Once again, we return. A few months ago, I did a breakdown of Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen, and Matt Wilson’s comic The Wicked + The Divine, or WicDiv, as a compression of high and low culture. I played coy with you guys in Part 1, but I’m going straight to the postmodernism this time. Don’t…
You Are What You Watch: Which Five Anime Shaped Your Life?
Whenever I’m asked about my favorite books, movies, anime, or video games, I hesitate to answer. For me, comparing my love of Haruki Murakami to J. R. R. Tolkien, for example, is like comparing apples to oranges or choosing between chocolate and vanilla. Murakami and Tolkien, apples and oranges, and chocolate and vanilla are all…
Beauty in the Breakdown: The Wicked + The Divine
The Wicked + The Divine is a pretty cool comic, guys. You know this, I know this—hell, I’m pretty sure Jamie McKelvie, Kieron Gillen, and Matt Wilson know this. Lots of people have lots of different readings of it and Gillen has been kind enough to provide Writer’s Notes about his work. Still, I thought…
Women As Superheroes: A Comic Drawing Workshop to Celebrate 40 Years of The Feminist Library
A free comic workshop led by artists Sally Jane Thompson, Rachael Smith, and Karen Rubins in London at The Feminist Library? I’d signed up faster than you can say sequential-art-salon-in-Southwark.
Kickstarter of the Week: Atomic Size Matters
If you ever wanted to learn more about solid state chemistry but aren’t exactly a scientist, this Kickstarter is for you! As a huge supporter of women and girls in STEM, Veronica Bern’s Kickstarter for Atomic Size Matters gets me excited. Using comics, Veronica wants to share her doctoral thesis in terms that non-chemists can…
Con Diary: Nan Desu Kan 2014. Anime! J-Dramas! Cosplay! Academics!
It had been two years since I’ve attended an anime convention. Unfortunately, my last con experience was awkward and disappointing. The con—which must-not-be-named—had transformed from a fan-centered experience one year to an industry-centered experience the next, and, sadly, it discouraged me from attending any new cons in the future. Despite my reservations about anime con…
Katherine Tanski’s Teaching Comics Part 2: The Amazing Spider-Man
This is part two of my retrospective/nostalgia journey through my time as a graduate student teaching comics in the “early days.” Part one, my love letter to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics can be found here.
Zinesters Interviews
Interview with zinester: Sarah Scalise/SA$$Y Zine: Understanding the Beauty Myth: A Girl’s Guide to Human Sexuality, Interpreting Popular Culture, & the Cultivation of Pimples and Pubic Hair!
Trigger Warning: Fantasy vs Reality
I hate the dark. As in full-on shaking, bones trembling, sweat-breaking-out-along-the-nape-of-my-neck fear. It’s a strange thing to admit to people because being afraid of the dark is something children fear. Being afraid of the dark is something people associate with weakness and immaturity. So no one thinks twice when they turn the lights out on…
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…
The Tangled Relationship Between Comics and Religion (Part One)
My cocktail party introduction of myself is basically, “I’m a religion scholar working on a dissertation that uses a comics to interpret religious text.” Maybe it’s not the smoothest handshake, but it’s a place to start. When I tell people this, I occasionally get quizzical looks from strangers who wonder how comics relate to religion…
Professor Julian Chambliss On the Communicative Potential of Comics in Academia
From our upcoming interview with Professor Chambliss: Comic books are complex cultural artifacts that facilitate analysis of social, political, and economic issues through the content on the page, the production process, and the creative environment. Comic narratives are historically grounded and the people creating them directly and indirectly reflecting the philosophy, views, and mindsets at…