Incognegro: Renaissance #1 Mat Johnson (Writer), Warren Pleece (Artist), Clem Robins (Letterer) Dark Horse Comics 7 February, 2018 2018 celebrates the 10th anniversary of the original Incognegro graphic novel, the hard-hitting story about an African-American journalist who uses his light complexion to go incognito among white people and uncover the truth behind the murders of…
Hipster Manga: Angel Heart
Although it’s only half the name of the series, “heart” is literally at the center of the long-running manga Angel Heart by Tsukasa Hojo. (Literally-literally, not figuratively-literally.) It’s both a story of a transplanted heart and the code name of a young assassin aptly named Glass Heart. After a particularly gut-wrenching kill, Glass Heart decides…
Sisters of Sorrow: A Rushed Yet Poignant Mini Series
Kurt Sutter’s Sisters of Sorrow Kurt Sutter, Courtney Alameda (Writers), Hyeonjin Kim (Artist), Jean-Paul Csuka (Colours), Jim Campbell (Letters) July 1, 2017 Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter’s comic book miniseries, Sisters of Sorrow, has come to a close with a quiet, yet powerful message. Co-written with horror/science-fiction author Courtney Alameda, the first issue of…
Lea & Julius Antoine: A 1980s French Comic About Ephebophilia
Lea: The Confessions of Julius Antoine Serge Le Tendre (writer), Christian Rossi (artist) Fantagraphics, 1989 First published in French by Albin Michel, 1985 This article contains discussions of ephebophilia and paedophilia.
Previously on Comics: Living in a Hellscape
Seems like every time I sit down to write one of these, I gotta lead with people in positions of power in the comics industry using that power to punch down. We start the week off with Action Lab. Sorry, Action Lab Danger Zone, because the first thing that both bearers of the Action Lab name…
From Sexy to Sexual: Witchblade’s Return & Top Cow’s Maturing Eroticism
Back when I spoke to Matt Hawkins in March, we spent a little time talking about the sexual legacy of the first ten years or so of Top Cow. We also spoke a little about Witchblade–a title about a woman who carries a living weapon disguised as a bracelet–which is being resurrected in December, with…
Get Your Game On Wednesday: Women, Wheels, And Consentacle
Howdy, gaming lovelies! Yesterday was some incarnation of #NationalVideoGameDay, possibly a real holiday, but more possibly a social media consumerism ploy. In any case, I say any reason to celebrate! Hopefully, you treated yourself to a nice round of special game time. If not, just make up your own National Video Game Day and celebrate…
Image 25: Top Cow’s Matt Hawkins’ Full Trajectory
From some guy in a line to COO of a 25-year-old publishing imprint, Matt Hawkins saw the glory days of Image, and stayed around for the aftermath. There are plenty of interviews covering the Founding Fathers of Image’s early days as masters of their new domain. The twentieth anniversary interviews Jason Sacks carried out for…
Failsafe: One to Keep in the Vault
I threw out an entire draft before this one. It was about 500 words and it was picking, bit by bit, at my thoughts about these comics, without ever really digging into the meat of them. The meat is this: Failsafe is a bad comic book. It’s a bad enough comic book that it angers…
A TARDIS Full of Coats: Why Queer Women are Already Costuming the First Female Doctor
Even before Jodie Whittaker pushed back Peter Capaldi’s hood to reveal herself as the first woman actor to play the Doctor, Doctor Who’s female and non-binary fans–especially those whose gender expression tacks masculine-of-centre–were already watching odds shorten on Peter Capaldi’s replacement being a different gender … and skipping ahead to what style and costume will…
Divided States of Hysteria: A Form Letter of Dismay
Content Warning: This post discusses depictions of fictional violent racist acts. Due to the unique format of Image Comics as a publishing company, response to their individual titles is hard to register. Following the discovery of the lynching and genital mutilation illustrated on the solicited cover of issue four WWAC has put together the following form…
