#comics crit

Not dead yet. Read some ramblings about Ghost Rider in the Turtle Club newsletter and subscribe for future short bursts of writing until I can find time to do it for real again.

Exploring The Concept of Intentionality in Art Comics – by Kimball Anderson 

My partner @earnestattempts​ just published a super insightful essay on art comics on comics crit/journalism website SOLRAD - read it at the source link! If you don't know what "art comics" even means, this is a great place to start, and if you love and/or make artsy/poetry/abstract comics, then you’ll probably enjoy digging into Kimball’s analysis of how readers perceive artists’ intentions:

“When a piece of art looks like lines and shapes thrown against a page in a frenetic rush, how do you know it has meaning rather than just being random visual noise? When a comic is built out of abstract shapes and loosely connected words, how do you trust that it has a purpose behind it?

Much of how we appreciate narrative media is based on how much we trust that the person who has made it knows what they are doing. In comics, having a slick and well-designed visual style is a well-worn method to earn this trust. It feels like the artist’s intention is fully realized, and everything they are doing is what they meant to do. But in Art Comics, it’s a common practice to embrace messiness and ambiguity, and do away with the style of clean lines and clear shapes. So how do these artists maintain trust and show that there is intentionality to their work?”

I read every issue of Nightwing, every Dick Grayson solo series (including his time as Batman and a super spy) and 100+ issues of Titans and Justice League over the last two months, in search of the answer to one question.

I read every issue of Nightwing, every Dick Grayson solo series (including his time as Batman and a super spy) and 100+ issues of Titans and Justice League over the last two months, in search of the answer to one question. Continue reading

Between last year’s mega Bat-crossover in Joker War, the Oscar award winning film, and an abundance of appearances in various DC media including Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the Joker’s notoriety has never been higher. It is no surprise to see DC capitalize on that cultural cache with a new solo series. The premiere issue is a surprisingly chilling exploration of the Joker as an idea. Written…

ROAR Magazine is run by a huge scammer apparently! Isn’t life full of wonders and marvels! 

So. If you hadn't seen the LA Times article yet, writer/editor/charity organizer Anna March has been outed as a long time "literary scammer". If you follow me you might have seen me talk about working for the website, ROAR Magazine ... an online lit mag that she founded! Starting last summer I wrote for and took over as editor for their Comics Critique section for a 6 mo period - and as you may have already guessed, over a year later she still hasn't paid me OR my writers. And while I never talked to her directly about anything other than delayed wages, I did a lot of promo for ROAR on here and wanted to also post this follow-up as apology, explanation, and warning to other writers.

I've been frustrated and angry with her lack of communication and excuses about money issues for a long time now, but the worst thing by far to me is that she never paid many of my contributors' invoices, including @TonyaWithAPen @robkirbycomics, @whimsicalnobodycomics, @bohnbohn, and @paperrocketcomics​, and now most likely never will. I'm very sorry that I convinced people to write for her with the promise of money that never came, especially after I began to have serious doubts!  Even if I didn't know she was a scammer, I still was the one to commission essays from marginalized creators that she directly exploited (as I’ve now learned is in keeping with years-long scamming, manipulation, and even abusive behavior). I'm also frustrated by the nature of our publishing industry that I felt like bad communication and constant delays of payments were just typical obstacle you to wait out, and that staying on top of things overwhelmed me so much I didn't feel able to advocating harder for myself/my writers. 

Despite her scamming I'm still very proud of the work my contributors and I did for ROAR analyzing/reviewing comics - all of them are wonderful people and wonderful writers with a lot of good things to say, and I’m very humbled they agreed to work alongside me. Please consider looking up their writing and/or comics and lending them your financial support as well! and if you’re interested, you might as well give our articles a read while the site is still up.

The really horrible thing to me is that so so many contributors to the magazine were creators of color, and LGBTQ and disabled creators, often with not a lot of money to go around. At ROAR and elsewhere she felt free to play with our livelihoods, time, energy and labor. Also!! SO many articles there are personal essays on having abortions - to exploit people this way (especially main columnist Lisbeth Coiman as detailed in the Lily article below) is simply despicable!

I will continue to pursue payments from her for myself and for any writer who wants my help. Please - protect yourself and your friends, and do not work with Anna March!

She made a career out of scamming writers. These are the women of color who were her victims -  Shannon Lee, The Lily, August 3rd 2018

Who is Ann March/Nancy Lot/Delaney Anderson/Nancy Cruse? - Melissa Chadburn and Carolyn Kellogg, LA Times, July 26th 2018

I wasn’t much of a comics strip kid outside of Peanuts. I know some people were religious readers of the funny pages. It wasn’t my preferred way of reading comics, especially the heavily serialized and dramatic ones. But I knew Dick Tracy, and as a kid I had a strange fondness for Warren Beatty’s bizarre technicolor noir adaptation. I’ve got an appreciation for the character’s place in the…

Silent inset panels that expand upon the time on the page. The image of the clock, ticking away a second, the Newton’s Cradle click-clacking, the dippy bird suspended in mid-dive. Moments are suspended into forever in the city of Neo Novena, making for an ethereal and unsettling world. Ram V and Laurence Campbell’s The One Hand opens on a therapy session as retiring detective Ari Nassar receives…

You know, before starting my No Context Comics column, I probably would not have even given this issue a shot. But writing that so regularly has helped me overcome my compulsive need to go back and read everything before picking up a new entry in a longrunning franchise. Zoe Thorogood’s autobiographical IT’S LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH was the best comic I read last year, and one of the…