I’m a big fan of Czap Books, especially two of their earlier publications – Laura Knetzger’s sweet, slice-of-life series Bug Boys, and Jessi Zabarsky’s emotional, warm fantasy Witchlight. I’ve written about both comics before, but since those initial pieces both books were picked up by Random House Graphic and released to a wider audience. I…
Jane Mai’s Soft is a Brilliant Retelling of Carmilla
CONTENT WARNING: This article contains discussion of abusive relationships. When a friend recommended I watch a low budget webseries about a lesbian vampire who falls in love with her plucky college roommate, I didn’t realize it was based on Carmilla, a vampire novella by Sheridan Le Fanu older than Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I was fascinated…
Charmed, Sexual Assault, & the Medusa Myth
CONTENT WARNING: This article contains discussion of sexual assault. SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for season one of the new Charmed television series. I recently wrote an article encouraging people to return to the TV series Charmed as a silly, stress-free social distancing activity. Charmed is wildly campy and difficult to take seriously –…
Social Distance and Watch Charmed
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary practice of social distancing, Netflix has introduced a new feature: Netflix Party. Netflix Party allows viewers on multiple accounts to synchronously watch a TV show or movie, simplifying a difficult task teen-me used to attempt with my internet friends so we could watch anime together….
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Feminist Fight Choreography
Seeing myself in a piece of media never gets old. There’s a basic kind of representation that feels all right — oh, another queer person, a bisexual person, cool! — but every so often I find something special that really, truly resonates. I usually expect to find that feeling more in books or indie comics…
PEOW is Publishing Wildly Creative Comics for Everyone
When I look for new comics or zines in a shop, at a festival, or online, I tend to browse wildly and pick up anything that catches my eye. We are blessed to live in a comics era filled with small presses and distros that are putting a variety of wild, creative work out into…
From University Archive to Prison: An Interview with the DePaul University Zine Archive
Editor’s Note: This is the second interview in the Zine Interview Comics Librarium series by Alenka Figa. Read the first interview, “Our Queer Older Siblings Will Save Us: An Interview with the Queer Zine Archive Project.”
Hourly Comics Day 2020: Friendships, Puppies and Raptors Oh My!
The year is 2020, and of all the momentous things happening, both good and terrible, there is one event that we must honor, as we do every year: Hourly Comics Day. Welcome to my third annual roundup! This year’s Hourly Comics Day fell on a Saturday, and gave us a fun peek into various cartoonists’…
Normal Offers Queer, Desi Horror That Packs a Punch
The last Gaysi zine I reviewed was All that We Want, a gorgeous, warm celebration of queer desire. Their newest zine, Normal, is a complete departure from that exploration of queer joy, and instead dives into all that keeps us from such experiences. As Niyati Joshi makes known in their introduction, queer and trans people…
Best American Comics 2019 Offers a Time Capsule of Exciting, Poignant Work
Several weeks ago, I was browsing in a favorite local bookstore when Best American Comics 2019 (BAC) caught my eye. While the cover, illustrated by Sophia Foster-Dimino, has a bright, engaging image of a comics reader and comics character watching each other through a window (hello there, windows and mirrors theory!), it was the name…
Four-Color to Forearms: WWACers and Comic Book Tattoos
Tattoos are a way to permanently declare your allegiance, your identification, your love. It should be no surprise, then, that a lot of WWAC contributors have fabulous comics tattoos. If you’re considering a comics tattoo yourself (I am!), let this photo gallery serve as inspiration.
Kitten Construction Company is a Sure Hit for Reluctant Readers
Kitten Construction Company: A Bridge Too Fur John Patrick Green First Second October 1, 2019 Welcome back to another edition of Melissa and Alenka Review a Comic about Cats! In past installations we talked about cats and identity in Finding Molly from Emet Comics and the delightful strangeness of Benji Nate’s Catboy. This time we leaned…