Last year, I wrote an editorial on Airboy and accusations of transphobia that were levied at that comic’s creators. Though I mixed in criticisms I had of Airboy from issue one, the main point I tried to get across was that the best possible strategy Airboy’s creative team could take was to listen and try to understand why fans were […]
Beautiful Grotesquery: Embracing the Ugly in Ted McKeever’s Pencil Head
Last year I took issue with, well, a lot of things in James Robinson and Greg Hinkle’s “adult” meta work Airboy. I’ve gotten so bored with offensive works because while they claim to be aimed at censorship and shaking up society, they nearly always have the same targets and the same focus on punching down. There’s […]
ymmv: Write Something That Goddamn Matters
Before I go, I want to write something that matters. The real lasting works of this world tell a story that’s about something and that can change people. And the very best of them do it when sometimes you don’t even realize it. If I want a didactic text to tell me what to do, […]
Boom and Image Hypocrisy Pushes Comics Backward
It’s been an incredible few years for Boom and Image. Titles like Lumberjanes, Sex Criminals, Teen Dog, Wicked + Divine, Bee and Puppycat, Saga, the Boom Box 2014 Mix Tape, Zero… I think you get the point. Many of the best monthly titles are being produced by these two companies, and I would argue that […]
Je Suis Airboy: Why Airboy’s Defenders Need to Listen and Reflect Instead
One of my chief struggles with comics fandom throughout adulthood has been the reflexive defensiveness of established pros and traditional fans against criticism and attempts at pushing progress. It’s not something I’m entirely unfamiliar with outside of comics, anyone with a punk adolescence should also be familiar with the phenomenon, ditto anyone with even a […]
Dicks Hate Comics: Airboy is Entourage for Middle Aged Comics Creators
A while back, my man Danny “Dicks” Djeljosevic wrote up a column making one very simple argument: Comics Needs More Dicks. Danny immediately made it clear in the piece that he meant that in the literal anatomical sense, not in the sense of “‘dick’ as in ‘guy who’s a jerk,’” because as is still true […]