Shawn Taylor – The Nerds of Color

The fourth film in a superhero franchise isn’t supposed to make you fall more in love with the titular character, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day does.

Music Streaming

March 6, 2023 Shawn Taylor

De La Forever

I miss cassettes and CDs. I used my thumbnail to slice open the plastic. It took a couple of tries, but I finally got it. I still remember what it smelled like. I took out the J-card and it was as long as a CVS receipt, and there was a comic printed on it. This was some Grade A nerdiness, and I was intrigued.

Comics Literature Reviews

August 20, 2022 Shawn Taylor

‘The Eightfold Path’ (An Endorsement)

If anything can be said about Abrams ComicArts books, it’s that they are undeniably beautiful. Aside from what lies within

Books Fandom

July 16, 2022 Shawn Taylor

The Power of Fandom for Radical Change

Hello Folks, It has been a minute. I’ve been working on too many projects so I’m not able to write

Fandom Marvel

March 9, 2022 Shawn Taylor

What Are We Saying When We Say, ‘Wakanda Forever?’

It’s been four years and a few weeks since Marvel’s Black Panther leveled the pop-sphere with a 1.344 billion USD box office and a legion of new and reinvigorated fans.

Comics

June 24, 2021 Shawn Taylor

Warren Ellis and the Lack of Accountability, aka Comics Culture Needs to Be Safer

Our public discourse has been overrun with the phantoms of “Critical Race Theory” and “Cancel Culture.” These ideas are like

Comics Reviews

June 3, 2021 Shawn Taylor

A Review of ‘Across the Tracks’

Greenwood, Oklahoma aka “Black Wall Street,” dubbed so by Booker T. Washington, was a once thriving Black community. Thoroughly segregated

Comics Horror

May 12, 2021 Shawn Taylor

‘Box of Bones,’ An Endorsement

I am a new convert to horror. I was firmly in my comics, SF, SpecFic, fantasy bag for decades until

Comics Fantasy

April 21, 2021 Shawn Taylor

In Praise of ‘ElfQuest’

As we all know, what’s considered “good” is purely and highly subjective. Even our own tastes are subject to change depending on our moods. But in this “best of” debate, there is one comic that has always been in my top 5 best comics/graphic novels of all time, from the moment I read it. It fundamentally changed how I read comics, how I viewed the medium, and it gave me a greater and more profound appreciation of what the comic form could do.

Fandom Literature Streaming

March 30, 2021 Shawn Taylor

The Case for a Sherlock Holmes Multiverse

“A Study in Scarlet” was first published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. 134 years later, we’re still fascinated by the arrogant detective and the world he inhabits. What is it about Holmes that continues to intrigue us? Is it his quest to right wrongs? His disciplined mind? Or is it some kind of elusive quality that we cannot decipher, but know that we need?

Books Fantasy Sci Fi

February 26, 2021 Shawn Taylor

An Endorsement: Tim Fielder’s ‘Infinitum’

Afrofuturism is having a moment. First posited by journalist Mark Dery in the early 1990s, Afrofuturism is now a full-blown social, cultural, psychological, technological, and aesthetic movement. And never has this movement, this moment, been more fully realized than in Tim Fielder’s magnum opus, Infinitum. To call it a graphic novel would be to undercut it’s value. It is an enterprise of speculative cultural cartography.

Animation DC Comics Music

February 20, 2021 Shawn Taylor

Teen Titans Soul: De La Go!

One of the the greatest cultural tragedies of the digital era is that De La Soul’s early music isn’t streaming.

Comics Horror Reviews

January 6, 2021 Shawn Taylor

‘After the Rain’ Graphic Novel Review

In addition to Jennings writing the book, this is the first book from his Abrams ComicArts imprint, Megascope. His intention with Megascope is to bring together the most exciting artists and writers to create the most intriguing work. If After the Rain is any indication of future Megascope offerings, we’ll be in for stellar work for years to come.