Never Ending Endings in ‘The Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Game of Thrones’
In both The Avengers: Endgame and Game of Thrones, the key conflicts are not between good and evil, as one might think, but between the beginnings and endings of their stories.
comics
The Catharsis of the Void in Anime Horror, ‘Vampire Princess Miyu’
Within the 26 hard-to-find episodes of Vampire Princess Miyu, there are murders, suicide, and even murder-suicides. There really is something for everyone. So why did it fail?
Taking Superheroes Seriously: Three Implications for Society Based on Travis Smith’s ‘Superhero Ethics’
How do we move from the tribal shouting to a more humane discourse with one another? Travis Smith's Superhero Ethics finds surprising solutions in the world of conflicting superheroes.
Love and Politics Go Awry in James Sturm’s ‘Off Season’
There's a pleasant "off-ness" about the not really reality within reality of James Sturms' graphic fiction, Off Season.
Rikke Villadsen’s Idiosyncratic ‘The Sea’ Sets the Imagination Adrift
Danish artist Rikke Villadsen appears to be spinning a circular tale-within-a-tale with no origin or end points and only tragic escapes in his graphic fiction work, The Sea.
Michael DeForge’s ‘Brat’ Challenges the Act of Reading Comics
While dimension-deforming environments are normal in cartoon worlds, few wander as far to the edge of pure abstraction—let alone cross it -- as Michael DeForge does in Brat.
Nathan Gelgud’s ‘A House in the Jungle’ Plays with Perception
Nathan Gelgud's image-within-an-image work in his latest, A House in the Jungle, echoes a larger world-within-a-world meta-context.
Jon Morris’ ‘The League of Regrettable Sidekicks’ Is Itself a Victim of Questionable Standards
Mere mediocrity on the part of the superhero sidekicks doesn't seem a high enough bar for inclusion in a tome such as The League of Regrettable Sidekicks.
Behind Every Superhero Is One of These Clowns: ‘The League of Regrettable Sidekicks’
Many of Jon Morris's characters in The League of Regrettable Sidekicks are proven to be a reflection of their times not only culturally but in terms of the evolution of the genre, as well.