Review Roundup, Q1-Q2 2019
April 25, 2019 Jamey Alea 0 Comments
I’ve still been lucky enough to get to do some articles, reviews and interviews about comics I love and creators I respect. (And I’m lucky enough to get to write about pretty much whatever I want, hence this first fantasy football article, which is really something if I’m being honest.) Here are some articles I’ve published for WWAC and Sidequest the past few months!
The Best Thing About Fantasy Football is Annoying Your Coworkers
My introduction to Fantasy Football wasn’t particularly glamorous. I was asked, rather desperately, if I might be interested in joining the fantasy league at my small company, because you can’t play unless you have at least eight people. Seeing as I know a little bit about football and I have a passion in this life for sports shit-talking, I was happy to agree. Plus, a Chipotle gift card was on the line for the winner, so clearly it was pretty high stakes.
Adventure Time’s Marcy & Simon #1 Is Wholesome Content
The advertised plot of Adventure Time Presents: Marcy & Simon is that Simon feels guilty for his time as the Ice King and the trouble he caused for so many (so many) of the citizens of Ooo—and he wants to make it up to people however he can. It’s a cute and wholesome premise, and sure enough, the entire comic is pretty cute and wholesome. He embarks on an “Ice King Apology Tour” and humbly asks for forgiveness from those he’s wronged, who are, to their credit, all very cool about it. His best friend Marcy is with him every step of the way. Seeing the two of them back together is heartwarming and his apology to her made me cry. The rest of the apology tour is full of cute references and throwbacks to specific episodes, which also make great Easter Eggs for big fans of the show. (But, I’m sad to report, no Neptr!) It’s always great to see a writer in the comics who clearly loves the show deeply! Olivia Olson, famous for being Marceline’s voice actor, obviously falls into that category.
Carta Monir Loves Her Risograph Machine and Her Friends
Carta Monir is known in the small press comics circles for her touching and personal comics, including 2018 Ignatz Award winner Lara Croft Was My Family. She’s also known in our hearts for being a warm and welcoming voice. So when she recently tweeted about the question she always wished an interviewer would ask her, we at WWAC took that wish fulfillment very seriously. And of course, it was also a great opportunity to chat with Carta about some of her work and projects that we really admire. So that’s exactly what we did!
Young Love is Perfectly Baked in Bloom
Bloom is the story of Ari Kyrkos, a Greek teenager who feels suffocated by the expectation he’ll continue working in his family’s struggling bakery. Unable to afford to go to music school, he wants to move to the city with his friends to see if they can make something of themselves with their band, but his father won’t have it. In an attempt to get him to change his mind, Ari hires someone to help out around the bakery—Hector Gallea, a Samoan teenager who’s as kind as he is strong. Hector’s calming presence and passion for baking start to change things in Ari’s life as the two teens, slowly and naturally, fall in love.
Eat Your Games: Breath of the Wild’s Hot Buttered Apples
Can you imagine being a farmhand at a modest Hyrulian stable, when suddenly Link flies in on his paraglider, lands next to your campfire, cooks for 29 hours without sleeping and then teleports away in a puff of neon blue smoke? What about being a bandit in a fight with the hero of Hyrule himself, and just when you feel like you have him on the defensive, he stuffs 17 apples and an entire raw chicken into his face at an unnatural speed? Such is life for background characters in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Exploring the Streets of Cyberpunk: Night City with Matthew Webb of Jackalope LARP
When it comes to immersive experience LARPs, Jackalope LARP of Austin, TX is at the top of its class. After the success of The Night in Question, a Vampire: the Masquerade LARP held by Jackalope last November, they announced their newest event for May 2019—Cyberpunk: Night City, a Cyberpunk 2020 LARP. We were able to catch up with Jackalope organizer Matthew Webb about what this newest event has in store!
Exploring How Stories Are Told with Ted Anderson
Something that’s really fun in the world of comics is realizing that several of your favorite comics are being written by the same author. That’s how I felt about Ted Anderson when I realized he was writing not only Moth & Whisper (my favorite charming YA cyberpunk spy story) but also several very enjoyable recent runs of the Adventure Time comics.
With his newest creator-owned book, Orphan Age, fresh off the presses from AfterShock Comics, we were able to catch up with him about his recent projects.