Last night, Felicia Day — creator of The Guild and all around awesome person — posted a gentle I’m Not Mad, I’m Just Disappointed to members of #GamerGate. Her post is thoughtful, sympathetic, and focused not on the hideous bile spewing from every orifice of the #GamerGate monster, but on the disappointment she felt in herself…
Scariest Movie of My Life: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The movie—or movie series—that has scared me for the longest and with the greatest intensity is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. The original (which is technically titled The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) came out before I was born and has loomed in the shadows my whole life. Growing up in Texas, it was impossible not…
The Power of Tank Girl: One Girl’s Personal Diary
Are you ready for some TANK GIIIIIRL? Many of you may have been born ready. Many of you may know her of old. But if you’re new? No probs. That just means you’re lucky, cos the tank’s full (of comics), and the night is long. Tank Girl is a girl—a woman, in my reading, but…
You Wanted a Movement? #StopGamerGate2014
Yesterday afternoon, Utah State University was sent anonymous threats of violence. “Feminists have ruined my life,” the man claimed. He would shoot up the university, targeting women, especially feminists, if Anita Sarkeesian was allowed to give a planned talk on sexism in video games. The talk was cancelled. To be clear: I didn't cancel my USU…
Products Over People: What GamerGate Gets Wrong
When I was ten and my brother twelve, we got Sunday morning paper routes. He used his money to buy gaming consoles; I used mine to buy comics. He stayed up late most nights gaming, and most mornings he’d be dead to the world in compensation. I was stuck delivering his share of the papers so often (thanks, bud!)…
Remember Swimsuit Issues? I Miss Those
When Marvel presented its Milo Manara variant cover to Spiderwoman #1, the internet exploded with people condemning both Marvel and the artist for the unnecessary sexualization of the character. The defenders of Manara’s work argue that you can find similar poses at a yoga studio or complain that male superheroes are sexualized, too. Some of…
Why PANELS Will Be Good for Comics Journalism and Comics Readers
BookRiot launched a companion site dedicated to comics called Panels. I cursed. I vowed revenge. More competition? Fucking great. But while I was annoyed on a personal (financial) level to see another big, general interest, comics site sprout up, I was also pleased as punch on a professional level. More competition? Fucking great!
Sequential Sartorial: The Wardrobe of Colleen Wing
Sequential Sartorial! It’s gonna be a new thing! Talking about costume design in comics: GOOD costume design. This week: Colleen Wing, 2006. First things first: does anybody want my copy of Daughters of the Dragon, trade number one (“Samurai Bullets”)? Pay the postage and it’s yours. I don’t need it in my house; it’s a…
Trigger Warning: Fantasy vs Reality
I hate the dark. As in full-on shaking, bones trembling, sweat-breaking-out-along-the-nape-of-my-neck fear. It’s a strange thing to admit to people because being afraid of the dark is something children fear. Being afraid of the dark is something people associate with weakness and immaturity. So no one thinks twice when they turn the lights out on…
Ghost in the Shell: The Major’s Body (8)
The Major, or Motoko Kusanagi, is the protagonist of each incarnation of the Ghost in the Shell manga-anime-merchadise franchise. If you care to google, “Motoko Kusanagi is“ autocompletes to “a man” and “is hot,” then “in bed with a boy” and “in bed.” For a science-fiction philosophy character named for her military position, we (the audience — although I…
Ghost in the Shell the Live: Our Fancasting
I hate the idea of a liveaction Ghost in the Shell! It has no business being live or using human actors; it’s about augmented bodies of the future. They don’t exist yet, so they can’t be filmed — and if they did the concept art would have to push things further. It’s science fiction. Centre of…
“Oh Japan”: Let’s Talk About Criminalising Anime
ITS DEAD NASTY BUT ITS LEGAL, DO YOU GET IT??? When I’d read Chobits in the Upper Sixth common room, my friends would call it “your porno”. I was like “uuh, NO”, because I was committed to being more beatnik than thou and knowing that, scoff, obviously not all (or even most or even nearly most or…