Seventeen years ago, Marvel Comics introduced the Sentry, a retconned hero from the early days of the heroic age. While the Sentry was immensely powerful—one of the Earth’s mightiest heroes—he had a secret, unknown even to himself. The Sentry, it turned out, was his own worst enemy: the supervillain known as the Void. And, to…
IFOA: Around the World with Hideo Furukawa
I recently had the honor of reviewing Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa. It is a fun, remastering of a short story written by Haruki Murakami titled A Slow Boat to China. In Furukawa’s book, as well as the original short story, the main protagonist meets three people who help him understand his place in life….
Ghouls Rule in Wayward Sisters: Interview with Editor Allison O’Toole
When you think of monsters, who do you see? Bela Lugosi’s Dracula? Godzilla? The cute gill man from The Shape of Water? Monster stories are typically dominated by men, but a new comic anthology intends to change that. Wayward Sisters, currently running on Kickstarter, is a new collection of stories about female monsters, all made…
Idle Animations: Playing and Not Playing in Cibele [GIFs]
Idle Animations is a recurring series in which I play games without playing them, exploring quiet, still moments, how games fill space and time, and what happens when you let a game play itself.
Before Lugosi: Vampires of the Silent Screen
With his slick black hair, Hungarian accent, suave costume and penetrating glare, Bela Lugosi emerged as the definitive screen vampire after starring in Universal’s 1931 film of Dracula. The actors who played Count Dracula afterward, such as Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman, sometimes homaged Lugosi and sometimes subverted him, but they always performed in his shadow.
British Horror Comics Live Again: Scream! & Misty Halloween Special
Scream! & Misty Halloween Special Guy Adams, Gráinne McEntee, The Feek, Kek-W, Hannah Berry and Alec Worley (Writers), John Stokers, Frazer Irving, Tristan Jones, Henry Flint, Simon Coleby, Len O’Grady, Ben Willsher and DaNi (Artists), Simon Bowland, SG, Jim Campbell, Annie Parkhouse and Max Smith (Letters) Rebellion October 2017 In its heyday, the British comics industry…
Mudbound: A Gorgeously Shot Drama About Southern Racism
Mudbound Dee Rees (director), Rachel Morrison (cinematographer), Mako Kamitsuna (editor) Adapted from the Hillary Jordan novel by Dee Rees and Virgil Williams Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige (cast) January 21, 2017 (Sundance), September 10, 2017 (TIFF), November 17, 2017 (USA) Mudbound is a raw, historical family drama with a…
Backlight: The Film Industry Is Toxic But There’s Still Hope
This week, we saw more news around Weinstein (who’s shocked?) but it hasn’t all been grim. People within the industry are standing up and making a difference, whether it’s through sharing their stories, breaking ties with The Weinstein Company, or focusing their efforts on better causes. We also have some exciting and heartwarming projects from…
Tom of Finland Is An Intimate Portrait of An Iconic Artist
Tom of Finland Dome Karukoski (director), Aleksi Bardy (screenplay), Lasse Frank (cinematographer), Harri Ylönen (editor) Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen, Jessica Grabowsky, Taisto Oksanen, Seumas Sargent, Jakob Oftebro, Niklas Hogner (cast) February 24, 2017 (Finland), October 13, 2017 (Worldwide) The story of Tom of Finland, both in director Dome Karukoski’s biopic and in the public imagination,…
Alien: Covenant Decenters its Female Protagonist in Favor of a Man
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Alien: Covenant, as well as discussions of rape analogies. Is the Alien franchise a feminist one? It depends on who you ask. If, and how, and why a film is feminist has always been up for debate in film criticism circles. Feminist films are often helmed by women who…
Five Atmospheric Reads for Halloween
I don’t know about you, but as soon as the calendar turns to September 1, I’m just about ready for sweaters, fuzzy socks, and a few spooky stories to pass the evening. With Halloween only a few short weeks away, your bookshelf might be in need of some creepy new additions as the days gets…
Tragedy Girls is the Sweetly Subversive Slasher Movie We Need
Tragedy Girls Tyler McIntyre (director and writer), Chris Lee Hill (writer), Pawel Pogorzelski (cinematographer), Martin Pensa (editor) Alexandra Shipp, Brianna Hildebrand, Kevin Durand, Craig Robinson (cast) October 20, 2017 (USA) This movie is fucking great. Like *spoiler alert* I really, really love this movie.
