{"id":8263,"date":"2023-08-05T16:55:54-04:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T20:55:54+00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goshgollywow.com\/?p=2483"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:03:34-05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:03:34+00:00","slug":"excalibur-105-hard-truths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voxpopcast.com\/wp\/2023\/08\/05\/excalibur-105-hard-truths\/","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur #105: \u201cHard Truths\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Excalibur #105<\/h4>\n<h1>\u201cHard Truths\u201d<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writers: Keith Giffen &amp; John Arcudi<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pencils: Bryan Hitch<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inks: Paul Neary, Robin Riggs &amp; Bryan Hitch<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colours: Ariane Lenshoek &amp; Malibu Color<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Letters: Richard Starkings &amp; Comicraft<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Editing: Matt Idelson &amp; Paul Tutrone<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Original publication date: January 1997<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Excalibur #105: \u201cHard Truths\u201d\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:150px;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=rsc8u-14726f4-pb&#038;from=pb6admin&#038;share=1&#038;download=1&#038;rtl=0&#038;fonts=Arial&#038;skin=1&#038;font-color=auto&#038;logo_link=episode_page&#038;btn-skin=7\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This week, Douglock\u2019s sure he doesn\u2019t love sausage but Kitty\u2019s sure Doug Ramsey does in <em>Excalibur<\/em> #105, \u201cHard Truths\u201d\u2026 in which Kitty (eventually) apologizes for being a jerk. We\u2019re joined by returning guest, comics scholar and educator <a href=\"https:\/\/themiddlespaces.com\/author\/uncannydazzler\/\">Dr. Nicholas E. Miller<\/a>, to perform some reparative reading\u2014or maybe queer vandalism?\u2014on an issue that has lots of potentials it doesn\u2019t always intend, but darned if we don\u2019t make the most of it, talking trans, enby, and asexual metaphors and the power of comics to tell them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find that comics are often ahead of other young adult and middle-grade fiction in terms of providing windows and mirrors kids and teenagers need to make sense of their identities.\u201d -Nick<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe [comics] gutter is the best tool I\u2019ve found for teaching students the difference between implicit and explicit meanings. We do analysis of: what do we think happens between these moments? Why do we think that happens?\u201d -Nick<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cover is a riff on <em>Ghost in the Shell<\/em>, which was translated into English two year prior\u2026 It\u2019s a masterclass on tech philosophy\u2026 And I find this book suffering in that comparison.\u201d -Andrew<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKitty\u2019s backtracking may be bad storytelling, but it rang true as an allegory\u2026 No amount of evidence is ever enough for people determined to take an anti-queer stance. Who want to assume binaries and fixed identities.\u201d -Nick<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps it\u2019s surprising that Rahne is more accepting than Kitty, but Rahne and Douglock do share a status as physically, visibly different mutants, which is underscored visually and in the text.\u201d -Anna<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe line where Douglock says he doesn\u2019t like sausage, and Kitty keeps insisting, is so similar to <em>Sex Criminals<\/em> #13, where Alex, an asexual character, is trying to figure out her identity.\u201d -Nick<\/p>\n<p>You can find his public scholarship on <a href=\"https:\/\/themiddlespaces.com\/author\/uncannydazzler\/\">The Middle Spaces<\/a>, including the essay <a href=\"https:\/\/themiddlespaces.com\/2020\/12\/01\/non-binary-politics-of-she-ra\/\">&#8220;&#8216;On the Edge of Greatness&#8217;: First Ones\u2019 Tech and the Non-Binary Politics of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power,&#8221;<\/a> which is particularly relevant to this week&#8217;s convo!<\/p>\n<p>Plus you can check out his essay &#8220;Disco, Derby, and Drag The Queer Politics of Marvel\u2019s Dazzler&#8221; in <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/edited-volume\/28276\"><em>The Oxford Handbook of Comic Books Studies.\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can find his award-winning essay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/44364527\/Asexuality_and_Its_Discontents_Making_the_Invisible_Orientation_Visible_in_Comics\">\u201cAsexuality and Its Discontents: Making the &#8216;Invisible Orientation&#8217; Visible in Comics,\u201d<\/a> published with <em>Inks<\/em>, online here!<\/p>\n<p><strong>A<\/strong><strong>nd as usual:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can find Anna on Twitter (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peppard_anna\">@peppard_anna<\/a>) and at<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sequentialscholars.com\/\">Sequential Scholars<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/seqscholars\">@seqscholars<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You can find Andrew on Twitter (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClaremontRun\">@ClaremontRun<\/a>) and at Sequential Scholars.<\/p>\n<p>You can find Mav on Twitter (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chrismaverick\">@chrismaverick<\/a>) and on his podcast,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/voxpopcast.com\/wp\/\">VoxPopcast<\/a>\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoxPopcast\">@VoxPopcast<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>-GGW Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excalibur #105 \u201cHard Truths\u201d Writers: Keith Giffen &amp; John Arcudi Pencils: Bryan Hitch Inks: Paul Neary, Robin Riggs &amp; Bryan Hitch Colours: Ariane Lenshoek &amp; Malibu Color Letters: Richard Starkings &amp; Comicraft Editing: Matt Idelson &amp; Paul Tutrone Original publication date: January 1997 This week, Douglock\u2019s sure he doesn\u2019t love sausage but Kitty\u2019s sure Doug&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"venue_id":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4859],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[18,1829,3063],"class_list":["post-8263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gosh-golly-wow","kind-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Excalibur #105: \u201cHard Truths\u201d &#8212; The VoxPopcast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Douglock\u2019s sure he doesn\u2019t love sausage but Kitty\u2019s sure Doug Ramsey does in Excalibur #105, \u201cHard Truths.\u201d We\u2019re joined by returning guest, comics scholar and educator Dr. Nicholas E. Miller, to perform some reparative reading\u2014or maybe queer vandalism?\u2014on an issue that has lots of potentials it doesn\u2019t always intend.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/voxpopcast.com\/wp\/2023\/08\/05\/excalibur-105-hard-truths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Excalibur #105: \u201cHard Truths\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Douglock\u2019s sure he doesn\u2019t love sausage but Kitty\u2019s sure Doug Ramsey does in Excalibur #105, \u201cHard Truths.\u201d We\u2019re joined by returning guest, comics scholar and educator Dr. Nicholas E. Miller, to perform some reparative reading\u2014or maybe queer vandalism?\u2014on an issue that has lots of potentials it doesn\u2019t always intend.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/voxpopcast.com\/wp\/2023\/08\/05\/excalibur-105-hard-truths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The VoxPopcast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/voxpopcast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/chrismaverick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-05T20:55:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T17:03:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/voxpopcast.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/VoxPopMicBurn.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2174\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2174\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christopher &quot;Mav&quot; Maverick, Anna Peppard, Andrew Deman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Excalibur #105: \u201cHard Truths\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Douglock\u2019s sure he doesn\u2019t love sausage but Kitty\u2019s sure Doug Ramsey does in Excalibur #105, \u201cHard Truths.\u201d We\u2019re joined by returning guest, comics scholar and educator Dr. Nicholas E. 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