News

I think this week I’m going to experiment and have a featured archive post every day rather than one a week. We’ll see how it goes. You have been warned!

On HU

Featured Archive Post:Linsey Bahr on fashion in the Hunger Games and Gattaca.

Walter Benjamin on the internet as socialist utopia.

Our music sharing post: check out what folks have been listening to.

Michael Arthur on racism and funny animals.

Jacob Canfield provides a useful guide so you can figure out if you’re being a censor.

Chris Gavaler explains Joss Whedon’s next project.

I talk to Julia Serano about call out culture and exclusion in feminist and queer communities.

Vom Marlowe on how GoodReads needs to let its readers talk about it when authors are assholes.

People who make art shouldn’t appropriate Hulk!
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I:

—wrote about the documentary The Muslims Are Coming.

—interviewed Julia Serano about the reality of gender and her new book Excluded.

—wrote about segregation and violence in Chicago.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

—Tim Wise, Robert Shaw, white allies and failure.

—how Alexander Hamilton was the Dick Cheney of his day.
 
Other Links

This is a pretty horrible story about the Chicago police.

Helen Rittelmeyer with a lovely piece about Charles Lamb’s Confessions of a Drunkard.

Hating perfect actress hair.

Brian Cremins on Bill Mauldin’s Back Home.
 

Gallhammer

 
On HU

Featured Archive Post: Jones, One of the Jones Boys on visual aliens; characters drawn in a different style than everything around them.

Jack B. on Johnny Ryan and the appeal of bullying.

We’re going to have an indie comics vs. context death match roundtable.

RM Rhodes says stop complaining about Marvel and DC and vote with your feet.

Kailyn Kent on how the romance narrative eats Lucy in A Room With a View.

Richard Cook and I live-blogged the Presidential address on Syria.

Richard Cook with ads of food from comic books.

Me on seeing and not seeing race in the Pixies, Danity Kane, Johnny Ryan and Bloom County.

Chris Gavaler on superhero anatomy then and now.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wish people would talk about poems rather than poetry.

Also at the Atlantic I talk about the uncomfortable racist roots of anti-interventionism.

At the Chicago Reader I’ve got some previews of upcoming pomo museum shows.

At Splice I explain to the mainstream that black metal does not equal fascism necessarily (just genocide.)

I also argue that morally shaming people for not putting their kids in public school is not a good idea.
 
Other Links

An excerpt about being an ally to trans women from Julia Serano’s wonderful book Excluded.

Jeet Heer interviewed about his new book about Francoise Mouly.

Interesting piece at Slate refuting the case for charter schools and vouchers.

And Richard Dawkins once again brings shame to atheists everywhere. Thanks, Richard.

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Jacob Canfield on Johnny Ryan, Benajamin Marra, and lazy thinking in comics criticism.

Piyali Bhattacharya with a short review of Bea Ridgway’s River of No Return.

I celebrate the glorious alienation of Chicago juke.

I explain why Shelby Lynne is not death metal.

Ng Suat Tong looks at Dan Clowes’ short story “Justin Damiano,” about critics and criticism.

Alex Buchet continues his pre-history of the superhero, with a focus on sci-fi from Verne to Vril.

I talk about Kazuo Umezu’s Butterfly Grave and how weak mothers eat their young.

Chris Gavaler on his mother’s superpowers and her aging.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I interviewed Stanley Hauerwas about intervention in Syria.

At Reason I review a love letter to an Afghan warlord.

At Splice Today I talk about

— how the Internet hates you, and what to do about it.

— Dungeons and Dragons and the rule of nerds.
 
Other Links

Robert Reece on black men’s bodies and the white female gaze.

Elizabeth Sampat on why the guys who do Penny Arcade need a swift kick in the shins.
 

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Caroline Small interviews Nina Paley about copyright and culture.

The real realism of Killer Elite.

Five haiku by me.

Chris Gavaler on time and timelessness in comics and politics.

James Romberger reviews a whole slew of recent comics.

Subdee compares Pacific Rim to the manga Attack on Titan.

Ng Suat Tong with a review of Suehiro Maruo’s adaptation of Edogawa Ranpo’s The Strange Tale of Panorama Island.

I provide a tour of some great muppet musical performances.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about:

— how doofus Batman is the best Batman.

Miley Cyrus, Janis Joplin, and minstrelsy.

And more on Cyrus and Joplin and exemplary white people.

At Splice Today I write about

—wishing school would start and I could be bored.

—how I wish Jonathan Chait would stop encouraging us to go to war in the Middle East.

 
Other Links

Alex Pareene on how Roger Ailes is a paranoid nutcase.

Jessica Hopper on black metal. She sort of conflates all black metal with the fascist kind a bit, but it’s an interesting article nonetheless.

Jacob Canfield is pretty amazing in this tcj comment thread on indie titles and racism. Darryl Ayo has some great things to say too.

In fact…that whole thread is just really heartening for anyone who cares about comics. Yes, there are some folks who are defending obvious, stupid racism, in the same old we-love-Crumb-and-all-his-progeny vein. But there’s also just a ton of folks explaining why it’s time to move on from that particular dead end. Frank Santoro’s response to what is basically some pretty harsh criticism of his post is extremely balanced and respectful. It’s a serious discussion with a lot of smart people saying a lot of smart things about a topic that matters, in the best tradition of the Comics Journal. It made me really happy.