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Traversing the Plateau of Leng: To Read is to Be Read in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence
“So much of this is made of books, this Commonplace book….” – Robert Black, Commonplace Book, June 5th, 1919, Providence #1, p. 32 This article is strange for a few reasons. First off, it’s about… [more]
Riverdale’s Rips off Twin Peaks (Badly) and Normalizes Rapey Plotline
There’s a lot wrong with CW’s latest show, Riverdale. Let’s put aside the crazy clown red hair and pale faces of the murder victim Jason Blossom and Archie. Or the obvious invocations of past popular… [more]
Steven Universe: What is The Answer?
It’s funny how something called “The Answer” are two artistic and emotional pathways that ultimately lead to the same place. Then again, perhaps it is more accurate to say that it is quite fitting. In… [more]
Kevin Smith’s Clerks III and Mallrats 2 Shelved – New Jay and Silent Bob Film Planned
Sometimes it’s interesting to learn about the limits of a creative person’s power, even over their own creations. We all know that George Lucas doesn’t own Star Wars anymore, for example, and technically, Disney can… [more]
Spotlight on Steve Gerber’s The Son of Satan
Marvel Comics in the 1970s were, to put it mildly, weird. Now, I mean that as a compliment. The dizzying array of subgenres that the publisher expanded into during the decade is impressive. Explosive creativity on… [more]
Hidden Figures: An Old-Fashioned Feel-Good Movie that Teaches
Hidden Figures is a harmless, old-fashioned all-ages family movie, that teaches an important historical lesson, but it’s light on its feet, entertaining and never feels like a slog. Quite the contrary: this is a very… [more]
Mad Love Meet Love is Love
A little while ago, I had the excuse to revisit the 1988 comics anthology AARGH! Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia in light of more recent political events. In my article AARGH! RESIST! A Retrospective and… [more]
Emil Ferris on Her Career and Her Graphic Novel My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
Emil Ferris is an artist and lifelong fan of monsters. After honing her skills at the Art Institute of Chicago, she began professionally producing art, animation, and comics influenced by monsters and her city, Chicago.… [more]
Celebrate Smodcast’s 10th Birthday with the Saga of Emo Kev
Every now and then, an artist happens onto that happy accident of inspiration, industry and style and creates something absolutely perfect. I’m sure when Kevin Smith started recording his “Smodcast” podcasts ten years ago today,… [more]
Until the End of the World – A Guide to Garth Ennis’s Comics: Hard Men with Big Guns
Talking about Garth Ennis’ comics means talking about war. Whether he’s writing about telepathic contract killers or monumentally depraved superheroes, odds of encountering a story arc set during World War II or the Vietnam War… [more]
Happy Birthday Image Comics
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of one of the strongest and most creative comics publishers, Image Comics. Founded by and for comics creators, Image was established as a home for creators… [more]
Smorgasbord #58: G.I. Jem
Shawn and Tom feel cautiously optimistic about future movies and comics as they discuss the second Logan trailer, the teaser for Powerless, an animated Spider-Man, and a metric ton of comics coming in April. On… [more]
Down A Dark Path of Bibliomancy – The Necronomicon in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence, Part 2
In Part I of “Down A Dark Path of Bibliomancy: The Necronomicon in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence” we looked at how Alan Moore incorporated and reinterpreted H.P. Lovecraft’s “History of the Necronomicon” and… [more]
Down A Dark Path of Bibliomancy: The Necronomicon in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence, Part 1
“My own rule is that no weird story can truly produce terror unless it is devised with all the care and verisimilitude of an actual hoax.” – H.P. Lovecraft to Clark Ashton Smith (17 October… [more]
Star Trek Nemesis: The End of an Era
Star Trek Nemesis, released 15 years ago at this time of year, is the nadir of the entire franchise. The 1998 Trek instalment, Insurrection, was also very weak, but weak within the normal parameters of… [more]
Necropolitan #1: The Geography of Hell
We all think we know what hell is. (Ironically, heaven is much more difficult to define or describe, as George Carlin once pointed out.) But somehow, we all seem to “get” hell. Fire, suffering, screaming… [more]
Watching a Serial of Strange Aeons: Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence
A lot of people, and I do mean a lot of people, are writing about Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’ Providence and have been for quite some time. You can look at Joe Linton, Robert… [more]
The Goddamned #5: No Happy Endings
“I’m Cain, the man who invented murder. But God invented me, so ask yourself: who’s the real asshole here?” If readers expected the story of Jason Aaron and r. m. Guera’s The Goddamned to take… [more]
Professor Nancy Wang Yuen on Her Career, Pop-Culture Studies, and Her Book, Reel Inequality
Professor Nancy Wang Yuen is a sociologist, documentary producer, and pop culture geek who has made a career examining how mass media represents Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She has recently published a book titled,… [more]
Descender #18: Back to Business
In its latest issue, #18, Descender gets back to business, driving the plot of this story forward after taking some time to develop the characters in recent issues. This issue is classic space opera science… [more]
Smorgasbord #57: Yabba Dabba Don’t
Shawn is possessed by the spirit of Soraya Montenegro and spends the entire episode raging out over Gerard Jones, Rob Liefield, Ike Perlmutter, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Fred Flintstone’s war veterans group. Tom heroically… [more]
Manifest Destiny #25: Who Are The Demons?
It’s a very special issue of Manifest Destiny as the 25th issue makes its appearance this week. The journey of Lewis and Clark has entered a different phase, as the Corps of Discovery settles down… [more]
Reconsidering Rogue One
Ever since the release of Rogue One, and its undeniable box-office success, and the tragic death of Carrie Fisher, there’s been much discussion about the future of Star Wars. The Force Awakens re-started the franchise… [more]
An Interview with Jayson Paul, WWE’s “JTG”
More popularly known as JTG, one-half of the WWE tag-team Cryme Tyme, Jayson Paul is a lifelong fan of pro-wrestling. After spending about eight years in WWE, Paul has published two books, Damn! Why Did… [more]
A Myth of Love and Metals: Gem Fusion in Rebecca Sugar’s Steven Universe
“So we thought, why don’t we all marry each other?” “Ta-da!” “And if that’s not human enough for you, we throw in a little being born and some dying …” “We’re very sorry for your… [more]