Welcome to the X-Men, where second-skin garmentry is commonplace—hope you survive the experience! Amongst the X-Men is a villain-turned-teacher (turned heroine, though never nice); her name is Emma Frost. For most of her history, she’s worn all-white, though recently she turned to all-black. But just as often as she’s been monochromatic, she’s been clothed in outfits…
Crossplaying at Con: Becoming the Invisible Man
It’s probable that most people, seeing me, would consider me to be fairly traditionally femme. Take a glance at my author icon: it’s all lipstick and lashes and one of the few times I got my hair to look like I wanted it to. I would estimate that in my adult life, I tend to get…
Book That Shaped Me: Little House in the Big Woods
I honestly can’t remember a time when Laura Ingalls wasn’t as familiar to me as I was to myself. I don’t remember the first time I read her books, and I can’t recall the first time they were read to me: I only know that there was never a time I didn’t know her name…
Ghost World: To Avoid Growing Up, Buy More Stuff
Ghost World Daniel Clowes Fantagraphics Books 1997 Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World is about clinging to a stage of life that is fading from existence. The teenaged lives that Enid and Rebecca have lead are over. Floating from home to the diner to stores and back to home without purpose, they continue to behave as though…
When Boy’s Love Goes Bad: CLAMP’s Legal Drug
(Disclaimer: Review copies of Legal Drug and Drug & Drop vol. 1 and vol. 2 were supplied by Dark Horse. This essay also contains some light spoilers.) First, a primer! If you’re familiar with boy’s love, girl’s love, yaoi, yuri, shonen-ai, or shojo-ai just go ahead and skip this paragraph. For those of you who…
Surface Tensions: Character vs. Creator Diversity
Diversity—it’s a heavy discussion that’s happening all across the world of comics, whether being decried as “change for change’s sake” or being touted as a fundamental aspect of storytelling by creators like Al Ewing. Even Dan Didio has acknowledged that comics haven’t been great for representation and that the audience for more diverse characters is…
The Science of Orphan Black: Fanciful, Fearsome, Educational
Sometimes, little-known cult television shows are secret, sparkly gems that blow minds. For me, that show is Orphan Black. Although I wasn’t expecting much from yet another science fiction series, I was pleasantly surprised at how it delved into a thought-provoking story of relatable characters and real emotions from genetically engineered humans in previously unexplored…
#TeamVeronica: Why Veronica is Better than Betty
When it comes to the ever-concerning question: which girl will Archie pick? The general consensus seems to be Team Betty. I guess it may seem obvious. Betty is kind and smart. She can bake and fix that oil leak in the jalopy. She’s always there to lend a helping hand, and she wears a ponytail…
Manga to Movies: Why Eastern Comic Film Adaptations Thrive and Western Don’t
Marvel and DC have always been large moving forces for comics, and their recent forays into expanding movie universes has helped put comics in the popular culture limelight in a huge way. While Hollywood filmmakers have been “loosely basing” movies from comics on the sly for years, the open appreciation of comics and comic film…
Dissecting the Asian Drama: Societal Reflections in Gender Perception and Performance (Part 2)
The male characters’ reluctance to accept their attraction to their female leads plays into another concept that Judith Butler explores in her piece “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” She talks of the strict repercussions Western cultures, especially in the United States, force onto people who stray outside their…
Dissecting the Asian Drama: Gender Boundaries, Perception, and Performance in You’re Beautiful and Hana Kimi (Part 1)
Should you ever find yourself perusing Netflix, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll come across “foreign” TV shows. They’re usually shorter than the average American TV series—ten or eleven episodes in length and rarely more than one season long—and more often than not, they are romantic comedies with Asian characters and settings.
What’s in a Medium? The Three Faces of “The Devil is a Part-Timer!”
The Devil is a Part-Timer! Satoshi Wagahara (writer); 029 (Oniku) (illustrator); Kevin Gifford (translation) Yen On (Please note: review copies of the manga and light novel were provided by Yen Press.) Once upon a time, in the cross-shaped kingdom of Ente Isla, the devil had his day. Or many days, really. In fact, he and…