Good afternoon, comics fans! Welcome to our brand new, quarter fresh issue of RVA Comics X-Change. Twenty-Five issues in and we’re still hot off the presses and bringing you everything for your comic and nerdy needs every other week.
This week we spoke to Alex Smith, Co-Owner of Alpha Comics and Games at Willow Lawn, who gave us a few choice faves to beat the heat. After that, if you’re not in the mood to read, I’ll be serving you a hot dose of nostalgia in the form of a new film on Netflix starring some of your 90s faves. Grab that Surge slushie and let’s dive on in.
Snowpiercer by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette
“With the new show for Snowpiercer being announced I have finally gotten around to reading the trilogy,” said Smith. “The overall premise is that humanity has destroyed the world, making the outside into a completely unlivable frozen wasteland. The last members of humanity exist on a self-sustaining train that never stops called the ‘Snowpiercer.’ Written in the 70’s originally as a call for environmentalism, it has since become a story of civil unrest and revolution- as the wealthy live a sheltered and decadent life at the front of the train and the lowest classes live in the tail in squalor and misery.”
Absolute Carnage by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman
“This past Wednesday, the first issue of Absolute Carnage came out of Marvel,” said Smith. “Cletus Kasady (Carnage) is returning to New York in a much anticipated series with several tie-ins, including Absolute Carnage: Scream, and (another) Separation Anxiety,” which harks back to a similar mid-90s mini-series about another symbiote-linked character, Venom.
Aero #2 by Greg Pak and Pop Mhan
“I am really fond of this character, who also appears in Agents of Atlas alongside some other great faces like Shang-Chi, Silk, and (my personal favorite) Luna Snow,” said Smith. The Shanghai-based aerokinetic hero is breaking out into her own title.
Those of us who survived the 90s remember vividly that we had a very unique brand of cartoons in our arsenal. From Cartoon Network’s Cow & Chicken to The WB’s Freakazoid, we knew and embraced our strange taste in humor. As our generation continues to dive headfirst into 90s nostalgia, Netflix brings up the newest slice of heaven for us.
Now available on the streaming service is the return of Rocko’s Modern Life in the form of a new film, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling.
Rocko, and his favorite band of misfits — Heffer, Filbert, and his trusty dog Spunky — are back at it again. This time they have to figure out how to live in a world that is suddenly not the 1990s, and in which somehow Rocko’s neighbor, Ed Bighead, has lost his job. Amongst all of these travesties is another devastating one – Rocko’s favorite television show, Meet The Fatheads, has been off the air for a long time.
What is a wallaby who has worked more jobs than Barbie to do?
While the show itself will certainly appeal to 80s babies like myself regardless of the quality, another interesting thing to note is on how the creator of Meet The Fatheads is approached. The creator, child of Rocko’s neighbors the Bigheads, has come out as transgender.
On the one hand, I want to be ecstatic about my childhood favorite approaching representation, especially for the trans adults who grew up loving this show. On the other hand, I’m not stupid. I am fully aware that my favorite cartoons of yore mostly had what we’d deem very problematic humor today. Naturally I was apprehensive about how the issue was approached.
I have not seen it yet, but after looking up multiple reviews of the film, all said the same thing – the trans character is not treated as a joke. She is genuinely treated as part of the narrative and treated with as much respect as the other characters.
Part of why we reach out to nostalgia from our youth is a sense of comfort, especially in a world where we honestly don’t know what is going to happen from day to day. There is comfort in reaching out to things that remind us of happier times in order to keep going. To find validation in our existence through these same things, to be told that we deserve to take up real estate in the world just like our peers? It’s everything.
Until next time, comic fans.
