Toril Orlesky’s Zarco is the natural evolution of what she achieved in Hotblood!. I devoured it in one sitting, drawn along by the story and the artwork alike, hungry to find out how—if—things would resolve.
Don’t Eat That: Tapas’s Incubator Program
When it comes to the publishing industry, my background is largely in fiction prose. I’ve spent years reading and researching fiction publishing contracts, learning what the terms mean and what the red flags are. I’ve seen all sorts of rights and royalties fuckery attempts from the incompetent and the outright scammy, sometimes with tragic, “Here’s…
Two Sports Comics Knocking It Out of the Park … and One Striking Out Miserably
Sports stories, no matter the medium, seem to fall along a continuum. On one end, you have the stories where the sport serves as a backdrop for character-driven conflict, while the other end boasts complete immersion in the sport, with minimal concern for storylines outside each match’s or season’s results. Dodge City, Fence, and We…
Cults, Talking Raccoons and Gentrification: A Love Letter to Leaving Richard’s Valley
It’s not always easy to say goodbye.
Draw the Line Offers Inspiration with Broad Strokes
Draw the Line Various creators, Myfanwy Tristram (editor) 2017 Draw the Line is an anthology webcomic, in which “over 100 comic(s) artists present positive political actions anyone can take.” It recently won the Broken Frontier Award for best Web Comic in 2017, and it does indeed offer a wide array of positive actions aimed at…
Making a Spectacle with Megan Rose Gedris
Megan Rose Gedris (handle: Rosalarian) has been doing this comics thing for a long time—her first webcomic, YU+ME: dream, debuted in 2004, and she’s been creating ever since then, with the sadly now offline pulp comic I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space, erotic tales like Darlin’ It’s Betta Down Where It’s Wetta on Filthy Figments, and a…
Lines of Pride: LGBTQIA+Webcomics About Life
Users of the LINE Webtoon app were greeted Monday with a notification from the service advising that there had been a rash of abuse with the reporting tool to get LGBTQIA+ comics shut down. They responded promptly to explain that they are inclusive website and would be contacting creators to get their pages back up….
Studs and Spurs: Hotblood!’s Take On the Wild West is Stunning
Nothing about Toril Orlesky’s Hotblood! is exactly what it seems. It’s a comic about the Old West, but there are centaurs. There are centaurs, but no magic. Every character is lying, but probably not in the way that you expect. There are so many layers of deception to Hotblood! that it’s at times difficult to…
No Take, Only Throw: Irony and Webcomics’ Political Relevance
On July 18th, 2015 cupcakelogic on Tumblr posted a simple, three-paneled webcomic on her blog. The comic depicted her new dog and the ironic conundrum she faced. The penciled dog, holding a ball in her mouth, wants her person to throw it.
Mana: Priya Huq’s Comic Full of Water
It was raining heavily when I walked, under leafy trees and through the neighborhood park, to pick up my copy of Priya Huq’s Mana: 1st Volume. Primarily available as a free-to-read webcomic, Mana follows Samudra, a young khandati (swordsperson) who must journey from her mountain home so that she may find what she saw in…
The Third Party Brings Romance to Office Politics [Review]
The Third Party Enjelicious (creator) Lezhin Comics What happens when the wealthy heiress of a popular company is ordered to mask her identity and work at her future workplace as an intern…where she meets a woman? An independent woman who sports professionalism, confidence, and sex appeal with plans to run away from her former life…
Trading Outpost: I Wanna List You A Merry Christmas
Hey, y’all, it’s the last Trading Post of the year with us, your last The Trades of the year. We’re exactly the same great The Trades podcast hosts as the rest of the year, Aaron LaRoche and your faithful correspondent in this space, FST.