A decade ago, the International Festival of Authors decided to include graphic novels alongside the other literary offerings of their event. After surveying the industry locally and internationally, IFOA brought in hundreds of titles from around the world. Yet publishers turned up their noses because graphic novel creators were not considered to be real writers and…
Dear Scott Adams, Rhetoric is Not Reliable Camouflage
Well, Dilbert Man has struck again. He’s a cartoonist, he’s got reach, he’s a silly and unpleasant misogynist. He’s bad. We’d have said something sooner, but as he himself boasts women hardly pay attention to him — your honours, we did not know. Scott Adams is the man behind long-running and (sub-ironically?) mainstreamed cartoon strip Dilbert….
Jack Chick’s Unhappy Halloween
On his website, the notorious fundamentalist Christian cartoonist Jack Chick keeps his comic tracts neatly categorised. At a glance, we can see a number of the topics that cause him the most ire: Roman Catholicism, homosexuality, Islam, the theory of evolution… and Halloween. Every year, Chick mounts a marketing push at Halloween. “Don’t hide in…
Previously on Comics: Comic Cons, a Zine About Saris
It’s almost autumn here in the northern hemisphere, and that means that comic con season is almost over. WWACers are already planning what conventions and festivals they’ll make it to next year, but let’s take a look at a few recent events. Comic Con Corner Las Cruces Comic Con cosplayers turn out, including the Society…
Plus-Size Space Sheriff: 2000ad Gets Lawless
Marshal Metta Lawson has arrived to uphold the law at Badrock, a wild west-style colony where the previous marshal has gone insane after just three months on the job. With the help of her deputy, Nerys Pettifer, she gets to work, doing her best to move towards peace and harmony with as few casualties as…
The Mighty Zodiac’s J.Torres’ Ladies Night Adventure
I’m not sure what writer J. Torres expected when he stepped into the after hours gathering of Comic Book Addiction’s Ladies Night. We were very polite as he joined our circle to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the comic creation process and introduce us to his latest work, The Mighty Zodiac from Oni Press….
On Orlando and Supporting QTPOC Comics Creators
Early in the morning on Sunday, June 12th, 49 people were murdered and 53 injured at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It quickly became clear that these were QTPOC (queer, trans people of color). A quick scan of articles about the club revealed that Puerto Rican and other Latinx drag queens were scheduled to perform…
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…
A Study in Black and A Study in Blue: Cartooning Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch is a handsome man. This is empirical. Benedict Cumberbatch is a weird-looking man; this is too. Of course, one could argue that handsomeness, as a marker of especial masculine niceness, is weird in its own right. But that is not the sort of strange that Cumberbatch’s evidential handsomeness is. He’s an odd-looking fucker….
Colorist on Coloring: What Is a Flatter?
Hey there, have you been wondering just what the heck a flatter does? Well I am going to give you another long serious professional dissection of what a flatter does and why it is important. To further prove that I am a very boring person obsessed with minutia. [You’re very interesting actually — Ed.] A…
Comics’ Infinite Scroll: To The Rim and Beyond
The launch of Stela, a new comics app which publishes titles optimized for the downward scrolling function of smartphones, has kicked up some talk about Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics. Published in 2000 as a sequel to Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics considers the kinds of innovations that McCloud believed would advance the medium. He paid particular attention to…
BAM! POW! Comics Are Still For Kids!! Tamsin & The Deep
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.