This guest post is written by Jennifer Caroccio, a Nuyorican from Queens, graduate student, poet and writer. She is currently pursuing a PhD in American Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, where her dissertation project focuses on the narrative capabilities of Latinx graphic memoirs and comic biographies as they reclaim a Latinx subjectivity in US cultural production.…
Transmyscira
Transmyscira: The Catfight over MAN-EATERS #9
We are not at war. There is no enemy. This is a rescue operation. – Mister Six, The Invisibles Volume 3 #12 The comic book industry is in the midst of a full blown crisis in the representation of transgender, non binary, and otherwise gender non-conforming people. The decision by Man-Eaters writer Chelsea Cain to…
The Comics Classroom
The Comics Classroom: AKIRA, a Cyberpunk Masterpiece
It is probably going to be impossible to say anything genuinely new concerning Akira, that masterpiece of Japanese manga created by Katsuhiro Otomo (hereafter referred to as Otomo) in 1982 which then ran until 1990. The premise of the story is that, thirty years after a post WW3 Japan has somewhat started to recover from…
Kirbyology!
KIRBYOLOGY!: Charles Glaubitz, Dickheads, and STARSEEDS
A while back I talked to Charles Glaubitz about his ongoing cosmic epic Starseeds, which has been published in two volumes so far. Here’s part two of our talk, with more of Glaubitz’s thoughts on his quantum work, Jack Kirby, and penis hats. Glaubitz’s approach to the concept of starseeds is opposed to what you’ll…
Palabra e Imagen
Comics and the FILM PHOTONOVEL: One-on-One with Jan Baetens
In Jan Baetens’ creative work as a poet, novelist, and scholar, we see an ongoing interest in image-text forms and content. This takes shape in his scholarly focus that has systematically analyzed all variety of image-text narrative form, especially those that move across genre and form like and that have traditionally been relegated to the…
Health and Inclusivity
Health and Inclusivity: The Kids Can Be Alright with THE CARDBOARD KINGDOM
This one’s for the kids. I had been waiting to drop this particular article for a while. As my little sister moves from fifth to sixth grade, beginning her transition to middle school, an important thought came to mind. We spend a lot of time unpacking media and what it means for diverse people and…
Comic Love
Escape from Freedom: MISTER MIRACLE and Western Marxism
In Tom King and Mitch Gerads’s critically acclaimed Mister Miracle, Scott Free toils in search of something seriously lacking in our own lives today: the power to escape. But escape from what? Viewed through the lens of an iPhone screen, the comparison might seem counterintuitive. After all, it seems like today we have nothing but…
Queer Visibility
Baby, Queer Me One More Time: 39 MORE Indie Titles Doing Right by LGBTA Fans
Over the last few years, we’ve highlighted 101 print comics — not published by industry leaders DC or Marvel — and 80 webcomics that give queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and asexual characters and stories center stage. The list is growing so quickly every day, to be honest, that keeping up with all…
#MakeComics
#MakeComics: Valiant Executive Editor Joseph Illidge
How do the pros #MakeComics? We’re here to tell you. Comicosity is picking the brains of someone who is killing it in the comics industry, and this week I was lucky enough to talk to Valiant’s Executive Editor, Joseph Illidge! Bloodshot: Rising Spirit, Livewire, Faith: Dreamside, Forgotten Queen and many more are titles that should…