Charged in 1892 with killing her father and stepmother, Lizzie Borden is one of the most iconic wrongdoers of American history. Her reputation as a brutal axe-murderer is reflected in everything from a playground rhyme to a Halloween special of The Simpsons. In reality, meanwhile, she was acquitted of the murders due to a lack…
Mental Health & Comics: An Interview with Tee “Vixen” Franklin
Tee “Vixen” Franklin, known on Twitter as @MizCaramelVixen, creator of #BlackComicsMonth, is now overseeing an anthology of comics focused on mental health. She’s assembled an impressive list of comics professionals to contribute, including Scott Snyder, Tess Fowler, Gail Simone, Paulina Ganucheau, Tini Howard, and others. Franklin has also been accepting submissions from creators who have mental…
Rise Up: The Board Game About Fighting Oppression
A couple years ago, I was fortunate enough to land a volunteer service position at a social justice focused school. Rather than being taboo topics as they would be at other schools, we talked openly with our students about issues of racism, homophobia, and environmental justice and encouraged them to complete projects about the injustices…
The Calling of Witchcraft: Witch Movies and Teenage Girls
If you ever hang out with 30-something pagans, you will quickly learn that The Craft (1996) was a lightbulb moment for many of them. When The Craft came out, it had a significant impact on the witch community, because it based the practices in the movie in real life practices. Pat Devin, a Dianic High…
The Slight Madness that Make Us Sane: A Q&A with Yann Martel
The 37th International Festival of Authors (IFOA) in Toronto runs from October 20-30 and has been attended by a number of outstanding authors, including Canada’s own Yann Martel, author of the international bestselling novel Life of Pi. Martel, who currently lives in Saskatoon, is also the author of 2016’s The High Mountain of Portugal — a book which explores love, faith…
5 Pokemon Designs More Worthy of Complaining About than Brionne
Another Pokemon generation, another stream of complaints about designs. Having only just passed through the critiques of the outrageously adorable Popplio, a seal with a cute nose and floppy clown-esque collar, we’ve now moved on to Brionne, Popplio’s evolution.
Graphic Novels in the IFOA Spotlight
A decade ago, the International Festival of Authors decided to include graphic novels alongside the other literary offerings of their event. After surveying the industry locally and internationally, IFOA brought in hundreds of titles from around the world. Yet publishers turned up their noses because graphic novel creators were not considered to be real writers and…
Geek Mystique: Lifestyle News for October
Y’all, there’s so much going on this month, this is going to be a packed one, what with the Geek High Holy Day, that would be Halloween, approaching! Sure, we geeks like any excuse to cosplay and indulge our geek fantasies all year, but there’s just something about the month of October that makes all…
The Life and Times of Marya Zaleska, Dracula’s Daughter: Part Three
Having discussed the 1936 film Dracula’s Daughter in the first and second posts in this series, I shall now conclude with a look at the film’s afterlife in adaptations and derivative works. Dracula’s Daughter: The Novel The novelisation of Dracula’s Daughter was published by Berkley Books in 1977. Its author was credited as Carl Dreadstone;…
Tiffany Aching Offers Practical Magic for the Modern Witch
Like most budding pagans, I first encountered the idea of witches as people to look up to in fiction—most vividly (since I’m too old to have grown up with Harry Potter) in the form of Morwen, the practical, ginger-haired witch in Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Morwen was smart and sensible, had a household…
The Thursday Book Beat: All of the Book Awards, Chanie Wenjack & Fake Autographs
Hello from Christa your friendly neighbourhood Book Editor! I’m filling in this week for Ashley and have a bunch of interesting news from the literary world for you so let’s jump right in. This week the winners of two major book awards were announced. The first was the Man Booker Prize, which, for the first…
Review: The Golden Compass: The Graphic Novel Volume 2
The Golden Compass: The Graphic Novel Volume 2 Written by Philip Pullman Adapted by Stéphane Melchior Art by Clément Oubrerie Coloring by Clément Oubrerie and Philippe Bruno Translated by Annie Eaton Published by Alfred A. Knopf Books For Young Readers September 20, 2016 Another year has passed, and that means the release of another volume of…
