Liminality: a concept elaborated on by Victor Turner to represent the state of being betwixt and between, especially social or physical states; for example, not a child but not yet considered an adult. Wayward is a comic via Image, set in modern Japan and intended for older readers, that explores the danger of the supernatural…
Female Transformers Get Reinforcements from Caminus and Victorion Combines
It’s finally happened. The results are in! Earlier this year, Hasbro asked its fans to download an app for their mobile devices that enabled fans to vote for input in creating a new combiner team. The last time fans got to do something similar, the heroine Windblade was the result—she earned considerable face-time under Mairghread…
Bowed, Bent, and Broken: Responses to THAT Episode of Game of Thrones
Content warning: Discussion of sexual assault. The Internet has been buzzing since last May 17th’s Game of Thrones episode, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”. What follows contains spoilers from both the book and show, as well as discussion of sexual assault.
Fat Hate at Lilly P: When Cartooning is Used For Evil
Lilly Pulitzer! Not usually our bailiwick. An American clothing brand for the modern-day Jackie O throwback, if Jackie were more of a follower and went for ditsy prints instead of block colour. But they’ve gone and brought cartooning into their PR yard, and they’ve used it for evil, and that makes it our business, awrite?…
Giving The Devil His Due: Diversity in Daredevil Season 1
SPOILER WARNING: If you have not seen all thirteen episodes of Daredevil Season 1, there will be plot points discussed. I intentionally waited out the first two weeks before I signed back up for Netflix to see Marvel’s Daredevil. Turns out this was a wise decision. The show had such extraordinary viewership that for those…
Literal Dehumanization: Erasure of the Black Face in Hollywood
Erasing the faces of black people, with a handful of notable exceptions, has been the way Hollywood works for years. If they weren’t villains or criminals, buffoons or drug addicts, Hollywood found other ways to bring black people onto the silver screen only to get them off again as quickly as possible. The term “dead…
Control Your Gun In Comics: Don’t Put the Muzzle There!
If you’d like a frank discussion over gun legislation, Second Amendment rights, or violence in comic books, this is not the article for you. There is a place for each of these, but what I’d like to bring to the table is a discussion about the respect given to the representation of firearms in comic books….
Hunie Poppin’ Ladies: This Dating Sim Should Be Offensive, and Why I Love It So Much
Most should know by now that I’m a sucker for anime games and dating sims, so when I first saw jacksepticeye playing HuniePop on Youtube, I was immediately intrigued. And then I heard Kyu speak–holy balls.
Ex Machina: A (White) Feminist Parable for Our Time
Note: This article contains spoilers for the film Ex Machina. This weekend has been all about Mad Max: Fury Road, and rightfully so, because it’s kind of amazing–not just as an action film, but specifically as a feminist narrative. I saw it the other day and it sent me reeling because I had just seen yet…
All I Want Are Chicks with Agency Blowing Shit Up!
The Internet has exploded post-Age of Ultron. Joss Whedon has fled Twitter. People are sending and receiving death threats over … a movie. We have critiqued the representation of Black Widow and celebrated it. Emily explored the religious themes in AoU, and Annie and Meredith really dug it. Also, Jamie did a sharp and thoughtful…
What We’re Playing: May
May. The month of blooming. The month of Mother’s Day. The month of warm weather (I have been saying this for like three months, so please let it finally be true). And it’s been filled with gaming, as always. Jo Fu and I chatted about Tower Defense Games. We revisited Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening with…
Sexy Losers, Or, How to Draw A Rascal and Make Him Look Good
I’ve been watching a lot of Magnum, P.I.