The Rattler was a snake-man villain created by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. for The Amazing Spider-Man comic strip that ran in newspapers. The owner of Reptile World (dig that cool sandwich board), Henry Bingham relied on an experimental anti-venom to save his life and give him powers he used for, what else, crime….
We talk a lot about the preservation of physical media as a bulwark against the erasure of culture, both by streaming services that remove content at their whim and by fascist nations seeking to perpetuate their message of strength through exclusion at the expense of all others. Also, who doesn’t love a nice Criterion Collection…
I first met Ryan Alexander-Tanner when, writing as “Teebore,” I left comments on his Full House Reviewed website, where Ryan, as “Billy Superstar,” was reviewing (and hilariously excoriating) every episode of the terrible-but-foundational ’80s/’90s sitcom Full House. Bonding over our shared love of awesomely terrible and terribly awesome shows as well as — importantly —…
For as long as stories have been told, fairy tales have been a source of delight, fear and inspiration for children and adults alike. This is especially true for the LGBTQ+ community, who often find solace in their themes of transformation, true love and happy endings. Some LGBTQ+ creators have even gone on to create…
Newspapers. Believe it or not, they still exist! And they’re not just for telling you yesterday’s news, Peanuts reruns and where the good yard sales will be this weekend. A new Kickstarter asks the question “what if newspaper but comics criticism?” The Comics Courier is a twice-annual print newspaper that will feature a mix of…
Food. You know it. You love it. You’ve probably eaten some in the past few hours. I just had sushi. From ShopRite. DON’T JUDGE ME. But if you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered if any of your favorite comic creators have any good recipes to share. Like MarkWaid-a-roni and cheese or Chicken a la Tom…
He rose from the regional commercials of the 1980s, a hapless, overconfident man in a denim vest and a beige cap, come to pester his ever-silent, ever-suffering, never-seen neighbor Vern about dairy products or car dealerships or local restaurants. Like the California Raisins, the Crash Test Dummies and the GEICO cavemen, Jim Varney’s Ernest P….
You’ll have to excuse me, I’m in a bit of a mood. My eldest dog has had diarrhea the past two days because we mistakenly bought the wrong kind of wet food, and so our mornings just consist of shampooing various carpets. Also, we live in an unjust society that has abdicated its responsibility to…
Scorpio Vol. 1, collecting issues 1-3 in 80 full color pages of the urban fantasy Zodiac comic, is now live on Kickstarter. Each issue focuses on a different holder of the celestial powers of the Zodiac, starting with its protagonist Daniel Shim. Daniel Shim is a young, ambitious CEO who finds himself entangled with the…
A creature of myth stalks Venice Beach, California. But it’s not your typical vampire or werewolf. No; it is Adam, a Golem, the animated clay monster of Jewish myth created to protect the people, whose often single-minded pursuit of justice can make them as much of a threat as those they are created to stop….
I’ve always been a sucker for a good anthology, going back to classic EC comics reprints and continuing to things like James Tynion IV and Steve Foxe’s Razorblades, and I’m always on the lookout for more. That’s why I was excited to talk with writer/artist/publisher/podcaster Matt Emmons about his just launched Kickstarter campaign for Vol….
All of you who read our site regularly may know me as a writer, podcaster, editor and crowdfunding correspondent. But what you may not know is that while I’m all those things by night (and later afternoon, early morning and the occasional lunch break), by day I’m the director of IT at a regional theater…
Reburn is a futuristic dystopian comic about revolution and what happens when revolution goes awry. This interview with writer Alyson Shelton, artist Elise McCall and series editor Jessica Petelle delves into the visual world of Reburn, the complications of long-distance collaboration and the many perils of Kickstarting an ongoing series. Tiffany Babb: Can you give…
In the modern comics landscape, I feel like the mainstream, and much of the independent, press tends to overlook the all-ages market. Sure, there are the lip service articles when a new Dogman or Raina Telgemeier book comes out and sells 10 times the best-selling floppy of the year, but there’s little focus and little…
After a bit of a hiatus, it’s time to return to Crowdfunding Q&A. Currently on the blockchain-free comics crowdfunding platform Zoop, Thirty-Three is an action comedy family drama. That’s a lot of adjectives right there! ComicsXF’s own Cat Purcell reviewed the book when it was on Kickstarter, a review you can read here, but after…