Emma Lawson

Andrea Demonakos is one of the many women in comics whose hard work is never properly appreciated. Working as an organizer and coordinator at Emerald City Comicon, then ReedPOP, and named last year as the new festival director for the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival, Demonakos is an integral figure in the comics convention and festival scene, and that gives her a great perspective on the comics community.

ComicsAlliance reached out to Demonakos post-ECCC to find out more about what it takes to run a comic con, why comic conventions are so important for creators, and what advice she has for first-time attendees.

Ngozi Ukazu is a sensation in the world of webcomics. Her series Check, Please has an amazingly strong fandom — translating the comic into other languages, indexing it, creating fanart and fanfic — and her Kickstarter to print Check, Please Year 2 destroyed its goal in a matter of hours.

Check, Please follows Eric Bittle, former figure skater, during his years at Samwell University. He joins Samwell’s hockey team and, well, it changes his life. ComicsAlliance had a chance to chat with Ukazu at Emerald City Comicon about hockey fandom, relationships, and finding humor in all kinds of situations.

Jennifer L. Meyer is an amazing artist who specializes in drawing animals; often anthropomorphized ones. She’s illustrated picture books, chapter books, and comics, working with companies like Scholastic, IDW, First Second, and Dark Horse.

Last week, Meyer delighted the denizens of Twitter when dug up an old Wonder Woman bunny pencil sketch and shared it with her followers — and then followed it up with more Wonder Woman bunny sketches.

This week, we meet all the characters we know and love, including Archie, Betty, Veronica, Kevin, Cheryl, Reggie, and Jughead — but none of them are quite what you might expect here in Twink Peaks, and one of them might be covering up a murder. “The River’s Edge” was directed by Lee Toland Krieger and written by Archie Comics’ own creative director Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

This week, Veronica tries to repair her relationship with Betty, Archie tries to repair his relationship with Jughead, we find out more about Jason Blossom’s death, and Josie and the Pussycats rock out at a pep rally. “A Touch of Evil” was directed by Lee Toland Krieger and written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro and Cris Peter's Bitch Planet is one of the most important comics being published today. In addition to being an amazing sci-fi story with glorious butt-kicking women, it’s rife with feminist critique of patriarchy, while still maintaining an inspirational tone. Putting together this playlist, I thought I’d be choosing angry, riot grrrl songs, but what I ended up with feels more like a modern celebration of women. I think Bitch Planet itself is kind of the same thing.

Gig posters have a long and beautiful history. Moving from simple block lettering in the '50s and psychedelic text in the '60s, modern gig posters are often gorgeous pieces of illustration and places to experiment with the weird and wonderful.

In this gallery, we've pulled together a collection of gig posters by a variety of comic artists, from small indie artists such as Inés Estrada and Maré Odomo to some big names like DeForge and Adrian Tomine. Feast your eyes!

Pretty Deadly, by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios, and Jordie Bellaire, is a story about stories. It’s a fantasy western about Death’s daughter Ginny, but it’s truly a gorgeous, lyrical, epic poem about myth itself. And like traditional epic poems, there’s love, and death, and vengeance.

On this day in 1982, the first issue of Akira was published. Written and illustrated by Katsuhiro Otomo, this post-apocalyptic tale was crucial in the popularization of manga outside of Japan.

Enamel pins have taken over the world this year. They’re cute, fun, and affordable! You can show off your favorite pop culture obsessions, or your attitude towards the world, all with a simple pin on your lapel. But let’s be real; you’re probably wearing more than one. They’re mini works of art that you can wear; what’s not to love?

Magical girls are special. They defend love and justice with a squad of their best friends, and they look cute while they’re doing it. Their transformation sequences into their alter-egos are filled with sparkles. They remind us that the girly aesthetic is not a bad thing, and can actually be very powerful.

What would you do if you found out your neighbor was a vampire? Would you shriek in terror, or invite him over for tea and conversation? If your neighbor were Patrik, you might do both — especially once you find out what a good chef he is!

Born November 22, 1969, Marjane Satrapi is a multitalented artist — a writer, graphic novelist, and filmmaker — but she is best known for her renowned autobiographical graphic novels exploring life after the Iranian Revolution. Her work is centered on her family, but explores greater themes in the relationship between the East and the West