Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women Written by Dr. Sarah Bargiela Illustrated by Sophie Standing Jessica Kingsley Publishers Surprise! Women who believe they might be autistic report that when they seek help, advice, diagnosis, they are often not taken seriously and are given alternative suggestions for what they are noticing about themselves. That’s just […]
Black History Month Comics: Nowhere Man by Jerome Walford (Plus a bonus interview!)
Nowhere Man is a great example of black superheroes done right.
Women in Comics, By The Numbers: Summer and Fall 2018
Tim Hanley brings his analysis of gender in the comics industry to The Beat with a breakdown of creative and editorial roles at the Big 2.
Black Comic Book Festival ’19 was a revolutionary celebration of blackness in comics
The 7th annual Black Comic Book Festival, which took place on January 18-19 at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, was a fierce statement on black representation in comics. Not a plea but an actual boots-on-the-ground, grassroots expression of black creativity, independence, and resiliency. There was an air of hope throughout the festival. Creators of color, […]
The 2019 Dwayne McDuffie Award submissions are open
Cheryl Lynn Eaton and Geoffrey Thorne have joined the judging panel.
Editorial: Complaining about politics in entertainment when they’ve been intertwined for decades
Here’s the thing about women, people of color, and gender queer characters growing closer to the spotlight and taking center stage in entertainment: Most industries, for decades, have been dominated by white men. I’m an artist, I earned my degree in Cartooning, that required I take a history of cartooning class, I sat through lectures […]
We Need To Do Better: Accessibility and BEA/BookCon
As you may have heard a very unfortunate incident happened at BookCon that I was involved with. At a panel on Diversity in Graphic Novels organized by Diamond Comics, which I was moderating, creator Tee Franklin arrived and found that there was no ramp for her to get to the speaker’s stage. She was understandably […]
Matt Chats: Takeshi Miyazawa Talks Robot Fights, Character Moments, and Co-Creating an Enduring Marvel Character (Updated with Clarification from Greg Pak)
A little research showed me that I read Amazing Fantasy Vol. 2 #15 before beginning to read Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, but they came within months of each other in 2006 so I quickly recognized Takeshi Miyazawa as a manga-influenced master of many trades. The same year that he co-created scrappy genius Amadeus Cho he also […]
INTERVIEW: Justin Hall’s LGBTQ Comics Celebration, NO STRAIGHT LINES, to Become a Full-Length Documentary; Kickstarter Launched Today
“I remember the absolute last copy of the first print run, which I sold at Comic-Con. It was to a middle-aged, straight woman who was buying it for her teenage, gay son. She told me that she was getting the book for him because she wanted him to know his history and lineage, and she couldn’t tell that story to him herself. She thanked me for creating the book for the both of them and I promptly burst into tears. Then we hugged it out. It was an incredible moment.”
SD Comic Fest 18’: Cultural Appropriation; When It Is and Is Not Done Right
“If we have it that one culture can’t tell the stories of another culture, we restrict ourselves.”