Juliet Kahn
Wonder Woman’s Foreign Successors
I’ve been reading Mike Madrid’s The Supergirls, a really fantastic look at the history of superheroines in mainstream American comics. I just reached the 1970s,...
Gunbuster: Adventures in Shonen Tropes
Studio Gainax veteran Hiroyuki Imaishi has been in the news lately for his upcoming project, Kill La Kill, which reminded me--I've been meaning to write...
The Case for Fashion in Comics
I love comics. Frequently, it doesn't feel like they love me back--but I, like most fans, can take it. I can weather the bloated...
Save Our Stereotypes
I don't want to destroy the damsel in distress. I don't want to destroy the sleeping beauty. Or the femme fatale. Or the pollyanna....
Michiko to Hatchin is the Best Anime You’ve Never Watched
Michiko to Hatchin is as good as Cowboy Bebop. There, I said it. It's also as good as Serial Experiments Lain and Neon Genesis...
Pretty Soldiers: Hotaru Tomoe
Hotaru Tomoe is abused by her father. She suffers from an illness that leaves her breathless, weak and wracked with pain. She is picked...
Superheroine Movie
Imagine the teaser trailer. Peeks at the iconic costume, a villain’s growled one-liner, the title looming suddenly out of the darkness with THIS CHRISTMAS...
On Sansa Stark
(Note: This is from the perspective of someone who has watched the Game of Thrones TV show but is only 120 pages into the...
5 More Anime and Manga Titles for HBO to Adapt
Between Game of Thrones and the planned American Gods series, HBO has been drinking deeply from the Nerd Money well. This is, of course,...
On Fatherhood
When I was around six or seven, I discovered my father's old comic books. He's an archivist and his closet reflects this--it is a...
Pretty Soldiers: Minako Aino
Minako Aino revels in frivolity. She loves pop music and cake, she trades shoujo manga with her friends, she wants to be an idol...
On Fandom Activism and the Logical High Ground
I understand that change is always difficult, regardless of scale. I understand that societal change in particular is a monumental task. I understand that...
Pretty Soldiers: Makoto Kino
The strength of characterization in Sailor Moon is, in my opinion, what has made it such an enduring series. When we were children, we...
Sex and the Senshi
(Author's Note: This article deals with issues regarding sex and sexuality in a non-explicit manner. Regardless, it might not be safe for work.)
Usagi, the...
The Fallen Magical Girl and the Crisis of Adolescence
The Fallen Magical Girl is a trope as endemic to the mahou shoujo genre as the transformation sequence. Though she once swore fealty to...
Let Us Now Praise Betty and Veronica
I became a comics fan at six years old. Something about the medium exhilarated me--something I still have trouble articulating. Something that made me...