Imagine a comic for children. Imagine it’s about a girl braving horrors and humiliation. Imagine she saves her brother from a family curse, and imagine the mermaid in the story is the the kind that doesn’t let you go home. Sounds good, right? It’s called Tamsin and the Deep.
Prison vs Vision, B-Movies & Surprise: Comic Book Reading Diary
I went to the comic shop for the first time in a year! Things are looking good there—the spined books are shelved by genre now. In my opinion, that’s the best way to do it. What do you think? Single issues, lacking spines, and thus unshelvable, are laid out on a full wall (kids’ section…
MAN PLUS Take Two (and Three): Araujo’s Midsection
Man Plus is currently being published by Titan Comics as a four issue mini; it’s also being serialised for free online through page by page release. Claire and J.A. discuss the second and third issues of Araújo’s Shirowpunk passion project, as they did for part one previously.
Con Diary: OK True Believers, Take Two
On the sixth of February, OK True Believers had its second outing. My local convention. I went. I wrote last time about the values of local shows, and I think that’s reflected in the nicest thing about OKTB: if you get there early, there’s no room. Everybody’s also there, and the queues are too turgid,…
Evil Emperor Penguin: Batman and Farts vs. Jurassic Park
Evil Emperor Penguin Laura Ellen Anderson The Phoenix Presents, David Fickling Books The Phoenix weekly comic is published at a size comparable with the average magazine-shelf fare. David Fickling Books’ collected editions of Phoenix strips are put out at a smaller size, more like a single-issue comic. On the whole, this is greatly to their…
Misty Knight and the Case of the Ridiculous Males: Bra Holster Hell
Alright, you got breasts? Then you don’t need to read this (unless: catharsis?). Not have’em? Sit down and listen. L-i-s-t-e-n. Especially you, Joe Bennet, Nick Spencer, Tom Brevoort. For this is a problem from Feb 3rd’s Captain America: Sam Wilson #6. This is an atrocious and terrible character design. It’s for a character with a…
Say Goodbye to Your Childhood: A Fandom Unbinding Spell
I’m a Slytherin. I cut my communicative teeth on Harry Potter. In year ten I read Goblet of Fire so much the cover just…went away somehow. My ears perk up when somebody says “Draco Trilogy;” I have to manually smooth them down. Harry Potter fandom was my community, and Hogwarts was my home away from…
Is It Safe to Review a Book Before You’ve Finished it? What I’m Reading Now: Shindo
Saso Akira has caught my attention with his older work Shindo. Saso is an award-winning mangaka and manga lecturer known for stories about uncomfortable subjects; Kodomo no Kodomo, for example, is about pre-teen pregnancy, and Toto’s World is about a child who is mute. He also produced an adaptation of the controversial film Departures/Okuribito, a story about undertaking. Shindo is a manga…
Why I Game: I Tell You All The Time
Why do I game? The answer is basic. It’s because of my circumstances. I’m a human being. Therefore, I play.
Blood and Glitter: A Book of Art, Perspective, and Choices
“I don’t go into a session intending to make any kind of statement. I’m looking for the mysterious, how to explore the unique enigma of the situation. I think photography is as much about concealing as it is about revealing. The resolution lies in the art of freezing. The thrill is to seize the magic…
Sequential Sartorial on Princess Crystal’s Redesign: Hair vs. Body
The Inhumans’ Princess Crystal’s weird hair thing is one of the most precious mysteries of comics; undaunted by science, unsullied by commonly touted explanations. It is—it simply is. Crystal’s hair does this thing, and we like it, and it is good. Here is a series of tweets on the subject: But I’ll tell you more…
Essential Reading: X-Men Info? Who Needs Cerebro
Preceding the current Epic line of full-colour, large collection reprint volumes, Marvel Comics’ Essential [Whatever] phonebook trades were their best-value output, in my opinion. Black and white, so you lose the colourist’s work—I can’t speak for how much of an artistic shame this reliably is, but it does get a little confusing telling one from t’other…