Swords of Sorrow #2 dropped last Wednesday, and with all the build-up from the first issue, as well as the Masquerade and Kato one-shot and the first issue in the Vampirella and Jennifer Blood team-up, we were pretty excited to see where the story was headed in #2. In this issue, the Messenger continues to…
Noragami, a Tale of a Stray God and a Cat-Tailed Girl
Noragami: Stray God volumes 1-4 Adachitoka (mangaka); Alethea Nibley & Athena Nibley (translation); Lys Blakeslee (lettering) Kodansha, September 2014-April 2015 Note: this essay contains mild spoilers; review copies provided by Kodansha. You’ve got a sassy small god who wants to be a big god. You’ve got a girl who sometimes has a catlike tail. You’ve…
Reading Diaries: Un-Pretty, No-Make-Up Emotions
Once a month the members of Women Write About Comics get together to chat about what they’ve been reading. Here’s what we liked (and what we didn’t).
Hungry for Definition: xxxHolic’s Addiction to Food
xxxHolic Omnibus editions vols. 1–5 CLAMP (mangaka studio); William Flanagan (adaptation and translation); Dana Hayward (letters) Kodansha 2014–2015 (first published 2003–2009) Note: this essay contains some light spoilers; review copies were provided by Kodansha. Watanuki Kimihiro sees spirits. Even worse, they want to eat him, and so they chase him. All the time. Big, scary,…
Making Manga is Hard—and Funny: Manga Dogs Reviewed
Manga Dogs, vols. 1–3 Ema Toyama (mangaka); William Flanagan (translation); Jennifer Skarupa (lettering); Phil Balsman (cover design) Kodansha What do you think of comics artists and writers? Okay, I can probably answer some of that: if you’re reading this, you’re probably not among the camp who thinks of them as weirdos. Or maybe you do,…
Drink Your Comics: Orphan Black
Orphan Black is currently in its third season on BBC America and Space.ca. Not only has the show’s popularity titillated geeks and feminists and feminist geeks alike, but the show has recently branched out into comics. In celebration, we are drinking our comics, Orphan Black style! Trust us, the drinking will help you keep up with…
Music and a Muse: Your Lie in April
Your Lie in April Naoshi Arakawa (mangaka); Alethea and Athena Nibley (translation); Scott Brown (lettering) Cover Design by Phil Balsman Kodansha Comics April 21, 2015 There’s something fascinating about the depiction of an auditory experience in visual form. What does it look like to play music? How do those feelings manifest? Can a story about music be…
Reading Diaries: Joe Hill, Ember in the Ashes and Unlimited Audiobooks
Once a month the members of Women Write About Comics get together to chat about what they’ve been reading. Here’s what we liked (and what we didn’t). Christa: I have read some excellent books these past few weeks. Starting with Fragile Bones by Lorna Schultz Nicholson, the first book from the new Canadian publishing house Clockwise…
Holy Neon Pits, Batgirl! WWAC Talks Body Hair
Last month, Claire Napier discussed the taboo topic of … female body hair! Lately, some ladies are doing such scandalous things as growing out their armpit hair and even dying it bright colors. This month, we are all jumping in on the body hair discussion in the vein of our On Make-up and Femininity: WWAC Talks…
Attack on Titan’s Gargantuan (Sales) Impact
Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin) is a force to be reckoned with. And no, I’m not talking about the monstrous, human-eating, gigantic Titans that represent chaos and xenophobia for the series’ protagonists. I’m talking about pure, cold, hard capitalism here. Numbers, numbers, numbers, money, money, money.
Barakamon: A Slice of Japanese Island Life
Barakamon, Vols. 1 – 4 Satsuki Yoshino Translation/Adaptation: Krista Shipley, Karie Shipley Lettering: Lys Blakeslee Yen Press Take one hotshot young calligrapher from Tokyo and put him in a fishing village with a bunch of quirky locals and what do you get? It’s called Barakamon, and it’s great.
I Didn’t Know Bruce: Bruce Lee at the Wing Luke Museum
I have a confession to make. In spite of being relatively well-rounded in other areas of nerdom (video game RPGs, tabletop games, anime and manga, sci-fi and fantasy novels, and 80s movies), there is one area in which I have fallen resoundingly flat. I hope my friends will still speak to me after reading this….