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Guide to Lumberjanes – now available to the public!

April 10, 2023 by krisis

While some of my brand new Guides to Indie & Licensed Comics will remain exclusive to Patrons of CK, I don’t want to keep anything about this guide a secret! Plus, the 9YO demanded that her hard work as my editorial assistant be visible to the general public! That’s why today I’m happy to fling wide the cabin doors to my Guide to Lumberjanes!

Guide to Lumberjanes

This Lumberjanes Guide not only includes an easy-to-follow list of all 22 main Lumberjanes releases in chronological order, but also includes their original graphic novels, prose novels, and Spanish and French editions.

Plus, the 9YO conducted her own very own week-long research project to confirm the continuity placements of all of the one-shots, specials, OGNs, and novels relative to the main series! Don’t worry, she was compensated for her efforts with a brand new copy of The Lumberjanes BEASTiary: The Most Amazing Guide to All the Coolest Creatures You’ve Ever Heard Of and a Few You Haven’t – which was the one title we were unaware of when we started putting this guide together.

I could not possibly recommend this series any more highly for the kids in your life. We started reading it together when the kid was still a toddler. Each book is wholesome and entirely silly adventure to learn more about a new group of lovable (though slightly scary) wilderness cryptids. Despite some minor monster-thumping, one summer romance, and one adult frenemy hunter with a gun and some dynamite, Lumberjanes is carefully curated to be appropriate for readers of any age.

Drag Race Belgique Season 1, Episode 8 – Grand Finale “Eleganza Extravanganza” runway Review and Power Rankings

April 9, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the eighth and final episode of Drag Race Belgique Season 1! The Drag Race Belgique Grand Finale and its “Eleganza Extravaganza” theme that brought bought all ten queens of the season for a final walk down the runway!

SPOILERS AHEAD for the winner of Drag Race Belgique! Consider yourself warned!

This final episode stuck to the familiar Drag Race finale format. The queens had to pen a verse to a song, though it was an original called “Fierce” rather than an anonymous RuPaul remix. They all had out-of-drag sit-downs with Rita Baga, who was charming-as-always in her out of drag appearances.

And the queens had to deliver an elegant final runway and make some commentary to their younger selves (a cringe-inducing import from the US show that I hoped Rita would jettison as Canada’s Drag Race has done).

The format turned out to be a terrific showcase for the final three, even if it also confirmed that two of them had already already fully ceded their chances of winning to the third.

Susan was crisp and powerful in her choreography, showing off a muscular quality to her drag we hadn’t had the chance to see since the Talent Show. Athena regained a steely, fierce quality that had been eroded over the course of the season, delivering the most-convincing fierce drag performance of the trio.

Yet, there was no denying that this episode, and this entire season, belonged to Drag Couenne. We have rarely seen a queen represent herself and her runway package so meticulously and with such confidence across all of the many Drag Race franchises. I place Couenne’s powerful full-season performance alongside the greats like Bob The Drag Queen, Envy Peru, and Carmen Farala.

I think it is incredibly exciting that Rita Baga and the rest of the judging panel rewarded Drag Couenne’s singular take on drag with a Drag Race crown. I feel like on many franchises that a queen as weird as Couenne would be patronized and cut just short of the finale. That the judges gave Couenne the space to show of the fullness of her powers speaks to their taste in consistency in judging this entire season.

I loved Drag Race Belgique Season 1 from beginning to end. Even if I thought Rita Baga’s drag fashions were often forgettable and Lufy’s judging was often wrong-headed, this was a tremendously talented cast who were all treated fairly by the show.

This week’s final placements shook out exactly as I ranked them last week after the “Discour de Reine” challenge. What’s left to power rank? I’m not going to be ranking the queen’s final “Eleganza Extravaganza” runways, which were universally lovely. Instead, this final ranking is a retrospective of each queen’s placement, and how that compares to my pre-season predictions.

(Want to watch Drag Race Belgique outside of Belgium? For most of the world, it’s available as part with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 15 – “Reunited” fashion power rankings

April 8, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my power rankings of the fashion from the fifteenth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – “Reunited.” It’s a Season 15 reunion to bring the queens back together to reawaken their conflicts, hammer home the plot point you need to remember for the finale, and give early out queens one last crack at proving they are worth bringing back for All Stars.

I’ll be honest: reunion episodes hold little allure for me as a viewer. I’m into Drag Race for the artistry rather than the reality show trappings, and Reunion specials are all about reliving the drama.

If there’s one point with the Venn Diagram of my interests and the Reunions goals overlap, it’s the fashion! The reunion is one of two last chances for each queen to sell their visual brand to an audience who might quickly forget them once the season ends. While queens are stuck doing eleganza drag for the actual finale, the reunion allows them a free play to wear anything they want.

For some queens, that means getting redemption for their fashion fails from the season. For others, it means hewing close to their established brand. And, sometimes it means wearing something completely outlandish just for the sheer chaos of it!

This year’s reunion looks were all relatively tame compared to what we’ve seen in past years – everything from massive cartoon coats to burnt up horror prosthetics. There’s not a single boundary-pushing look in this bunch, and really only a pair that feel slightly subversive.

Did these queens get a note from producers to keep things simple and classy for the viewing audience on MTV given the climate around drag in America at the moment, or did they each come to that conclusion on their own?

Even in a crowd of unsurprising looks, a few queens managed to distinguish themselves – and several got their much-desired moment of fashion redemption.

I can’t say the same for the actual content of the reunion. Aside from running commentary from Irene Dubois and a pair of touching moments with Loosey LaDuca, the rest of the cast felt invisible up until the final chat with the finalists. RuPaul seemed intent to turn almost the entirety of the proceedings over to Mistress Isabelle Brooks to let her stir up drama.

It wasn’t a good look for either of them. It made Ru seem even more aloof and uninterested in his cast than usual.

Worse, to me it felt like it confirmed that Mistress Isabelle Brooks had been deliberate in pushing everyone’s buttons all season long. For a queen who talks a big talk about wanting to see other queens be their genuine selves, that behavior feels strangely out of sync with what she expects from others. It seems obvious that she wears her catty drag persona as armor to protect a lot of trauma and insecurities that lie beneath. Yet, if the case, why would she be so unkind to Loosey LaDuca for being the same?

I suppose it all works out in the end, since I’m sure Mistress Isabelle Brooks secured her future spot on All Stars with this showing if she doesn’t win next week. However, I feel like I’m less of a fan of her now after seeing this episode than I was during the season.

(By contrast, Luxx Noir London leaned hard into her persona of, “I’m just a girl who is obsessed with myself, is there anything wrong with that?” Even if she came off as an instigator at points in the season, here at the conclusion she comes off as cheerful, self-aware, and mostly-harmless.)

Read on for my countdown of the sixteen fashions of this episode and find out the surprising trio of queens who snagged the top spots! I’ll be back next week with a final retrospective on the season, looking at the queens final placements and performances compared to my initial pre-season predictions.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!

Updated: Guide to X-Force (+ Guide to Sabretooth, for Patrons of CK)

April 7, 2023 by krisis

My weekly X-Men guide updates continue as I revisit one of the guides I rebuilt in 2022! Does that make this update too easy? Well, that is sorta the point of getting everything back on schedule again, but don’t worry – there’s a reason my band’s motto used to be “Make It Harder.” That’s why today I not only have an update to my Guide to X-Force, but also an update to my Guide to Sabretooth exclusively for Patrons of CK!

Guide to X-Force