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.
Kickstarter of the Week: Comare, the Other Woman
Illustrator Ashley St. Lawrence and writer Mario Candelaria, are looking to fund the first issue of a six part mini set in mid-century Los Angeles. Comare is a jazzy, stylish romance comic with edge. It’s 1953 and American soldiers are slowly returning from Korea. While her boyfriend was serving overseas, Amelia was carrying on an affair with restauranteur…
Shoujo Stereotypes?! Nakamura’s Skip Beat! and Subversion
(Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Skip Beat!) Shoujo manga—or manga produced for girls—is often dismissed by casual readers as manga brimming with stereotypes. In fact, oftentimes shoujo stories are not taken seriously solely because they are aimed at young girls. Despite the popularity of serious manga like Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers,…
Review: Marvel Anthologizes Romance in Secret Wars: Secret Love
Secret Wars: Secret Love #1 Various. David Nakayama (cover), Pasqual Campion (variant cover) Marvel August 19, 2015 Marvel has released a number of tie-in titles for its Secret Wars event this summer. The structure of the event has allowed for a number of spin-off titles with reimagined domains unlike any we’ve seen before, including books…
As the WWAC Turns: We Reveal Our Soap Opera Passions
Much maligned soap operas are enjoying another critical renaissance — is Downton Abbey a soap? Game of Thrones? The possible soap opera-ness of these prestige TV shows is a hot topic, but traditional soap operas themselves are not. But what about General Hospital, Passions, Neighbours, EastEnders and K Dramas? These aren’t so fashionable to praise….
#TeamVeronica: Why Veronica is Better than Betty
When it comes to the ever-concerning question: which girl will Archie pick? The general consensus seems to be Team Betty. I guess it may seem obvious. Betty is kind and smart. She can bake and fix that oil leak in the jalopy. She’s always there to lend a helping hand, and she wears a ponytail…
4 Takes On Archie #1: Nostalgia, Indifference, Curiosity, Excitement
Archie #1 Mark Waid (w), Fiona Staples (p), Andre Szymanowicz (c) Archie Comics Released: July 2015 Archie Comics provided us with a press copy of the issue for an impartial review. We’ve already discussed who is the hottest Riverdalian. Now to dig even deeper into Archie #1. While there are some confirmed Archie fans at WWAC,…
Put Down Grey and Read Sunstone Instead
Sunstone Volume 1 Stjepan Sejic (w)(a) Top Cow Comics December 2014 If I catch you reading Fifty Shades of Grey, I am going to politely remove it from your grasp and hand you a copy of Sunstone instead. And if you’re into great characters and wonderful, sweet, funny romance stories that explore sexuality, then I am…
Claire Spills Her Guts Again: Teen Things, ParaKiss, & Velvet Goldmine
Stories might be best told in certain media, but their reflections are ever-refractable: a lyric written in the back of an image puts a song into an imaginary world, a game cabinet in the background of a scene tweaks your understanding of the character who owns it. So, I’m going to talk about a film…
#LoveWins: Past, Present, and Future for Queer Couples in Comics
On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 5-4 that the American Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to get married. Twitter went up in rainbow splashes of celebration in the #LoveWins tag and a myriad of ignorant tweets — the tweets from disgruntled folks saying they were going to move to…
