Since 2009 the Hugo Awards have had a category for Best Graphic Story. Although overshadowed to some extent by dedicated comic awards like the Eisners, this corner of the Hugos nonetheless remains a prominent honour in its field, with a handful of contenders and one winner chosen each year from the mass of published comics….
Investing in the Gods: Nezha, Jiang Ziya and the Fengshen Cinematic Universe
The global box office has long been dominated by Hollywood blockbusters. If you look at one of the past decade’s annual lists of the highest-grossing films, chances are you will be confronted with the continuing adventures of Marvel superheroes, the latest iteration of Star Wars, and other such bankable tentpoles. Things changed in 2020, however:…
[PATREON EXCLUSIVE] Star Beasts and Spider-Gods: Doctor Who Comics of the Tom Baker Era
Our monthly Patron-exclusive essay series continues. You can read all of these incredible analyses for as little as a dollar a month on our Patreon. A science fiction series as long-running as Doctor Who could hardly avoid spawning its fair share of comics. By the same token, comics tying in with a science fiction series as…
REVIEW: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Vampire fiction has evolved considerably in the just-over-two centuries since the genre was codified by John Polidori. Each year brings with it a new take on the theme that becomes the latest contender for classic status, and for 2020 that work may well be The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix….
REVIEW: Basketful of Heads Is a Great Sick Joke
Brody Island, Maine, 1983. While college student June Branch is staying with her cop boyfriend Liam, four escaped convicts break into the house and take Liam captive. To defend herself, June grabs an antique axe from a household collection and succeeds in decapitating one of the men – but as the axe turns out to…
Spacewarp, Shift and The 77: Reviving British Anthology Comics
The phrase “British comics” has, over recent decades, seen a quite drastic shift in meaning. For a long time, British comics were affordable entertainment that youngsters picked up at the newsagent with their pocket money, and which covered a variety of genres from knockabout comedy to swooning romance, sporting exploits to high-flying sci-fi. Today, however,…
Life, Death and Twisted Romance: The Taxidermist’s Lover by Polly Hall
Scarlett Pepper’s husband Henry is a skilled taxidermist, but despite his talents, he is struggling to get by in a dwindling marketplace. While surfing the net Scarlett comes across the work of another taxidermist, Felix De Souza. Unlike the Henry, a reclusive soul who mistrusts the Internet, Felix proudly showcases his creations to the public…
REVIEW: Wit, Weirdness and Warped Ethics: Lakewood by Megan Giddings
Lena Johnson receives an invitation to take part in the Lakewood Project, which purports to be a series of research studies relating to mind, memory, personality and perception. There is something about the letter that makes her uncomfortable – but with paid expenses, housing and perhaps even life insurance, Lena finds the offer more enticing…
Modern Hauntings, Victorian Torments: Belle Vue by C. S. Alleyne
Claire Ryan has been evicted by her landlord, but chances to find an affordable alternative: a flat in a building that was once a Victorian asylum called Belle Vue. Her boyfriend Alex, a history student, is more than happy with this development as he can base his latest research project around the building’s heritage. In…
Black Magic and Dark Secrets: Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching
Immanuelle Moore is a teenage girl who lives in Bethel, a town gripped by an authoritarian religion. The Good Father of Bethel’s faith is opposed by a Dark Mother, a demonic figure associated with witchcraft and devilry. Immanuelle has been treated with suspicion from birth as her late mother, Miriam, was a witch. Yet she…
[PATREON EXCLUSIVE] She Who Must Be Obeyed: Wonder Woman’s Secret Origin as Victorian Villainess
Our monthly Patron-exclusive essay series continues. You can read all of these incredible analyses for as little as a dollar a month on our Patreon. Somewhere in a remote corner of the world is a land known to outsiders only in legend. It is a matriarchy, ruled for thousands of years by a queen who has…
Remembering Charlee Jacob: Containment
Reading through Charlee Jacob’s fiction, it is easy to identify the varieties of horror that she found most fertile. For one, she showed a particular fascination with relationships between predators and prey: strong characters, often men, brutalising women and children in a process that warps and damages both victim and perpetrator. Jacob’s stories incorporate this…