Sundance Channel

Riverdale gets gay

Perrin Drumm — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:00:10 +0000

The fictional town of Riverdale, where Archie and his friends have been attending high school since 1939, just got its first openly gay resident, Kevin Keller. Okay, that happened a little while ago but now Kevin has his own series, which, if you're unfamiliar with Archie Comics, is kind of a big deal. Some characters who've been around forever never get their own spinoff.

DC Comics introduces gay characters

Em and Lo — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:00:44 +0000

We're not comics fans, but even we know DC Comics. So now that they're introducing a bunch of gay characters this fall, it'll be nice for us to finally have a serious counterpoint to SNL's Ambiguously Gay Duo. According to The Advocate:

DC Comics grabbed headlines last June when the company announced its entire line of comic books would be overhauled with 52 all-new #1 issues in September. Not only would iconic characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman restart with a fresh number, but costumes and origins for the entire universe of characters would be updated as well.

3eanuts

Em and Lo — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:00:29 +0000

We should probably post something about the royal spectacle wedding, but fuck it. No love or marriage or sex today. Just existential angst: the genius site 3eanuts.com posts Peanuts comics without the last panel to reveal just how dark and depressing Charles Schulz’s world view really was: The somber subject matter of Peanuts often goes [...]

“Comics Stripped” at The Museum of Sex

Em and Lo — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:00:07 +0000

The problem with live-action porn (okay, one of the many problems) is that it’s difficult (okay, it’s difficult for some) to forget that the actors on screen are somebody’s son or daughter, and could potentially be suffering from any number of issues (drug abuse, poverty, mental problems, bad taste) that got them in the biz [...]

75 years of DC Comics

Bradford Shellhammer — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:45:57 +0000

DC Comics is celebrating 75 years with a new coffee table book by Taschen documenting their existence. Written by Paul Levitz, the book, 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking, starts with Superman and ends with the Green Lantern movie. The Hollywood Reporter has a great slideshow of the work. It’s so [...]

Early sketches of Wonder Woman

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:08:32 +0000

From the archives, here’s a piece of correspondence where cartoonist Harry G. Peter sent over a couple concept sketches to Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston. Marston’s response is in red ink at the bottom.

Archie goes gay

Bradford Shellhammer — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:14:29 +0000

Over at The Daily Beast Barbara Spindel has written a lovely little essay about Archie’s new gay character. While on the surface a gay character in a comic book seems to be really no big deal, it is in fact a big deal. For Archie is an America icon. It is a comic that has [...]

Harvey Pekar Dies At 70

Kultur Kritik — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:57:23 +0000

On July 12, 2010, Harvey Pekar, creator and writer of the autobiographical comic book American Splendor, was found dead at his home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. While the world may never have fully appreciated the richness of his talent, to those in the know, Pekar was one of the great American storytellers. His work focused [...]

The first gay superhero comic

Em and Lo — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:51 +0000

If you suspected a few members of the Justice League of America were gay (hello, Aquaman?) and always wished they'd come out of the closet, there's now a new ALL-gay superhero comic just for you. It's called Spandex. What it lacks in artistic skill (visually speaking, this ain't no DC Comic), it makes up for in fabulous gay pride. There's "Liberty (glamorous transvestite superhero), Diva (a lesbian Wonder Woman), Prowler (absorbs the abilities of gay people), Glitter (male Dazzler), Indigo (beautiful French teleporter), and Mr Muscles & Butch (strong twins)" (see above). We would have thought there'd be at least one big buff or bearded super dude and one super butch without cleavage, but that's just us (and we're neither gay nor comic-book readers, so what do we know?). It's available from the U.K. but you can download a pdf of the first 40-page comic in the series via Paypal here. More excerpts after the jump.

Neill’s A to Z of awesomeness

Matthew Rodriguez — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:31:12 +0000

Cartoonist Neill Cameron has been illustrating the alphabet "awesomely" from A to Z that is a hilarious mix of familiar pop culture icons and informative alliteration. He's currently at Q. Here are a couple more examples that made me chuckle.

Salvaging the reputation of Howard the Duck (the comic book, not the film)

Andrew Hearst — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:30:45 +0000

Iron Man versus Bruce Lee

Matthew Rodriguez — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:28:50 +0000

Here’s an entertaining short depicting a thrilling grudge match between two pop culture icons, Iron Man and Bruce Lee. The rub? It’s all done in stop-motion animation using action figures. Of course if Aquaman was involved in this fight, it’d be no contest. Actually, this was created by Patrick Bolvin, a self taught director. His [...]