Good morning from your Friendly Neighbourhood Previously Editor. Happy Spring to everyone who’s not in Ontario, because it has been snowing here since the advent of Spring so in my opinion, it’s still winter. The weather has little impact on pop culture news, which is consistently a dumpster fire.
Let’s get the big story out of the way. Marvel has announced that it’s Marvel Voices: Pride series this year will feature variant covers featuring 2SLGBTQIA+ characters, as well as queer allies. They’ve also released a couple of those covers, as shared by Popverse, and the results are… dubious? There’s one cover with Northstar flying and Peter Parker/Spider-Man hanging out on the side of a building. The other is of Rachel Summers with Daredevil posing behind her. Nothing about these covers screams Pride. They look like everyday, average Marvel team-ups if you remove the Pride logo. Couldn’t Marvel at least have had the allies hold up a flag, or hang out at a Pride parade?
Speaking of Popverse, the site’s Deputy Editor (and WWAC family member) Tiffany Babb, has stepped down from her role and will be pursuing a freelance career. Babb made the announcement on Instagram, which you can see here.
I know a lot of people don’t read newspapers, but comic strips were a great introduction to the world of comics for a lot of people (me included). Sadly, that avenue is fast closing its doors to women cartoonists. Such are the findings of a Washington Post article on how the standardization of comics strips in newspapers is shutting out women creatives.
There’s a lot of strife in the world and there isn’t much that we as individuals can do about it. However, a volunteer group of cartoonists, writers, and editors have come together to collect and share art about Palestine. You can submit your art to be included in an upcoming anthology called Cartoonists for Palestine. The group is also accepting donations for a number of charities. Learn more about Cartoonists for Palestine on their website.
This is a still a developing story but there have been accusations leveled against Ed Piskor for grooming underage girls. Piskor’s creepy behaviour has been alleged by many over the years, but now someone has come forward about their alleged experience with Piskor when she was 17 years old and Piskor was 40. You can read the screengrabs shared on Bluesky here, if you have the stomach for it.
A lot of that news was horrible so let’s end on a happy note. WWAC family member Jazmine Joyner has just published their graphic novel! Devour is an original horror graphic novel by Joyner and Anthony Pugh, and it is scheduled to be released on May 7, 2024. Popverse has a preview of the graphic novel here. Congratulations, Jazmine!
That’s it from me this week. Please take care of yourselves with all this horrid news going around. If Spring has indeed reached you, enjoy that sun, but wear your sunscreen. Stay hydrated and take breaks from the social media channels. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.
