Podcasts simply couldn’t contain themselves in 2018. Beyond setting multiple records (the third season of Serial was its biggest to date, and with a historically large advertising deal), this ever-growing audio medium also saw some of its most acclaimed series leap to television, with Dirty John on Bravo and Homecoming

At the end of 2018, it’s easy to feel like the people in power just don’t care. Refugees are turned away from sanctuary with tear gas; rights of marginalized communities are systematically stripped away; political corruption runs rampant; mass shootings are an everyday occurrence; and little is being done to stop the…

Straight and married but not boring, and heading to my parents’ house for our first family Christmas since my asshole MAGA brother “stumbled over” the Tumblr blog where the wife and I posted about our sexual adventures. (Pics of MMF threesomes and cross-dressing/pegging sessions, plus some dirty “true enough”…

“Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety and terror of modern culture are not.” The Order Of The Good Death, formed in 2011, aims to re-engage the public with the reality of their own mortality, decomposition and all, so as to live a more “death positive” life. If that sounds like a grim…

In our monthly book club, we discuss whatever we happen to be reading and ask everyone in the comments to do the same. What Are You Reading This Month?

In time for the holidays and the prospect of facing your own family drama comes Motherlands (Vertigo), a comic centering on fraught familial relationships, to put it mildly. The story revolves around Tabitha Tubach, a “retriever” licensed to pursue criminals across multiple universes, and she does so without the…

Death, art, cults, zombies—the year in literature was as eclectic as it was excellent. There were crimes in need of solving, an infamous witch telling her tale, and a woman who just wants to sleep for a year. Characters have sex, they fall in love, and a bunch of folks get their heads chopped off (the undead meet just…

I’m a 59-year-old man in good health. For basically my whole adult life, I’ve had this problem during intercourse with a woman of (1) being very quick to come and (2) having a too intense “cringey” sensation when I come. This has led to often going soft at the prospect of intercourse. This too-intense feeling makes me…

America needs more cooking comics. It’s a popular genre in manga, and given how much food-based entertainment there is in the U.S., there’s a definite audience for comics that focus on the art of cooking. Image Comics’ Flavor taps into that vein by imagining a fantasy world dominated by food. People are arrested for…

Imagine Jake Paul murdering your parents. That’s a serviceable analogy for describing Jhon Jairo Velásquez, alias Popeye, a former cartel assassin turned Colombian social media star. Popeye killed 300 people by his count while working for Pablo Escobar, but since 2014 he’s been a free man, released back into society…

The world of superhero comics is built on rip-offs. When Superman proved to be a huge hit, others rushed to create their own heroes in the same mold. As the decades passed, publishers and creators regularly co-opted the ideas of competitors for their own comics, changing just enough so that they weren’t carbon copies.…

In a year full of hate, there’s a lot of love in the world of comics. Romance is a shared theme among many of this year’s best comics: There’s heartwarming queer love in books like Aquicorn Cove, Heartstoppers, and On A Sunbeam; Tolkien-infused marital drama in the pages of Coda; a futuristic Romeo & Juliet…

I’m a 30-year-old, Asian American, hetero-flexible cis woman. I’m also newly diagnosed with bipolar II. I’m on medication—the doctor is trying to figure that out—but no talk therapy for right now, as my last therapist wasn’t great and I haven’t managed to find a new one. My question for you is regarding the…

Finally, a literary podcast that dares to broadcast what some book club members only do in private: not read most of the book. Instead, it engages Amazon ebooks at the critical junctures of the opening and finish, and at the 25-, 50-, and 75-percent marks. The rest is filled in by the playful imaginations of two…

I’m a recently divorced single mom and full-time student. I’m really beginning to hurt financially and have decided to start working as an escort. I am at a point of great emotional stability, happiness, and confidence—all reasons that led to my decision—and I’m surrounded by people who love me and won’t judge me.…

The biggest initial draw of Bitter Root #1 (Image) is the creative team. David F. Walker and Sanford Greene worked together on the much-loved and far too short-lived Power Man and Iron Fist book for just 15 issues, and the announcement of Bitter Root at last year’s Image Expo was met with a lot of enthusiasm from…

It doesn’t matter how many times the stories are debunked every year; over-protective parents insist on checking their children’s Halloween candy for razor blades, syringes, and the occasional cyanide pill. What is it about this urban legend that has made it so persistent? The newest episode of American Hysteria…

The premise alone of My Sister, The Serial Killer is bold. Ayoola, the title character, has developed the bad habit of killing her boyfriends; her older sister, Korede, a nurse with a flair for cleaning, helps Ayoola cover her tracks. Yet for all its bloody flash, what sustains the narrative is the grounding, rich,…

It’s time to change what “matters” in superhero comics. For too long, readers have flocked to books that are hyped up by their importance to a larger superhero universe, stories that promise to have long-reaching ramifications that change the future of these fictional worlds. These events are often empty calories,…

I’ve always wanted to tie girls up, but I can never convince a woman to let me. Lately, I’ve been exploring “bondage singles” sites online, but I’m totally new to this. How do I know which ones I can trust? There are hundreds of profiles, but it’s hard for me to believe I can really just answer an ad, meet a girl in a…