[Fiction] The wolf in the woods

Stitch

This is a Red Riding Hood-inspired short story from the (were)wolf’s point of view. Much thanks to my pal Fleet for looking over it for me. Red Riding Hood has always been my favorite fairy tale and I try to play around with it every single chance that I get because it can be done so many different ways.

Contains: allusions to violence, dubious consent/consent issues, mild gore, animal death, sort of sexualized violence, mild sexual situations/imagery

From flicker user tambako. Used under a CreativeCommons License.
From flicker user tambako. Used under a CreativeCommons License.

Val’s second in command Koan comes to him in the early morning before the others awaken, coming off his patrol around the forest. Koan lopes towards Val in his human form, moving gracefully around the other wolves despite the sheer amount of space that their fellows take up around the cooling fire.

“There is someone in the woods,” Koan says, speaking in a low voice when he comes close to Val. He dips his head in a short bow and then steps forward, moving into his alpha’s space just far away from the rest of the pack to provide the illusion of privacy. “I heard the humans talking about it in the middle of the night and I –”

Koan does not get the chance to complete his sentence.

“And you what,” Val says, sitting up slowly from his makeshift bed of hides. He combs one hand through his hair, clawed nails catching on the silvery strands as he peers at Koan with an unreadable look on his narrow face. “You waited this long to come and tell me about it? You could have sent a runner, one of the natural wolves in the forest, if it was serious. What’s changed?”Read More »

#tbt : Seduction of the Innocent – Chapters One + Two

Stitch2 Comments

#tbt or ThrowbackThursday is a weekly series where I write about things from history — primarily comic or film history. For the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about Frederic Wertham’s infamous book Seduction of the Innocent and going through the chapters with insightful and slightly snarky commentary. (Chunks of it will read like a research paper but then, those have always been my favorite things to write!)

soti.jpgEveryone that has even a drop of interest in comic books and comic book history has heard about Dr. Frederic Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent. He’s the big bad of comics history, the reason why we had the Comics Code Authority, the reason why, to some, comics just aren’t as good as they could’ve been.

Wertham is referenced in nearly single paper, book, and documentary on comic book history. You can’t escape references to him or his crusade against comic books. However, many people that are interested in comic books haven’t actually read Seduction of the Innocent.

I don’t blame them.Read More »

Friday Four: 3/14 – 3/20

Stitch

This week’s post is pretty heavy on the social justice even though it’s also about comic books and video games. A lot happened in comics and in social justice and I started paying attention to more of the things being passed around my dash. Especially pieces on harassment and accessibility in comic book culture.

So here’s what’s stuck in my thoughts this week.

Trigger Warning for: abuse, online harassment, references to The Killing Joke under the cut

1. Arkham Knight

I’m not much of a gamer.

In fact, I’m terrible at video games and boardgames and roleplaying games. If it’s got the word “game” in it, I’ll gladly admit that I’m probably terrible at it. But despite that, the one series I love and buy all the time without a care for how long it’ll take me is the Batman game series put out by Rocksteady Studios.

When I say I love this game I mean… I really love this game. The only entry in the series I don’t have so far (aside from AK since it’s not out yet) is Arkham Asylym and that’s only because my college roommate’s boyfriend had it when it came out so I did my thing and struggled through the game as best as I could.

Hell, I still haven’t finished playing my copy of Arkham City (that my best friend got me in 2012!!) but I bought Arkham Origins last year and I’m probably going to buy Arkham Knight when it comes out in June.

Why?

Because I’ve just seen the utterly gorgeous cinematic trailer for the game. Everything about it looks perfect and super realistic. Bruce’s face — geez, Bruce’s face — The footage in the trailer actually looks like an actor instead of 3D modeling/rendering from the game. And Harvey Dent, my second favorite villain in the DCU, was there shooting up the joint and I loved it.

In all seriousness: this trailer got me even more excited for a game that I was already excited to buy and I think that everyone should at least watch the trailer once (because it’s good).

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[TV Recap] iZombie – Pilot

Stitch

[This recap/review contains images of mid blood/gore, and brains.

In the interest of full disclosure, there’s something that you all should know about me: I’m not a zombie fan. I cringe through my older sister’s recaps of The Walking Dead and have actually walked out of rooms if there are zombies on the tv screen. I can watch nearly every other type of horror subgenre with little to no issue, but zombies are where it stops for me.

normal_izombie_stills_101_002Usually.

The thing with iZombie is that I really and wholeheartedly love DC’s tv series. Aside from Gotham (which I got into late so I gave up on it), I have yet to find a DC series I didn’t like. I even own all of the Smallville DVD box sets. Yeah, DC has me hooked on their TV series.

So despite how terrified I am of zombies, I kind of had to watch iZombie and you know what? It’s really good.

So good that despite the fact that I’m probably going to have to rewatch that Neil DeGrasse Tyson clip about how zombies couldn’t actually exist in real life just to make it through the night, I’m going to be watching episode two next week.

Now, onward to the recap!Read More »

[Rant] Let’s get rid of gatekeepers in comic book culture

Stitch

As a long-time comics fan and someone with a very extensive comic book collection (in print and in digital form), one of my least favorite experiences is having to deal with gatekeepers in comic book culture — creators, fellow fans, and comic store staff — that think that comics belong to boys and quizzing fans on their knowledge is a valid way to “save” the industry.

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Within weeks of seriously collecting comic books, I had over three hundred. And yet I get tested on my nerd knowledge on a regular basis as if faking my interests is in anyway logical.

From July through December of 2014, I was out of the country. I was 1100 miles away from everything that was familiar to me and a good thirty-minute flight away from the nearest comic book store (in Puerto Rico of all places!).

I was on an island with no bookstore, one movie theater, and RadioShacks that didn’t even sell video games. You’d think that I’d be able to get away from the unpaid and unasked for gatekeepers of comic book culture on an island like that right?

Nope.

Even on that island, I had to deal with unwanted comic book gatekeepers testing me to make sure that I belonged (and hoping that I didn’t) and it sucked.Read More »

Friday Four: 3/9-3/13

Stitch

Here’s what got me pumped this week!

1.  This week’s episode of Empire

empire sinsI just watched Empire episode #10 Sins of the Father and I’m still not okay. It’s been over two hours and I still can’t get over how much the series packs into every single episode. The show keeps killing it and I think it can only go up from here.

Read More »

The Great Unboxing: Hot Toys’ Steve Rogers & Captain America

Stitch

image

I first preordered this figure set alongside the Winter Soldier one back in April of 2014. I saw the first pictures up on Tumblr and immediately decided that not only did I need a Hot Toys figure, but I needed to order three of them from Sideshow Toys.

At first, I was only going to get the Stealth Captain America. After all, I had Bucky right? What more did I need?

But then I saw the two-figure set and I was hooked.

Finally,  after eleven months of waiting (and an entire day spent sitting in front of the front door waiting for the ups truck to come),  my figures are finally here!

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