It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not Christmas, we’re talking about ShortBox Comics Fair. The brilliant small press publisher has created something unlike any other comics festival, releasing over 100+ digital comics that are only available during the month of October. There’s a fantastic array of creators with eclectic styles, stories, and…
Space Opera, Social Commentary and Twisted Fairy Tales Win at China’s First Hugo Awards
The winners of the 2023 Hugo Awards were announced this Saturday. A whole year’s worth of science fiction and fantasy talent as voted for by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) were duly honoured with gleaming trophies in the shape of a panda with a rocket. The winner of the Hugo Award for…
Con Diary: HurriCon Celebrates the Long Island Community
HurriCon, a now-biannual fundraiser event for the Bethany Congregational Church, was founded by community member David Donovan in 2018. My best friend Cassidy and I talk about HurriCon, a local benefit comic-con in East Rockaway, Long Island like it’s the event of the season. To us, it is. Limited to the space of a church…
ESSAY: Dead at 55: Zombi 3 (1988)
Continuing a series that celebrates the fifty-fifth anniversary of Night of the Living Dead with a look at the classic zombie film and its many follow-ups. While American zombie films were growing increasingly silly, as seen in the Return of the Living Dead series, their Italian counterparts were also facing problems. The poor health of Italian…
REVIEW: Redemption and Revenge Ring True in Darlin’ and Her Other Names
Two guides are hired to lead a hunting party. Black and white artwork marries a short narrative of some privileged yet unfortunate souls, with a surprising supernatural twist at the end that stayed in my brain years later. The first version of this supernatural western comic, titled simply Darlin’, was created by Olivia Stephens back…
TIFF 2023 REVIEW: Pain Hustlers Tells An Important Story, Badly
Based on real events, Pain Hustlers follows the story of Liza Drake (Emily Blunt), who starts working with big pharma and revels in her success before things start falling apart.
ESSAY: Whatever Happened to FoxTrot?
Bill Amend’s FoxTrot was one of the great successes of late-twentieth-century newspaper comics. At the end of its run as a daily feature in 2006, the strip was running in over 1000 papers, had published over 30 book collections, and Amend was a runner-up for the National Cartoonist’s Society’s title of Cartoonist of the Year1….
REVIEW: VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
When I was younger, one of my favourite movies was Practical Magic, starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. I loved the magic, the comedy, the sense of female camaraderie. Reading VenCo, the latest from best-selling author Cherie Dimaline, had all of the same vibes I used to enjoy from that movie. But instead of sisters,…
TIFF 2023 REVIEW: Division of Labour in a Marriage is Murder in Anatomy of a Fall
A writer is accused of murdering her husband when his body is found under suspicious circumstances. The trial that unfolds will reveal the messiness of this family. But are they really so much more unusual than any other family?
ESSAY: Dead at 55: Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)
Continuing a series that celebrates the fifty-fifth anniversary of Night of the Living Dead with a look at the classic zombie film and its many follow-ups. How appropriate that The Return of the Living Dead, itself an alternative to Dawn of the Dead, would beget an alternate Zombi 2 – namely, the awkward quasi-sequel that is…
REVIEW: Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2
Having established Kamala Khan’s new normal in the previous issue, Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant #2 promises a deep dive into dreams.