Rarely in discussions of apocalyptic fiction is friendship brought up. My personal observation is that the genre focuses on whatever topic is relevant in the current political discourse (i.e., Planet of the Apes). Whenever human interaction is brought up, it’s usually the worst ways possible. Many apocalyptic storytellers seem to think humanity’s negative qualities will […]
Here’s an Idea for a Funhouse: Pay the Damn Cartoonists
Do cartoonists deserve to be paid for their labor? It’s a yes or no question. And, frankly, it doesn’t seem to be a very hard question. But I’ll give you a minute. A week before my writing this, Brooklyn comic book store Desert Island and the SoHo based Drawing Center put on an event called […]
Bingo Love has Laudable Aims but Its Storytelling Falters
Queer people don’t usually get to see themselves live happily ever after in most media. We get the love stories that end in tragedy. This is largely because non-queer people are making most of the media that represents us–which means we’re not really represented in it at all. So it’s refreshing to see a book […]
On Eddie Berganza and the Misperceptions of Wrongful Dismissal
Since it has now become public knowledge that Buzzfeed will be reporting on the Eddie Berganza situation at DC Comics, and thus might very well cause DC to finally take firm action on Berganza or at least inspire more people to demand action, it feels necessary to discuss one of the most frequently asked questions […]
“Long Lost” #1 has the Creeping, Eerie Pace Every Horror Comic Needs
Long Lost #1 refuses to answer questions. Written by Matthew Erman with art by Lisa Sterle, the book sweeps through plot points without pause, giving new information on almost every page, with an art style that varies in tone sometimes panel to panel. The book reads like a horror film, giving us enough character details […]
Hazel Newlevant’s Sugar Town is as Sweet and Pleasant as Its Name
Stories about queer people can sometimes feel incomplete, even shallow. Even in 2017, it seems like a lot of stories focus on the sex, probably because that’s what straight people are likely to get hung up on when it comes to queer relationships. It’s foreign and novel, and just a bit naughty. But because of […]
Comics Aren’t Their Creative Process
As a comic critic, at a certain point, it’s hard to keep up with the sheer volume of unjustified, shoot-from-the-hip, self-interested hot takes about the alleged piss poor quality of the average comic book review. With the amount of noise that’s been made, you would think someone would link a review or two, or at […]
Boston Terriers and Desert Vibes: A Conversation with Jay and Sanders Fabares of “The Pale”
Not too long ago, I wrote a review of The Pale, a black and white mystery comic about the discovery of a burned corpse in a small desert town. Jay and Sanders Fabares are the husband/wife duo behind the comic. Sanders writes the comic while Jay handles art duties. They have been making the comic […]
Made Men is Too Poorly Stitched Together to Stand On Its Own
There’s this Comedy Bang! Bang! bit where Scott Aukerman is telling Reggie Watts about some new films he’s going to be in this summer. All of them are named after an innocuous phrase that they take extremely literally, like An Apple a Day, and as Aukerman goes on they get more and more absurd. I bring this […]
In Sarah Nelson’s Daniel, Toxic Masculinity is Vampiric
Over time the metaphorical meaning of the vampire has diversified, shifting away from its earliest existence as a literary representation of xenophobic beliefs. Whatever cultural fear or anxiety vampires come to represent is dependent on the context of the story and the storyteller’s motivations. Sarah Nelson’s Daniel, a horror webcomic about a young man turned into a […]
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