Author Archives: shelbykpeterson

Mar 21 2017

American Gods 1

Today, Shelby and Taylor are discussing American Gods 1, originally released March 15th, 2017. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Shelby: I love the power of pagan mythology. The magics of these stories seem more raw, more chaotic, more basely elemental than what you find in newer, monotheistic religions: like a no-holds-barred Old Testament. And I’m not even talking Greek and Roman pantheons, here; I’m talking ancient Egypt, Norse, Slavic. This is the unfiltered magic that shapes the earth, sea, and skies around us. This is the kind of mystic power Neil Gaiman taps into in his novel American Gods; Gaiman imagines an America populated with these ancient beings, brought here by our immigrant forefathers and forgotten, left to fend for themselves as the world changes around them. I’m sure it will come as no great surprise to you, gentle readers, that I am a big, big fan of this book (and all things Gaiman), and am already enjoying the comic book adaptation with writer P. Craig Russell and artist Scott Hampton. Some NSFW images to follow, so consider yourselves warned.  Continue reading →

Nov 23 2016

Slam 1



slam-1

Today, Shelby and Ryan are discussing Slam 1, originally released November 16th, 2016. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

Shelby: I’ve always been fascinated by roller derby. I’ve loved quad skating ever since I was a kid; I’ve thought about trying out for roller derby, but the Chicago groups meet pretty far south of me, and without a car it isn’t really feasible. Plus, I’ll be perfectly frank, it would take a LOT of work to get my cheeseburger-loving self into shape; derby girls do NOT mess around — they are serious athletes. It’s why I have such a crush on the sport as a whole. These women are strong and tough, relying on their own personal strength and the strength of the bond they have with their teammates. Writer Pamela Ribon and artist Veronica Fish channel that strength perfectly in issue one of Slam! Continue reading →

May 2 2016

Faith 4

faith 4

Today, Shelby and Taylor are discussing Faith 4, originally released April 27th, 2016.

Shelby: It can be difficult to relate to the superheroes we admire so much; their quips are too perfect, their bodies are too perfect, hell even their flaws manage to be too perfect. It’s why so many guys I know name Spider-Man their favorite superhero. Peter Parker wasn’t a mutant, or a magician, or super rich, or a totally jacked alien; he was just a nerdy kid like we all were. No wealth, no power, no influence, just a guy with accidental superpowers trying to do the right thing. In fact, he didn’t even do the right thing to start off with; he did what any person would do and tried to make some money off the situation. I feel like roughly a third of every Spider-Man story has to do with him struggling to balance his superhero life and his regular life, and that is why we love him. He brings our reality into the his superhero world. This is exactly why I’m excited about Faith; she’s absolutely a superhero, but she’s also a regular person just like me. Continue reading →

Apr 25 2016

Tokyo Ghost 6

tokyo ghost 6

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Tokyo Ghost 6, originally released April 20th, 2016.

Shelby:  I used to listen to the news on NPR every morning, but I’ve stopped for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is that it’s simply too depressing; so many shitty people being shitty to each other, it’s too much to take. And I’m not even talking about the election coverage, which I am completely sick and tired of, despite the fact we’re still only in the primaries. Not only am I tired of all the bad news about bad people doing bad things, I have very little trust in the news that I hear. Every news story has me wondering who paid for their version of the truth to be broadcast, who is trying the hardest to trick me into being on their side. I can understand why the people of New Los Angeles would rather plug into mindless entertainment than put up with sorting through the spin and PR to find the truth. And that’s exactly what Rick Remender and the rest of the creative team on Tokyo Ghost want me to understand: they want us to understand how easy it can be to become the willingly ignorant, and the cost of breaking free. Continue reading →

Apr 15 2016

Empress 1

empess 1

Today, Shelby and Ryan D. are discussing Empress 1, originally released April 6th, 2016.

Shelby: First issues of comics can be tricky to talk about, especially indie books that aren’t about a character we already know backwards and forwards. We’re faced with a completely new universe about which we know nothing, characters we haven’t met, and situations we don’t fully understand. I find myself thinking more about the potential I see in the issue than the issue itself. What sort of seeds is the creative team sowing, here? Where can this story go from this point? Most importantly, am I even interested enough in the world being created to want to see what happens next?  Continue reading →

Apr 6 2016

Saga 35

saga 35

Today, Shelby and Spencer are discussing Saga 35, originally released March 30th, 2016.

Shelby: One of the changes I’ve been trying to make for myself these last few years is in improving my communication. So many problems in both the real world and in fiction can be solved with just some simple communication. Every time two big-name superheroes meet for the first time, there’s always an issue devoted to them punching each other; if they just took two seconds to communicate a bit first, we’d be spared those boringly inevitable stories. The real problem, though, comes in when characters cannot communicate and have to act anyway. Characters who choose to act first, I got no sympathy for; it’s the ones that couldn’t even if they wanted to that I find the most intriguing and the most sympathetic. If you’re at all familiar with Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga, you’ll understand this sentiment completely. Continue reading →

Mar 29 2016

Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! 4

patsy walker 4

Today, Shelby and Ryan are discussing Patsy Walker: A.K.A. Hellcat! 4, originally released March 23rd, 2016.

Shelby: I don’t have a lot of female friends. I know, I know, girls love to say they’re the kind of girl who only hangs out with boys, but it’s true; I’ve always had more close friendships with men than with women. I’m sure in my salad days it was a matter of not wanting to be a girly girl, of assuming there were two kinds of girls in the world and wanted to be the cool girl instead of the girl girl. Now that I’m both older and wiser, I’ve learned that there are as many kinds of women in the world as there are people who identify as women, and there is nothing wrong with having a strong lady crew for both hair/makeup-doing and whiskey/beer-drinking (Selene, girl, I’m lookin’ at you *wink!*). Unsurprisingly, Patsy Walker: A.K.A. Hellcat! has got me thinking about the juxtaposition between being a girly girl and one-of-the-guys girl, and how it’s perfectly all right to be both and everything in between.

Continue reading →

Jan 26 2016

Tokyo Ghost 5

tokyo ghost 5

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Tokyo Ghost 5, originally released January 20th, 2016.

Shelby:  A difficult personal story: about a year and a half ago, I witnessed a murder/suicide in my office. It shattered my world as I knew it. Everything is different now for me; my social anxiety is through the roof, I can’t really deal with parties or crowds anymore. I worry constantly about my interactions with other people: am I behaving correctly? Have I said/been offensive? I should probably apologize, I clearly did something wrong. I get depressed a lot, I find it can be difficult to get excited about things, even things I love and find exciting. The world as I understood it was taken away that day, by one person’s decision. I think that might be why I love Debbie in Tokyo Ghost so very much; I understand her fight to get back the world she lost when Teddy became Led Dent. Unfortunately, sometimes you can’t go back. Sometimes, as Led is about to discover, the end is the end. Continue reading →

Oct 27 2015

Tokyo Ghost 2

 

tokyo ghost 2

Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Tokyo Ghost 2, originally released October 21st, 2015.

Shelby: We got Internet at my house when I was in high school. I had experienced it before then, of course, but I was old enough to remember that moment my farm in rural northern Wisconsin was plugged in and online. Those of us in our late 20s/early 30s are probably the last generation to remember life before the internet, when life and plans had to be scheduled ahead of time instead of on the fly, when the thought of connecting to someone a world away was unheard of, when there was just some information you didn’t have constant access to. As someone who feels too old be a Millenial and too young to be a Gen-Xer (or whatever came before the current generation), I feel of two minds about our near constant plugged in state, but Rick Remender, Sean Murphy, and Matt Hollingsworth sure don’t. The future they’ve envisioned in Tokyo Ghost is a world where the worst parts of the Internet have taken over, and it is somehow grimmer and more fascinating than you’d imagine. Continue reading →

Oct 6 2015

The Sandman Overture 6

 

sandman overture 6

Today, Shelby and Michael are discussing the The Sandman Overture 6, originally released September 30th, 2015.

Shelby: I’m a big fan of Rick and Morty, that cartoon on Adult Swim that’s basically Back to the Future on crack. Spoiler Alert: if you haven’t seen season one of Rick and Morty, you’re best off just skipping past the break to the rest of the post. Anyway, there’s an episode where Rick, the mad scientist grandpa, basically ruins the whole world, mutates everyone into a Cronenberg-esque monster. You think he’s going to have a clever idea to save everybody, but instead he finds a version of the world in a parallel dimension where he solved the mutation problem but he and Morty died. Rick and Morty merely take their places, and go on living in this new dimension. It’s a mind-blowing episode, one of those special moments when you realize a show is much more than a show. Now imagine that, but instead of having to find a new universe, Rick had to create a new multiverse completely from scratch, and you’ve got the end of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Overture. Continue reading →