PEN Illustrated guest editors, MariNaomi, Robert Kirby, and Meg Lemke, dropped seven new political comics today on the literary freedom organization’s blog, a new feature called State of Emergency. The comics, from cartoonists Tyler Cohen, Iasmin Omar Ata, Thi Bui, Dylan Edwards, Rachel Masilamani, Whit Taylor, Robert Kirby, and Cristy C. Road all LGBTQ+ or WoC, respond to the recent election of US President Donald Trump,…
How to Throw a Watch Party in the Name of Sailor Moon R: The Movie
I know I wasn’t the only Sailor Moon fan who was delighted at the news that Viz Media would be re-releasing Sailor Moon R: The Movie in theatres this month, continuing their mission to bring the show back for a new generation of Moonies. Los Angeles will be getting a glitzy premiere on January 13,…
Review: Wren McDonald’s SP4RX
SP4RX Wren McDonald Nobrow Press December 2016 Disclaimer: This review is based on a copy provided by Nobrow Press. SP4RX is a world you’re familiar with. Punky cyborg hackers eke out a living in squats shadowed by glittering towers while robots and AI are pushing more and more of the working class into the underclass. What makes SP4RX different…
Rogue One: An Unrebellious Star Wars Colouring Book
Art of Colouring: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Disney Book Group December 2016 Who made this colouring book? I can’t tell you because that information isn’t given anywhere in the back matter or the nonexistent front matter. Neither is it available on Disney or Amazon. This emphasizes the intellectual property and brand over the…
The “Reveal” of Trans Characters in Comics
A year or so ago, I was going to write Diamond Jack, an urban fantasy comic featuring a stage magician who reluctantly was given actual magical powers. It read somewhat like if Zatanna and John Constantine had a baby, and until the artist had to take a sudden leave of absence, it was looking like…
Book Beat: Black Market for Books While Hidden Figures Rises to the Top
Hi book lovers! So are we past saying Happy New Years yet? It’s the middle-ish of January, my university hasn’t resumed classes yet and I’m spending my free time trying to keep to my resolutions! I find that I always blame not reading enough during the school year on having to read textbooks and articles. This…
Exploring Our Fathersons in Frontier #13
Frontier #13: Fatherson Richie Pope Youth In Decline September 25, 2016 I got to see Richie Pope on The Black Comics/Race and Comics panel at the 2016 Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF). It was the first time I heard of Pope and got to see his art projected on the hotel conference room screen. I left…
Civil War II: Many Losers but Princess Sparklefists Wins
Civil War II had a lot of promise in its premise: that there’s another issue important enough to the superhero community that they would take sides and fight over it. In this case, it’s the Terrigen cloud released by the Inhumans on Earth, which turned one regular kid into an Inhuman with a power that…
Get Your Game On Wednesday: Gaming Quickly
This upcoming year of games has me pretty excited, and contemplating saving up for a PS4. I’ve been making my way through all the Mass Effect games in anticipation for Andromeda, but there’s more news than just WWAC’s Bioware love.
Avoid This Yellow Brick Road: Emerald City is a Dud
Emerald City, episodes 1 & 2 Tarsem Singh (Director) Matt Arnold, Josh Friedman, David Schulner, Shaun Cassidy, Naomi Iizuka, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Tracy Bellomo, Josh Carlback (Writers) Adria Arjona, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ana Ularu, Gerran Howell, Jordan Loughran, Joely Richardson, Vincent D’Onofrio (cast) NBC Emerald City might be peak genre pastiche gritty reboot for me. When I first…
On Immigration and Motherhood: A Book Review of Lucky Boy
Lucky Boy Shanthi Sekaran G.P. Putnam’s Sons January 10, 2017 Lucky Boy is a lush and poignant tale about two different mothers who are in love with the same baby boy, Ignacio. Solimar Castro-Valdez, a young undocumented Mexican immigrant working as a maid/nanny in Berkeley, California, is the biological mother of Ignacio. Kavya Reddy is…
How to Visualise Identity? Looking for Nonbinary
Nonbinary. It’s a word that’s being thrown around a lot at the moment. The acknowledgement that there are, and always have been, more than two genders is incredibly important. However, we still aren’t seeing a huge amount of nonbinary representation in mainstream media, and when we do it’s a little vague – take Steven Universe,…
