There are the YA classics many of us read, such as Newberry Award recognized books like The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, and many more. I vaguely remember these books, but I certainly don’t…
In Defense of the Bad Boy
Ah, the Bad Boy. He gets a lot of traction in our fictional media. He is alluring on account of his badness, and of course, incredibly good looking. In many cases, he is thrown into a love triangle with a female protagonist where she must decide between The Bad Boy and The Good Guy. We know…
A Review of Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #4, or How Not To Write a Feminist Comic Book
Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #4 Nancy Collins (Writer), David Acosta (Artist), Valentina Pinto (Colorist), Erica Schultz (Letterer) Dynamite August 19, 2015 Birdi and Kate take issue with Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #4, which is really no surprise, considering they’ve had problems with the entire run. As a final review, they’ve organized their critique in…
Books that Shaped Me: Let the Right One In
In 2009, vampires were so in that everyone was sick of them, and I was a freshman in college. I was a defensive bandwagon-jumper, reading vampire novels incessantly while assuring everyone that I only read the good ones. A course on monsters across media increased my interest—and raised the bar of the quality of vampire…
“Shot to the crotch, and you’re to blame, Darlin’ you give pulp comics a bad name”: A Review of Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood
Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #3 Nancy Collins (scripter), Dave Acosta (penciller), Valentina Pinto (colorist), Erica Schultz (letterer) Cover by Billy Tan (art) and Vinicius Andrade (colors) Dynamite July 15, 2015
Sequential Sartorial: Narrative Chaos! How to Redesign a Character
I promised to be positive in this series so here’s a new spin on that: a how-to, some advice, a template to run with. Why complain about weak redesigns if you don’t give suggestions on how to be better? But I’m poison-flavoured and sour, like my favourite drink, so let’s sneak in a little evil…
Buckle Up Creampuffs, We’re Off to Season 2: An Interview with Carmilla Producer Steph Ouaknine
The recent surge of literary webseries on YouTube have brought new life to some previously under-appreciated classic novels. But the production of Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla, a Gothic novella from 1871, hasn’t just reinvented the story of a possibly lesbian vampire and the girl who may be lover or victim. They have transformed it into a…
Review: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood – When It All Goes Wrong Again
Swords of Sorrow: Vampirella & Jennifer Blood #2 Nancy Collins (scripter), Dave Acosta (penciller), Valentina Pinto (colorist), Erica Schultz (letterer) Cover by Billy Tan (art) and Vinicius Andrade (colors) Dynamite June 10, 2015
Sorry Barbie But Ghouls Really Do Rule
When I was young, I had a significant Barbie collection filled with blond and blue eyed Day and Night Barbie, Skipper, Dallas Barbie, and many others. I had a camper, a horse, a pool set, and I played with them like any typical girl would because what else was I supposed to do? My mom…
Women! And More Women! Swords of Sorrow is Coming
As I have said many times before, I love Red Sonja. She was the first “person” I wanted to be growing up. All I needed was a sword to go with my horse, which I already had (Texas girl here). When Gail Simone announced that she would be rounding up a group of female writers…
My First RPG: Night World
I like to think that if I were a teenager when Twilight came out that I would have had the wherewithal to outright reject it, buuuuut I am probably just kidding myself. I was a total nut for the brooding, Byronic vampires that Edward Cullen is just one in a long tradition of. Okay, the…