ConSequential

We're (most of us) back from a slight hiatus because it's NERD PROM again and we're at Thought Bubble 2017 in disconcertingly sunny Leeds. With special guests (probably) and new comics (yes) and ellipses (someone stop me)!

Southern gothic persists as a genre in all other mediums, so why is that deliciously swampy style so under-represented in comics? An investigation brought to you by big words, a fetish for Spanish moss, and that half-glimpsed face at the window of the ol' plantation house.

Spin-off! Is there any word more thrilling to the soul and/or corporate wallet? This week we read a bucket of franchise-extension comics. From flaccid extrusions of long-spent IP, to comics an actual person might actually want to read, we talk about whether spin-off comics can be any good (yes), how it all works (it's complicated), and which ones are just utter, utter shite (surprisingly: not Pokémon). Find out more about the "beautiful teat filled with dollars".

Don't call it a GodCast. Actually don't, that sounded far better in my head. We're talking gods and mythology in comics, with drive-by reviewing of Hamish Steele's Pantheon, a revisit of The Wicked and the Divine, and a bunch of other stuff along the way because we're good to ya. Benevolent, even.

Y'know that shade over half the population who make about ten percent of Big Two comics, probably about half of the rest, and whose work gets about five percent of the attention? Yeah, those folks: women? You remember women, right - the ones who don't get to say "I done made a comic" without some internet dickdribble making death threats. In the spirit of celebrating great work (and of not being that guy), this week we're spotlighting a bunch of comics with female creators.