It’s Wednesday, the best day of the week if you’re a gaming news fan! Despite my inability to find any time to beat Night in the Woods (it’s been a busy couple of weeks), I’m still consuming all the news and regurgitating it in a helpful digest form just for you, like a supportive mama…
The 100 Has a White Feminism Problem
“From the ashes, we will rise” is the tagline of the new and current season of CW’s The 100. It’s catchy, pithy, and fits in well with the show’s whole radiation nuisance that’s always hovering in the background of every season. But while radiation is certainly an upcoming threat, another issue has begun to rear…
Life of the Party: An Interview with Mary Fleener
Mary Fleener’s 1996 collection of her autobiographical comics, Life of the Party, is a cult favorite, loved for its humor, authenticity, confidence, and distinct artistic style. In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud uses examples of Mary’s art style to explain the concept of non-iconic abstraction. In his pyramid that breaks down varying…
“To Me The ‘S’ Means Something” – Jamal Igle on Supergirl
Jamal Igle has been a creative force in comics for over twenty years. His first work in comics was Green Lantern #52 published in April of 1994. Since then he has worked on some of the biggest names in comics, with art credits on Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Wolverine, Daredevil, and Firestorm. He is most…
From the Comics to the Streets: Join #PopPoliticsChat Weds 8:30PM EDT
Fans and activists are alike in that we’re all advocates. We promote characters who’ve empowered us and recruit people to join our causes. Sometimes that effort is one and the same. When a tyrant comes to power by dehumanizing Muslims and Latinx people, telling stories with Muslim and Latinx heroes is essential. While Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan,…
Video Game Pole Dancing is (Mostly) Bad
Video game sexiness has come a long way since the days of the original Leisure Suit Larry, but its depictions of pole dancing are largely stagnant. Dead-eyed women walk around poles in heels, their faces void of expression, as if the people animating them have no concept for what “sexy” is other than that it…
Yorris: Being Two People At Once
8house #4:Yorris, Part 1 Fil Barlow & Helen Maier Image Comics November 2015 I need to write this review in two different voices. I need to write it with two different hands for two different audiences. That’d be a trick, a real coup. It might accomplish my goal, which is to get you to listen…
Previously On Comics: New Distributors, Comic-Cons, and Creative Resistance
Happy Vernal Equinox, readers! Depending on where you live, the past week brought some “interesting” weather, but hopefully those days are behind us. Now, let’s talk about what’s going on in the comics world. In adaptation news, Marvel is a launching a Darth Vader comicbook series in June. Timely, given the fact that the ending…
To an Earth of Green Purity: Technology and Environmentalism in Miyazaki’s Films
“I don’t understand,” I said one Friday evening as I stuffed crinkle-cut potato chips and French onion dip into my mouth and watched Princess Mononoke with my roommate during my first winter away from home at university. “Why are the animals so big?” I protested. “Why’s everybody yelling all the time? Ashitaka! San!” We laughed at…
Otherworlds and Underworlds: Filthy Futures in Roadside Picnic and Neuromancer
More often than not, science fiction depicting the future on Earth conjures up spick-and-span cityscapes: gleaming streets and towers, an ordered and efficient environment, and hidden danger disguised as benign societal mechanisms. What’s seen less often are chaotic, dirty, bucket-of-bolts futures where menace lurks around every corner and people spill out, swearing, from grungy dives….
Isolationism vs Globalism: Watching Arrival After Trump
Arrival Denis Villeneuve (dir), Bradford Young (cin), Eric Heisserer (wri) Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma (cast) Based on “Story of Your Life”by Ted Chiang September 1, 2016 (Venice Film Festival), November 11, 2016 (United States) This review contains spoilers for the film.
Gal Pals: Bigoted Company Marvel Tries to Erase Lesbian Heroes
I could have a career just writing about the times Marvel misunderstood, insulted, offended, or attacked marginalized people. However, even I was shocked seeing this article go up at Marvel (it has since been edited). Marvel’s history with LGBT+ people isn’t exactly positive but I never expected an article that would read as such a…
