Do you know how much time you spend listening to babies crying? Or strangers arguing? Bad music from the next car over? Men yelling stupid words at you? Endless street vendors in the bazaar that is life? You probably experience many of these things. Do you know what you could be doing instead of listening…
Shinbun Saturday: ’90s Manga Classic Takes the Stage
’90s manga Fushigi Yuugi gets stage musical adaptation The official website for the production based on Yuu Watase’s manga launched earlier this week. The role of heroine Miaka will be played by Reina Tanaka, a former member of girl group Morning Musume. This is the third time the manga has received a stage play. Hiromu…
Why I Game: World Building, Ceramic Christmas Villages, and Township
I recently read this article via Longform (a website that curates the internet’s best longform articles, which you should be following) about this author’s obsession with his Christmas village. You know the the ceramic houses and knick-knacks that line the aisles during the holiday season? Most of them seem to hail back to a bygone…
Knit Your Comics: Once a Harry Potter Knitter, Always a Harry Potter Knitter
Sometimes the fandom makes me think of a pattern, and sometimes it’s the yarn. I was walking the aisles at Jo-Ann’s when I saw this yarn: The lighting in this pic doesn’t quite convey the way that orange-y yarn has a bronzed sheen, but hopefully it’s still enough to explain why I immediately thought of…
Diversity Is Reality, Mainstream Comics Needs to Catch Up: Interview with Spike Trotman
Spike Trotman, publisher and editor of Iron Circus Comics’ Smut Peddler and creator and publisher of Templar Arizona and Poorcraft, is an important voice in comics. From advocating for indie comics as business to bringing diverse comics to a wider audience, Spike is putting her money and her efforts where her mouth is. She sat…
Manga to (Yo-Kai) Watch Out For
Whether you’re a fan of video games, television, or comics, odds are you’ve heard buzz surrounding Yo-Kai Watch, the latest Japanese franchise to take off around the globe. At the very least, you’ve probably seen some clickbait-y links hailing it as “the next Pokémon.” Curious about the next generation of mon adventures? Desensitized to the…
DC Daily Planet: Wonder Women and Legends of Tomorrow
A flurry of Wonder Woman film news surfaced this week, starting with some screen test stills of Megan Gale from the now canceled George Miller project Justice League Mortal. (via CBR) We also got the first official image of the currently filming Wonder Woman film from Gal Gadot herself, via social media. Almost 75 years in the making……
The Thursday Book Beat: Come Get Your #MorallyAmbigiousYA Here
#MorallyAmbigiousYA calls out sexism and genre dismissal Tuesday afternoon found the YA book world in disbelief over the announcement of a six-figure deal and movie for a YA novel by former ad executive Scott Bergstrom. It wasn’t the money at stake that stunned authors and readers alike, however, but the description of the book (“a…
Welcome to Night Vale: Leave Your Expectations at the Town Sign
Welcome to Night Vale Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor Harper Perennial October 20, 2015 It was a crisp spring afternoon when I started listening to the aptly named podcast Welcome to Night Vale, the kind of afternoon where if you breathe in too quickly, the wind sinks its tiny teeth into your throat. In Night Vale,…
The Vocabulary of Violence: 4 Takes on Steve Orlando’s Midnighter
Midnighter #1-6 Steve Orlando (Scripter), Stephen Mooney (penciller), Aco (penciller), Alec Morgan (penciller), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colourist), Hugo Petrus (inker #3 and #6), Bryan Hitch (cover artist #1), Artyom Trakhanov (cover artist #3) DC Comics May 2015 – Present In May 2015, the DCU welcomed longtime Stormwatch and Authority character Midnighter to the fold with…
ESSAY: Disability and Language in Adventure Time’s “Bonnie and Neddy”
The seventh season of Adventure Time brought its audience back to a Candy Kingdom facing big changes. An exhausted and frustrated Princess Bubblegum handed her throne over to the selfish, air-headed King of Ooo, and left to build a new life in the middle of nowhere. In the midst of the first true regime shift…
Music Culture Composes The World Ends with You
Calling…you hear the calling… 2007’s The World Ends with You gave Nintendo DS owners a lot to talk about. It follows Neku Sakuraba, an anti-social teen who dislikes trying to understand other people, as he wakes up in the Shibuya scramble crossing with no memory of how he got there. Barriers keep him trapped in…