On Friday, the “House of Ideas” revealed their much hyped and (in the optimistic eyes of Marvel PR) anticipated new relaunch, Marvel Legacy. In what was one of the most underwhelming and confusing rollouts in recent memory, Marvel released eight sets of GIFs which included the covers for the upcoming “new” line. Covered by most…
That Bad Boy Image #1: Big Behaviour Bars
Welcome to That Bad Boy Image! A weekly column where we commemorate 25 years of Image by making a very statistically accurate graph to showcase just what those naughty boys and their driving-seat successors are up to during this most momentous quarter century celebration of one of the biggest shakeups in comics history– the founding of Image Comics. WHERE THEY WERE:…
Colorist on Color: Rico Renzi
This week’s installment of Colorists on Coloring we interview Rico Renzi. You’ll recognize his iconic work from Marvel’s Squirrel-Girl & Spider-Gwen. Rico has a very innovative mind and a sweet heart. You can support him by picking up his work from No Longer Mint, attending Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC or giving him a digital…
Politically Cartoonish: May In Review
Hello, and welcome to the May edition of Politically Cartoonish. As with the rest of WWAC, the Politically Cartoonish column is working to include analyses of non-U.S. and non-Western issues. Readers are encouraged to send political cartoon suggestions to the author via her Twitter handle @youandyourego. May opened up with International Workers Day on May 1st,…
X-Men Toys: You Dare Call Those Things- Human?
I can pinpoint the exact moment I fell out of love with the X-Men. I certainly like a fair amount of the things the franchise has produced, but it’s just that, a product, and no one has worked harder to remind readers of that fact than Marvel themselves. The moment that did it for me…
Lady Pendragon: What You Want to Know About Matt Hawkins’ Guinevere
Another in our series examining the women of Image Comics’ first decade — this time, Top Cow’s Lady Pendragon. “We all were sorta young and brash and thought [the heyday of Image] was gonna last forever, and… it didn’t. And so, the fall was kinda hard? And dealing with that — Extreme Studios went out of business, and then…
Sparks and Tarts: A Romance Primer
What constitutes a romance? When is something Capital R Romance vs. a story in another genre with romantic elements? When does the line fall so thin that Capital R Romance lovers don’t really care? There’s been a lot of talk on the bookish interwebs recently about the nature of romance—romance novels in particular. Essays have…
Nick Spencer, Thor’s Hammer, HydraCap, and Supremacist Iconography
Content warning: This article talks about the Holocaust, Nazis, white supremacy and anti Semitic hate imagery.
Ike Perlmutter! Get To Know Your Billionaire Marvel Chief Exec
When I spoke to BBC Radio Four’s Front Row about David Gabriel’s comments regarding “diversity” in Marvel Comics’ output (I’m about fifteen minutes in), I touched briefly on the power and influence of Isaac Perlmutter, more regularly known as Ike. My awareness of the individual is fairly new, a result of swallowing a few bigulps…
Daddy Issues #3: Magneto When Good Dads Turn Bad
To “celebrate” Father’s Day I’ve written a selection of essays on some of comics worst ever dads. From adoptive fathers to absent ones, from rich and fascist to poor and useless, I’ve got ’em all! So strap in, grab your daddy issues, a stiff drink, and get ready to realise that pretty much all of…
Harlequin Violet & Harlequin Pink: Manga Romance Fusion!
Harlequin Ginger Blossom, published in English by Dark Horse, are successful Harlequin novels adapted for the Japanese comics market. Every volume says “written by [American Name]” and “art by [Japanese Name]” on its cover, which doesn’t seem entirely fair; adapting prose to a sequential graphic narrative is a job in itself and it goes uncredited thanks…
ALL GROWN UP: Image Comics Bad Girls at 25
Image Comics was founded 25 years ago—you may have noticed all the commemorative parties they’ve been having. It was a shot in the arm to the American comic book industry, a nice load of amphetamine that got everyone buzzing and yelling and focused and horny. The young, male pioneers at Image’s founding gave a huge push to…