Recent events have forced a reckoning over many things, including dark histories that have been carefully suppressed. Part of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada is facing our history, especially the ugly parts, and doing the work needed on the long road towards equality. One of the most heartbreaking things about reading A Girl Called Echo…
REVIEW: Black Hole Heart Explores Friendship through Horror
I am the kind of person who wants everything to make sense, and for everything to have a reason. Perhaps paradoxically, I also LOVE horror, a genre where questions often go unanswered, or the source of the horror is never fully explained. Horror stories examine relationships in ways that don’t follow normal logic, and I…
BOOM! Pubwatch: September 2020
Happy Fall everyone! Though the weather this summer has been absolutely gorgeous, I have to admit I’m a little excited about the fall too. The leaves are just starting to turn here and walks in our neighbourhood have become so pretty. There’s also the return of the fall Starbucks drinks and I may have already…
REVIEW: X of Swords: Creation #1: Tens Across the Board
And here we are. Like the mutants taking their first steps through the External Gate, we’ve entered the mysterious world of X of Swords. The first chapter of the long-awaited, 22-part event, X of Swords: Creation #1 is an earthshaking beginning. True to its title, the comic is shining and sharp, and it vibrates with…
[PREVIEW] The Fire of Theseus
Coming tomorrow from Humanoids is The Fire of Theseus, a retelling of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur in its labyrinth. But as with too many of the stories we’ve been told, the truth is not always what has been written on the page. The creative team of Jerry Frissen, Francesco Trifogli, Gerald Parel,…
Previously On Comics: Ex-Farce
Good morning. Rob Liefeld really wants you to pay attention to him. He’s mad about X-Men comics again, and he’s learned exactly the right way to stir up a mob on social media. Anyway, on to news that actually matters: Allie Brosh has a new book, and Buzzfeed has an interview with her. Mark Trail’s…
Questionable Content’s 17-year Journey From Edgy Shocks to Queer Comfort Food
Do you remember what you were like 17 years ago? I do, unfortunately. In 2003, I was a little 12-year-old shithead who was starting to discover the edgy humor of the mid-2000s. Jokes built around transphobia, homophobia, and ableist slurs were the funniest things on the planet for a good chunk of my teenage years…
I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Therefore I Am
[Editors’ note: In part one of a two-part essay, Ph.D. candidate Kay Sohini writes about drawing a graphic dissertation, comics as scholarship, and comics as thinking. In part two, coming next week, Sohini builds on what she’s written here as she writes about comics as literary affordances and holding environments, key ideas in her graphic…
REVIEW: Be Gay, Do Comics is an Inclusive and Diverse Queer Anthology
Be Gay, Do Comics is the queer anthology for our times; for one, it just won the Ignatz for Outstanding Anthology. Across 260 pages, queer creatives from across the world contribute their unique, yet relatable, experiences in the LGBTQIA+ community. Some stories will make you smile, others will fill you with fear for the author….
REVIEW: X-Factor #3: Mutant Furniture Movers
Leah Williams and David Baldeon’s X-Factor continues its adventures in the Mojoverse with issue #3. In this issue, we see the team fight their way to the top, rescue their missing mutant, and plant seeds for future storylines of both X-Factor and X of Swords. This issue keeps up the book’s characteristic mix of intrigue,…
REVIEW: Hellcop #1: Not Great, but Quite Foxy, and Very 1998
The immediate value of Hellcop and the reason for my enduring interest in a late ‘90s character with five published appearances is his head: it’s done, excessively. Hellcop not only has red-tinted sunglasses, which he wears without arms (a sort of cyber pince-nez?); he not only has a clifftop flop of thick blond certified-dreamboat hair….
REVIEW: Snapdragon Finds Magic in Nature
Witches, motorcycles, ghosts, and the best dog in town: Kat Leyh’s Snapdragon abounds with the unexpected and magical while seamlessly blending an archetypal coming of age story with an urgent, real-world tale about identity and rebirth.
