Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy already has an Oscar. (And an Emmy!) She won in 2012 for Saving Face, a documentary short that she co-directed with Daniel Junge that follows London-based surgeon Mohammad Jawad, who travels to Pakistan to perform plastic surgery on acid attack victims. The film examines the lives of individual survivors and the structural inequalities in…
Kickstarter of the Week: Toe Tag Riot
Matt Miner (Liberator, Occupy Comics) and Sean Von Gorman (Occupy Comics, FUBAR) are teaming up again, this time for a comic about zombie punks eating racists and homophobes. Eating them in the un-fun way, I mean. As of writing, Toe Tag Riot is $690 and thirty-one hours away from meeting its goal on Kickstarter. If funded,…
Reading Diaries: Legends, Flirts, and Fire
What have you been reading? What did you start and then never finish? Reading for work? For pleasure? Megan: I’m a big one for that–my patience is wearing thinner and thinner over the years, and I’m finding novellas and short stories a good fit for my surly-reader< nature. I recently read In The Tall Grass by Steven King and his son…
em est at TCAF
Mangaka em est, AKA Maki Satoh, made her reputation with three collections of yaoi stories and work in Japanese Boy’s Love magazines, but it’s already clear that her career is going to be anything but typical.
Professor Julian Chambliss On the Communicative Potential of Comics in Academia
From our upcoming interview with Professor Chambliss: Comic books are complex cultural artifacts that facilitate analysis of social, political, and economic issues through the content on the page, the production process, and the creative environment. Comic narratives are historically grounded and the people creating them directly and indirectly reflecting the philosophy, views, and mindsets at…
Fail Better: Brotastic Geek Culture, Message Boards, and the CBR Forums
If you aren’t a CBR regular, you may have forgotten this bit of news already — some months ago, Jonah Weiland elected to shut down the Comic Book Resources forums, move the archives to a vBulletin board, and then reopen a new CBR Community, with stringent rules and new standards for moderation.
LeVar Burton Guest Editing ScientificAmerican.com Today!
LeVar Burton is guest editing Scientific America’s website today. Do not adjust your screens: he controls the vertical and the horizontal, the blog posts and the discussion threads, the homepage and the editorials. He’s also livetweeting from @sciam and his first reading assignment of the day is about comets and the seeing of said celestial phenomenon. The…
June Staff Picks: Books
The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains Neil Gaiman & Eddie Campbell William Morrow This is the illustrated version of the short story previously featured in the Stories: All New Tales collection. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains is available to read online, and is a dark, ominous tale full…
June Staff Picks: Movies
How To Train Your Dragon 2 Dean DeBlois 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks Animation Release Date: 6/13 I’m really looking forward to this. Cute dragons go pretty far with me, and finally learning the mystery of Hiccup’s mother is exciting. The Vikings have been co-existing with the dragons, but now there’s a new threat – the…
Record Breaking 4.7 Million Comics Given Away on FCBD 2014
Diamond reports that this year’s Free Comic Book Day broke records, with 4.7 million comics given away at 21,000 different stores, libraries, and local festivals. Local comic stores saw over 1 million visitors. This year, over 40 publishers participated in the annual giveaway, offering 60 books. Diamond attributes the boost in attendance to a surge in…
Spring Reading 2014
Wonderful Wizard of Oz Eric Shanower and Skottie Young Marvel Comics After a long, cold winter filled with grey skies (like the grey plains of Kansas), nothing feels better than a road trip in warm weather. Dorothy and her friends have the ultimate on-the-road adventure in the land of Oz, and anyone is invited to…
Kate Beaton and Lynn Johnston at TCAF 2014
This year, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival kicked off with an hour-long panel discussion with Kate Beaton and Lynn Johnston, moderated by Raina Telgemeier. Almost an embarrassment of riches for the audience, the cartoonists chatted informally about their careers, their ambitions, and the state of the comics and cartooning industries. It was savvy scheduling, particularly with the recent finalization…