When I interviewed Adam Staffaroni about finding the kids comics market, I did not expect to end up chatting about cookies and unicorns. Staffaroni, who is the Chief Creative Officer at Einhorn’s Epic Productions, went on to introduce me to his wife Heather Einhorn, Founder and CEO of a company that calls back to the read-and-pass-along comics culture…
Who Does Marvel Care About: J. Scott Campbell’s Sexualization of 15yo Riri Williams
Those of us who have been in comics a long time know the deal with variant covers: They exist to inflate, I mean, increase sales numbers, and their target audience is people who actually know about variant covers and will pre-order them. So they’re for the fans who truly committed to and entrenched in the…
Matt Furie Wants to #SavePepe and Fight His Nightmares
When the Anti-Defamation League named Pepe the Frog a hate symbol, the character’s creator, cartoonist Matt Furie, didn’t seem to know quite what to say or do about the transformation of his character from “frog everyman” to beloved avatar of 4chan trolls and the white supremacist alt-right. In an interview with the Washington Post he…
A Wonderful History: Sam Maggs’ “Wonder Women” is a Must-Read
Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History Written by Sam Maggs, Illustrated by Sophia Foster-Dimino Quirk Books October 4, 2016 Writing a book about the incredible women history is a daunting task. There’s the lack and legitimacy of sources, the legends, and the biases. There’s also the need for fresh narratives – discussions of…
“Sisterhood is Powerful”: Subverting Tropes in VAMPS
VAMPS Written by: Elaine Lee Art by: William Simpson Colours by: Stuart Chaifetz Lettering by: Clem Robins Vertigo Comics, 1994 Vampires have always been about sex. You’ll see articles popping up from time to time questioning this fact, or trying to blame the phenomenon on Twilight, or Buffy, or Anne Rice, and the list goes…
Final Girls: Fifteen Great Horror Films Directed by Women
As the nights draw in and Halloween gets closer, what could be better than snuggling up under some blankets, grabbing an abundance of snacks, and watching some scary movies? Nothing right? But don’t you get bored of all this standard horror fare, directed by the same men, with the same ideas, and same women running…
Drink Your Comics: Season of the Witch
Between The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina from Archie, Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s Black Magick, Marvel’s Scarlet Witch, and a wealth of other witch comics, I couldn’t really choose just one inspiration for this month’s Drink Your Comics. Instead, I opted for a broad interpretation for October, the month of Halloween: the four elements.
Jack Chick’s Unhappy Halloween
On his website, the notorious fundamentalist Christian cartoonist Jack Chick keeps his comic tracts neatly categorised. At a glance, we can see a number of the topics that cause him the most ire: Roman Catholicism, homosexuality, Islam, the theory of evolution… and Halloween. Every year, Chick mounts a marketing push at Halloween. “Don’t hide in…
Previously on Comics: The Manga Market Continues to Grow
Hello, everyone! It’s a new week, which means it’s time to catch up on what’s happening in the world of comics. At NYCC, ICv2 presented an overview of the current comicbook market, complete with scenarios that could lead to its growth or collapse. Given that I remember when the North American manga market collapsed in…
The Life and Times of Marya Zaleska, Dracula’s Daughter: Part One
The classic horror films made by Universal had no shortage of monstrous men, such as Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein’s monster. Monstrous women, on the other hand, were few and far between. The Bride of Frankenstein, iconic as she is, appears so briefly in her self-titled 1935 film that she can scarcely be…
WWAC at NYCC: An Evening With Cas Anvar
If you follow me at all on social media, you might have picked up that I am somewhat fond of SyFy’s The Expanse. That @ExpanseSyfy panel was almost perfect happiness for me. S2 can't come soon enough! — Laura Harcourt (@blueofthebay) October 8, 2016 (Just a li’l.) So when an opportunity to chat with Cas Anvar, the…
Radishes is a Tasty Bite of Friendship and Fantasy [Review]
Radishes Carolyn Nowak 2015 Radishes takes place in a world I’ve never been to, and yet, I feel right at home in it. The 2016 Ignatz Award winner for Outstanding Minicomic, Radishes is about two teenage girls, Kelly and Beth, who skip school to visit a mysterious seaside market full of shops and wonders. The…
