Call for Comments: Revising Race in Dungeons and Dragons

Dark elves aka drow From Katya: Wizards of the Coast recently announced (by recently I mean mid-June. It’s been a YEAR y’all) ways that they’re attempting to address the game’s racist characterizations of, well, in-game races. In their announcement, they acknowledge the widespread critique of their rules surrounding races, particularly the ways that stereo-typically dark-skinned…

Call for Comments: Marveling Over the Marble League

From Hannah: Joy, like the Nintendo Switch, has been in short supply throughout 2020. To put it mildly, it’s been a time. A time where a little comfort can go a long way. Enter this podcast’s greatest discovery of 2020: Jelle’s Marble Runs. And the sports series that easily eclipses the Olympics, the Marble League.…

Call for Comments: Performing the Minimum and Virtual Protesting

From Katya: This episode is more than a bit overdue but it’s especially pervading online culture right now: online activism. The internet has unquestionably opened up historic new options for sharing information, fund raising, and promoting causes and events. But for smart phones and the internet, most of us would not know the names of…

Call For Comments: Paw Patrol: Copaganda, Cartoons, and You

From Katya: This week on 2020: the world is on fire, the internet is grappling with representations of police in the media. “Good” cops, “bad” cops, and… dog cops. Paw Patrol is children’s television show featuring a group of cartoon dogs in various jobs. There’s a firefighter, a construction worker, and then there’s Chase, a…

Call for Comments: The X-men Syllabus

From Mav: Back when we did our first comics syllabus episode, we went out of our way to make sure that we had a breadth of topics and genres instead of just focusing on superheroes. We wanted to make sure we showed the versatility of comics and not just “here are some superhero stories.” I…

Call for Comments: Things We Still Aren’t Over

Note: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Downton Abbey, Mockingjay, and Grey’s Anatomy. From Hannah: A year ago, Game of Thrones was airing its final few episodes. And, well, we all know how that went. And if you’ve listened to our Game…

Call for Comments: Senior Skip Day Semester

From Mav: A funny thing about being trapped in your house, along with the rest of the world, for a nigh global quarantine… people’s reliance on social media has gone way way up. And in doing so I’m seeing way more memes passing around than normal. One of the most recent that I’ve seen populating…

Call For Comments: What’s Happening to Comics Retail (and most other retail), in a pandemic?

From Wayne: For awhile now we’ve talked about doing an episode where we discuss the changing face of comic book retail. I have believed for some time that the retail side industry has been going through a seismic change. The last change of any real magnitude was the introduction of the Direct Market in the…

Call For Comments: News by Meme

From Mav: I had the idea of doing a show based on the benefits and failings of meme culture quite some time ago and given the events of the last few weeks (and this last week of worldwide covid-19/coronavirus pandemic especially) it seems like it’s maybe more important to do this one than ever. I’ve…

Call For Comments: Consumer vs. Experience Culture

From Wayne: Awhile back I read an article called Millennials: Fueling the Experience Economy, and it got me thinking about a number of things. Let me say up front that while do think there are distinct generational distinctions I’m not one of those old guys who are decrying youth. It’s the different perspectives and experiences,…