Welcome to the non-negative Year of the Knockoff on Women Write about Comics! Long ago in the wilds of October 2016, I wrote a guest post for the American Studies blog that discussed how Gene Luen Yang’s 2014 graphic novel The Shadow Hero seems like a rhetorical successor to Superman, particularly because its hero, Hank,…
Get Ready for a Silver Sprocket Takeover
Silver Sprocket is a comic book publisher like no other: they’re a collective of artists and friends who create radical books alongside zines, music, and art. You might have heard of some of their most well known books, such as Ben Passmore’s radical look at microaggressions Your Black Friend and Michael Sweater’s much-shared webcomic Please…
Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions is Girl Power Personified
Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions #2 “Face Off” Sarah Kuhn (Writer), Siobhan Keenan (Artist), Shawn Lee (Letters) “Stargirl” Sarah Winifred Searle (Writer and Artist), Shawn Lee (Letters) IDW December 27, 2017 The newest Jem and the Holograms series is an anthology of stories featuring the eponymous group and their musical rivals, the Misfits. Each issue…
Grey Area: This Island Earth and Aliens in America
Grey Area: This Island Earth Dan Abnett (Writer), Karl Richardson, Lee Carter, Patrick Goddard (Artists), Len O’Grady, Abigail Bulmer (Colourists), Ellie De Ville (Letterer) 2000 AD 11 January 2018 Grey Area started in 2000 AD, after a pilot episode during Prog 2012. It has featured on and off since then, and focuses upon the Exo…
Yoko Tsuno is a Heroine On the Edge
Yoko Tsuno: On the Edge of Life Roger Leloup (Writer and Artist) Cinebook August 16, 2007 There is something special about Franco-Belgian comics from the 1970s. The comics of Spirou Magazine, Tintin, and Pilote solidified the dominance of Franco-Belgian comics into the modern era. Large format, long-form narrative storytelling, complex characters, and clean, clear artistic…
Women Making Comics: Melina Chavarria and Jean Marie Pilario talk Creating Positive Latinx Representation in Comics
Comics have long been (incorrectly) seen as the realm of homogeneous white male creators. It’s not that marginalized creators haven’t always been making incredible comics, but that they have been exactly that: marginalized. Whether it’s the lack of representation in Big Two comics—Marvel infamously didn’t hire a black woman to write a single comic until…
The Woods Falls Flat On QTPOC Representation
The Woods Volumes 1-8 James Tynion IV (writer), Michael Dialynas (artist), Josan Gonzalez (colorist), Ed Dukeshire (letterer) Boom! Studios When I read the first couple volumes of The Woods last year, I felt that the series had promise. James Tynion IV offered up a plot and world that were fun—Bay Point High School is randomly…
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…
Mudbound: A Gorgeously Shot Drama About Southern Racism
Mudbound Dee Rees (director), Rachel Morrison (cinematographer), Mako Kamitsuna (editor) Adapted from the Hillary Jordan novel by Dee Rees and Virgil Williams Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige (cast) January 21, 2017 (Sundance), September 10, 2017 (TIFF), November 17, 2017 (USA) Mudbound is a raw, historical family drama with a…
Gaysi Zine Vol 5 is an Exploration and Celebration of Queer Desire
The Gaysi Zine Vol 5: All That We Want Editors: Indu Jain and Priya Gangwani Contributors: Aarthi Parthasarathy, Abeer Hoque, Abhishek Chaudhary, Aindri Chakraborty, Akhila Krishnan, Akshay Mahajan, Alaric Moras, Anar-e Sistanem, Balbir Krishan, Benjamin Zachariah, Brian Horton, Dhrubo Jyoti, Jaya Sharma, Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, Kiran Rajagopalan, M.G. Ashley, Michael Giangrasso, Minal Hajratwala, Mira Malhotra, Parvati…
Reel Resistance: TIFF’s Newest Programme Explores Filipino Cinema
After 400 years of colonization, dictatorship, and rebellion, resistance has been written into every page of Filipino history. Spanish/American/Japanese occupations have had an impact in ways still being unpacked today, ways that have manifested in the Filipino people’s own governance of the country. This fall, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Bell Lightbox is bringing…
Teaching Diverse Lit: Cinderella meets New Beijing
We are fully immersed in the era of adaptations. Fiction fans need not wait more than a week to hear that a favorite novel or comic will soon to make its way to the big or small screen. Old television shows and movies are earning reboots left and right. Stories are getting second and third…