June 2015. The run-up to my first conference abroad as an official comics scholar — and I don’t want to go. I’m panic-crying after reading a chain of emails which, on the face of it, have little to do with me. Short background: we were supposed to have a panel on Charlie Hebdo. A month before…
Race and Romance in Daredevil Season Two
Netflix’s Daredevil is, on the surface, a pretty progressive show when it comes to romance: Matt Murdock is romantically linked to two women of color, Claire Temple and Elektra Natchios, during the course of two seasons, which is definitely more than can be said about any of the MCU films so far. But a deeper read shows…
Rurouni Kenshin vs Inuyasha: How to Do a Love Triangle Right
Love triangles, a trope that appears in most media as a convenient plot device to create drama within a story, as a narrative device aren’t inherently bad. They’re like near any other narrative device. The effectiveness of the device can change depending on the creator and how the device is used. The love triangle as…
From Haute Cuisine to the Guillotine: Class in Hannibal
Bryan Fuller’s cancelled drama Hannibal is nominally billed as being about the cannibal Hannibal Lecter. It also tackles a number of weighty themes, such as love, the nature of evil, and even the subtle ways in which people may be divided by forces both moral and class-related.
Makin’ WooHoo: The Sims and My Sexual Awakening
Back in the days before I played Dragon Age or Mass Effect, before I knew what a dating sim was or had any idea that games could represent relationships more complexly than Mario and Peach, I had The Sims.
Mom’N’Pop Culture: Let’s Not Talk About Sex, Like Ever
In my family I would call myself the truthsayer. I don’t hold back, and more than often I tell my kids the truth when it comes to life. If they try to run off in a parking lot, I will quickly tell them that getting hit by a car means they die. If they die,…
NSFW: It’s Better (For Me) On Top
I own a hoodie that says “It’s better on top” across the front of it. It was my high school senior sweatshirt, now it’s my stealthy queer-coded clothing item. Recently I explained to my mother what it means to be a lesbian “stone top.” Even though my mother is more like an annoying older sister, it…
Science in a Gothic Fairy Tale: Porcelain by Benjamin Read & Chris Wildgoose
I read both Porcelain: A Gothic Fairytale and its sequel Porcelain: Bone China in a single sitting. And it’s a good thing I did because had I stopped after just A Gothic Fairytale, had I told myself I’d come back to Volume 2 later on, I probably wouldn’t have felt overly motivated to follow through…
Vox Day: In the Hall of the Troll King
Content warning: this article contains discussion of sexual abuse, including paedophilia. The history of fantasy and science fiction has no shortage of colourful figures. In some cases, of course, “colourful” can be used only in a somewhat euphemistic sense. It is therefore with requisite air-quotes that I introduce one of the most colourful men working…
Starting from Scratch: How I Self-Published an All-Ages Graphic Novel about a Kitten
Some writers sweat out their masterpieces in the wee hours after a day job or put all their efforts into one heroic month. My Great American Novel took eight years and $5,000 of my own hard-earned cash. It wasn’t a discourse on my generation or an allegory about consumerism. I self-published an all-ages graphic novel…
Mom’N’Pop Culture: Girl Scouts Are More Than Just Cookies
I missed my usual Mom’N’Pop Culture post at the beginning of the month, and I’m going to blame the cookies. Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Dos-si-dos, and about four other varieties of cookies peddled by little girls wearing adorable, sometimes toothless smiles, and patch-covered vests, are to blame for every missed deadline over the past two months.
Women Who Shaped Me: Lessons from My Mother
I’ve only just recently, in the last few years, come to call myself a feminist. I’ve only just recently, in the past few years, come to understand what feminism actually means. Prior to that, I was very much anti-feminist, because of my limited understanding of the term. Turns out, if I’d had a better definition…
