Here in England Guy Fawkes Day has come and gone, and the bonfires are dormant until the next 5th of November. But the poorly thought out V for Vendetta references are still going strong. These days, Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s landmark comic and its famous mask are often used as shorthand for anti-establishment protest,…
News & Things: Book sharing and book stealing
Kayleigh’s on holiday, so you’re stuck with me again! News Weeks After Its Release, Blue Is The Warmest Color’s Director is Still On the Warpath Abdellatif Kechiche is “speaking out” against his Blue stars. Again. But he also had some less than complimentary things to say about Julie Maroh, author of, Le Bleu Est une…
Interview with StrangelyKatie
Katie O’Neill, known on the internet as StrangelyKatie, is a cartoonist currently working on the webcomic The Girl From Hell City. In her portfolio there are amazing strong female protagonists, badass princesses, and monster girls. A resident of New Zealand, she’s been sharing her comics for a couple of years now and was able to…
News & Things: Art and Tech Slaves Wanted!
Not news, not commentary (not exactly), all promotion. Check out this essay and video, The Bent Bullet, on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, by Eric Lensherr. Kickstarter of the Week Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales: Africa Edition is an interesting project. Editor Kel McDonald is looking for $20,000 to pay artists and ship books….
What’s In A Codename 2: The DC Ladies
Last time, we explored the problems of codenames for Marvel superheroines, and how much agency they get in-story and out. It’s DC’s turn now, starting with the problems that can come from a company that builds on family and legacy. Daughters of Legacy: Supergirl, Batgirl, Batwoman, Hawkwoman/girl, Jesse Quick: Building on family and legacy tends to…
Sleeper is Coming to the Big Screen
Surely you’ve heard–Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Pearl Street films will produce an adaptation of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s Sleeper. Shawn Ryan (The Shield) and David Weiner (Last Resort) will script; as of yet, no director is attached. Damon, Affleck and partner Jennifer Todd will have a direct hand in the project as executive…
News & Things: Almost Turkey Day Edition
Read of the Week Comic Book Resources interviews Neil Gaiman about Sandman: Overture, his creative process, and whether or not we’ll ever see that Sandman movie: “What I miss most, writing anything that isn’t comics, is silent panels. The joy of being able to write silent panels…it’s one of the few things that is just…
The Critics’ Jane Foster
I’ve liked Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster since the first Thor. In particular, a scene that still makes me laugh is when Jane accidentally puts her dirty dishes right back in the cupboard of her cramped trailer the first time Thor comes calling. It’s a cute scene, and Portman’s muttering Jane is flummoxed. In Thor 2,…
News & Things: It’s a terrible life. You’re a terrible life.
Kickstarter Indiegogo of the Week Rachel Halpern wants your help launching Inscription Magazine, a free, online fiction magazine for teens. They want to publish high quality YA fiction with diverse characters, by diverse authors: “It’s hard to be a teen. Young adult fiction helped a lot of us get through it. But not everyone is equally…
Tess Fowler, Brian Wood, and Harassment in the Comic Industry
The Incident The story first broke at Bleeding Cool, with artist Tess Fowler alleging an unnamed, but well known creator had sexually harassed her at SDCC 2007. This creator “feign[ed] interest in my pursuit of a comic career,” and asked her up to his room. She declined the offer. He later insulted her work and person…
Ms. Marvel is Kamala. Khan Marvel Do Better With Diversity?
If you’re net-enabled and into comics, there’s literally no way you could’ve missed the news. Marvel has introduced a new Ms. Marvel. Her name is Kamala Khan, and she’s a Pakistani-American Muslim shapeshifter from New Jersey. She’s going through the typical rebellious phase any American teen might go through, tempered by the fact that she…
News & Things: Mad Science Throwdown
Welcome back to News & Things! Tonight we have the Young Avengers season finale, Rachel Maddow on March, Princess Bubblegum vs. Frankenstein, and more! Read of the Week The Dissolve talks about what Marvel’s shared universe means for movies: “But the longer the MCU continues, the more I’m struck by the sameness of all the…