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New for Patrons: Guide to WildCATs (& WildStorm Events!)
I’m back with another Indie Comics Month guide for all Patrons of CK! This is the guide that was the first itch I had to create indie comics guides more than six years ago when I first launched mu Patreon campaign! At the time, I couldn’t believe that anyone would spend time on a guide page for an Image launch title from 1992 whose comics continuity was dead in the water. Now it has a hot new book to its name in the main DC Universe! That’s right, it’s time for a guide to Image’s fourth flagship title, the co-flagship of Jim Lee’s WildStorm imprint that later joined him at DC Comics. It’s a brand new Guide to WildCATs.
Guide to WildCATs
This guide is now available to all readers thanks to the wild ongoing support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!
(Bonus: I also launched a quick Guide to WildStorm Events with every line-wide event in reading order.)
I know this material well, not only because I loved WildCATs back in the 90s, but because I was in the middle of putting together a complete run of WildCATs for binding when we moved to New Zealand! I have personally hunted down every issue in this guide without the help of a guide. This is a page that held absolutely no surprises for me.
That’s not the case for WildCATs itself, which I think is a book that would surprise a lot of people if they read beyond the famous first thirteen issues by Jim Lee. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to WildCATs (& WildStorm Events!)
New for Patrons: Guide to Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen
“Indie Comics Month” on Crushing Krisis continues! Today, my focus is back on the original Image Comics flagship titles that began launching in 1992. Last week I debuted a Guide to Youngblood and made a massive update to my Guide to Spawn. Today, I’m back with a guide for all Patrons of CK for the third of Image’s original ongoing titles – and one of the longest-running indie comics! That’s right, it’s Erik Larsen’s green-skinned, head-finned cop with amnesia in my brand new Guide to Savage Dragon!
Guide to Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen
Savage Dragon was my least favorite of all the Image Comics launch titles back in 1992, which has less to do with the character of Savage Dragon and more to do with the fact that I wasn’t familiar with Eric Larsen from my brief time of hoovering up X-Men comics the way I was with Lee, Liefeld, and Silvestri – nor did he have cool, mysterious powers like Spawn or Shadowhawk.
With 30 years of hindsight, I can see that Erik Larsen launched the most unique and sustainable character out of all of the Image flagships – and that Larsen proved himself to be one of the most-consistent Image founders alongside Todd McFarlane. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen
Drag Race Sverige Season 1, Episode 1 – “Start Your Engines” Review & Power Ranking
Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the first episode of Drag Race Sverige (AKA Drag Race Sweden) Season 1 – “Start Your Engines.” This is a standard-issue international Drag Race first episode, with a silly photo shoot and a two-look runway that includes a hometown theme.
I love getting to know the drag scene and queer culture of a new country through the lens of Drag Race (which I realize isn’t always 100% accurate or representational).
One of the first things that stuck out to me about Sverige is that it’s international… but not in the same way as some of the other European seasons.
Franchises like Drag Race UK and Drag Race France have felt international because they have centered immigration stories from their cast members. Drag Race Sverige has that from the Brazilian Fontana, but they also have the opposite story – an emigration story! The cast features a pair of returning expats in Antonina Nutshell and Endigo, who live in the UK and Japan, respectively.
I think that said something interesting about Sweden and the relative size of its drag scene. On one hand, of course you’d want to come back to your home country to participate in Drag Race given the chance! On the other hand, with both of these returning queens ranking in the bottom this episode (alongside a queen with little experience), it was giving “We barely filled the cast” vibes.
That’s pure speculation on my part. Plus, first seasons of any reality franchise can be hard to fill with contestants. Once the host country sees the show, then more players emerge from the woodwork for a second season. But, there definitely a sense in this cast that there are a few major contenders and then some obvious fodder for early eliminations.
(I won’t call them “filler,” because they’re each a talented, worthy queen – but, it seems pretty plain who is meant to last past the halfway point in this cast.)
The other interesting aspect of this first episode is that Sweden’s drag aesthetic seems to de-emphasize the familiar form of glamourous pageant drag for something a little more edgy. Out of 18 total looks this episode across two runway themes that openly invited a pageant aesthetic, we only wound up with two looks that fit that vibe. And, the queens took a decidedly dark and twisted view on the benign, “One Night at the Castle” theme which could easily invoke royalty and princesses.
Even Admira Thunderpussy, who turned in a gorgeous pageant-ready look in the first runway, took a more martial approach to the second.
I’m curious to see if this diversity in runway fashion holds up across the season. We might even see a “fashion girls vs. punk queens” divide begin to emerge amongst the frontrunners.
The runway this week made absolute chaos out of my pre-season power ranking, with an unexpected queen on the top and a highly-ranked queen slipping down the rankings. That could go topsy turvy all over again next week, where the challenge is a Talent Show that could see several queens at the middle and bottom of the rankings score high placements over this week’s top queens. I can’t wait to see how this one turns out!
(Want to watch Drag Race Sverige outside of Sweden? For most of the world, it’s available as part with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)
Läsare, start your engines. Och må den bästa Drag Queen vinna!
New for Patrons: Guide to Princeless & Raven The Pirate Princess
If you thought I was skipping a Indie Comics Month day just because I launched that Guide to Star-Lord earlier today, you thought wrong! Just like I launched my new Guide to Lumberjanes last Friday after a significant X-Men guide update, I’ve got a list of some favorite all-ages series and smaller indies to launch alongside my major Marvel guide launches and updates for the rest of this month. Today I bring to all Patrons of CK I guide to the only princess I’ve allowed onto our bookshelves (other than Diana!) – and that’s because she’s the self-saving kind! Yes, it’s a Guide to Princeless & Raven The Pirate Princess from the always-brilliant Jeremy Whitley!
Guide to Princeless & Raven the Pirate Princess
If Lumberjanes is my #1 all-ages comic recommendation, Princeless is a very close #2. Princeless every bit as witty, silly, and thought-provoking as Lumberjanes and with a terrific concept.
And, I only found it because I am incredibly stubborn and an absolutely voracious comic-reader!
You may recall my story about how most of the comics-reading internet decided that the utterly brilliant Unstoppable Wasp was terrible, which meant it took me a while to get to read it. Once I did, I wanted to read everything by author Jeremy Whitley, who seemed to have a real golden touch when it came to writing dynamic, empowered, but also flawed young women.
In looking up his other credits, I noticed he was writing a book I had never heard of: “Princeless” for Action Lab Comics. I had Action Labs on my “publisher quota” list for 2019 to force myself to sample at least 10 issues from them on my way to reading 4,000 comics that year, but I was hesitant. I had read one semi-acclaimed title from Action lab’s “Danger Zone” adult-oriented line and it was one of my most-hated books of the last decade. Maybe of all time!
If anyone had the goodwill to get me to give them another shot, it was Whitley. [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Princeless & Raven The Pirate Princess