The Unsound #1 Cullen Bunn (Writer), Jack T. Cole (Artist) BOOM! Studios June 7, 2017 In the maiden voyage of writer Cullen Bunn and illustrator Jack T. Cole’s The Unsound, a young nurse named Ashli weathers her first day at Saint Cascia, a baroque insane asylum tucked away in an obscure corner of what I assume…
Book Beat: The Secret Letters of Harper Lee
Hello, fellow literature lovers, this is Christa! Welcome to another installment of Book Beat: your source for what’s happening in the bookish world. Intimate Correspondences I want to start this week with something that makes me smile – the new unseen Harper Lee letters. These thirty-eight letters, which she wrote between 2005 and 2009 to…
Oni Watch: Onwards and Upwards!
With Oni Press rounding its 20th year of existence, the past several months have been chock full of pretty exciting news as they expand their reach to wider markets. A lot has happened, so this pubwatch is going to be a little longer than usual. But hey, check out Oni Press’ brand new logo, designed…
Academic Conference Asks: What Makes Women Monstrous?
Women are often called monsters. Even before the internet made trolling a favorite misogynist past time, women’s bodies, functions, and perceptions have been fair game for name calling. I joined a wonderful group of scholars to discuss what after all is so “monstrous” about women at the Monstrous Women Conference this last May in at…
The Dracula File Offers Bite-Sized 1980s Horror
The Dracula File Gerry Finley-Day, Simon Furman and Ken Noble (writers); Eric Bradbury, Geoff Senior and Keith Page (artists) Rebellion: 2000 AD October 16, 2017 (Originally serialized in SCREAM! issues 1-15, 1984 and Holiday Specials 1985-1988) The Dracula File offers cozy horror nostalgia. Both the art style and the text—“Meanwhile, behind the Iron Curtain, a KGB…
Cancelled Deal with Weapons Manufacturer Shows Marvel Is Its Own Worst Enemy
Seventeen years ago, Marvel Comics introduced the Sentry, a retconned hero from the early days of the heroic age. While the Sentry was immensely powerful—one of the Earth’s mightiest heroes—he had a secret, unknown even to himself. The Sentry, it turned out, was his own worst enemy: the supervillain known as the Void. And, to…
IFOA: Around the World with Hideo Furukawa
I recently had the honor of reviewing Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa. It is a fun, remastering of a short story written by Haruki Murakami titled A Slow Boat to China. In Furukawa’s book, as well as the original short story, the main protagonist meets three people who help him understand his place in life….
Ghouls Rule in Wayward Sisters: Interview with Editor Allison O’Toole
When you think of monsters, who do you see? Bela Lugosi’s Dracula? Godzilla? The cute gill man from The Shape of Water? Monster stories are typically dominated by men, but a new comic anthology intends to change that. Wayward Sisters, currently running on Kickstarter, is a new collection of stories about female monsters, all made…
Idle Animations: Playing and Not Playing in Cibele [GIFs]
Idle Animations is a recurring series in which I play games without playing them, exploring quiet, still moments, how games fill space and time, and what happens when you let a game play itself.
Before Lugosi: Vampires of the Silent Screen
With his slick black hair, Hungarian accent, suave costume and penetrating glare, Bela Lugosi emerged as the definitive screen vampire after starring in Universal’s 1931 film of Dracula. The actors who played Count Dracula afterward, such as Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman, sometimes homaged Lugosi and sometimes subverted him, but they always performed in his shadow.
British Horror Comics Live Again: Scream! & Misty Halloween Special
Scream! & Misty Halloween Special Guy Adams, Gráinne McEntee, The Feek, Kek-W, Hannah Berry and Alec Worley (Writers), John Stokers, Frazer Irving, Tristan Jones, Henry Flint, Simon Coleby, Len O’Grady, Ben Willsher and DaNi (Artists), Simon Bowland, SG, Jim Campbell, Annie Parkhouse and Max Smith (Letters) Rebellion October 2017 In its heyday, the British comics industry…
Mudbound: A Gorgeously Shot Drama About Southern Racism
Mudbound Dee Rees (director), Rachel Morrison (cinematographer), Mako Kamitsuna (editor) Adapted from the Hillary Jordan novel by Dee Rees and Virgil Williams Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige (cast) January 21, 2017 (Sundance), September 10, 2017 (TIFF), November 17, 2017 (USA) Mudbound is a raw, historical family drama with a…
