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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Questionable Comics: Daniel Chabon and Paul Allor
In today’s Questionable Comics we talk to an editor and a writer/letterer. Up first is Daniel Chabon, who edits a number of series for Dark Horse, including the new Margaret Atwood, Johnnie Christmas and Tamra Bonvillain series Angel Catbird, which is the feature length debut of the celebrated novelist. What current projects are you working on? Mostly creator-owned […]
Rozi Hathaway’s Njálla is Beautiful but Lacks a Strong Narrative
Rozi Hathaway’s Njálla is a refreshing look at Scandinavian lore, considering our most recent widespread children’s text about the area is Frozen. While Frozen features a sea of white people, Hathaway writes about a legend of Northern Europe that focuses on the lifestyle of the Sámi people as they lived hundreds of years ago. The […]
Boys and Girls in America is Verbatim Theatre for Comics
Though it’s not as active now, the verbatim theatre movement of the early ’00s was more than an interesting hybrid of old and new media, it was one of the most effective styles of social commentary in art. Works like The Laramie Project functioned as rawer, more direct confrontations of the issues plays like Angels in America also […]
Questionable Comics: Andy Warner and Pete Toms
Today’s Questionable Comics pairs two of our favorite people in indie comics. Up first is Andy Warner, one of the geniuses behind the Irene anthology and a regular contributor to The Nib. What current projects are you working on? The book version of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects (to be published by Picador in October, 2016). I’m just […]
Red Ants Underneath: Nick Drnaso’s Beverly is a Soft Palette of Middle-American Suburban Ennui Porn Shoved Into Little Boxes
“I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath.” — David Lynch Daniel Elkin: I knew my early 1980s North Dallas suburbia like Jeffrey Beaumont knew his Lumberton in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Raised middle-class and white, there among so much concrete and small trees with […]