TIFF 2021 featured numerous films from a variety of genres, including science-fiction, thrillers, documentaries, and animation. We round up the genre films from the festival that we loved.
Trading Outpost: Genre/Gender/Generic
Hello! And welcome back to another of The Trades, the world’s only comic podcast by people who don’t know anything about pen nibs. This month, we swear off literacy in order to better live out deconstructionism. Also, Aaron reads award nominated comics, while Webtoons is taking over my life, and I don’t know how to…
Manga to Movies: Why Eastern Comic Film Adaptations Thrive and Western Don’t
Marvel and DC have always been large moving forces for comics, and their recent forays into expanding movie universes has helped put comics in the popular culture limelight in a huge way. While Hollywood filmmakers have been “loosely basing” movies from comics on the sly for years, the open appreciation of comics and comic film…
Books That Shaped Me: A Wrinkle in Time
Funny thing, it was the Babysitters Club that got me reading A Wrinkle in Time. I was a voracious reader, and when my mom bought a milk crate full of old Babysitters Club books for me at a garage sale, I dove right in. One of the Babysitter Club books featured Claudia Kishi picking out…
Noragami, a Tale of a Stray God and a Cat-Tailed Girl
Noragami: Stray God volumes 1-4 Adachitoka (mangaka); Alethea Nibley & Athena Nibley (translation); Lys Blakeslee (lettering) Kodansha, September 2014-April 2015 Note: this essay contains mild spoilers; review copies provided by Kodansha. You’ve got a sassy small god who wants to be a big god. You’ve got a girl who sometimes has a catlike tail. You’ve…
Women As Superheroes: A Comic Drawing Workshop to Celebrate 40 Years of The Feminist Library
A free comic workshop led by artists Sally Jane Thompson, Rachael Smith, and Karen Rubins in London at The Feminist Library? I’d signed up faster than you can say sequential-art-salon-in-Southwark.
Jem Jam: “Kimber’s Rebellion” and “Frame Up”
2015 marks the 30th anniversary of Jem, the beloved 80s cartoon series. Jem and the Holograms have never been bigger, as 2015 will also see the release of a live action film based on the show, a new comic book series published by IDW, and a continuing line of collectible fashion dolls from Integrity Toys….
Science Fictional and Fantastic — The Universe of IDW’s Transformers
This article goes into serious detail in examining the history of the Transformers in the IDW comics to explain the current status quo, and as such, spoils many plot twists. You have been warned. The thing about the premise of the Transformers — robots that turn into other things — is that there is an…
Pacific Rim 2: Drift Again Like We Did Last Summer
The news is all over the internet: Visionary director Guillermo Del Toro and Script writers Travis Beacham and Zak Penn are reuniting with Legendary Pictures to bring giant robot action sequel Pacific Rim 2 to theaters in 3D and IMAX on April 7, 2017. The 2013 film Pacific Rim, starring Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, and Charlie…
Reel Geek Girl: Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla (2014) Directed by Gareth Edwards Legendary Pictures PG-13, 120 Minutes If you are old enough to remember the old Godzilla movies from the 50s and 60s, this movie is a lot of fun. If you’re young enough to think the old ones were cheesy and the 1998 what-were-they-thinking movie with Matthew Broderick was a…