Crushing Krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 10 – “50/50’s Most Gagworthy Stars” and Night of 1000 Beyoncés runway Review & Power Ranking

March 4, 2023 by krisis

Welcome to my review, recap, and power rankings of the tenth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – “50/50’s Most Gagworthy Stars.” It’s a spoof of the inimitable Barbara Walter’s celebrity-focused interview specials on 20/20, her Friday-evening news magazine show. Plus, a long-awaited and much-requested “Night of 1000 Beyoncés” runway.

This episode’s challenge impressed me on a conceptual level. I love when Drag Race invents new challenge formats and rumixes old ones.

We’ve had queens host their own interview shows before, as with Season 6’s infamous interview of Georgia Holt and Chaz Bono. However, this talk show boasted multiple formats and multiple celebrities (even if all three of them are long-time friends of the show).

The idea of having queens out on a golfcart and in a kitchen segment was a brilliant way to get them out of the interview chair, and to reflect the range of opportunities that today’s queens receive post-show. Drag is as mainstream as it has ever been even as conservatives try to outlaw it as a way to attack transgender people across dozens of statrs. Queens need to be ready to be visible and vulnerable on either side of these goofy segments of cooking, driving a golf cart, or exercising.

I wasn’t as impressed with the queens themselves as I was with the challenge concept.

Look: interviewing is hard, especially when your subject ranges from easily-distracted to actively-hostile to the idea of being interviewed. Anyone who has a chatty friend with a huge personality knows this feeling. You need to toe a fine line between investigative journalism and improv comedy to keep the conversation on track without it turning into a monologue.

Of the entire cast, it was evident that only Loosey LaDuca had the chops to manage that sort of chaotic situation. While Loosey had the easiest interview subject in Frankie Grande, I have no doubt she would have done just as well with Charo or Love Connie. However, even more than Loosey, Sasha Colby showed an ability to think on her feet to create TV alchemy.

What does that mean for our Power Rankings as the field tightens from eight queens down to seven? Unsurprisingly, our solid Top Four hasn’t changed since last week’s Crystal Ball even if there has been some slight shuffling. The real contest at the moment isn’t about who will make it to the finale, but who will manage to hang on for a fifth place finish!

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 10 – “50/50’s Most Gagworthy Stars” and Night of 1000 Beyoncés runway Review & Power Ranking

Guide to Lumberjanes

March 3, 2023 by krisis

I’m back today with another Indie Comic Month new guide for all Patrons of CK! This time, we’re departing from Image Comics in the 90s to focus on another group of comics that have a major presence in my life and in my home: all-age comics! This guide is for a comic I originally despised but eventually grew to love so much that it’s my number one recommendation to anyone introducing comics to kids of any age, from 0 to teen. It also has a wonderfully diverse cast of characters! It’s time to don your badges and move into the cabin in my Guide to Lumberjanes!

Guide to Lumberjanes
This guide is now available to all readers thanks to the hardcore support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!

If you think there’s not enough about Lumberjanes to warrant a full on Guide to Lumberjanes, think again! Not only are there 20 original paperback volumes, but a pair of “Bonus Tracks” volumes, three OGNs, four prose novels, a fleet of translated editions, and a pair of (very different) accompanying guidebooks!

Lumberjanes first arrived in my home back in 2015 and it was not love at first sight. I picked up the first volume after hearing buzz about how wholesome and wonderful this little series about a magical summer camp was. However, I’d describe the dialog in those initial four issues as “MORE SCREAMING.” It’s a lot of howled exclamations in response to everything, to the point that some of the pages simply aren’t all that coherent.

I read the book and set it aside in my “to donate” pile.

Then, something magical happened…. [Read more…] about Guide to Lumberjanes

Updated: Guide to Uncanny X-Men in the 00s – The Trade Paperback Era

March 3, 2023 by krisis

If you were worried that my weekly series of X-Men Guide updates would go on hiatus during my Indie Comic Month, have no fear! There’s no higher priority for me at Crushing Comics than getting every one of my X-Guides completely up-to-date! However, it turns out there wasn’t too much to update in this guide, which is for the first era of Uncanny X-Men to be completely collected in color. It’s my guide to Guide to Uncanny X-Men in the 00s – The Trade Paperback Era!

Guide to Uncanny X-Men in the 00s – The Trade Paperback Era

I titled this guide “The Trade Paperback Era” because it picks up Uncanny X-Men in the 00s as Marvel began to transition to the standard practice of issuing trade paperback collections of almost every series as their story arcs completed.

The trade paperback era represents a massive shift in the comic industry. Not only did it change the way comic stories were structured as authors began “writing for trade,” but it created an entirely new market of readers! Readers who might previously drop into a comic store only a few times a year no longer had to suffer for their lack of a pull list. And, whenever a series started to accumulate a critical mass of popularity or acclaim, it could be easily ordered by book stores.

Previously, regular trade paperback releases were mainly reserved for prestigious, adult-oriented series like Sandman, whose readers might never venture out of a bookstore and into a comic shop. A key story arc or crossover from a superhero comic might see trade release, but Marvel and DC weren’t in the practice of collecting every issue of every title.

Suddenly, everything was recollected. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Uncanny X-Men in the 00s – The Trade Paperback Era

Updated: Guide to Spawn by Todd McFarlane

March 2, 2023 by krisis

I’m back today to continue my Indie Comic Month run through the original titles from the 1992 launch of Image Comics. As it turns out, I already had a guide for this title, which I launched in 2019. However, a lot of things can change in just a few years, and this title’s 30th anniversary in 2022 opened up a whole new universe of comics and collections. It’s time for a major update to my Guide to Spawn by Todd McFarlane!

Guide to Spawn by Todd McFarlane

When I first created this Guide to Spawn back in October 2019, Spawn seemed like it was in “Legacy Mode” with no signs of change on the horizon. Little did I realize that had begun to change the very month I published the guide!

To me,”Legacy Mode” is when a longstanding comic is only publishing more issues because it has a core of fans that will keep buying them. There’s no extra effort being put into marketing it beyond that existing core of fans. The stories start to feel repetitive and insular. And, there’s no efforts being made to collect or re-collect older issues of the title – since the assumption is that all of the fans already own all of the collections!

That described Spawn as it existed prior to October 2019, but not after. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Spawn by Todd McFarlane

LIVE SHOW: Marvel Collected Editions, Thursday March 2 @ 1pm ET with Near Mint Condition

March 1, 2023 by krisis

It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights! It’s time to stream with Omar @ Near Mint Condition Thursday March 2 @ 1pm ET!

Omar and I will be reviewing Marvel’s upcoming slate of collected editions from their June solicits. That’s not just collections out in June – it’s several months’ worth of Omnibuses, Masterworks, Epics, and trade paperbacks. Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted some of these books pop up on Amazon or in my recent guide updates, but for many of these books this will be the first official word from Marvel about their content.

Omar has sworn me to absolute secrecy when it comes to what’s included in our slate of announcements. Don’t try combing through this post for any hints, because there’s nary a one! All I’m allowed to say is that I’ve been doing A LOT of reading to prepare for the discussion. If I reveal anything more, I hear Marvel will dispatch Namor and a team of Atlanteans to cut New Zealand’s undersea internet cable, and we certainly don’t want that. NZ has had enough natural disasters lately without getting Namor involved.

(I’m hoping that if I behave myself this time Omar might convince the Marvel overlords to let me trickle out teeny teaser or two if I’m invited back for another round in the future.)

I am buzzing with excitement for the chance to join in another set of Marvel announcements with Omar. I always love chatting with Omar & his incredibly kind community of Minties. Catch us Thursday March 2 @ 1pm ET (which is Friday March 3 @ 7am NZT, which means I’ll be visiting the hair and make-up team bright and early tomorrow morning).

(The hair and make-up team is me.)