Welcome to Split Seven-Inch, a new feature of Loser City wherein we examine two pieces of media that are not necessarily closely related with each other yet still have something interesting in common. This time up, we’re looking at the twin superhero poetry collections Missing You, Metropolis and MultiVerse. Side A: Missing You, Metropolis by Gary Jackson […]
Split Seven-Inch: Batgirl/Gotham Academy
Welcome to Split Seven-Inch, a new feature of Loser City wherein we examine two pieces of media that are not necessarily closely related with each other yet still have something interesting in common. For the first installment, we’ve got Batgirl #35 on the A-side and Gotham Academy #1 on the B-side. SIDE A: Batgirl #35 […]
Wolf in White Van: Every Moment Points Toward the Aftermath
John Darnielle crafts imaginary worlds for listeners to live in. From his small house in North Carolina, he orchestrates fantastic adventures where possibilities, both dark and bright, open in the boundaries between the real and the imagined. As the man behind the Mountain Goats—a lyrically-driven indie rock band that is nothing if not prolific—Darnielle guides […]
I Went to SPX 2014 and All I Got was a Renewed Faith in Comics
It’s half past midnight, I’m packed in a basement ballroom with a hundred or so strangers in varying degrees of formal wear, we’re all some combination of sweaty, drunk, exhausted, and alive, and I can feel every inch of my body pulsing in time with the B-52’s as a DJ with the most magnificent fiery […]
Anatomy of a Page: All-Star Superman #10
I’m writing this during National Suicide Prevention Week, and it seemed like there was no better piece of art to discuss than what is likely Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant, and Grant Morrison’s most famous page from All Star Superman. This is comic storytelling at its finest, and although Morrison penned words for this page, it […]
Joey Moonhead is a Normal Teen Boy in Every Way Except for One Crazy Thing…
Nobrow has exploded onto the American comics scene in the last couple of years, and while I picked up a few books from the publisher at CAKE this past June, they’ve still been sitting on my ever-growing pile of comics to read. So when our benevolent dictator Danny Djeljosevic asked if I would like to review Andrew […]
The Problem of Respect: A Question of Entitlement
In the latest issue of Poets & Writers, Steve Almond contends that young writers have a Problem of Entitlement (he claims it’s “A Question of Respect”), and despite the title of his article, I was intrigued enough to give it a read. I probably should have known better, but having spent a semester in […]
Advance Review: Liz Prince’s Tomboy is Required Reading
No one can reliably predict when a piece of media is going to be a classic; no matter what you choose—books, movies, music, whatever—there are simply too many variables to know when the staying power of an album like Weezer’s Pinkerton will outlast its almost universally wretched initial reviews or whether an initial financial success […]
Fiction: This American Life-On-Closed Circuit by Shea Hennum
The pocket knife Allison Squibb had carried since she was thirteen was dull, and she strained as she cut into her arm to remove the small ident device lodged in the musculature, pressed tight against the skin on the underside of her elbow. Allison carved around the zit-sized bump and pulled out a small blinking […]
American Elf Servers Shutting Down, to be Archived by Library of Congress
It came as a shock to many when James Kochalka hung up his elf ears on December 31, 2012, and declared an end to his daily diary strip that had been running since 1998. Although the cartoonist had flirted with the idea of taking leave of American Elf on occasion, he always came back. With […]