What constitutes a romance? When is something Capital R Romance vs. a story in another genre with romantic elements? When does the line fall so thin that Capital R Romance lovers don’t really care? There’s been a lot of talk on the bookish interwebs recently about the nature of romance—romance novels in particular. Essays have…
Nick Spencer, Thor’s Hammer, HydraCap, and Supremacist Iconography
Content warning: This article talks about the Holocaust, Nazis, white supremacy and anti Semitic hate imagery.
Ike Perlmutter! Get To Know Your Billionaire Marvel Chief Exec
When I spoke to BBC Radio Four’s Front Row about David Gabriel’s comments regarding “diversity” in Marvel Comics’ output (I’m about fifteen minutes in), I touched briefly on the power and influence of Isaac Perlmutter, more regularly known as Ike. My awareness of the individual is fairly new, a result of swallowing a few bigulps…
Daddy Issues #3: Magneto When Good Dads Turn Bad
To “celebrate” Father’s Day I’ve written a selection of essays on some of comics worst ever dads. From adoptive fathers to absent ones, from rich and fascist to poor and useless, I’ve got ’em all! So strap in, grab your daddy issues, a stiff drink, and get ready to realise that pretty much all of…
Harlequin Violet & Harlequin Pink: Manga Romance Fusion!
Harlequin Ginger Blossom, published in English by Dark Horse, are successful Harlequin novels adapted for the Japanese comics market. Every volume says “written by [American Name]” and “art by [Japanese Name]” on its cover, which doesn’t seem entirely fair; adapting prose to a sequential graphic narrative is a job in itself and it goes uncredited thanks…
ALL GROWN UP: Image Comics Bad Girls at 25
Image Comics was founded 25 years ago—you may have noticed all the commemorative parties they’ve been having. It was a shot in the arm to the American comic book industry, a nice load of amphetamine that got everyone buzzing and yelling and focused and horny. The young, male pioneers at Image’s founding gave a huge push to…
Women in British Animation: Petra Freeman
“Animation is for weirdos.” —Petra Freeman During the eighties and nineties, Channel 4’s patronage of experimental animation provided opportunities for new talent across the country. Some of these animators arrived at the medium very much through the back door, bringing with them aesthetic sensibilities unlike those of anyone else in the field. One such person…
The Women Of Auteur Film: Liv Ullmann
What is an Auteur? Well, the technical definition is a simply a filmmaker who has a singular, recognisable vision, though you can guarantee they’ll also be a man as no women have been deemed important or visionary enough to become members of this elite club. As we all know, the singular vision of men is…
Shindo: Returning to the Scene of the Review
The first time I reviewed Saso Akira’s Shindo I was a third of the way through it and uncomfortably conflicted. Crunchyroll files this title as a romance, which is how I found it. As I read on, it became clear that the main characters were a boy in his late teens and a girl who was…
Put Some Character In Your Wardrobe: Dress Like Your Faves
Today a friend of mine told me “I like your boots, they remind me of Sherlock Holmes.” I was properly chuffed. This had been my thought process when I bought them: “It’s a cool look” swiftly followed the Holmes statement. It was rather gratifying to have someone say it out loud though. I mean, I…
Women Of Auteur Film: Isabelle Adjani
What is an Auteur? Well, the technical definition is a simply a filmmaker who has a singular, recognisable vision, though you can guarantee they’ll also be a man as no women have been deemed important or visionary enough to become members of this elite club. As we all know, the singular vision of men is…
Jane Mai Is an American Hero
Memoirists, unsurprisingly, often retell moments of their lives to extract a lesson from their experiences. It is natural to use the act of writing or talking about yourself to generate meaning, but lately I’ve been wondering if building narratives out of one’s own incomplete life can be dangerous. We all have, at one time or…