NOIR CITY CHICAGO 2024

September 6, 2024

Every cineaste has their favorite film festival, Noir City Chicago is mine. When I discovered that the hallmarks of the noir genre weren’t just about ‘broads and heavies’ but about questioning gender roles, marginalized folks and mindsets, misfits and those cast aside, the grey areas of society, it was a revelation.

It helped that the films were always so stylish.

So, yes, of course Noir City Chicago is my favorite film festival. I’ve been attending since its second year — it’s now in its 14th year, as always it’s at the Music Box Theatre — and I always set aside as much of the week as possible to soak in the darkness. The crowds are always great — except that one person I had to nag three times to turn off their cell phone during a rare screening KILLER’S KISS — and Film Noir Foundation heads Eddie Mueller and Alan K. Rode always bookend each screening with fascinating facts and behind-the-scenes details regarding the production.

This year the fest kicks off on September 6th and runs through September 12th and the schedule is exceptional. From classics to THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE to little-seen 3D noirs like INFERNO, I had an extremely difficult time composing my viewing schedule! Below is a guide to some of the fest’s highlights. (If I haven’t included on from the schedule, it’s because it’s new to me!)

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE

Of all Cain film adaptations, this is my favorite. (Sorry, MILDRED PIERCE.) While difficult to adapt within the restrictions of the Hays Code — hell, the novel just barely made it to print thanks to how lurid it was — director Tay Garnet mostly manages to retain the heat and verve of the text. Leads Lana Turner and John Garfield smolder on the screen, all sweat and burning gazes.

POSTMAN also opens the festival and heralds in the restoration of the Music Box’s main theater! Brand seats — with cupholders — and I’ll be arriving early to lay claim to my favorite place to sit!

OSSESSIONE

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE has been adapted for the silver screen more than a few times, but OSSESSIONE is an exceptionally gritty Italian take. As I recall — it’s been a while since I’ve had an opportunity to see it — the texture of the locals are exceptional, adding to the sweat and heat and tension of the material.

ODD MAN OUT

Carol Reed’s tale of an Irish nationalist on the run is a classic, with a stellar performance from James Mason and exceptional interplay of urban lamplight and the shadows of the city.

I will admit that it’s one of the few films I’ll be skipping in favor of a lunch break, but that’s solely because I’ve seen it more times than I can count.

THE WINDOW

Yes, THE WINDOW can be boiled down to a ‘boy who cried wolf’ tale — as acknowledged in the Music Box write-up — it’s also about quintessential noir themes, such as ostracized elements needing to be kept at bay, the role of authority figures, and belief and deceit.

LE SAMOURAI

Alain Delon, expertly preserved on film.

INFERNO

A Technicolor 3D noir with the always-engrossing Robert Ryan!

UNION STATION

Chicago’s Union Station — the heart of the city’s railways — is mostly here in name only, and even that name is deceptive as the bulk of the film takes place on a train. Don’t let that deter you though, as it’s thrillingly claustrophobic!

View the full schedule at the Music Box’s site and if you have TCM you can catch Eddie Muller’s weekly noir deep dive: NOIR ALLEY.

Electroclature Volume Twenty-Eight: XXVIII

September 4, 2024

Part twenty-eight of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Ugh. I like the photo. Unlikely that I had to tweak it much, as that’s pretty much quintessential Chicago in February/March. No idea where I took it. Probably was just walking around and noted that the above power lines looked like a clothesline from an apocalypse.

The text does nothing to heighten the cover. In fact, it would have been improved if I just stripped all of the text from it and just scribbled down the tracklist on a scrap of lined paper and slipped it into the CD-R case.

Oh well. There are far better covers ahead.

There’s a lot of great stuff here. More metal! Old-school Indian songs! The escalating throb of Keyboard Milk! One of the few CURRENT 93 tracks I actually like! (Nothing against ’em — they just aren’t my thing.) That Peter Lorre song I mentioned in XXII! More GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Wait, what’s that sound? It’s the sound of highlights!

ENSIFERUM! When I first saw this band it was when they had been around for more than a handful of years. A friend suggested that we catch ’em at Reggies Rock Club. (Reggie’s is a club I’d like to attend more often, but it is a very long trek for me.) They were playing with TURISAS and I realized “Oh, huh, I really like Finnish metal!”

‘Stone Cold Metal’ is supremely epic, very mannered for metal and is so very well-structured and — oh, you poor neighbors — you can’t help but want to shout along. The accompanying video is 14 years old and while the CGI nowadays would be easy to render, back then this must have been quite the expensive effort. It was worth it though.

LE BUTCHERETTES! ‘Mr. Tolstoi’ is a whirling blast, and her vocal trill is delightful. The break and subsequent escalation will have you pumping your fist in the air and leave you breathless.

I somehow caught wind of this now-defunct Mexican garage/punk band in time to see them tour for their first album ‘Sin, Sin, Sin’. As if that album title wasn’t enough to capture my attention, the name of the band leader ‘Teri Gender Bender’ certainly did. They played at Subterranean — the same venue I saw BLOOD RED SHOES — and it was all sweat and raised fists and hair whipping around and glorious.

FEVER FEVER! Goddamn this post-punk band is absolutely unrelenting. Monster is a blur of guitars and snare bursts at full volume and you can’t help but be dragged along with ’em until the song immediately runs out of steam and you’re left panting.

Here’s the tracklist, if you are feeling too exhausted to do anything else but read an enumerated list. (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

  1. RÖYKSOPP / Forsaken Cowboy / Keyboard Milk (Unofficial but gorgeous video)
  2. CURRENT 93 / Black Ships Heat the Dancefloor / Black Ships Ate the Sky II [JG Thirwell]
  3. TURISAS / The Varangian Way / A Portage To The Unknown
  4. ENSIFERUM / From Afar / Stone Cold Metal (Their video for ‘From Afar’ is well-worth a watch!)
  5. FINNTROLL / Ur Jordens Djup / En Mäktig Här
  6. DROPKICK MURPHYS / Going Out In Style / The Irish Rover
  7. THE WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY / Addicted To Bad Ideas / Peter Lorre Overture
  8. LE BUTCHERETTES / Sin Sin Sin / Mr. Tolstoi
  9. JOHNNY LOVE / The Switch / Sonora [Udachi]
  10. CHICKS ON SPEED / Cutting The Edge / Sex In Der Stadt (Audio only)
  11. ALINA SIMONE / Make Your Own Danger / Glitterati
  12. GOBBLE GOBBLE / Lawn Knives & End Of Days / End of Days
  13. ANURADHA PAUDWAL & SURESH WADKAR / College Girl/Amiri Garibi / Aankhon Mein Basalo
  14. ASHA BHOSLE, RAHUL DEV BURMAN / / Duniya Mein Logon Ko
  15. JOSE GONZALEZ / Red Dead Redemption OST / Far Away
  16. UNTHANKS / Here’s The Tender Coming / The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw
  17. FEVER FEVER / Monster / Monster

Electroclature Volume Twenty-Seven: XXVII

August 23, 2024

Part twenty-seven of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Obviously a grunge-inspired cover. I’m not completely sure whether it works, but I don’t hate it. The photo is from — because *sarcasm* I am a very affluent person — a Megabus window in the early winter, I believe when I thought taking an eight hour bus ride to Minneapolis was a good idea.

To be fair, it was to see the Guillermo del Toro museum exhibit and I actually do not mind long bus rides but also? To travel to a city I’d never been to.

Anyway. I enjoy the reframing with messy borders. I miss that sort of thing. Also? Apart from the tinge? The actual photo isn’t too doctored — the land looked just as much as a slather of black paint streaks against pure white — so I enjoy that. At least I learned to reduce the tracklist font size. So it goes.

Let’s reframe the conversation to the music! Here are the snowy highlights:

AUSTRA! This was a project that classically trained opera singer Katie Stelmanis enacted after a short number of solo works. I really miss her solo work, but I quite enjoy the electronic nuance married with her vocals.

I know I over-pepper these posts with stories about my live experiences and, yes, this is another one but it’s far more interesting:

I caught them on their initial tour for ‘Feel It Break’, and it took place in one of the odder venues in Chicago. The front of the house? It is not a bar. It’s not a bleak number of concrete slabs. It’s a fucking salon. It’s called Beauty Bar. It’s a surreal experience and, as you walk towards the back it slowly morphs into a tiny club spot with a very low stage. It is extremely intimate, almost unnervingly so, which is exacerbated by being thrust back into the 60s glow of the front’s salon fixtures upon the end of the performance. Good show, still have a fair amount of merch from it hiding somewhere.

PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT! Why yes, yes, another cello-centric band! (I haven’t featured Zoe Keating yet because I assume y’all are aware of her, but I’ll get around to featuring ’em.) I don’t really have much to say about them, actually. They’re trying to create awareness of cellos and what they’re capable of and pushing the cello sound further, and I believe they succeed.

THE WORLD / INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY! I love the slow build here that turns into abandon! Also, they have an entire song about Peter Lorre! And it rocks!

A whiteout tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

Electroclature Volume Twenty-Six: XXVI

Part twenty-six of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

I love the colors on this cover. I did not doctor or sweeten it apart from some merged blur to heighten a few facets. This photo was taken on the same London trip as XXV but, unlike XXV’s cover, it’s vibrant and is full of natural textures and energy. I guarantee you that my energy level the time I took the photo does not match the results as I snapped it very late at night riding a London bus back to our hotel.

That said? Why’d I double down on the same font as XXV and think that bolding it would improve matters? It does not.

Onto the music. Here are the late-night highlights:

ANNA CALVI! Calvi has it all. She has amazing guitar chops, a stunningly resonant voice, and an extremely vibrant look that perfectly accompanies her dramatic sound.

I saw her via yet another Schubas experience, lucky enough to get in on the ground floor for her US tour for her initial album. The small, narrow venue could hardly contain her talent. It was one thing to hear her virtuoso guitar work. It was another thing to see her do so up-close. Absolutely electrifying.

FIGHT LIKE APES, once again! I love me some filth, and FIGHT LIKE APES always delivers — especially when you have a song named ‘Ice Cream Apple Fuck’. The song goes out with a bang.

(Also? I love the title of the album it’s on: ‘The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner’.)

GATEKEEPER brilliantly crashes everything down in slow motion! Makes you want to sway while debris falls around you.

MELODIUM! Jaunty electro with its perky beats and sweeps and swoops!

Here’s the format for this rollercoaster ride! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

  1. THE DOUGH ROLLERS / The Dough Rollers / Where Shall I Be
  2. SLEATER-KINNEY / One Beat / Sympathy
  3. PULP / This is Hardcore / Like a Friend
  4. SHRAG / Life! Death! Prizes! / The Habit Creep
  5. CULTS / Cults 7″ / The Curse
  6. CIRCUIT DES YEUX / Ode to Fidelity / Barrel Down
  7. ANNA CALVI / Jezebel / Jezebel
  8. MELODIUM / Hum hum & bla bla / Hellomusic [Ochre]
  9. THE KNIFE + MT. SIMS + PLANNINGTOROCK / Tomorrow, in a Year / Colouring of Pigeons
  10. HAUSCHKA / Foreign Landscapes / Kamogawa
  11. BLOOD WARRIOR / Blood Warrior / Blood Letting
  12. GATEKEEPER / Giza / Storm Column
  13. THE BLACK ANGELS / Passover / Empire
  14. NATHAN OLIVER / Cloud Animals / Icicles for Fingers
  15. FIGHT LIKE APES / The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner / Ice Cream Apple Fuck
  16. BIG EYES / Why Can’t I / Why Can’t I

KITTENTITS (2024)

August 21, 2024

How to guarantee that I will pre-order and voraciously consume your novel:

  • Name your novel KITTENTITS because I love a title that has no shame.
  • Have a hot pink cover because I love hot pink.
  • Have a hot pink cover with a cute kitten on it because I love cats.
  • Have a hot pink cover with a cute kitten on it and shiny silver starry eyes because shiny silver covers remind me of the first comic book I bought.
  • Have GONE GIRL’s Gillian Flynn tweet about your book because I love Gillian Flynn.
  • Have Gillian Flynn’s imprint publish your novel because I will read anything that she helps will into the world.
  • Have a significant portion of your novel takes place in Chicago.
  • Have your novel center around inventively filthy-mouthed dirtbags because I am a filthy-mouthed dirtbag and can use the company.
  • Have your novel center around filthy-mouthed dirtbags who are young aimless fuckups who make all of the wrong choices because it will remind me of my youthful indiscretions.
  • Have your story be intensely internal, peppered with loss and trauma and fucked up circumstances that slowly unfurl into an absurdly comical and fantastical and horrific tale that leaves you questioning what you just read while also savoring its twists and deft prose.

See? Nothing to it. If you need more help, read Holly Wilson’s KITTENTITS because there’s far more of interest in her debut work than I have listed here.

Electroclature Volume Twenty-Five: XXV

August 16, 2024

Part twenty-five of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Sigh. This is a complete failure as a cover. The tracklist font doesn’t work at this size. The font should be far smaller. Works for the XXV title though, in my opinion.

Additionally, it’s extraordinary dreary. To be fair, I did take this photo while in London so it’s appropriate. However, that does not justify the number of filters I applied to it.

Moving along. This album features some straight-up metal for once. Hey, it’s called Electroclature and not Metalclature. (Although that would be a better title.) Otherwise, it features a lot of previously featured bands so I’ll stick to the new-to-Electroclature musicians.

Here are some non-dreary highlights!

FOETUS! Technically I’ve featured the work of J.G. Thirwell in the past via his Venture Bros. soundtrack work, but not the long-lived act he’s best known for: FOETUS! ‘The Ballad of Sisyphus T. Jones’ is one hell of a rollicking, dense and epic song that builds and builds, then teases a bit, then lurches into a spaghetti western mode, then rockets forward back again. Absolutely one of my favorites of his, although his eleven minute big band song is also one of my favorites of his so your mileage may vary.

I was lucky enough to see him play at Chicago’s EMPTY BOTTLE way back in 2001 and he rarely comes to Chicago and it was a fucking blast, one of those bands you just kinda resign yourself to only hear instead of see and hear. A bucket list performer, for sure.

ROB DUNCAN! His theme song for TERRIERS? One of the greatest, if not the greatest TV theme songs of the past 20 years. It’s so hooky and concise, not just with the duration but also the lyrical subject matter. It is everything you want out of a TV theme song and is just as effective out-of-context.

SWANS! Another extremely formative band for me, although I didn’t discover them until ‘Soundtracks for the Blind’, which is very dark, tense, loud at times, silently intense at others. The core members were Michael Gira and Jarboe, the former known for never smiling and the latter known for her striking voice. I missed their breakup tour because I was too young, but I did see Gira’s follow-up band ANGELS OF LIGHT live, which I believe was at Double Door. I still have my well-weathered long sleeve shirt from that show.

SWANS regrouped in 2010 sans Jarboe and toured with BABY DEE (who will be missed). The venue I saw them at? Maybe it was the relocated Double Door before they completely shut down. The song featured here — ‘Jim’ — is from the album they were touring for: ‘My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky’.

Tonally it’s not much of a departure from their prior album, ‘Soundtracks for the Blind’. They’re still extremely dark, very sludgy and very languid. And live? VERY LOUD. They’re touring around this time; They’re hitting Chicago in May. If you like what you hear? Check ’em out, but bring earplugs.

An overcast tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

  • ELUVIUM / An Accidental Memory In the Case of Death / Perfect Neglect In A Field Of Statues
  • LAURA MARLING / I Speak Because I Can / Alpha Shallows
  • PEGGY SUE / Fossils and Other Phantoms / February Snow
  • NINA NASTASIA / Outlaster / This Familiar Way
  • FOETUS / Hide / The Ballad of Sisyphus T. Jones
  • THE DEAD WEATHER / Sea Of Cowards / I’m Mad
  • CROCODILES / Sleep Forever / Hollow Hollow Eyes (The video? Probably best viewed while high, otherwise it’s rather dull.)
  • THE BLACK ANGELS / Passover / Young Men Dead
  • SWANS / My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky / Jim
  • MUNLY / Petr And The Wulf / Munly
  • ROB DUNCAN / Gunfight Epiphany / Gunfight Epiphany (Theme from Terriers) (The video link is the actual title sequence for the show, but the song itself is far longer.)
  • FINNTROLLl / Jaktens Tid / Jaktens Tid (Not the official video — one doesn’t exist — but an absolutely delightful fan video comprised solely of clips from a scene from THE ARISTOCATS.)
  • DIMMU BORGIR / ABRAHADABRA / Gateways
  • THOSE DARLINS / Nightjogger/Funstix Party / Nightjogger
  • BOOM PAM / Puerto Rican Nights / Ay Carmela (Instrumental)

THE HOUSEKEEPERS (2023)

August 14, 2024

We’re in the twilight of summer, which means it’s the perfect season for an enthralling, propulsive historical heist novel, such as Alex May’s clever first novel THE HOUSEKEEPERS.

It’s London 1905 and one ‘Mrs. King’ is wrapping up her service in an opulent Park Lane estate. Her final task? ‘Double-checking’ the details regarding an extravagant ball for Miss de Vries, the daughter of the recently deceased, new money, head of the house, one ‘Mr. de Vries’. Once Mrs. King exits through Park Lane’s doorway, she enlists an eclectic number of folks from her past on a mission: to steal each and every book, blanket, trunk, couch. To leave nothing — absolutely nothing — behind.

The reasons for this endeavor are known to Mrs. King and Mrs. King alone, and the ramshackle group of misfit women infiltrate the manor, scheduling their heist to coincide with the distraction of the poshly attended gala.

As always with heists, motives are questioned, steadfast trusts grow fragile, plans go sideways, and matters escalate in the most engrossing of ways.

THE HOUSEKEEPERS is a comfortably self-assured caper, one that deftly leans on the upstairs/downstairs dynamics of both the manor and the changing world outside to heighten the tropes of the heist genre. Top it off with fine attention to detail regarding the idiosyncrasies and well-woven character work of the thieving ensemble and you have all the marks of a thrilling afternoon read.

Electroclature Volume Twenty-Four: An Unwound String

August 9, 2024

Part twenty-four of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

With this cover, I like the striking simplicity of the brushes behind the title, and the fact that for once I opted for lighter tones. However, the tracklist text is far too large and cumbersome. If I could do it again, I’d reduce the font size and kind of ‘letterbox’ the cover. Lessons learned.

Let’s shine a spotlight on the highlights!

TOM HAGERMAN! Tom Hagerman is part of the band DeVotchKa (see Electroclature Volume Six) and he’s an amazing multi-instrumentalist who is specializes in the melancholy. He’s also a swell guy who went drunksaling (a.k.a. tipsy garagesaling) with us once. Good times.

MICHAEL NYMAN! While he’s best known for his soundtrack work, especially THE PIANO, but he also does things like put his own spin on Mozart and the like. ‘Profit & Loss’ is essentially a reading of a wedding ledger. When my wife and I were planning our wedding, I suggested that we include it in our dinner dance mix and she shot that down immediately, so I snuck it into the cocktail mix. I hope someone noticed the wink.

BRITISH SEA POWER! If you aren’t aware of ‘Come Wander With Me’, originally it was performed by BONNIE BEACHER. It has been covered by many bands, but I prefer the original while watching it in the TWILIGHT ZONE episode of the same name. Fun fact: that episode is as melancholy as the song, as it was the final episode of the series.

Aren’t aware of the format? You’re in luck! Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available:

Electroclature Volume Twenty-Three: XXIII

June 28, 2024

Part twenty-three of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

I feel like I rather phoned-in this cover. The photo is another pic I took of a textured porch or windowsill or… something. I have no arguments about the text. I’m just disappointed that it isn’t …striking. I don’t think it’s bad but …it’s kinda boring, but at least it’s readable.

Anyway! Highlights!

OF MONTREAL – Coquet Coquette [Yip Deceiver]! I’d been a fan of the band for a while, and this remix moves me in crazy ways. Fun fact? I designed and deployed the website for their print designer back in the day. That version of the site is no longer publicly available, but I am glad I was able to slightly contribute to their life and be tangentially involved with the band. Also, the designer gave me a shit ton of free merch, while also paying me! Freelancers treating freelancers well!

GOBBLE GOBBLE – Becoming Legion! I saw them at Chicago’s Schubas Tavern, which is an extremely narrow bar with a club space in the back and a sidecar diner.

The show was so fucking electric and queer and interactive and ended with everyone — including the band and myself — under unfurled nylon and it was the thick of Chicago summer and Schubas isn’t well-ventilated so everyone was so hot and sweaty and throwing arms in the air and moving with their amazing synths and samples and beats and it was all absolute exuberance and abandon.

I left Schubas feeling so elated and glowing with a natural high. It was one of the most incredible live shows I’ve ever been to in my life. Absolutely fucking amazing. My face lights up just thinking of it.

A friend castigated me about extolling it too much. That is how intensely I feel about it.

I’m not sure I’ll ever attend a show quite like that again. As I’ve harped on before? Fucking attend live events! Communal experiences like these are few and far between! Life is too short!

PEGGY SUE – Watchman! Also saw ’em at Schubas and there was so much vocal belting and hard drum hits and it was pure joy.

DC PRIDE 2024 #1 (2024)

June 26, 2024

Author’s Note

A brief note: DC PRIDE 2024 takes place in the contemporary DC universe, the details and machinations of which I am largely unaware, so my apologies if some of the specifics below are incorrect!

DC has been releasing their DC PRIDE queer anthologies since 2001, predominantly to celebrate Pride month but also to extoll the efforts of comic book creatives to broaden the spectrum of those behind the masks, to help inspire and comfort all, especially teens.

The latest iteration of these — DC PRIDE 2024 — features the gamut of familiar young queer tales: portrayals of seeking comfortable spaces, finding belonging, having altruistic mentors or guides, celebrations of ‘ordinary day in a queer superhuman’s life’, facing persecution from bigots and homophobic and religious zealots and so on.

A few examples:

Gretchen Felker-Martin’s words and Claire Roe’s angular pens detail coupled-up Poison Ivy and Janet from HR navigate a planetary package pick-up that goes sideways when they encounter universe-hopping fundamentalist hate mongers!

Steel awkwardly attends her ex — Traci 13 — Pride party! Writer Jamila Rowser and artist Oneill Jones drag John Constantine into the drama!

Jarrett Williams and DJ Kirkland give a glimpse into an afternoon with Jon Kent (the new Superman), Ray (the new Ray)and friends as they roam around A-Town! (I can’t help but think of my Chicago current neighborhood Andersonville, affectionally called Aville.)

And others that are also noteworthy — including Al Ewing scripting some combative fun and downtime relaxing for Starman — but you can discover them for yourself.

There’s little something for everyone, all energetically and vibrantly told via DC characters young and old. I especially enjoyed how each pin-up is spaced through the anthology to sequentially comprise the colors of Pride flag. It’s a great book to hand to any teens that may appreciate some solace that, while sometimes couched in fantasy, is still grounded.

(I will note that, if you aren’t up-to-date with some of the more modern characters, you may find yourself somewhat lost due to the number of new-to-you heroes as often there aren’t enough pages to catch you up, but just roll with it!)

However, if you’re older and have encountered many of these narratives before, they can begin to feel a bit well-worn. While I certainly appreciate these endeavors, enthrall in the imagination and deft artwork and writerly craft, and am thankful that others will find comfort in them, it’s the reflective stories that resonate with me more, and why Phil Jimenez’s auto-biographical contribution SPACES particularly struck me.

If you aren’t familiar with Phil Jimenez’s work, he’s a long-time DC artist and writer and a comic book fan even longer. He even came out publicly for the first time via his mini-series TEMPEST.

SPACES features Jimenez recounting his youth, young him all full of imagination and yearning for idyllic and fantastical islands that were bewildering but comforting. It was Paradise Island, full of characters from WONDER WOMAN including an absolutely wild Hippolyta, but also detached from the isle of Themyscrira. It was a place of joy and weirdness, where Amazon women rode huge rabbits and everything and everyone was unbridled. (Well, except for the rabbits.)

In time, Jimenez finds himself drawing WONDER WOMAN, then penning her and drawing Themyscrira and he gets to revel in the spaces and utopian ideals that inspired him so. As time goes on, the utopias shift and change, and he changes with them in the ways that life shapes us all, how the spaces are pieced together shift, and how you look at them and live within them changes over time.

All of the above? Conveyed in under ten pages.

It’s also worth noting that alongside DC PRIDE 2024, DC has released another Pride anthology, one extolling much-missed Rachel Pollack and her contributions to the DC universe. The anthology — DC PRIDE: A CELEBRATION OF RACHEL POLLACK — includes a story from her DOOM PATROL run, as well as THE GEEK one-shot she did with Mike Allred, all in one convenient place!

DC PRIDE 2024 #1 is available via your local comic book store or can be digitally purchased through all of the normal online storefronts.

If you want to read more? The prior DC PRIDE anthologies are available through DC’s website with a free DC Universe account!

DC PRIDE 2021

DC PRIDE 2022

DC PRIDE 2023

Addendum

I will admit that, given that I bought the Babs Tarr variant cover of DC PRIDE 2024 featuring Harley and Ivy glowing in each others arms, I was really looking forward to a somewhat older Harlivy ‘be gay do crimes’ lark. While we do get a Harley and Ivy tale, it’s a preview of the upcoming Y/A graphic novel THE STRANGE CASE OF HARLEEN AND HARLEY. It’s not exactly what I had expected, but enjoyable nonetheless!