I first learned of Geeks vs. Nerds while waiting in line for a pub. In their words, they have “taken up the mantle of celebrating our local geek, gamer, and comic book nerd subcultures in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.
Nine Worlds: Days 2&3
Saturday/Sunday: Life is not non-stop suffering and the meanness of white people My second day at Nine Worlds began with a very well-attended debate between several writers – including Joanne Harris, author of The Gospel of Loki – over which was better: dragons, werewolves, vampires, or warlocks. Topics covered included each species’ body odor, fashion…
Ghost in the Shell: The Major’s Body (6) [Trigger warning: rape culture]
The Major, or Motoko Kusanagi, is the protagonist of each incarnation of the Ghost in the Shell manga-anime-merchadise franchise. If you care to google, Motoko Kusanagi is autocompletes to “a man” and “is hot,” then “in bed with a boy” and “in bed.” For a science-fiction philosophy character named for her military position, we (the audience — although I don’t…
Nine Worlds Diary: Day 1
This past weekend was full of thoughtful analysis, lovely people, and cheesy dance moves. Ideally that’s what all my weekends would be like, but this particular one was spent at Nine Worlds Geekfest in London. Nine Worlds is distinct for its focus on inclusivity and exploring the relationships between geek media and its fans. As…
Conventional Parenting
Planning on taking a wee one along to a convention? As with any outing involving children, good planning is required to ensure fun is had by all involved. We’ve been taking our daughters, aged six and eight, to Toronto’s FanExpo since our eldest was two months shy of bursting from my womb, and we’ve learned…
Reviews Roulette: Spin the Wheel, Write Reviews
Welcome to Reviews Roulette, where editors randomly assign comics to our staff writers for review! This week we assigned The Auteur #4 (Oni Press), Thomas Aslop (BOOM!), and Emily and the Strangers: Breaking the Record (Dark Horse).
All Ages Summer Book Club — July Pick
Our first selection for the All Ages Summer Book Club was Neil Gaiman’s The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, which was re-released last week with artwork by Eddie Campbell. We had our first Twitter discussion on our summer reading pick as well, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We even decided on our next…
Incredible Indie Tuesday: Creepy Webcomics Bonanza!
Web-Comic Broodhollow Blends the Cute and the Creepy Larry Cruz at Robot 6 looks at Kris Staub’s webcomic Broodhollow which manages to be both adorable and one of the scariest comics being published right now. The first complete chapter of this webcomic is up here to catch up on the series and follow along with the on-going…
Dogears: Books So Good They’re Creased
Pivot Point Kasie West HarperTeen Alternate universes and all their myriad possibilities live in Addison Coleman’s head. She’s a Divergent, a rare kind of Para-human, and the advanced development of her mind allows her to see the results of choices she faces before she makes them. As amazing as her powers might be to Norms,…
Down Set Fight Ride: Chris Sims’ structure play-by-play
Down Set Fight is just the right title for the book that it is. Short. Violent. Peppy. To the point. It’s nominally about American football–but I don’t even keep an awareness of our regular English sort, and I got on with it just fine.
News & Things: Valentine’s Day with Black Widow
Hey all, Ivy here with Catie, one of our newest writers, and all the news that’s fit to print…err, blog! (“Yay! Hi, Catie!” is what you say.) Marvel Confirms: Potential Black Widow Solo Movie Possibly In the Works (Maybe) President of Production for Marvel Kevin Feige said a vague thing about Black Widow’s role in…
Cartoonist profile: Howard Hardiman
Howard Hardiman fucking loves sign-language, knows quite a lot about ketamine, and has a smile for strangers that I’d bet stops babies crying. He’s the creator of The Lengths and Badger, co-creator on Angela and The Invalids, as well as Artist in Residence at Quay Arts on the Isle of Wight. He used to be…