s original book about…
Ike Perlmutter! Get To Know Your Billionaire Marvel Chief Exec
When I spoke to BBC Radio Four’s Front Row about David Gabriel’s comments regarding “diversity” in Marvel Comics’ output (I’m about fifteen minutes in), I touched briefly on the power and influence of Isaac Perlmutter, more regularly known as Ike. My awareness of the individual is fairly new, a result of swallowing a few bigulps…
Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three: “Adolf, who?”
Even the name “Cold War” brings to mind long, slow, depressed periods of time. Yet, Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three offers constant humor and a spin on post-war Germany that I found mostly amusing, but often confusingly devoid of references to Nazis. When someone makes an uncomfortable parody of the U.S.’s current political state I hope…
Saying Their Names: A Review of THE HATE U GIVE
The Hate U Give Angie Thomas Belzer + Bray February 28, 2017 Long ago, in the days when we bought CDs, we also bragged about who got whose new CD and learned the words to all the songs. We used liner notes to help us understand the lyrics the first time and then learn them…
Feminism in South Asia: A Review of Drawing the Line
Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back Various Contributors Edited by Priya Kuriyan, Larissa Bertonasco, and Ludmilla Bartscht Ad Astra Comix Zubaan Publishers October 2015 Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back debuted in 2015 as the first full length graphic novel by Toronto-based indie comics publisher Ad Astra, working in conjunction with the feminist…