Tag Archives: comics

comics, review

Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Arkham Asylum was an interesting look into what marks insane. I appreciated the acceptance of insanity as part of a person – a characteristic to learn to live with rather than erasing. Two Face lost a part of his connection with the world in a treatment that didn’t fully understand the root cause of his compulsion.
I love that Batman must face Bruce’s fears in order to maintain his sanity and save the day. 

Dave McKean’s art is phenomenal and adds an essential layer to the story. I picked the story up for the art, and it tells the story more than the words do in some parts.
It’s a story that relies on symbols to discuss the symbology of sanity, and it does that extraordinarily well! 

Here is a review by Chandra: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2023279156

comics, review

The Spire

Covet for The Spire.
I liked the set-up of the world of a new comic, The Spire.  I am interested to see where this story goes and how the characters develop. I really enjoyed Six-Gun Gorilla by this team of Simon Spurrier & Jeff Stokely, and the story was definitely quite gonzo in its unfolding, so I’m excited to see where the story goes from here. The Spire doesn’t seem like it will be the kind of story that follows a traditional method of story-telling, so who knows what the next issue will hold, or how all of the side-characters will tie in by the end.

If you like random, gonzo-esque stories with political undertones, you should check out this story.  Your local comic shop or a digital storefront probably has it.

comics

LBCC: Womanthology Panel

Womanthology-Cover-Big
The cover of the book from jesswogs' Flickr. I didn't think to take a picture of the Long Beach Comic Con panel.

One of the reasons why I decided to attend the Long Beach Comic Con was the Womanthology panel.

I backed the project (and am so excited for my copy to show up in the mail!), so participating in the event provided an interesting look at the project. (If you don’t know what Womanthology is, it’s a Kickstarter charity project that has heaps of women writers, artists, editors from the comic book industry paired together to showcase their talents in a 300+ page book. And if you’re reading this and didn’t back the project, you can order the book at your local comic book store! [which you absolutely should!]) Continue reading LBCC: Womanthology Panel →

comics, community

LBCC – Day 1

2 Comments

I survived the first day!

Although I arrived later than I planned, and missed one of the panels I would have liked to see, I did get to see the Womanthology panel, which was fantastic. I went to several others, and I learned a lot about the publishing side of the industry, mostly from Indie publishers.

The day felt rather like this at the outset:

Flooring of madness (1)

But after sitting through a few panels, getting a better feel for the Exhibit Hall, buying some comic books, and drinking some coffee, I started to feel more like this:

Atrium of peace (2)

I will be writing more about the presenters who stood out to me, and my overall experience. Just wanted to share the pictures of my initial feelings for the day.

I’m quite excited for tomorrow, when I will (hopefully) use the bravery inspired by the second picture to make some helpful contacts. We’ll see what the day brings.

books

Free Comic Book Day!

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Today’s the day! Today is the day comic book stores all across North America give away free comics.

I first heard about this day last year from Twitter, and it’s what pushed me back into comics. And I’m not sad about that at all.

So get out and support your local shop and have fun! Hope to see you at the store!

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community, fun sites, reading

Getting a degree in English

5 Comments
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So xkcd is fantastic, and I love this new comic. Yes, I’m an English grad student, and I do a lot with literary criticism, but I think the final block has a point. The language that we use is not entirely clear (which is part of what makes the discussion fun) even to us. And, more importantly, it’s something that anyone can do. I’d even say that it’s something that everyone does. Maybe not everyone will talk about what a text signifies and how, but we talk about what a text means (which covers many of the same questions). What do movies like Hancock or The Dark Knight mean? Which is really just another way to ask “Why do we watch these movies?” So literary criticism and English studies is really one of the most open fields, and I think, as a member of the field, we should embrace this and open it up even more. We’re really only special because we’re nerdy enough to want to do nothing else but discuss all this, yet savvy enough to convice everyone else we should get paid to use crazy language to have the book equvilant of “Picard is better then Kirk” debate (it really just depends on how you look at it). So what do you think this comic is saying?