Nothing makes me happier than a story that gets in my head, manipulates my emotions, and controls how I read. I am a fast reader, and poor pacing or lazy writing — whether in comic or prose form — cause me to speed through a book, letting my impatience get the better of me. This…
Review: Train I Ride by Paul Mosier
Train I Ride Paul Mosier Harper Collins January 24, 2017 Train I Ride is a middle grade novel that takes place over a days-long Amtrak ride from California to Chicago. Rydr is 12, soon to be 13, and must move to Chicago to live with her only remaining family member: a mysterious uncle who she…
Reading Art Speigelman’s Maus In 2017: A Roundtable
Maus by Art Spiegelman is one of those comics that’s brought up again and again, and not just by people within comics communities. August of 2016 was the 30th anniversary of the Pantheon collected edition of volume one, and 2017 will mark 25 years since it won the Pulitzer Prize. This Washington Post retrospective on…
WWAC Contributor’s Favourite Writing of 2016
I asked our contributors to tell me what their favourite piece by another WWAC writer was this year. They’ve picked articles that made an impact on them and on our readers and that, I think, stand among the best writing we published on the site this year. As our annual holiday break comes to a close, I’m…
Top Indies, Small Press, and Webcomics of 2016
I asked our small press comics fans to tell me not what the best comics of 2016 were, but which ones were their favourites. Here’s what they said: Mattress Stiff With Blood Tom McHenry Self-published There’s something that’s incredibly natural about the cartooning Tom McHenry does in this work—everything flows so seamlessly from one topic to…
Melanie Gillman’s Stage Dreams: A Story of Queer Romance and Espionage!
There is a great deficit of happy stories about queer and trans people, so it’s extra exciting to find an artist that creates them. Melanie Gillman has been a champion of such stories, and has been building impressive body of work. They currently draw As the Crow Flies, a webcomic about a queer 13 year old navigating the…
CHIPRC Fosters Community and Creativity for Self-Publishers
One of the most inspiring aspects of the self-publishing community is the support creators provide for each other. Whether it’s zines, comics, poetry, or essays, self-publishers are always willing to offer advice, resources, and anything they can to help. However, building connections can be difficult, even in the era of twitter, which is where organizations…
About That New Dykes to Watch Out For Strip
Yesterday, Allison Bechdel posted a new strip for her comic Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF) for the first time in over eight years. Like Chris Baldwin’s Bruno, DTWOF was remarkable partly because it covered a fascinating span of political eras, but delivered a queer perspective on the happenings of the world. It was also…
Ignorance is Not Bliss in Start Over Again
Start Over Again H-P Lehkonen TW: Discussion of suicidal ideation and mental illness When you encounter a cartoonist through a webcomic or a long-running series, you often don’t get a grasp on the full range of their capabilities. It’s exciting to take an artist out of their initial context and see how they fare with…
How Ill Is Your Repute? A Sinful Review
How Ill is Your Repute? Kitty Curran & Larissa Zageris During this year’s Chicago Zine Fest, I was fortunate to come across Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris’ table, where a zine sporting four intriguing, old-timey-looking women and the title How Ill is Your Repute? caught my eye. Curran and Zageris are part of the creative hive-mind behind Taylor…
Rise Up: The Board Game About Fighting Oppression
A couple years ago, I was fortunate enough to land a volunteer service position at a social justice focused school. Rather than being taboo topics as they would be at other schools, we talked openly with our students about issues of racism, homophobia, and environmental justice and encouraged them to complete projects about the injustices…
Bisexual Identity: A Roundtable
September 19th through the 26th marks Bisexual Awareness Week during which BiNet USA, GLAAD, and other organizations place a spotlight on issues unique to the bisexual community. WWAC is no stranger to discussing these issues; whether it’s calling out bisexual erasure in Deadpool, highlighting bi characters we love, or pointing out the gaping holes in…