The festive season is a strange time. It can be happy and full of joy, or it can be tough, triggering, and full of tricky situations that are no fun at all. For me, it’s a mixture of both, but ever since I was a child I’ve adored the run up to the holidays, and…
Queer Books Do Sell – What’s Wrong With Your Marketplace?
Queer books sell. They sell, and they sell, and they sell. Marvel’s queer books somehow don’t sell, except, ya know, for the ones that have proven to sell well in trade. But I digress. Billion dollar corporations (in the case of both DC and Marvel) somehow can’t muster the marketing ability to sell a book…
Previously On Comics: New Franchise Adaptations and Additions
Hi readers! Welcome to the first full week of December. December?! Where did 2016 go? Other than a dumpster where it promptly was set on fire, I mean. Despite current events, however, we are seeing some bright spots in the comics world so let’s take a look at the latest news. Magical girl fans, rejoice!…
Sunday Art Gala: Everybody Belongs in Steven Universe
Steven Universe has won the hearts of the women of WWAC. The show is a short-form cartoon that, somehow, at eleven minutes an episode–and under the guise of being a coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old half-human, half-gem–manages to also tell some pretty incredible stories. These stories include the meaning of friendship, the pain of unrequited…
My First Game: Alone in the Dark (1992)
I was into video games before it was cool. In 1994, I was six years old, and my favourite pastime was watching my babysitter, a teenage boy named Mark, play games on our home PC. It was a huge, white, clunky thing that ran Windows 3.1 and was mostly purchased so my dad could play…
Of Mice & Men Singer Is Not Getting Better
On October 11, 2016 front-man for metalcore band Of Mice & Men Austin Carlile announced that the band would be cutting their European tour short due to complications of his Marfan Syndrome. Many fans responded by wishing him well, and sharing their hopes that he’d get better soon. Carlile responded by explaining that “you don’t…
Trading Outpost: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Hello, it’s The Trading Outpost—bonus tapes for The Trades, a podcast about comics and comics adjacent topics! With me, FST, is Aaron LaRoche. We recorded this episode before the US election, so if you would like to travel back to a more innocent time to hear Aaron and I squabble about if you should sign your…
Melanie Gillman’s Stage Dreams: A Story of Queer Romance and Espionage!
There is a great deficit of happy stories about queer and trans people, so it’s extra exciting to find an artist that creates them. Melanie Gillman has been a champion of such stories, and has been building impressive body of work. They currently draw As the Crow Flies, a webcomic about a queer 13 year old navigating the…
The Last Resurrection and Millennial Adolescence
Content warning: this article discusses fictional portrayals of rape, incest, necrophilia and Nazi atrocities, along with a whole lot of religious insensitivity.
Thursday Book Beat: Life Lessons From Anne of Green Gables, Gilmore Girl Withdrawals and New GRRM?
Hi book lovers hope your week has been filled with holiday cheer no matter what you celebrate and good vibes whether you celebrate or not! I am compiling a list of books I must read over my winter break, including Swing Time by Zadie Smith and the novel the movie Arrival was based on, Story of Your…
