One week after I saw Absolutely Fabulous, I saw Ghostbusters. I saw it in the same cinema, on the same day of the week, at the same approximate time, midday. I saw both films for the same reason: because for many many years, they have been a part of my personal entertainment environment. I am…
Ad Astra Comix Interview: Sky’s the Limit in Political Comics
I first learned about Ad Astra Comix when I saw Nicole Marie Burton speak at “Drawing Resistance: Using Comics for Social Change,” hosted by Women & Children First in Chicago. Nicole is a co-founder with Hugh Goldring of the Canadian comics publisher. The talk was one of several on a tour to discuss the power of the political comic and…
Review: Green Arrow #1
Green Arrow #1 Benjamin Percy (Writer), Otto Schmidt (Artist), Nate Piekos (Letterer) and Juan Ferreyra (Cover Artist). DC Comics June 15th, 2016 Disclaimer: This review is based on an advanced copy from the publisher and contains spoilers. I reviewed Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1 last week and really enjoyed it. It did well as a one-shot setting up a rebooted/relaunched/reimagined…
Is Budget Cosplay Possible?
The short answer? Yes. The long answer? With careful planning, imagination, and diligence, still yes. Cosplay is an awesome way to express your love for a character and the world they come from, but it can be ridiculously expensive if you don’t keep a careful eye on your spending. Here are some tips I wish…
Trading Outpost: Why I Don’t Hate Why I Hate Saturn
Hello, this is the Trading Outpost, in which I, hostess of The Trades, further discuss some of the comics and concepts covered by (yes!) The Trades. The Trades is a podcast by me, FST, and Aaron LaRoche (A boy, hence lack of onsite embed —Ed.). We trade comics, talk about our picks from the month,…
From Haute Cuisine to the Guillotine: Class in Hannibal
Bryan Fuller’s cancelled drama Hannibal is nominally billed as being about the cannibal Hannibal Lecter. It also tackles a number of weighty themes, such as love, the nature of evil, and even the subtle ways in which people may be divided by forces both moral and class-related.
Canada Reads: In Defence of Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal
This year the theme of Canada Reads is “starting over.” Some of our writers decided to join in and defend some of the short-listed titles. My siblings are second generation Canadians, but I, along with my parents, am first generation. My father came ahead of us to set up, while little me (at a year-and-a-half) and my mother…
MAN PLUS Take Two (and Three): Araujo’s Midsection
Man Plus is currently being published by Titan Comics as a four issue mini; it’s also being serialised for free online through page by page release. Claire and J.A. discuss the second and third issues of Araújo’s Shirowpunk passion project, as they did for part one previously.
The Working Class Substitute to the American Girl Dolls
What I love and simultaneously resent most about sites and online magazines, like Bustle, Buzzfeed, The Hairpin, and The Toast, is how they fuel my childhood nostalgia. It’s like kids born in the 1980s are retroactively trying to create online fan cultures over fandoms and cultural artifacts long past their expiration date (which is really…
Postcard Valentines: The Game Changer
Valentine’s Day cards have mysterious origins and have undergone hundreds of years of transformation. But I’m not going to get into all of that. Instead, we’re going to focus on the popularity of postcard Valentines in the United States in the early 20th century. During the Victorian Age, people went all out on their Valentines….
Feminism and Realism in John Allison’s Giant Days
Amongst the barrage of “best of” comics lists that closed out 2015, I was delighted to see John Allison’s Giant Days pop up in multiple places. The comic follows three friends—Esther De Groot, Susan Ptolemy, and Daisy Wooton—as they navigate their emotionally and academically tumultuous first year of university (a.k.a. college, for the Americans like…
The Force Awakens Awareness: On Movie Viewing, Spoilers, and Privilege
It is no secret that Star Wars fans have been excited about StarWars: The Force Awakens (SWTFA) for months since its announcement, only getting increasingly worked up from the moment we saw Harrison Ford’s crooked smile and heard him say, “Chewie, we’re home,” to reaching a fever pitch when the film opened in the US in mid-December.