From the shadows, Iowa City has played a quiet role in the mythology of the Batman, all thanks to the co-creations of Norm Breyfogle. When we saw Ratcatcher save the day in James Gunn’s version of The Suicide Squad? That character came from an IC kid. Any time Jeremiah Arkham showed up in a show, […]
Comic books
Posted inCommunity/News
Forced to cope with paper tariffs, small comic book and game stores in Iowa are getting creative
You might recall the Stamp Act from 5th grade social studies. Passed on March 22, 1765, it was the mechanism used by the British to fund the standing troops lingering in the American colonies after the Seven Years’ War. In practice, the Stamp Act required that colonists pay a tax on all paper products, ranging […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Des Moines’ Sensi’il Studios makes its cinematic debut Nov. 15 with a new kind of comic book movie
Sensi’il Studios, the brainchild of Des Moines artist Basi Affia, is the only Black comic book publisher in the states of Iowa and Nebraska. Pyramid Theatre Company, meanwhile, is Iowa’s first Black theater company. Before he founded Sensi’il Studios in 2022, Affia was a critically acclaimed performer in two of Pyramid’s stellar early productions, A […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The fourth employee-turned-owner of Daydreams Comics plans to keep the shop people-centric
Daydreams Comics was crowded on Saturday afternoon, which wasn’t a surprise. It was Free Comic Book Day (FCBD), a nationwide annual event that happens on the first Saturday of May, and this year it fell on May 4, a day celebrated by Star Wars fans every year. “I should have ordered more,” Daydreams owner Nathan Parriott […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Photo Gallery: Gamers, comic fans and Klingons gather for Des Moines Con 2022
The line to enter Des Moines Con snaked around the first floor of the Iowa Events Center on Saturday morning as cosplayers and con-goers came from near and far to attend the convention’s first year. Inside Hy-Vee Hall, attendees could purchase trading cards, comic books and artwork sold by vendors, as well as […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This Des Moines comic writer launched his own Afrocentric sci-fi/fantasy universe
In a few years, Des Moines music artist, model and writer Aniekan White went from writing stories here and there in “the comic realm” to entering the 2021 Web Toons digital comic contest. That success bloomed into one of the few Black-owned comic companies in the U.S. White is the owner and founder of Sensi’il […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Jaime Hernandez reflects on 38 years of his influential ‘Love & Rockets’ comics series
Los Bros Hernandez — Jaime, Gilbert and Mario — self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets in 1981. Since then, they (primarily Jaime and Gilbert) have created a substantial body of work. So substantial, in fact, that it can be intimidating to new readers. But don’t ask Jaime Hernandez where to start. “I throw […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Phil Hester
This Saturday, May 5, millions of comic books will fall into the hands of eager fans at the 16th annual Free Comic Book Day. Joining the fun in-store at Daydream Comics for Free Comic Book Day is artist, writer, University of Iowa alum and Iowa native Phil Hester. He’s been supporting Daydreams for years, since he was a student at UI.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Talking comics with Iowa City artist and Cedar Rapids Comic Con speaker Jonathan Sims
Sims, creator of the Floating Bunny Head comic series, is hosting a hero-drawing workshop in conjunction with Cedar Rapids Comic Con on Sunday, Feb. 4.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ms. Marvel author G. Willow Wilson discusses faith, gender and the comics industry
Muslim-American writer G. Willow Wilson will give a free lecture at Hancher Auditorium on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. titled A Superhero for Generation Why. The lecture is a part of Hancher’s Embracing Complexity series, which focuses on Muslim art and Islamic artists like Wilson, and also kicks off the Iowa City Book Festival.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Comics: Exploration trumps explanation in ‘Sex Criminals, Vol. 2’
Sex Criminals is an enigmatic book. Flipping through the past eight issues, you can find a penis in a top hat, group sex, cum angels, a close-up of a dilated cervix, a self-defined “weird sex ghost,” tentacle porn and dildo fights. The cover of issue twelve boasts that Sex Criminals is occasionally banned on iTunes […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Comics: In ‘Wytches’ the monsters are scarier than men
Writer Scott Snyder and illustrator Jock have teamed up for the first time since their 2013 hit Batman: The Black Mirror to invite readers into the dark pages of Wytches, an American comic series with its own take on the mysterious, typically feminine figure known as the “witch.” Published by Image Comics in 2014, this […]
