Picture, if you will, a fresh-faced fan walking into a comic book store on Free Comic Book Day. She picks up a haul of titles that look interesting. Hey, it’s free! Perfect opportunity to try something new out, right? Included in that haul is a sampler put out by a North American manga publisher. How awesome!…
As the WWAC Turns: We Reveal Our Soap Opera Passions
Much maligned soap operas are enjoying another critical renaissance — is Downton Abbey a soap? Game of Thrones? The possible soap opera-ness of these prestige TV shows is a hot topic, but traditional soap operas themselves are not. But what about General Hospital, Passions, Neighbours, EastEnders and K Dramas? These aren’t so fashionable to praise….
Get Your Game on Wednesday
Happy Wednesday, gamer friends! This week, I’m writing from the road. Alas, I’m not off to GenCon. I’m sitting a lovely hotel in Syracuse, NY on my way to Niagara Falls. This week’s game goodness is bursting at the seams, so let’s jump right in. #buygamesbywomen at GenCon (and beyond) Feeding your need for hashtag activism,…
Did You Love Your Barbie? A Conversation
Welcome to WWAC Game Section’s summer Barbie series. These months are often the time that children are free from commitments, away from their friends, and ready to let their imaginations take over. For many of us that meant playing with Barbies, and over the next few weeks you’ll see the many different ways Barbies affected…
The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Quest For A Perfect Doll
They say parents willingly fill up kids’ rooms with toys that Mom and Dad missed in their own childhood. It is probably true for me. I have a three-month-old girl, and I can’t wait for when she will be big enough for our first visit to a toy store. In the meantime, I stroll around…
Book That Shaped Me: Little House in the Big Woods
I honestly can’t remember a time when Laura Ingalls wasn’t as familiar to me as I was to myself. I don’t remember the first time I read her books, and I can’t recall the first time they were read to me: I only know that there was never a time I didn’t know her name…
Ghost World: To Avoid Growing Up, Buy More Stuff
Ghost World Daniel Clowes Fantagraphics Books 1997 Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World is about clinging to a stage of life that is fading from existence. The teenaged lives that Enid and Rebecca have lead are over. Floating from home to the diner to stores and back to home without purpose, they continue to behave as though…
Incredible Indie Tuesday: Harvey Pekar Gets A Park (In Cleveland!)
Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland Hometown Honors Cartoonist with Park Dedication, Celebration Known for changing culture’s perception of graphic novels and auto-bio comics, Harvey Pekar was sometimes called “Cleveland’s poet laureate” as his works frequently revolved around the city and his day-to-day life there. Now his hometown has honored the late cartoonist, who passed away in 2010,…
When Boy’s Love Goes Bad: CLAMP’s Legal Drug
(Disclaimer: Review copies of Legal Drug and Drug & Drop vol. 1 and vol. 2 were supplied by Dark Horse. This essay also contains some light spoilers.) First, a primer! If you’re familiar with boy’s love, girl’s love, yaoi, yuri, shonen-ai, or shojo-ai just go ahead and skip this paragraph. For those of you who…
The YA Urban Fantasy the World Needs: Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
Sierra Santiago is an artist. Her current project? Beautifying the development that was abandoned by scurrilous developers and would-be gentrifiers in Brooklyn. Sierra thinks a big, badass dragon would send a good message: don’t try to take our neighborhood from us. When her ailing grandfather and other family friends keep mysteriously encouraging her to finish…
Surface Tensions: Character vs. Creator Diversity
Diversity—it’s a heavy discussion that’s happening all across the world of comics, whether being decried as “change for change’s sake” or being touted as a fundamental aspect of storytelling by creators like Al Ewing. Even Dan Didio has acknowledged that comics haven’t been great for representation and that the audience for more diverse characters is…
The Science of Orphan Black: Fanciful, Fearsome, Educational
Sometimes, little-known cult television shows are secret, sparkly gems that blow minds. For me, that show is Orphan Black. Although I wasn’t expecting much from yet another science fiction series, I was pleasantly surprised at how it delved into a thought-provoking story of relatable characters and real emotions from genetically engineered humans in previously unexplored…
