Previously on The Whistle-stop History of Fanfiction, we have talked about the Bronte Sisters creating fictional worlds for Wellington to dash around in, the Austen Family writing fic for the lovely Jane, if Star Trek is the granddaddy of fandom, and does the Tolkien Society need to get over itself? See parts one and two…
Malvolia in Yellow: Reflecting on National Theatre’s Twelfth Night
I wasn’t the only one who missed her step on the London Underground, when the screens switch one poster to another even faster than the escalator pulls you down, because Tamsin Greig was standing in a tuxedo and high heels. One louche hand on hip and a champagne bottle by her feet, a couple of…
13 Reasons Why Seriously Needed Adequate Content Warnings
Content Warning: Discussion of suicidal ideation, death, and violence.
Indigo Panics: Anxiety in Gaming
Dear video games, We have long had a strange and tenuous relationship. I have very often been busy with life. Building one’s own business is a long and difficult task. I had been trying to find time to myself, but when I had that time, I usually found I needed to sleep. It seems strange,…
Seeing Myself in Wonderland: Mental Health in American McGee’s Alice
I have to admit, I’m a little embarrassed when I, a grown woman at the ripe age of 25, tell people that one of my favorite games is American McGee’s Alice. It definitely has connotations of early 2000s mall-goth culture. You know, kids who had Vampire Freaks accounts, worshiped The Nightmare Before Christmas, and wore…
The Value of Variant covers In The Wicked + The Divine
Critics have referred to variant covers as one of the scourges of the direct market comics industry, and they may have a point. Variant covers became popular in the 1990s when comics publishers sold them to speculators in order to increase sales numbers. Eventually, when the fad of buying comics passed, the market crashed. Now…
Beyond Fairy Tale Remixes: Delving Deeper into RWBY
Fairy tale retellings are nothing new. Countless original—and not-so-original—renditions of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Red Riding Hood have graced literature and film for decades. Some industrious souls have even tossed characters from different fairy tales into the same story. If one retelling is good, more must be better! Rooster Teeth’s animated…
Toronto and Gilead: The Handmaid’s Tale’s Unseen Spaces Between
There is a strange disconnect in seeing your city as the backdrop of a dystopia. It is the Toronto that I see every day, the tan cement slabs I walk on with my worn sneakers that Offred–once known as June, once a free woman–walks in Hulu adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Against familiar skylines does Margaret Atwood’s modern…
Daddy Issues #4: Thunderbolt Ross Marvel’s INCREDIBLY Possessive Father
To “celebrate” Father’s Day, I’ve written a selection of essays on some of comics worst ever dads. From adoptive fathers to absent ones, from rich and fascist to poor and useless, I’ve got ’em all! So strap in, grab your daddy issues, a stiff drink, and get ready to realise that pretty much all of…
Flipping the Narrator the Bird
I’ve always been a master of “selective hearing.” As a child I was precociously opinionated—a trait that’s transformed into adjectives like “headstrong” and “assertive” as I’ve aged—and my innate love for contradiction meant there was a cold chance in hell that I would follow directions without asking at least one question (or spitting out my…
Sparks and Tarts: A Romance Primer
What constitutes a romance? When is something Capital R Romance vs. a story in another genre with romantic elements? When does the line fall so thin that Capital R Romance lovers don’t really care? There’s been a lot of talk on the bookish interwebs recently about the nature of romance—romance novels in particular. Essays have…
Nick Spencer, Thor’s Hammer, HydraCap, and Supremacist Iconography
Content warning: This article talks about the Holocaust, Nazis, white supremacy and anti Semitic hate imagery.