Cozying down into fall, we here at WWAC have been indulging both in books with really interesting things to say about gender, and as usual, books across the speculative fiction spectrum. Everything from horror stories to sweet, queer retellings of Arthuriana, we’re enjoying it all!
ESSAY: Lestat’s Precursors: Four Faces of American Vampirism
Some readers may feel that, so far, the stories covered in this series on nineteenth-century American vampire literature have shown an insufficient quantity of fangs. The first part covered stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Ambrose Bierce that dealt with the theme of the seductive revenant – but, strictly speaking, none were about…
TIFF 2024 Review: Queer Buries Its Narrative of Longing and Loneliness Under Surrealist Nightmares
Adapted from the autobiographical novel of the same name by Beat writer William S. Burroughs, Queer follows William Lee (Daniel Craig), a gay man living in Mexico, who longs for love and thinks he’s finally found it in a young man. But has he?
TIFF 2024 Review: Eden Rides on Strong Performances But Needs More Tension
Ron Howard’s Eden is set soon after the First World War, where a doctor and his partner have been living alone on an island in the Galapagos. When new neighbours arrive, the sanctity of their haven is disturbed and all hell breaks loose.
REVIEWS: ShortBox Comics Fair Favorites for 2024
Comics publisher ShortBox may have folded this year, but Zainab Akhtar’s annual ShortBox Comics Fair still has a sparkling present and future. Open for October, a fabulously curated collection of digital indie works are for sale online. Featuring a ton of creators, some established and some just starting out, it’s a grab bag of wonderful…
VIZ Pubwatch October 2024
Welcome back to another Pubwatch, VIZ fans! It’s October, and you know what that means— NEW! YORK! COMIC CON! Also Halloween but that’s less relevant here. We’re going to talk about the VIZ panel at this year’s NYCC and review some new series, including the Magic: the Gathering themed manga Destroy All Humans: They Can’t…
Previously on Comics: Television and Hospital Bills
Hello hello hello! Here we are, back at it again. Just a short one for you today.
TIFF 2024 Review: Harbin Is a Spy Thriller Aiming to Educate
Harbin, set in 1909 Korea, then a protectorate of Japan, follows a group of resistance fighters trying to gain independence from Japan by assassinating the Prime Minister. For the freedom fighters, the fight for Korean independence has been long and arduous with countless lives lost, and this one last mission could end the Japanese occupation…
TIFF 2024 Review: The Assessment Asks What Makes a Good Parent
In The Assessment, a couple living in a post-apocalyptic future try to pass a series of tests to determine whether they can qualify to have a child. But as the tests become increasingly dangerous and abstract, the couple begins to question their relationship and what they want from their world.
ESSAY: Dead at 55: Survival of the Dead (2009)
Concluding 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.
ESSAY: Lestat’s Precursors: Cora Linn Daniels and Sardia
Continuing a series examining the early days of American vampire fiction: Part 1 looked at the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Ambrose Bierce; part 2 discussed a story by James Kirk Paulding. Now, let us meet another author…
TIFF 2024 Review: In Without Blood, the Characters Wage a Personal War After Victory Is Declared
Without Blood is a long conversation between a woman and a man. They could be strangers. Siblings. Friends. Lovers. But what connects them is a nightmare that has changed the course of both of their lives and of so many others. Neither accepts that they’ve been waging their own personal wars, long after the real…