I’m teaching a class called “Written Professional Communication” at the University of Pittsburgh. Amongst other things it’s about… well, communicating professionally in writing. Currently we’re working on “responding to complaints”. In order to generate some complaint s to respond to I instructed my students to write a complaint letter as though they lived in the fictional universe of their choosing:
Ok… question for old skool comic book fans… (Wayne Wise, looking at you since this is a favorite of yours). There’s a Legion of Superheroes character named “Triplicate Girl” or “Triad” (depending on which era of comics you’re reading). Her powers are that she comes from an alien race where everyone three identical beings. Only…
So, in a discussion with my cohosts on the Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow Podcast, and some of our fans, we came to the theory that most of us can’t conclusively gender cartoon characters UNLESS they have specific gender markers (skirts, boobs, etc). OR if we know from context (because we know the show…
I’ve been batting around an idea in my head for an academic paper/conference presentation (probably for next year’s PCA/ACA) and I’d like to do something that I’ve done before that has worked out pretty well for me. I want to outsource some of my thinking and brainstorming to the internet. What I’m looking for here…
I haven’t seen the new Captain Marvel movie yet, so this is not my review… it’s more of a pre-review? I guess? Preview sounds weird. Anyway, I think one of my favorite things lately is reading the pre-release buzz about Captain Marvel. In particular, I’m loving the one very particular type of criticism. In the…
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…
I’ve been too busy to write movie reviews lately. I’ve been seeing a bunch of movies, of course, but I only have so many hours in the day and most of my writing has been going towards either my dissertation, some upcoming academic conferences and publications I have, or the podcast. Even I can only…
So if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you might know that I started a podcast a couple months ago, primarily with Wayne Wise and Katya Gorecki (but also a rotating cast of other people) devoted to pop culture. VoxPopcast (or Vox Populorum… we gave it two names, but everyone seems to be focusing…
Ok, so through a completely unforeseen, unexpected and frankly rather chaotic set of circumstances, I am apparently now suddenly teaching my Sex, Violence and Comics class again this fall. Yay! This is non one hand awesome, because I love that class and teaching it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. On…
Last week I saw an image for a cover to a Popeye comic. This version, drawn by Steve Mannion featured Popeye and Bluto with exaggerated vein popping musculatures and Olive Oyl reimagined as a sexy femme fatale in the style that, at least to me, is most close evocative of Salma Hayek’s character from Deserpado. At…
I’m not a fan of Deadpool comics. I get why so many people are, but it’s never really been for me. And that’s fine. Not everything has to be for me. And that’s fine. It’s just not my thing. That said, I really liked the first Deadpool movie. I liked it far more than I…
So I’ve seen Infinity War twice now. That’s rare for me to do before I write a review. I saw it originally Thursday night and then again on Friday. I wanted to really think it through so I could find a way to review it without spoilers. I did write up a “call for comments”…
I kind of wonder if anyone notices when I don’t update my blog. Most of my readers see it through the Facebook feed version, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had a chance to go see a movie to review in the last couple weeks. If you follow me on twitter (@chrismaverick)…
This weekend’s movie was a little different. One of my local theaters, Southside Works, screened My Friend Dahmer, a biopic about a young Jeffrey Dahmer’s high school years as seen through the eyes of a friend who has no idea that Dahmer is going to grow up to be one of the country’s most notorious serial…
So when I wrote my Justice League review last week, I mentioned that there was no real story to the movie. I said that it was more or less just an instantiation of what I decided to call “Comic Book Movie Plot #3.” I also mentioned that there were roughly five standard comic book movie…