Ever since I moved to Toronto in 2018, I’ve heard about the Toronto Comics and Arts Festival (TCAF), which I had narrowly missed in 2018 because I arrived a month too late. So, it really isn’t surprising that the moment I got the chance, I made arrangements to attend the festival in 2019.
Activists Taking Wonder Woman Into Our Own Hands: Join us for #PopPoliticsChat on Wednesday
When we announced the #PopPoliticsChat series of Twitter conversations we knew the Wonder Woman movie needed to be one of our online discussion topics. #PopPoliticsChat was developed by the Cultural Pulse project to connect fan communities and nonprofit organizations and explore how storytelling and fan communities can influence activism and community engagement. Wonder Woman was…
About That New Dykes to Watch Out For Strip
Yesterday, Allison Bechdel posted a new strip for her comic Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF) for the first time in over eight years. Like Chris Baldwin’s Bruno, DTWOF was remarkable partly because it covered a fascinating span of political eras, but delivered a queer perspective on the happenings of the world. It was also…
Welcome to the X-Men – Hope you Survive The Experience: How Geeks Can Help
My name is Jamie Kingston. But for the next four years, you can call me Storm. My queer friends? You can call them Northstar, Prodigy, Moonstar and Wolfsbane. Or Anole, Shatterstar, Rictor, Karma and Iceman. My chronically ill friends? You can call them Strong Guy, Cable, Husk. Siren or Sunspot. My Muslim friends? Call them M or…
Political Cartooning and How to Survive the Pitfalls of the Internet
I’ve been cartooning a long time, and in the last year as our society has boiled over with all of its longstanding ills, drawing has felt like the best way I know how to preserve my sanity so, armed with a pencil, I took a sharp turn away from fiction and toward social commentary. I strongly encourage…
Feminism & Fat: Interview with Ragen Chastain
One of my biggest, long-time internet crushes on a person I have never, ever met goes to Ragen Chastain. I started reading her blog, Dances with Fat, several years ago as it not only affirmed some struggles and suspicions I had regarding the talk around bodies and health, but it also opened my eyes to the…
What Devin Faraci Gets Wrong About Audience, Ownership and Power
Earlier this week, Devin Faraci of Birth Movies Death, wrote that fandom was broken. Out of control and on the attack, wild elements of the audience had broken free from their assigned role of mild adoration and GIFpreciation to wage war against creators. Hashtag campaigns, calls to action, death threats — described in one long…
Burnside or Elsewhere, We Need a Bi Batgirl!
We need a bi Batgirl? I don’t mean that; it’s too specific, but that alliteration was impossible not to use. What we need is a queer heroine, and not just any sort of heroine. She needs to be different.
Zine Review: On Confronting Anti-Blackness in Our Communities
On Confronting Anti-Blackness in Our Communities Brown and Proud Press A.V.A., Gabo Banksy, Cuauhtemoc, Tanuja Devi Jagernauth, Hoda Katebi, Munoz, Fatima Noekai, Fernando Romulo, Melisa Stephen, Vicko, and Monica Trinidad On April 29th and 30th, Chicago Zine Fest will host dozens of incredible zinesters, and will feature several of them at a Friday evening panel…
Accessibility and Cons: If Comics Are For Everyone, Can Everybody Reach Them?
Last time we talked, I discussed my own work as a comics creator and the ways in which I’ve worked to create my own disability representation in comics. This month, I want to delve into an issue that is broader in scope, but in many ways just as vital: accessibility at comic conventions. It’s con…
The Thursday Book Beat: Angolan Rapper Arrested for Book Club Pick
Once again, I’ve taken over Angel’s book beat which means I have all of the power where book news is concerned! (cue cackle). Before we begin, I just wanted to say RIP to Ellen Seligman who died this past Friday. She was an editor and publisher of McClelland & Stewart for four decades. An Angolan rapper and activist, Luaty…
Mom’N’Pop Culture: Girl Scouts Are More Than Just Cookies
I missed my usual Mom’N’Pop Culture post at the beginning of the month, and I’m going to blame the cookies. Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Dos-si-dos, and about four other varieties of cookies peddled by little girls wearing adorable, sometimes toothless smiles, and patch-covered vests, are to blame for every missed deadline over the past two months.
