Gamers are an opinionated fan niche. Whether it’s your preferred system or whether you like a twist of romance in your stories, conversations about games can turn from mild disagreements to name-calling no matter the topic. Dreadfully serious folks sometimes find romance plots to be a distraction from “real gaming,” whatever that means, while other…
On Shipping: What’s Disney’s, What’s Yours, and What’s Mine
We never expect our ships to become canon. That’s the first thing you need to know. Wait, no. Let me start that again. As a result of creating a new world where there wasn’t one before, we have created our own language for this. We had to. The rest of the world gave us nothing….
Play to Date: Fallout, Women-Consoles, and Porn
Welcome to the second installation of my miniseries, Play to Date, in which we discuss the strange, perhaps upsetting, perhaps useful overlap of dating and gaming. Have your own dating/gaming anecdotes? I’d love to hear them.
Books That Shaped Me: L.J. Smith’s Night World
There are the YA classics many of us read, such as Newberry Award recognized books like The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, and many more. I vaguely remember these books, but I certainly don’t…
Dogears: The Roots of Desire
The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair Marion Roach Bloomsbury July 11, 2006 Considering the love that red headed literary figures get on our site (see here, here, and here), I was pretty stoked when I found this book. However, it certainly did not live up to its promises….
Ex-Men: The Top Five Pre-Phoenix Scott and Jean Moments
Scott Summers and Jean Grey: the OTP of the X-Men. Right? Well, maybe not, but for a lot of us, growing up they were the only couple we could rely upon to be, forever, “a thing.” Comics, cartoons, live-action films—Scott and Jean, Jean and Scott, we like dysfunction, it is hot. Maybe we didn’t like…
Everyone Wants to Be Touched: Diary of a Teenage Girl
At 15 I thought I was a pervert. This may be why I loved Diary of a Teenage Girl so much. My sophomore year of high school I made my grandmother, a woman uncomfortable with the word “vagina” take me to the pediatrician I was still seeing to discuss my “sex addiction.” When the middle-aged doctor,…
In Defense of the Bad Boy
Ah, the Bad Boy. He gets a lot of traction in our fictional media. He is alluring on account of his badness, and of course, incredibly good looking. In many cases, he is thrown into a love triangle with a female protagonist where she must decide between The Bad Boy and The Good Guy. We know…
Flogged with Love: Stjepan Sejic’s Sunstone
Sunstone Vols. 2 & 3 Story and art by Stjepan Sejic Top Cow Productions / Image Comics Volume 2: April 29, 2015; Volume 3: September 19, 2015 My question when I hit the third volume of any graphic novel series is: will this be the last one I read? The first volume is an introduction and…
Fresh Romance Is the Romance Zine of Your Dreams
Fresh Romance, the romantic comics zine from Rosy Press, is a real treat to read. It feels like meeting your best friend. You’ll catch yourself thinking, I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I’m so glad I found you!
Playing Off Nostalgia and First Love in Fuku Mizutani’s Love at Fourteen
Love at Fourteen, Vol. 1 and 2 Fuka Mizutani Yen Press 2015 I don’t know about you, but my middle school years weren’t half as dream-like as Love at Fourteen envisions. Fuka Mizutani takes a simple love story between two middle-schoolers and splits it into interludes, operating under the assumption that the reader will go along…
Play to Date: Fallout is on Tinder
Welcome to my new miniseries, Play to Date, in which we discuss the strange, perhaps upsetting, perhaps useful overlap of dating and gaming. Have your own dating/gaming anecdotes? I’d love to hear them.