Let’s start this piece off right: by issuing a battery of content warnings. Kill La Kill, one of the most talked-about shows of 2013, features cartoon violence, incest, non-consensual sexual situations, and what can only be described as “rape by an article of clothing.” Revolutionary Girl Utena, directed by the legendary Kunihiko Ikuhara, began airing…
Sweep Me Off My Feet! Next Gen Romance Comics, We Need Better
You’ll hear me say it again and again until I feel I’ve reached a comfort zone, but I am very new to the world of comics. I’m still shamefully Wikipedia-ing my way through definitions and origin stories, and I can honestly say after a couple of years of building a relationship with my local comic…
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Secret Wars Fought During Life As A Woman Werewolf
While I was waiting for confirmation that that’s really armpit hair, for sure, no foolin’, in the image above, I felt a strange chilly excitement around my heart. It was cold like sherbet is cold; probably a feeling similar to Marty’s, as George cuts back in to dance with Lorraine, and the McFly strummin’ hand…
The Wicked, The Divine and The Mythology: Part 4 — Sakhmet and Dionysus
This series intends to briefly point towards the original mythological material, compare it to the comic adaptation of it (The Wicked + The Divine), and speculate about possible meanings and foreshadowing by using a bit of background knowledge. It contains light spoilers about character development, but not about the plot.
I Didn’t Know Bruce: Bruce Lee at the Wing Luke Museum
I have a confession to make. In spite of being relatively well-rounded in other areas of nerdom (video game RPGs, tabletop games, anime and manga, sci-fi and fantasy novels, and 80s movies), there is one area in which I have fallen resoundingly flat. I hope my friends will still speak to me after reading this….
WWAC Warriors: Mama Said Knock You Out
Warriors, I really, really wanted to open this follow-up post with a triumphant I WON!!, and we could all celebrate our various accomplishments with a round of metaphorical champagne and dim sum. (Yeah, my cravings got pretty eclectic in the last week.) But I didn’t win. Technically, I didn’t lose, either. When the referee gathered…
Say What? Minecraft as a Teaching Tool for Homeschoolers
At some point about a year ago, a friend’s son introduced our eight-year-old to Minecraft on iPad. The game appeared harmless enough, and to be truthful, I had a parenting fail moment because I didn’t even research the game settings and environment before allowing her to dive in. In a very short time, my daughter…
My First RPG: Night World
I like to think that if I were a teenager when Twilight came out that I would have had the wherewithal to outright reject it, buuuuut I am probably just kidding myself. I was a total nut for the brooding, Byronic vampires that Edward Cullen is just one in a long tradition of. Okay, the…
My First Improv Workshop
I’m one of those extroverted introverts. It’s not an oxymoron; it means that I can and do enjoy interacting with people in an energetic way in certain situations. I am comfortable and confident running a role-playing game for strangers at a con. Yet this past Saturday I was terrified to stand in front of my…
The Killing Joke: Starring Barbara Gordon
Content warning: You can guess, really. The Killing Joke is considered one of the best comic stories of all time. One of the greatest Batman storylines to ever be printed. It has Joker at his worst, Gordon at his most vulnerable, and Batman at his breaking point. The book is most remembered for its graphic content,…
Rubens Won’t Save You: You Don’t Get to Use Art History to Justify Violence Against Women in Comics
Content warning: we’re talking rape imagery and rape culture. You’re in an elegant gallery, looking up at a statue of a woman and a man. The man has his arms around the woman. Her face is contorted in fear. Tears stream from her eyes. “Wow,” think you, the art critic. “What an emotionally raw and…