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AX: An Edged Collection
There are reasons I left alternative comics for superheroes and there are reasons I keep going back. They each have their wonder and joy; they each have their irritating and sadly heartbreaking points....
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Just In Time
“and somehow / giving to all her questions just one answer: / In you, who were a child once—in you.” –”Die Erwachsene / The Grown Up,” Rainer Maria Rilke trans. by Stephen Mitchell. Please don’t let...
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Origin Story
How did Carol Borden become a fan of DC superheroes? Did she uncover the truth that criminals were a cowardly and superstitious lot? Was she packed into an interstellar cradle and shot into space with...
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My Little Pony: About 20% Cooler
I was uncertain about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I don’t fondly remember the toy-hawking cartoons of the 1980s and I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with the girly. Dying my hair pink...
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Dreadful Thoughts
As an adult, my strongest impressions of horror have come from comics. My childhood ones are almost exclusively from tv—the trailer for Magic and a misguided viewing of the beginning of Andy Warhol’s...
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Maurice Sendak and the Strange Wild Things of My Childhood
“The magic of childhood is the strangeness of childhood, the uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don’t see.” “I’m just clearing the decks for a simple death. You’re done with your...
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10 Comics I Liked In 2012
Tales of derring-do! Girl adventurers! Occult mystery! Infernal foes! Secrets revealed! Pirates! Love, loss & betrayal! Intricate art bound in lovely hardcovers! Indie going mainstream! Original...
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Summer Fun Time Reading ’13
It’s hot and the air already feels like unset Jell-O, but you still have some time to prepare for summer, because all the list-happy magazines and websites tell me, summer must be prepared for. Dig out...
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10 Comics I Liked in 2013
It’s an amazing time in comics right now. There are too many good ones for me to even read them all. Comics are like a hydra, but without the decapitation or even really the fighting. (So maybe not all...
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Fly, Darna, Fly!
Last February, Todd Stadtman and Tars Tarkas invited me on the Infernal Brains podcast to discuss space ladies with them. We covered a lot of films, but I didn’t get […]
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CUB: Scouting… Murder Scouting, That Is.
So if the trailer and stills from Cub are anything to go by, it’s a heartwarming, coming-of-age story of a boy becoming a man and discovering himself as a Murder […]
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Rated M for Mature
Not many comics start with a woman giving birth in the back of an old body shop asking, “Am I shitting? It feels like I’m shitting.” Hell, not many stories do period. But Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona...
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Spookoween 2016: 31 Days of Horror Part I
The dark clouds gather, the leaves begin to turn and the veil between the worlds thins. It is indeed Spookoween, the time of year when I participate in 31 Days of Horror and cram my head full of horror...
View ArticleSpookoween 2019: 31 Days of Horror, Part I
This year’s Spookoween season is redolent of Baphomet, Adrienne Barbeau, a 1980s vibe, tigers, drag, Jane Eyre-ishness, children in danger, fascists getting what they deserve, fairy tales, and both...
View ArticleHenry Ford Meets Jim Henson: “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited”
I heard industrial pa-chunking before I even entered the the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. Across the street from the museum is the Ford Development Center, where Ford Motor Company does...
View ArticleBrooklyn Horror Festival 2021: Nelly Rapp: Monster Agent (Sweden, 2020)
This year I am excited to attend The Brooklyn Horror Festival and watch some of the films. The festival runs from Oct. 14 through Oct. 21 and you can see the schedule here. I was fortunate enough to...
View ArticleCarol goes to Nightstream and the Brooklyn Horror Festival 2021!
The pandemic has resulted in a year of film festivals here at the Gutter, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Hong Kong Filmart and now Nightstream and the Brooklyn Horror Festival. The...
View ArticleTicks, Witchcraft and Resistance: Nocebo (Ireland / Philippines, 2022)
Nocebo (Philippines / Ireland, 2022) is a blend of Gothic manor house horror, Southeast Asian witchcraft movies, and horror set in the world of fashion. Instead of focusing on connivances and cruelties...
View ArticleThe Hole in the Fence / El hoyo de la cerca (Mexico / Poland, 2021)
In A Hole in the Fence, a group of boys goes to a summer retreat at Los Pinos, a camp run by their elite private school. The boys hear that there have been “incidents” among the campesinos living...
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