Tank Girl’s boyfriend is Booga, who is a man but also a kangaroo. This Tank Girl-themed snack is kangaroo jerky. Jerked kangaroo. Booga’s been jerked and you’re supposed to eat it. Dick jokes. Dick jokes. Dick jokes. DICK JOKES!!! https://instagram.com/p/BHpMi3oBF79/ So yeah, obviously I bought it.
Can a Bad Anime Be Art? Heat Guy J
Heat Guy J was a twenty-six episode animated series that aired in Japan in 2002 and wasn’t particularly well-received. For whatever reason, possibly in recognition of the positive reception director Kazuki Akane had previously enjoyed in the West through Escaflowne, it was exported anyway. Box sets with dub and sub experiences available were later sold…
Manipulation of Manhood: Julia Gfrorer’s Comic Book Misandry
Content warning: penises, breasts, rape of men. EDIT, October 2016: this article is an analysis of Gfrorer’s work as a commentary on phallocentric patriarchy. Cis masculinity is consciously centred in the readings of these narratives. I never really managed to think of a penis as a vulnerable thing until I caught the first fifteen minutes…
Comics Found Everywhere: May Scavenger Hunt Results
In May, I set a scavenger hunt. Kori Michele Handwerker, Laura Bishop, Alison Sampson, and Jog Mac replied. There are so many comics—there are so many comics! And so many of them are wonderful, edifying, enlarging, worth it. How are we ever to find them? Perhaps we can help each other.
Manga Profile: Try Murder Incarnation
Hey, kid. Kid. Hey. Hey, you like a little story with a twist in the tale? You like a last-minute swerve? You like all that sweet tension ramped up in one final reveal that not only makes everything worse, but the whole story … better? Hey, kid, hey. Who would you kill to get that, huh? Who’d…
Comics Are For Everyone, Or So We Say: Goodbye, Comics and Cola
For the past five years, Comics and Cola has been a reliable source of information, connection and reflection upon… comics. Very little Cola content. But Zainab Akhtar has had enough of the Islamophobia that’s permeated comics so blazing since #jesuisCharlie, and before and after that, and all through everything. She doesn’t want to be a…
Dear Amanda: Letters of Caution
Cathy G. Johnson’s Dear Amanda plays catch with you for a while. Then it knocks the ball out of your hands. You thought you were reading a simple diary comic? You were reading a rather complex meditation on perspective, in fact. It knocked the ball out of my hands, I should say. Reading experiences may…
Let Me Desire Myself: Sexy Drawings That Don’t Hurt [NSFW]
Erotica, one might hope, is intended to make people feel good. Erotica, as has been discussed at length on this site, can cause people to feel bad. All art containing bodies has the potential to push the viewer into a state of comparison. Desiring to encourage reflection upon the differences and the the reasons which span this…
Carve Your Name in the Rockface: Arielle Soutar’s Art of Lettering
When I spoke to Zach Clemente about his Mountain cycle comics, he had plenty to say about his steady collaborator, Arielle Soutar. Clemente and Soutar have collaborated with a different cartoonist on each book, but she has provided the typography and logo work for all ClementeWorks scripts. And they’ve known each other since school! I wanted to…
Udon a Bad Thing: Frank Cho, Anuses, and Visual Impact
Much like many other areas of culture, monthly direct-market comic books are an industry, a scene, which is largely hostile to women even now, a place where harm is produced and reproduced, and objections are seen as shrill lies told for cheap thrills. I know it’s dull, but let’s talk about Frank Cho.
Chris Martin Invites You to Enter Dramaworld, Where Fandom Makes You Special
After watching the preview episodes of Dramaworld we were sent, and having discussed it with Angel and Ardo, I was keen to talk to director and co-writer Chris Martin. Happily, despite the eight hour time difference, I got the chance! We talked about culture, media representation, fandom, and how connections are formed (or prevented from…
If It Fits: Shoes, Sex, and Eroticised Withdrawal in Okazaki Mari’s “&”
Okazaki Mari’s romance comic “&” is about romance as a connection that springs from sensual experience. Its heroine, Kaoru, works in a hospital and is attempting to build her own business as a nail technician in her own time, and at the site of each job, she has a suitor.