Hi everyone, it’s been a while. This summer was sweltering but fall feels cooler and more promising. Back in August, I launched my mental health pop culture newsletter Lately I Can’t Communicate over at Buttondown.

In mid-October, I had another video game poem published at the online video game magazine Videodame. It is called “Self Portrait As A Nobody In Transition” and was inspired by the character Xion from the video game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and my own experiences with gender identity. I wrote it to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game.

Lastly, I wrote a vast amount of pop culture articles and essays (especially comic book criticism) from August to October. Check them out below.

K Comics Beat

I recently became a freelance contributor to the website K Comics Beat, which covers webcomics published on the apps WEBTOON and Tapas.

Review: VAMPIRE MAGICKA combines sparkles and horror for a new kind of magic– Last year, I reviewed Vampire Magicka while it was still an ongoing webcomic. Now, this review critiques the webcomic in all its fully completed glory and it was a gay ol’ time.

10 Magical Girl Comics To Read On Tapas & WEBTOON– A generation of visual artists that grew up on the iconic manga series Sailor Moon have gone on to create their own fun magical girl webcomics & I enjoyed discussing them in this feature.

Comics XF

Struggle & Strength In Miles Morales issue 23– I hopped aboard Cody Ziglar’s current run of Miles Morales ongoing comic book series to review it and it has taken an interesting direction so far.

How A Summer of Marvel SNAP Gave Me Fun & A Sense of Belonging– I did a personal essay on how getting back into the mobile card game Marvel SNAP brought me closer to my fellow writers at Comics XF.

Take the holiday road to San Juan in Miles Morales: Spider-Man Annual #1– I did a review of what was essentially a big summer vacation for Miles Morales and a fun series of standalone comic book stories.

Diving deep into Spider-Man and his amazing friends in our inaugural Web-Chat– Tony Thornley, one of my fellow writers over at Comics XF, suggested we start doing roundtable discussions of Spider-Man related comics and so Web Chat was born! In the first roundtable, I have some mixed feelings about the Dark Web comic book event.

A Magical Girl Roundup Includes Flavors From The East & West– Having noticed several recent, newer magical girl comic books, I did a feature on them.

Miles has a bone to pick and Spider-Boy meets the Circus of Crime in our latest Web-Chat– In this second Spider-Man comic book roundtable, I do a mini review of Miles Morales issue 24.

Image’s A Haunted Girl handles depression sensitively while exploring the supernatural– Since September was National Suicide Prevention Month, I reviewed Naomi and Ethan Sacks and Marco Lorenzana’s poignant limited series A Haunted Girl, which deftly explores depression through a supernatural lens.

5 Comics To Read For Black Sci-Fi Fantasy Month– October is Black Sci-fi Fantasy Month so I did a roundup of comic books by Black creators that more people should check out.

The cancellation of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur has us missing Disney’s 65-episode rule– When I unhappily learned that the animated series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur had been canceled, I pitched this op-ed. Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur was one of the most Blackest and creative animated series in years and if it is truly canceled, I will miss it once it ends next year.

Unwinnable

The Rise of Miles Morales– Back in August, I wrote an essay for Unwinnable’s Exploits magazine on the Marvel Comics’ character Miles Morales and how his character has developed across different media. This is also my first Unwinnable essay to be reprinted in full online.

Superjump

Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel Dawn of the Battle Royale: Flawed but Fun– For Superjump, I reviewed the 2021 card battle RPG Yu-Gi-Oh Rush Duel: Dawn of The Battle Royale.

Card-En-Ciel Demo: First Impressions– Ahead of its late October release, I played the demo version of the new card battler rouge-lite Card-En-Ciel and discussed my thoughts.