Autonecrohomoeroticism: Revisiting Richie Rich & Casper #31
The first in our new “Critical Nostalgia” series, revisiting single issue faves from younger days, considers Richie Rich’s desire for his own future ghost self.
The (re)Collection Agency #13: A Conversation with Anna Peppard
Discussing the intersection of collecting and desire, superhero sex, and avoiding spoiler aversion with Dr. Anna Peppard.
“On the Edge of Greatness”: First Ones’ Tech and the Non-Binary Politics of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Looking beyond representation in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and towards the contexts that inform it to consider the narrative structures used to build queer storyworlds.
(Behold?) The Vision’s Penis: The Presence of Absence in Mutant Romance Tales
Guest writer Anna Peppard’s meditation on presence and absence of the Vision’s penis – and if it even matters.
Harley Quinn’s Sexuality: A Tale of Three Lusts
Laura Grafton and Andew Deman examine the intersection of Harley Quinn’s three central relationships, with the Joker, Poison Ivy, and her audience.
The (re)Collection Agency #10: A Conversation with Margaret Galvan
In the 10th installment of our series of talks with comics scholars and teachers, we talk to Dr. Margaret Galvan about comics archives, keeping a spreadsheet of a comics collection, and the importance of research into grassroots periodicals in the study of queer comics.
YA = Young Avengers: Asserting Maturity on the Threshold of Adulthood
Young Avengers provides a fun and thoughtful exploration of the contradictions inherent to the transformation from adolescence to adulthood.
“Is There Anything Left to be Shattered?”: Reading Dazzler in the #MeToo Moment
Dazzler the Movie as an important fictional prehistory to the #MeToo movement and stories about abusive media figures.
The Queer Silence of The Killing Joke
The intimacy between Batman and the Joker calls for imagining a different “last Batman story.”
La Lucha Femenina: Women Wrestlers in Jaime Hernandez’s Locas
Luchadoras and the elasticity of gender in queered spaces.
“For a Good Time. . .” – Calling Up Sexist Impulses to Sell Video Games
The assumption of video games as a masculine space goes way back.
Slut-Shaming She-Hulk
Why is She-Hulk to blame for the “signal” she supposedly puts out?
“I’m Looking for a Weird Love, Baby. . .” – Romance Comics & the Strangeness of the Normative
The heteronormative values these romance comics reinforce are really friggin’ queer.
Oglaf: Sexual Phantasmagoria (NSFW)
The shock of the queer in Oglaf undermines a genre where uber-masculine hyper-hetero adventures are the norm.
Dan Slott’s She-Hulk: Derivative Character as Meta-Comic
At the heart of Dan Slott’s run on She-Hulk is a alternately critical and nostalgic concern with continuity and rupture in serialized superhero comic books.
Fantastic: From the First, No Family is “Traditional”
The very idea of a traditional family is a delusion.
Black Goliath: “Some Black Super Dude”
Black Goliath is a title that never got a chance to really develop and it suffers from the problems of a lot of early attempts to bring ethnic characters into the limelight.
Thrills, Chills, and Safe Sexuality: The Sounds of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
The “scariness” of black sexuality made palatable.
Gender Policing “This Woman’s Work”
The very act of singing what he is singing is the woman’s work he sings about.
The Middle Spaces 