Month: April 2018

Walpurgisnacht 2018

Featured image swiped from the Suushuu image board.

I’m now in the final home stretch on finishing my degree, so one of my goals is to be posting more regularly from now on.

Anyway, it is the Feast of Walpurgisnacht again already, historically believed to be the night of a witches’ sabbath and still celebrated tongue-in-cheek in parts of Europe. Here at deus ex magical girl, it is a time of year to celebrate cute witches. This year, it also marks the date when there is one month left until the official release date of Jake and the Dynamo.

This year, we’re going to display some crossover fan art, which I ripped off from the image board linked above. I’m a bit embarrassed that I can’t instantly identify all of the characters in these.

Jake and the Dynamo Releases on June 1st!

And on another note, Roffles Lowell, the official illustrator for Jake and the Dynamo, sent along this little sketch after I announced that the book was set to release on June 1st.

I believe that’s a picture of Dana having finally conquered Chelsea in Magical Girl Rumble.

How to Spot an SJW Marvel Story

I have heard a lot second-hand about Diversity and Comics. I haven’t paid close attention to him simply because American superhero comics aren’t my bag. In this particular video, he gets into the mechanics of how to write a good story, and why political correctness hampers that.

I see now why this guy is popular (and why he is hated so much by some writers and illustrators at Marvel). He really understands how stories work, and his criticisms are calm, incisive, and fair.

‘Jake and the Dynamo’ Volume 1 Releases June 1st!

I now have the contract in hand, so this is the official announcement: the first volume of the Jake and the Dynamo series will release from Superversive Press on June 1st, 2018.

This is a revised and updated version of the book, including additional scenes and a subplot and chapter not present in the blogged version, as well as improvements stemming from the incisive editing of writer and editor L. Jagi Lamplighter. The book also contains a never-before-published bonus novelette.

This part is still not definite, but it will probably also contain previously unpublished illustrations by Roffles Lowell.

Manga Review: ‘Saint Tail’

On a mission from God.

Saint Tail, vols. 1 and 2, written and illustrated by Megumi Tachikawa. Published in Japan by Kodansha Ltd., 1995. Translated by Anita Sengupta. Tokyopop, 2001.

I was unable to complete this in time for Easter Sunday, but, fortunately, Easter is fifty days. So here we go.

The kaitou, or thief, is such a popular figure in Japanese pop culture that kaitou may be considered its own genre. This is probably thanks in large part to the wildly successful Lupin III franchise, which is written to be a sequel of sorts to the stories of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc. Magical girls had crossed paths with gentleman thieves in franchises such as Minky Momo and Sailor Moon, so a magical girl who is also a gentleman thief—or lady thief, rather—is an obvious next step.

What is perhaps not so obvious is that the magical girl lady thief should be a devout Catholic who steals in service to God, but such is the premise of Saint Tail, and the basic concept of Saint Tail also got recycled, but given a hard twist, in Phantom Thief Jeanne, which we’ll discuss in a later post. Continue reading “Manga Review: ‘Saint Tail’”