Cosplay is great, but sometimes it’s intimidating. Where will I wear it? How will I make it? Can I afford it, for just one con/just for one Halloween? Will the character suit me? Will people be nasty jerks about my choices? And so on! It’s hard to be a fan. There are ways to cut…
SPX: These Are a Few of My Favorite Zines
Small Press Expo 2013 was held on Sep. 14-15. For a first-time attendee like moi, SPX was an amazing experience, an intense gathering of passionate creators and fans, and contained more comics than the human mind was ever made to comprehend. (Remember the Honest Ed’s scene in Scott Pilgrim and The Infinite Sadness? It was…
BOOM! Studios Artist Submission Page: A Progress Report
Since early June, BOOM! Studios has maintained a Facebook page allowing open artist submissions. Pencilers, colorists, and inkers have presented their work for the comic publisher and fans alike to evaluate. This certainly isn’t the first or only opportunity for creators to directly show their work to publishers; portfolio reviews at conventions have been a…
News & Things: Your week in awful (and I’m not talking about Forever 21)
News MTV Geek Closes Up Shop What does it meeeean? After AOL ditched Comics Alliance earlier this year, the news that MTV Geek is headed to the blog afterlife (there’s always Internet Archive!), surely has the paid geek-blogosphere wringing hands. Splashpage will remain in operation. Steven Soderbergh’s Twitter Novella Is Now a Hardcover Book (But…
Judge Dredd: We Are The Law
My road to comics fandom has been a surprisingly short but busy one. Granted, I started reading Batman/Detective as a child, but only started reading Hawkeye and Young Avengers after the Marvel NOW! launch. Similarly, I took a chance on the comical grotesquery of Chew in 2011 mostly because I felt guilty about not reading…
Intersections: Race, Gender, and Comics.
Today we kick off a sprawling new series of essays, interviews, and roundtables. And by sprawling I mean that it’s gonna take awhile. Intersections: Race, Gender, and Comics will look at the comics industry, fandom, and representations of race and gender in comics and their various adaptations. This isn’t a series on race AND gender…
Summer Movie Roundtable: Part two
Our Megan Byrd, Mai Pucik, and Ashley Schmuecker, along with guest commentators/hecklers Shannon Rahe and Vicki Essex joined me to talk about summer movies. In this part we discuss Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, Wolverine, and the state of the comic book movie. You can find part one here. *** We haven’t talked at all about…
Summer Movie Roundtable 2013: Part one
Hey, it’s our second annual summer movie roundtable! This time we’ve got our own Megan Byrd, Mai Pucik, and Ashley Schmuecker on deck, along with guest commentators/hecklers Shannon Rahe and Vicki Essex. In part one (of two) we talk Pacific Rim, Kick-Ass 2, the Fast and Furious franchise, and so-called “diversity casting”. *** Ok team, let’s…
News & Things: Banned Romance
Welcome back to News & Things! Today we’re Hulking out with Firefly, Adventure Time, free Halloween comics, and more! Read of the Week There’s No Excuse For Misogyny In Space Helen O’Hara looks at the treatment of Katee Sackhoff’s character in the new film, Riddick: “This film, more than either previous Riddick effort, feels like…
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: So far I hate it
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. opens with a soft-toned, unimpassioned voiceover: o brave new world, that has such super-people and super-agents in it. (No exclamation mark). It moves from there to a series of familiar situations, peopled with familiar characters. The sassy hacker. The loner super spy. The down on his luck dad-turned-hero. The tough girl agent…
Top 10: WTF, Spider-Manga
Spider-Man! He’s been around the world a couple of times. Remember this? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7qJ4MLCaw&w=420&h=315] That’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here for the Spider-Man manga, released eight years previously and with a wildly different subject matter. This Spider-Man was Komori Yuu (neither Japanese Spider-Man was Peter Parker, nor even alliterative — the toku version…
News & Things: Bi Pride, we have it!
Welcome back to News & Things! Today it’s all bi everything, in honour of yesterday’s Bi Pride/Bisexuality Visibility Day. News Why are the Fall’s LGBT Movies Going Straight to DVD? Film.com discusses an unfortunate trend in queer film distribution. Bi Political Leaders Blazing a Trail for Others Ellyn Ruthstrom on five notable out bisexual U.S….