Stranger Danger
It's been a while since I read comics properly, certainly not in the same way that I used to. It's been 20-25 years of toying around with certain worlds and characters, always coming back at different times. (I thought those numbers were a bit overly generous, then I did a quick Google search. Apparently, the X-Men animated series debuted in 1992: at 24 years, we may as well round up to 25, right?
That cartoon series was like a gateway drug for me, introducing me to worlds and characters that were so bold and new and brave that they drew me in fully until I was watching them every chance I got. I watched every time I could: I bought episodes on VHS (okay, I got my parents to buy them); a used my pocket-money to buy comics and trading cards and T-shirts.
The trading cards were my favourite, little biographies of characters, heroes and villains alike; summaries of plotlines and epic fights that I wanted to experience for myself.
It was the 90s.
Farewell, X-Men
It's been a while since I've read comics properly. Real-life got in the way (real-life leaning towards a brain tumour and multiple surgeries and chemotherapy and radiotherapy.) I just didn't have the time for fantasy and drama and fiction any longer.
That broke my heart. The X-Men were and are a powerful metaphor for life for many reasons.
When Thundercats Turned Us Gay
I've been sitting at home watching TV far too much recently. A lot of that has been watching Countdown and 15 to 1 and other such game-shows that are somehow capable of going on for longer than they should, but are somehow part of life. Oh, and Charmed re-runs.
But in amongst all this revisiting my youth, where the hell are the Thundercats?
And then I realised that half the internet probably don't even know that the Thundercats are or were and I get all sad.
Feminist, Moi?
I don't think about feminism a lot. Call it male privilege if you like. That's not to say that I haven't considered myself a feminist, I've just never really considered my opinion important.
Here's the thing: I'm a white guy living in a country in western Europe. I'm a gay guy with no sisters who went to a boys' school. There are questions about being a woman, about being a feminist that have never touched me, and I've never felt the need to address. Because here, on our little island on the fringes of the Atlantic, feminism is a weird scary thing that weeves in and out of legislation that I just don't want to go near.
WTC View (2005)
WTC View is the story of Eric (Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie), a young gay photographer trying to rent out his spare room in the weeks following the fall of the twin towers and his break-up with his boyfriend of two years. It’s one of the most personal and resonant of several post-9/11 movies that have been made, with the story hinging on the reactions of Eric, his friend Josie (Kapplow) and the various people who come to view the room and the ominous view from the window.
Teeth (2007)
There’s only a handful of polite ways to describe what Teeth is about, so we’ll cover the basics here and let you add them up yourself: it’s a horror film involving a girl with teeth and said teeth are not in her mouth (well, she does have teeth there, they’re just not the important ones). If you haven’t quite gotten there yet, one scene involves a hysterically screaming gynaecologist clutching a bleeding stump…got it yet?
Taking that as your starting poing, Teeth could be either incredibly crass or wonderfully intelligent, and thankfully it fits into the latter category, and it’s all due to little touches.
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