home | links | contact

art by suzette chanjournalism by suzette chanradio hosted by suzette chanweb design by suzette chan

suzette chan > home

     

 

 

welcome

New pop culture writing:

The War at Ellsmere — Send in the Tropes

Gimme an F! — A feminist reclaims the word

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.14: My Bloody Valentine

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.13: The Song Remains the Same

 

Recent pop culture writing:

Transformative Works and Cultures

TWC publishes articles about popular media, fan communities, and transformative works, including but not limited to fan fiction, fan vids, mashups, machinima, film, TV, anime, comic books, video games, and any and all aspects of the communities of practice that surround them. TWC's aim is twofold: to provide a publishing outlet that welcomes fan-related topics, and to promote dialogue between the academic community and the fan community.

Supernatural bodies: Writing subjugation and resistance onto Sam and Dean Winchester
(Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 4.)
On Supernatural, cuts, bruises, and breaks are usually healed and forgotten by the next episode, while magical deaths are soon reversed. But many fan writers give the Winchester brothers bodies of consequence, creating opportunities for Sam and Dean to mark each other in defiance of the industrial and patriarchal forces acting upon them.

Sequential Tart

Sequential Tart is a Web Zine about the comics industry, published by an eclectic band of women. The publication is dedicated to providing exclusive interviews, in-depth articles and news, while working towards raising the awareness of women's influence in the comics industry and other realms.

Reviews

 

All my Sequential Tart reviews are listed here.

 

 

Articles

Issue

Title

Section

Topic

Jan 11, 2010

5 Ways to Spend Your Gift Certificate

Features

Comics

Oct 5, 2009

9 Against the Machine9 as a secular
(post-)humanist fable

Culture Vultures

Movies

Sep 14, 2009

A Knack for the Gorgeous and the Grotesque — Fiona Staples

Features

Comics

Apr 7, 2008

Beautie and the Beast — Comparing two genre-pushing post-humans

Features

Comics

Dec 3, 2007

Blood Ties vs Moonlight — It's Sensualist Versus Puritan in the Battle of Vampire Detective Shows

Culture Vultures

Television

May 4, 2009

Collecting the Collectors — Edmonton Collectible Toy and Comic Show, March 29, 2009

Culture Vultures

Pop Culture

Aug 3, 2009

Cresting the Wave — Dan Fogel Curates an Exhibit of San Francisco Comix

Features

Comics

Mar 22, 2010

Gimme an F! — A feminist reclaims the word

Culture Vultures

Feminism

Oct 22, 2007

Giselle Gives Me the Wilis — The Love Story Sells the Tickets, But the Ghost Story Carries the Meaning

Culture Vultures

Dance

May 12, 2008

Happy Harbor Volume 3, Edmonton, Alberta — From creating a niche to developing a comics community

Columns

Comics

Aug 6, 2007

Harry Potter and the Missed Opportunities — A Little Complexity Could Go a Long Way

Culture Vultures

Movies

Oct 1, 2007

I Want My Zombie TV — Why Zombies Aren't TV Stars — Yet

Culture Vultures

Movies/Television

Mar 2, 2009

Jason Voorhees, The Family Guy — Friday the 13th's family-friendly agenda

Culture Vultures

Movies

Jun 1, 2007

Math, Magic, and Comics: It All Adds Up! — James Davidge and Jesse Davidge

Features

Comics

Mar 1, 2007

Messing with Metanarratives — Part 1: It's All About the Stories

Features

Books

May 1, 2007

Messing with Metanarratives — Part 2: Fairy Tales and Fable Towns

Features

Books

Aug 13, 2007

Messing with Metanarratives — Part 3: The Text is Still Being Writting

Features

Books

Dec 28, 2009

Noir: Dark Stories from Dark Horse — Diana Schutz

Features

Comics

Apr 21, 2008

Our Theatre Town — Part 1 — Great White Way, Meet Great White North

Culture Vultures

Theatre

Apr 28, 2008

Our Theatre Town — Part 2 — The Neon Lights Are Bright ... in Edmonton!

Culture Vultures

Theatre

Oct 20, 2008

Pop Print 2008 - Part 1 — International Conference and Festival of Popular Print Culture, University of Alberta, Aug 27-30

Culture Vultures

Pop Culture

Oct 27, 2008

Pop Print 2008 - Part 2 — International Conference and Festival of Popular Print Culture, University of Alberta, Aug 27-30

Culture Vultures

Pop Culture

Nov 10, 2008

Pop Print 2008 - Part 3 — International Conference and Festival of Popular Print Culture, University of Alberta, Aug 27-30

Culture Vultures

Pop Culture

Apr 27, 2009

Prince of Tales — Denny O'Neil

Features

Comics

Apr 20, 2009

Recording the Modern Woman — Trina Robbins on Nell Brinkley

Features

Comics

Jun 1, 2006

Secret Origin of a Fangirl — Rocketed from Golden Age to Golden Age

Features

Biography

Feb 1, 2007

Sexy Blue Beasts — Cool Blue Characters Burn Red Hot

Features

Comics

Oct 26, 2009

Supernatural Halloween — The Thinnest Veils

Culture Vultures

Television

Sep 7, 2009

Supernatural Hindsight — Seasons 1 to 3, in light of 4

Culture Vultures

Television

Apr 6, 2009

Supernatural Love — Catherine Tosenberger on Sam and Dean's transformative love story

Culture Vultures

Television

Apr 20, 2009

Supernatural Noir — Part 2: Deconstructing Identity

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 30, 2009

Supernatural Noir — Part 1: Notes on Film Noir

Culture Vultures

Television

Feb 8, 2010

Supernatural Romance — What's with Sam and monsters, Dean and ghosts?

Culture Vultures

Television

Jan 5, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts Talk about Supernatural Episodes 4.01 to 4.10

Culture Vultures

Television

Feb 23, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts Talk about Supernatural 4.11 Family Remains

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 2, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 9, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.13 After School Special

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 16, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.14 Sex and Violence

Culture Vultures

Television

Apr 27, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday

Culture Vultures

Television

May 4, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.16 On the Head of a Pin

Culture Vultures

Television

May 11, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.17 It's a Terrible Life

Culture Vultures

Television

May 18, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book

Culture Vultures

Television

Jun 1, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.19 Jump the Shark

Culture Vultures

Television

Jun 8, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.20 The Rapture

Culture Vultures

Television

Jun 15, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.21 When the Levee Breaks

Culture Vultures

Television

Jun 22, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 4.22 Lucifer Rising

Culture Vultures

Television

Oct 19, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.01, Sympathy for the Devil

Culture Vultures

Television

Nov 2, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.02 Good God, Y'All

Culture Vultures

Television

Nov 9, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.03 Free to Be You and Me

Culture Vultures

Television

Nov 16, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.04 The End

Culture Vultures

Television

Nov 23, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.05 Fallen Idols

Culture Vultures

Television

Dec 14, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future

Culture Vultures

Television

Dec 21, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.07: The Curious Case of Dean Winchester

Culture Vultures

Television

Dec 28, 2009

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.08 Changing Channels

Culture Vultures

Television

Jan 4, 2010

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.09: The Real Ghostbusters

Culture Vultures

Television

Jan 11, 2010

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.10: Abandon All Hope...

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 8, 2010

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.11: Sam, Interrupted

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 15, 2010

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.12: Swap Meat

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 22, 2010

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.13: The Song Remains the Same

Culture Vultures

Television

Mar 29, 2010

Supernatural Talk — Tarts talk about Supernatural 5.14: My Bloody Valentine

Culture Vultures

Television

Jan 26, 2009

The Dark Knight of Gotham — Batman, the Ultimate Superhero Homebody

Features

Comics

Jan 25, 2010

The Monster in the Title of This Book — The Monster Appeal of Jellaby and Bayou

Features

Comics

Aug 4, 2008

The Super Girls of Summer, Part 1 — Hellboy in the Old World: Chivalry vs Tyranny

Culture Vultures

Movies

Aug 11, 2008

The Super Girls of Summer, Part 2 — Hancock in the New World: Living the American Dream(s)

Culture Vultures

Movies

Aug 18, 2008

The Super Girls of Summer, Part 3 — Wanted: Closing the Circle

Culture Vultures

Movies

Feb 16, 2009

Thinking Tarts' Sex Symbols — Who's hot depends on what's hot

Culture Vultures

Pop Culture

Mar 29, 2009

The War at Ellsmere — Send in the Tropes

All Access

Pop Culture

Oct 12, 2009

Work Detail in District 9 and Final Destination — Workers of the world, off-world and underworld, unite!

Culture Vultures

Movies

previously for Sequential Tart

Articles

Brokeback Mountain and Tristan & Isolde — From Arcadia to Here, and All the Gaps Between (February 2006)
The greatest leap is not from thinking about an action and doing it, but the leap to thinking of it from not having had the thought at all. The gaps between acknowledgement and action are crucial elements in two seemingly disparate recent movies, Brokeback Mountain and Tristan & Isolde.

The Multiverse Is/Was Dead. Long Live the Multiverse! (December 2005)
Why many worlds are better than one.

Fictional Election Fever (December 2005)
TV ties the fictional to the fictitious.

This Is the Story of Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki. So Read On. (October 2005)
Skim Takota is a high school goth who is desperate to create a physical and narrative space for herself. Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki tell her story.

Haunted by Phantom Colonialism — The Phantom: The Ghost Killer (September 2005)
Starting as a comic strip in 1936, The Phantom diversified into a variety of comics series and other mediums over the years. But with the latest comics from Moonstone Books, Tart Suzette Chan asks a question of the Phanton legend as a whole: has it evolved with the times?

Joanne Woytysiak: Cultivating Comics (April 2005)
Gothbunnies is a flourishing new web comic about adventures in arcane gardening. Joanne Wojtysiak is the creator who nurtured it.

Chuck McKinney: He Loves the Nightlife (March 2005)
A new web comic set in a gay bar explores nightlife in all its infinite variety. Creator/writer Chuck McKinney explains.

Crossing Borders: Jessica Abel (February 2005)
La Perdida is the fictional story of a young American in Mexico who becomes entangled in relationships, politics, and intrigue. Jessica Abel talks about the long and rewarding artistic journey she undertook to tell the tale.

PowerPopCultureGirl: Emily Pohl-Weary (November 2004)
Rejecting mass market entertainment, Emily Pohl-Weary made a name for herself as a small press activist and co-author with her grandmother, of the Hugo Award-winning biography, Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril. Back in pop culture's thrall, Pohl-Weary now celebrates new possibilities for the superheroine trope with her anthology, Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks.

Reading Catwoman: One Icon's Leap from Cipher to Character (October 2004)
For such an iconic figure, Catwoman seemed to be little more than a cipher until recently. I follow her journey from villian to vigilante.

The World According to Jane (September 2004)
Paige Braddock, creator of the comic Jane's World, discusses the relationship between form and content.

Our Ripley, Our Selves (December 2003)
I recently revisited the Alien series of films. My conclusion? Aliens are scary. Creepy robots are scary. Work camps are scary. Ron Perlman is scary. But so are Other things.

Letter re: Jeepers Creepers 2 (December 2003)
A reader comment (scroll down to the last letter on the page) about Jeepers Creepers 2 begged a few questions which I considered at length:

 

1.

Is there only one possible interpretation (or reading) of Jeepers Creepers 2?

 

2.

Does biographical interpretation negate all other readings?

 

3.

Is the threat or depiction of sexual violence toward adolescent males unique to work by child molesters?

Uncanny Movies: Shades of Scary! (October 2003)
Dirty Pretty Things and Jeepers Creepers 2 are two very different movies. You might call one a political film, the other a slasher flick. But if Freud were a movie critic, he might say they both expressed a particular shade of frightening: The Uncanny.

Hitting the mylar ceiling (August 2003)
People take film seriously. Why not comics?

Roundtables

The Best of Worlds, and the Worst (December 2005)
What is your ideal society? The worst possible society? Tarts discuss some memorable prose examples.

Back-to-School Time (September 2005)
Part the Sequential Tart mission is to highlight to our readers comics that have impressed us and that we believe are deserving of a wider audience. In honor of back-to-school time, we looked at educational comics. My recommendation was Louis Riel by Chester Brown.

Tart to Heart: Which comic book character is most like you? (September 2005)
What I have in common with Angry Little Girls.

Tart Tastes: Grant Morrison (August 2005)
With Tart Tastes, Sequential Tart focuses on great creators and topics within comics. My choice for signature Grant Morrison work: Sebastian O.

Other

Editorial: Possible Worlds (December 2005)
Special issue exploring how comics and other artforms can be powerful vehicles for exploring possible worlds.

Rant of the Month: Feeding Kate Moss to the Lions: A Slender Sacrifice (October 2005)
A supermodel's career goes up in flames while the fashion industry fiddles by a river called Denial.

 

 

 

suzette chan | art | journalism | radio | web

back to top | home | links | contact