Bug Boys: Volume 1 Laura Knetzger Czap Books 2015 Critics often ask ourselves how we can approach a review with as little bias as possible. Can you truly be unbiased about a piece that hits on themes related to your own identity? Regardless of how your views fall, I’ll warn you now: this is an…
Con Diaries: Small Press Expo 2018
As corny as it sounds, SPX feels more like a community than a convention. Held on September 15 to 16 in Bethesda, Maryland, Small Press Expo is, as the name implies, dedicated to independent and self-published comic books and zines. SPX feels like a unique con experience as soon as you enter the exhibit hall,…
Girls Touch Girls: Small Favors: The Definitive Girly Porno Collection
Small Favors: The Definitive Girly Porno Collection Colleen Coover Oni/Limerence Press April 2017 Colleen Coover’s Small Favors was a growing experience for me. When I was younger, my only sources for wlw stories were the erotica section of my local bookstore (cue a traumatizing first encounter with bondage thanks to Anne Rice’s Claiming of Sleeping…
Celebrate Punk Music and Community with Liz Prince’s Be Your Own Backing Band
Be Your Own Backing Band Liz Prince, Hannah Templer (colorist) Silver Sprocket August 2018 Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher. There’s an incredibly profound short comic in Liz Prince’s new, now fully-colored comics collection, Be Your Own Backing Band. When Prince’s childhood cat passed away, her family was able…
Wash Day Teaches Black Women How To Care For Their Natural Hair
Wash Day Jamila Rowser (writer), Robyn Smith (illustrator), J.A. Micheline (script editor) Black Josei Press June 2018 Disclaimer: J.A. Micheline has written for Women Write About Comics. Wash Day is a mini slice-of-life comic that aims to show black women just how beautiful they are. The story, penned and illustrated by Jamila Rowser and Robyn…
Review: Magical Princess Sky
Magical Princess Sky Allie Malott Self-published 2018 When you have a genre like magical girls that’s gone on long enough to be slammed full of tropes, you can approach making a new work in a number of ways. You can play it straight without any innovation and become cliche. You can poke fun at it…
Good Boy! Is Your New Favorite Comics Magazine
Comics are weird. They’re also amazing, but often get stuck in the rut created by the Big Two and the accursed direct market. Luckily, there are some rad creators trying to make fantastic things that will change the landscape of comics and bring more great stories to more people. Two of those comic book heroes…
A Fistful of Comics: Crowdfunding Roundup, August ‘18
With SDCC recently wrapped and Flame Con (whose Kickstarter we covered back in 2014) and SPX on the horizon, we’re deep into the throes of convention season. But conventions aren’t the only place to get amazing, small press books. Read on to see August’s wonderful crop of crowdfunded goodness. From short stories and fledgling magazines…
The Silver Sprocket Take Over Continues
Silver Sprocket have quickly established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the often homogeneous world of comics. So we were super stoked when we heard that they would be working to smash the system from the inside by putting their books in comics notorious direct market monopoly Diamond. We covered their first…
A Fistful of Comics: Crowdfunding Roundup, June ’18
I spent this last week catching up on the comics I’ve gotten from Kickstarters over the course of the last like, year, so that means I’m allowed to buy more, right? I’m certain that’s how this works. June is practically bursting with good campaigns—from massive webcomic collections, to DIY flipbook kits, to queer zine fairs—so…
Crowdfunding Comics Roundup, May ‘18
Spring has finally actually joined us in the northeastern United States, and with it came new set of incredible comic campaigns! From historical documentaries and collection, to introspective anthologies, to artfully illustrated BDSM comics, Kickstarter is currently teeming with gorgeous work to feast your eyes upon. So treat yourself! We survived the winter, go and…
Jessica Campbell’s XTC69 gives the Middle Finger to Misogyny and Transphobia
XTC69 Jessica campbell Koyama Press May 2018 Sometimes, when I feel buried under a flood of stress both in my personal life and from the general state of the world, I want to consume media that just makes me feel joy. I need to smile and laugh, to step out from under the weight of…