Six Days in Cincinnati Dan Mendez Moore (writer & illustrator), Matt Gouck (cover artist) Microcosm Publishing June 2017 Six Days in Cincinnati was reviewed using an advanced reader copy provided by Microcosm Publishing. Originally published as Mark Twain Was Right: The 2001 Cincinnati Riots in 2012, Six Days in Cincinnati reprints Dan Moore’s original book about…
Comics Academe: Levi-Strauss and Loki
Happy Summer, Sports Fans! My first leg of grad school is over! More importantly, final papers have been turned in, and a degree is in my hand! Fun Fact #1: One of my term papers was about reading American superhero comics as myth defined by Claude Levi-Strauss. Fun Fact #2: That’s our subject today. The…
Get Your Game On Wednesday: The Seaman Cometh
Welcome to another Wednesday, beloved nerds. While I have been immersing myself in a delightful tale of debauchery and puns (I’m playing Ladykiller in a Bind), gaming news has forged ahead without me. It’s the one-year anniversary of Overwatch, so let’s go ahead and get all of that way, shall we?
Previously on Comics… Lucie Ebrey, Dwayne McDuffie
Five long years marked — young English cartoonist and illustrator Lucie Ebrey finished up her daily diary strip, with an extra-long rumination on what it’s all meant. What does it feel like saying goodbye to an avatar you’ve lived behind for five years? I don’t know, but here’s what it feels like to watch: Here's a…
Just Butterflies: Steven Universe and Distress Tolerance
“Watch Steven Universe,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. Alright, I’m joking, but Steven Universe certainly is unique in how it handles serious and pertinent topics such as queerness, characters who are coded as people of color (POC), and characters living with mental illness. The show’s depiction of mental healthcare in particular isn’t just…
“Dark Phoenix” Movie: A Case of Nepotism Over Character
There have been a lot of rumours that the sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse might be a Dark Phoenix story, and in late April, Entertainment Weekly confirmed on everyone’s speculations. X-Men: Dark Phoenix will release worldwide on November 2, 2018, after New Mutants (April 13) and Deadpool 2 (June 1). 2018 will truly be the year of the mutants. As even a…
Return To Sender: The Problematic Back and Forth of XO, OX
When I saw that Adam Rex had written a new picture book and Scott Campbell had illustrated it, I nearly jumped for joy. XO, OX: A Love Story is about a hapless Ox who exchanges confused letters with a diva Gazelle. Early reviews were positive, describing the book as a rib-tickling tale of opposites attracting, tender enough…
Lady Pendragon: What You Want to Know About Matt Hawkins’ Guinevere
Another in our series examining the women of Image Comics’ first decade — this time, Top Cow’s Lady Pendragon. “We all were sorta young and brash and thought [the heyday of Image] was gonna last forever, and… it didn’t. And so, the fall was kinda hard? And dealing with that — Extreme Studios went out of business, and then…
5 Reasons Why You Should Be Watching Skam!
Skam? What, like a scam, or a con? No, I’m talking about Skam, the Norwegian teen drama created by Julie Andem that has catapulted into stunning international success in recent months. With the first season NRK’s Skam released in 2015 and the show currently headed into its fourth season, Skam (which means shame in English)…
Ramona Blue: A Sweet Novel about Sexual Fluidity
Ramona Blue Julie Murphy Balzer & Bray/Harperteen May 9, 2017 HarperCollins provided a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have to begin with a confession of bias. I read Julie Murphy’s novel Dumplin’ last year, and I trust her as an author. The synopsis of Ramona Blue dredges up ghosts…
MST3K “2” is No Electric Boogaloo
For a puppet show born on a Minnesotan UHF channel nearly 30 years ago, Mystery Science Theater 3000 has enjoyed remarkable longevity. Two decades after it ended its original ten-season run, the show has grown from cult classic to genuine pop culture phenomenon; the end credits encouraged viewers to “keep circulating the tapes,” and now…
13 Amazing Women Who’ve Been Making Comics for Longer Than the Internet Would Have You Believe
In this day and age it’s likely that you’ll read a lot of articles about women who make comics. They’ll focus on great new titles like Monstress, Saga and Bitch Planet. Maybe they’ll even mention a book like Moon Knight, which features the incredible colours of Jordie Bellaire. Though it’s wonderful that these books are getting…
