(Disclaimer: Review copies of Legal Drug and Drug & Drop vol. 1 and vol. 2 were supplied by Dark Horse. This essay also contains some light spoilers.) First, a primer! If you’re familiar with boy’s love, girl’s love, yaoi, yuri, shonen-ai, or shojo-ai just go ahead and skip this paragraph. For those of you who…
What’s in a Medium? The Three Faces of “The Devil is a Part-Timer!”
The Devil is a Part-Timer! Satoshi Wagahara (writer); 029 (Oniku) (illustrator); Kevin Gifford (translation) Yen On (Please note: review copies of the manga and light novel were provided by Yen Press.) Once upon a time, in the cross-shaped kingdom of Ente Isla, the devil had his day. Or many days, really. In fact, he and…
Books That Shaped Me: A Wrinkle in Time
Funny thing, it was the Babysitters Club that got me reading A Wrinkle in Time. I was a voracious reader, and when my mom bought a milk crate full of old Babysitters Club books for me at a garage sale, I dove right in. One of the Babysitter Club books featured Claudia Kishi picking out…
Swallowing Your Privilege: Writing and Making a Living
Privilege is a hard pill to swallow, especially growing up in the mythos of Puritanical-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-idle-hands-are-the-devil’s-plaything-etc. America. But, like the giant antibiotics I’m taking right now for an upper respiratory infection, you have to swallow those enormous pills, all of them. Okay, the metaphor may be clumsy, but I keep getting those damn horse pills lodged…
Science Fictional and Fantastic — The Universe of IDW’s Transformers
This article goes into serious detail in examining the history of the Transformers in the IDW comics to explain the current status quo, and as such, spoils many plot twists. You have been warned. The thing about the premise of the Transformers — robots that turn into other things — is that there is an…
Ends and Means: The Politics of Superheroes With Dirty Hands
Last year Ashley wrote an essay for us called Snap His Neck! I return to it from time to time. Violence is something you can’t get away from if you’re at all interested in superhero comics. Superhero violence, as cartoonish and sometimes antisocial as it can be, isn’t interesting to me on its own. I’m…
Pouches: The Case For Respect
There I am on the side of a cliff, feeling pretty good. What possessed me to get up there? Pouches. See that belt around my waist? That’s got a pouch on. In fact it’s got two. Sometimes there are more, but that depends on where I’m going, and what for. Pouches are as versatile as your…
Ghost in the Shell: The Major’s Body (2)
The Major, or Motoko Kusanagi, is the protagonist of each incarnation of the Ghost in the Shell manga-anime-merchadise franchise. If you care to google, Motoko Kusanagi is autocompletes to “a man” and “is hot,” then “in bed with a boy” and “in bed.” For a science-fiction philosophy character named for her military position, we (the audience — although I don’t…
Tyrant: The Arab/Muslim Experience and Whitewashing
Tyrant, a new FX series, premiered on Tuesday, June 24. It centers on Bassam (Barry) Al Fayeed, son of a dictator of a make believe Arab nation, who finally returns home with his American family after decades away. If it was any other show, you could say that the first episode was solid and definitely…
Top 10 Underrated LGBTQ Comic Characters
Each year Pride Month seems to bring along several Top 10 LGBTQ character lists scattered across comic book news sites. This isn’t a bad thing–not that long ago you would have been hard-pressed to find 10 major LGBTQ characters in mainstream comic books–but sometimes the lists get a little predictable. Northstar, Batwoman, Wiccan and Hulking–these…
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Cook Your Comics: A World-Saving Breakfast Battle Plan
What if I said you could save the world from certain doom just by making breakfast? Is that why they say it’s the most important meal of the day? Probably. I’ve arrived at this hypothesis after years of reading comics, which is obviously the best way to gain accurate information about the world around us….
Embl-O-Matic: Homegrown Cartoons on News that Bruises
Introducing… Our newest feature, a semi-regular, multi-author series of cartoons and short comics by WWAC staff, Embl-O-Matic. We’ll bring you sharp editorial cartoons on the state of geek culture, feminism, and other stuff we find interesting (like pie).This first cartoon, by Claire and Megan P, is in response to various recent news items — take…