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Utilitarian Review 1/2/16

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News

I’m going to list my favorite albums of the year on Monday; if anyone wants to write about their favorite music of the year, let me know, and we could set up a mini-roundtable. (Or not, if no one cares.)

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Samantha Meir on Tits and Clits.

Philip Smith on Donald Barthelme’s Paul Klee.

Chris Gavaler on visual sentences vs. page layout.

Robert Stanley Martin with on sale dates for comics in May/June 1951.

I list some of the favorite things I wrote this year.

A look back at the year at the Hooded Utilitarian.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Guardian I wrote about the new Grant Morrison Wonder Woman and how its true to WW’s BDSM roots.

At the Establishment I wrote about rape/revenge films and shuffling gender roles.

At Splice Today I wrote about Jon Ronson, King of the online morals police.
 
Other Links

Todd Nickerson writes about being attracted to children and why talking about that is important in combatting child rape and molestation.

Mary Emily O’Hara on the year in sex worker activism.

Angelica Jade Bastien with the case against colorblind casting.

The Year At HU

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This has been a strange year at HU. We’ve had by far our most traffic ever, with more than twice as many unique hits as last year, our previous high. That’s because Jacob Canfield’s post on Charlie Hebdo became a huge viral read/hate read, dwarfing even our Victorian Wire post from a while back.

Beyond that though, this year, especially the second half, has been rather quiet. I think that’s in part because I’ve been getting more writing work, and haven’t had as much time to tend to things here as I have in the past. I’m not sure what that will or won’t mean for the blog in the future, but for the moment at least we’re still rolling along. Here are some of the notable posts, roundtables, and events from our last year.

Oh, and hey, I released my book on Wonder Woman this year. We had a roundtable to celebrate. Also, you can see all reviews/interviews/other goodies from around the web here.

Chris Gavaler writes here every week on protosuperheroes…and more recently on analyzing comics layout.

Isaac Butler on Joe Sacco and dystopia.

Our roundtable on Satire and Charlie Hebdo.

Michael Carson on American Sniper as kitsch.

Em Liu on Hollywood’s real problem with the Asian male.

Osvaldo Oyola on romance comics and weird heteronormativity.

I and others have an ongoing series on the question of Can There Be a Black Superhero?

Kim O’Connor on Chris Sims and the failings of progressive comics.

Katherine Wirick on why you shouldn’t name your makeup line after OCD.

Eric Berlatsky on how continuity undermines progress in comics.

James Lamb on the impossibility of superhero diversity.

Robert Stanley Martin with an ongoing weekly series showing on sale dates of comics from the primordial ooze to the present.

We did a big Joss Whedon roundtable.

Nix 66 on the bravery (so brave!) of Laura Kipnis.

Julian Chambliss on his art project of burning the Confederate flag.

Philip Smith on 1998 and anti-Chinese violence in Indonesian comics.

Kristian Williams on apocalypse and dystopia in Fury Road.

RM Rhodes insists Heavy Metal magazine is not punk.

Kate Polak on Hannibal, Rihanna,and sexual harassment.

I wrote a bunch of posts about Quentin Tarantino.

I wrote a bunch of posts about the rape/revenge genre.

Jimmy Johnson on Narcos and imperialism.

Petar Duric on class in the Sly Cooper games.

mouse on furries and smut.

I’ve started a Patreon to support some of my writing here.

Kim O’Connor on Adrian Tomine’s weak portrayal of women.

Ng Suat Tong on Frazetta’s racism.

My Year In Writing

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Every year about this time I do a roundup of the best things I’ve written over the last 365 days or so. I usually write somewhere in the neighborhood of a post a day during the year, give or take, so I probably published in the neighborhood of 350-400 pieces in 2015 (not counting writing for HU and/or work for hire.) I never remember everything I’ve done, but below are some of the pieces I was proudest of. They’re not in any particular order.

On Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home and why utopias can’t tell a story.

On The Man in the High Castle and making America safe for Nazis.

On radical feminists and the effort to shame Laverne Cox.

A ranking of every character in every Tarantino movie (before Hateful Eight.)

On Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me as a work of hope.

My interview with activist Mariame Kaba about Black Lives Matter and reimagining justice.

On the documentary Hot Girls Wanted and the sadism of anti-sex work documentaries.

On how neo-Nazis try to leverage American anti-black racism against Jews.

On why we need to abandon electronic fetal monitoring.

On why indie music is so white.

On Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left.

On slave Leia as a confused vision of sexual awakening.

On soap opera tropes in Orphan Black.

How Indiana’s public policy sparked an HIV crisis.

On the boondoggle that is quality television in the golden age.

Skimming online articles rather than reading books makes you smarter.

On conservative political correctness.

Are cozies morally reprehensible?

On Rolling Stone, Eden, and how the media loves sensational stories about sex work.

How Daredevil treats torture as a virtue.

On the prejuice against male Syrian refugees.

On how I want to write for Buzzfeed.

Everybody wants to kill baby hitler.
 
So that’s the year that was. If you’ve got a favorite piece of mine that you think I missed, let me know in comments. And/or, if you have something you wrote this year, you’d like to share, please put that in comments too. Have a good new year, all!

Utilitarian Review 12/26/15

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On HU

Short week this time out because of the holiday.

Featured Archive Post: Richard Cook with a history of Storm in covers.

Me on Charles Dickens fan fiction and how fan fic and criticism and art are all the same.

Chris Gavaler looks at panels and framing in comics.

Robert Stanley Martin with on sales dates of comics from March and April 1951.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Playboy

— I ranked every character in Quentin Tarantino’s movies. 16000+ words for 183 characters.

—I had a list of this year’s biggest whitewashing casting controversies.

At the Guardian I wrote about

—erasing the lesbian origins of the Bechdel test.

—casting a black Hermione and the confused racial themes of Harry Potter.

At Quartz I wrote about race in Hateful Eight.

At Random Nerds I wrote about the Last Days of Ms. Marvel and apocalypse from the margins.

At the Los Angeles Times I wrote about this year in outrage.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—the three best country albums of 2015.

—best of lists and the marketing machine.

Utilitarian Review 12/19/15

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On HU

Featured Archive Post: Caroline Small on Ivan Bilibin’s Russian Folktale illustrations.

Philip Smith on the thoughtful messiness of Serial.

Chris Gavaler on Darth Vader, superhero.

Chris Gavaler analyzes page layout and character in the Walking Dead #1.

Links to all my Star Wars articles.

Robert Stanley Martin with on sale dates of comics from early 1951.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Quartz I wrote about prosecutorial overreach, mass imprisonment, and the campaign against Anita Alvarez.

At Playboy I got to list the best albums of the year (that no one else puts on their best of lists.)

At Pacific Standard I argued that children should have the right to vote.

At the Establishment I wrote about:

—The City on the Edge of Forever and how everyone wants to kill baby Hitler.

—my giant insane smelly greyhound.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—Cruz temporarily forever.

—how the Force Awakens probably isn’t so great.

At the Chicago Reader I reviewed the classic Chicago death metal of Usurper.
 
Other Links

Angus Johnston on why college protest isn’t a threat to free speech, and isn’t always civil.

Daniel Larison on our support for the awful war in Yemen, and how no one even mentions it.

May the Links Be With You

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Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, also Star Wars. So, what the hey, I thought I’d jump on the hype and do a little link list of my pieces on the franchise over the years.

Star Wars and the 4 Ways Science Fiction handles race.

Star Wars’ Original Scum-Caked Brilliance.

The Star Wars reboot and how Hollywood sci-fi doesn’t care about the future.

Slave Leia as uneasy sexual fantasy (about Han Solo)

Star Wars and a universe without women.

Star Wars and a universe with boring gender roles (or, let Octavia Butler write Star Wars)

Lupita Nyong’o, Star Wars, and keeping black actors off-screen

And, finally, why the Force Awakens will probably suck.