Past the Last Mountain Louie Joyce (Art and Colors), Paul Allor (Words), Gannon Beck (Layouts), Andy Schmidt (Consulting Editor) CE Digital January 13, 2016 Disclaimer: WWAC received review copies of all four issues of Past the Last Mountain from Paul Allor. On Free Comic Book Day in 2014, Paul Allor and Thomas Boatwright released a comic through Th3rd World…
Dejah Thoris: Addressing The Princess of Mars
Dejah Thoris #1 Frank J. Barbiere (writer) , Francesco Manna (art), NEN (cover) Dynamite Comics February 2016 A review copy of this publication was provided by the publisher.
Mysteries of Gravity Falls: Cryptograms and Ciphers
Gravity Falls is one giant mystery. There’s a puzzle wrapped around every inch of Gravity Falls, and we just can’t seem to get enough. Mysteries expanding from who the author of the journals is to who runs and knows about the mysterious happenings around the town. It continues into the three journals themselves, with the different…
The Truth is Out There: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
There was a moment during The X-Files season ten premiere that made me sit up and cheer. It wasn’t seeing Mulder or Scully’s face again after all these years. It wasn’t about seeing an alien space ship crash, or an alien autopsy. The moment didn’t include explosions or romantic tension between our beloved protagonists. It…
Feminism and Realism in John Allison’s Giant Days
Amongst the barrage of “best of” comics lists that closed out 2015, I was delighted to see John Allison’s Giant Days pop up in multiple places. The comic follows three friends—Esther De Groot, Susan Ptolemy, and Daisy Wooton—as they navigate their emotionally and academically tumultuous first year of university (a.k.a. college, for the Americans like…
Journey to the Mystery Shack: An Introduction to Gravity Falls
This month’s Cartoon Academy, we will be focusing on one of my favorites (besides Steven Universe): The weird, the wonderful, the odd and all too amazing town of Gravity Falls. Since season two has sadly come to an end, as well as the show itself, I wanted to give some of you new and inquisitive fans…
Autobio Spotlight: Miranda Harmon
Seeing as Miranda Harmon recently knocked us all off our feet with with her deeply personal ode to the Harmontown podcast, this is an excellent time to remind everyone that she has been making autobiographical comics for a while now—and they are all great. Seriously, go read them now.
Starting Points: 4 Webcomics (Written by Women) You Should Check Out
I know you’re in a rush. But—looking for some reading material? How about a space opera military science fiction comic? Or two characters on a road trip from one coast of the U.S. to the other, dealing with adventure, sexuality, political intrigue, pie baking, and more? Allow me to introduce you to some of the…
In Defense of Dick Grayson: Objectification, Sexuality, and Subtext
I’ve gotta be honest with you all—Dick Grayson is my favorite comic book character. Cards on the table for this one: I’ve loved him since I was in high school and though our relationship has been a little bit rocky in the past, I always come back to him. So romantic, right? I know! Now this…
On Shipping: What’s Disney’s, What’s Yours, and What’s Mine
We never expect our ships to become canon. That’s the first thing you need to know. Wait, no. Let me start that again. As a result of creating a new world where there wasn’t one before, we have created our own language for this. We had to. The rest of the world gave us nothing….
Essential Reading: X-Men Info? Who Needs Cerebro
Preceding the current Epic line of full-colour, large collection reprint volumes, Marvel Comics’ Essential [Whatever] phonebook trades were their best-value output, in my opinion. Black and white, so you lose the colourist’s work—I can’t speak for how much of an artistic shame this reliably is, but it does get a little confusing telling one from t’other…
How to Pitch a Zine Review
I love reviewing zines. There is a huge volume of self published work sitting in independent bookstores and inventory piles in basements, waiting to be read and adored. I hope that by writing reviews and interviewing zine writers, artists, distributors and publishers I can demystify this world for new fans. However, while the number of outlets…