You know how you love nothing more than hearing me academically talk about comics and sex and gender and cultural theory and stuff? Shut up! You do! Anyway, I was asked to speak at Barnes and Noble’s Grand Reopening and Harry Potter event this Saturday at the Waterfront Barnes and Noble in Pittsburgh. They’re celebrating…
Goddammit!!! Why am I not allowed to have good days? Seriously, why? I was actually all excited today. Had the day off from work so I was running some errands. While I was out shopping I got email letting me know that the paper I wrote for PCA/ACA 2016 about Harley Quinn and hypersexualization in…
Way back when I started teaching my Sex, Violence and Comics class, the students actually requested a class focusing on cosplay. Then a couple days ago I asked for people’s thoughts on the homework that I’d be giving for that class. We did it on Halloween. Some people asked if I could share some of…
I started the PCA/ACA paper I did last year with an anecdote about a little girl that I met at Baltimore Comicon a couple years ago. She was three years old and dressed as Harley Quinn. Here’s an excerpt from the story: In September of 2012, while attending Baltimore Comic Con, I met a three-year-old…
So the students in my Comics class asked if they could dress as their favorite characters for Halloween. I said sure, I certainly won’t make it mandatory, but whoever wants to can go for it and maybe we’d even structure a lesson around the cosplay phenomenon for that week. I have 34 students. 24 girls…
I don’t think I was ever looking for a Suicide Squad movie. I don’t think anyone was. It’s not like Batman v. Superman. There’s no point as a kid where I was growing up saying “God, I hope one day there’s a movie of this.” That was a huge advantage to WB. Because, a year ago…
So, with my most recent book I’m reading, I’m getting into a domain of comic book (well, in this case more properly geek culture in general) study that I don’t really know as much about, at least not formally. Fan culture. Specifically, so called “fanon” and “fanfic” communities. I’ve come to really like just posting…
Tomorrow afternoon I’m presenting a paper on Harley Quinn, gender roles and sexy costumes and cosplay at my department’s colloquium (if you happen to be interested and want details to go let me know – learning stuff is fun!!!). It’s actually kind of my dry-run to present the same paper at this year’s PCA/ACA in…
What’s geeky? Comics and statistics. What’s really geeky? Using them both together. A couple months ago, I mentioned that I had been tracking sales on comics starring female characters. This was related to an academic paper I was working on (one that I am finishing up to present on Friday). My primary reason for tracking the sales was…
Decided I wanted to do a little bit of digital painting style experimentation… so I drew up a quick sketch of Harley Quinn and tried painting it in a few different styles… Would love to know what people like best.
