I was on a date the other night and I figured out why people stigmatize comic books. This epiphany found me on a date at a sushi bar, as I was slaying a dragon roll. This once venerable dragon had been humbled and massacred by my chopsticks, and I was lathering his rice laden carcass…
On Fighting the Patriarchy: DC Comics and FEMALE FURIES
I recently joined a comic book club in my city. During our recent meet we discussed Tom King’s Mister Miracle, so it was inevitable that the new Cecil Castellucci and Adriana Melo’s Female Furies series came up in conversation. One of the moderators mentioned reading about how the new series was absolutely terrible; that beauty…
MISTER MIRACLE: How One Man Got Off Scott Free (and You Can, Too)
It’s been a really bad few years in America. Crushing years in terms of anxiety and fear. We all know the external force that is burgeoning anxiety. I feel stuck between fear for myself, guilt over those who have more to fear than I, and a relentless desire to want to fix it all. Fight.…
Comic Love: BIRDING IS MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAME
Sometimes, comics can make a person laugh. The odd time, they can make a person laugh a lot. Even rarer, they can make a person laugh – out loud – over the course of several days and multiple readings. Sometimes, a goddamn owl can slay a moose and a person can laugh until the end…
Panic Between the Panels: How to Write Your Own Love Story
I spent this past Valentine’s Day convincing my girlfriend to break-up with me. It took some mental and conversational gymnastics with a hearty dose of self-deprecation/ character suicide, but I got her to hit the eject button. Valentine’s Day wasn’t the greatest backdrop, but our work schedules didn’t match, we wanted different things, she lived…
The Power of the Medium: THE BEST WE COULD DO
The best cape comics are stories where characters resonate with people at a human level. Superman doesn’t connect with me as a person. Clark Kent does. His relationship with Lois does. Insert any super hero name and that statement still rings true. Hell, what resonates with me in Optimus Prime is his human qualities, and…
On Comics Anthologies: OATH, CAN I PET YOUR WEREWOLF, and BITCH PLANET
For Comicosity’s recent “Most Anticipated Comics of 2018” list, I chose the upcoming anthology mini-series Twisted Romance, and mentioned at the time that I think anthologies are a good way to become familiar with a genre. I developed that view largely from my experience with prose fiction, specifically my experience when I started to read…
The Power to Push Beyond Pain: Why Frank Castle Is My Super-Hero
Pop culture has become dominated by the world of super-heroes. Gone are the wide-eyed gazes from 2008 as Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau managed to craft an incredible, engrossing film about a comic book character. Iron Man’s success could not have been predicted. The success of Joss Whedon’s Avengers would offer audiences another pleasant…
Embrace the Reaper: Death and Dying Between the Panels
Super-heroes are meant to die. Stay with me here: all hero stories should end with a coffin. It’s the only logical ending. Every single super-hero put on their cape, cowl, or spandex because they were no longer able to accept their world for what it was. They couldn’t turn away from the malice, injustice, chaos,…
Comic Love: PRINCELESS and Loving It
It’s hard to write about Princeless and not sound like a broken record. Countless others have been heaping praise on this series for years. Strong girls and women driving the story, LGBTQ representation, parody of gender roles in society and the important representation it provides in comics are all reason so many sing its praises.…