Mark Waid's terrific Action Comics Vol. 1: Boy of Steel

Just wanna say how much I adore @markwaidwriter's Superboy: Action Comics Vol. 1: Boy of Steel, a brim with solid characterization and development, heartfelt stories, and great stakes as an uncertain Clark is just getting his feet. 

Waid coyly hits classical beats of The New Adventures of Superboy of the early eighties, penned by @paulkupperberg and mainly penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, which got me through much of my bullied early teens. Bestie Pete Ross discovers Clark's secret while camping! Clark wrestles with a cloud of locusts! @rsookart's covers are jaw dropping and frameable. Did encounter my pet peeve of the interior art changing, from Skylar Partridge to @patodelpeche to @ciantormey. So, mileage varies. All are fine artists, with different strengths, but changing up your pitcher mid-game is jarring and doesn't always work. 

That said, each issue is packed, self-contained storytelling. It feels like Kupperberg, yet modern. An astonishing feat from master neoclassical and character scribe, Waid. The icing on this cake? The vintage Superboy logo pops at opportune moments. His remains a nostalgic treatment, certainly a more innocent read than the nihilism of current pop cultural portrayals of comic characters. The story stands on its own two feet because of Waid's invested, caring writing, with no need for the superhero deconstructionism of, say, The Boys. 

Absolutely dig it. Thank you, all. It's terrific.

Marvel's Wonder Man is...Wonderful

Marvel's Wonder Man wows. A startling, touching, underdog hit. It's terrific, even Wonderful. Yahya Abdul-Mateen and Ben Kingsley, always superb, bromance their way through this metafictional look at the acting craft, struggling to break into Hollywood, and being yourself.

So much digging into the character Simon Williams that I discovered in the often-clunky 1980's West Coast Avengers comic.

Director Rebecca Russell's Toto Too Fun Home a triumph

Director Rebecca Russell’s Toto Too Theatre stage production of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, based on genius comic creator Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel of the same name, a bildungsroman about a queer kid growing up in a dysfunctional family whose father has a secret life,  is startlingly moving. It’s  a rousing success that I am so happy I caught at the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa last weekend.

Steph Goodwin plays 43-year-old Alison. Jason Swan portrays father Bruce Bechdel. Together, they anchor the whole works much like Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen anchored the Bryan Singer X-Men films. Swan’s Bruce carries the discomfited, particular mannerisms of a young Giannetti, in the most flattering and adept ways. Goodwin, as the chorus, grown cartoonist Alison, flaunts the acting acumen and gravitas that becomes the line-through of all the different time periods which the play portrays. Goodwin’s admirable intensity, physicality and amazing pipes are a fascinating contrast to the almost minimal physical stature of cartoonist Alison Bechdel herself. And Goodwin knocks this one out of the park.

However, without a robust supporting cast, the whole enchilada wouldn’t work, and the supporters more than work. They sing, in all senses of the phrase. The fam’ is Jean-Luc Arun Mullin as Christian Bechdel, Luna Oancea as John Bechdel, Frances Winchester and Emilia Castro as Small Allison, and charming stand-out Kaylee Ross as Medium Alison finding herself at college. The kids do a great job of acting like kids, a fine trick to pull. That said, there’s no weakness in this bolstering chain of players. Naomi Miller beguiles as love interest Joan, while Howard Yung is the picture of discomfort in multiple roles, most notably as handyman Roy. Nicole Tishler also brings her A-game as long-suffering wife Helen Bechel.

Having read and admired Bechdel’s Fun Home, my only qualm was the lack of ambiguity surrounding Bruce Bechdel’s decisions. However, this is an adaptation issue, not that of cast and crew. Ultimately, I recognized much from Bechdel’s graphic novel. The players wooed me. Their rendering of Bechdel’s discovery of her queerness and OCD and cartoonist calling and the tragic story of her father is heart-wrenching. The musical numbers are bangers, the kids are surprisingly funny, and college-age Alison will steal your heart before you know it’s gone, then sing a naughty observation like a classical musical number. 

Anyways, if you see it,  have tissues close at hand. Toto Too has a triumphant show on their hands. I would see it again.

Poetry in the Pontiac, with AJ Dolman this Wednesday!

 Poetry in the Pontiac, with AJ Dolman ! This is a poetry thing happening this Wednesday!

Because Shawville demanded it! Or you demanded it. But certainly organizer fellow Tree Reading Series organizer alumni Jennifer Mulligan asked us.

Thanks, Jenn! Been a minute. Wait! Do I owe you money? No, I'm sure I don't....

Virtual Reading Brockton Writers Series on Wednesday, May 13

Woot! I have a virtual reading with Toronto's Brockton Writers Series on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at Glad Day's new space at 32 Lisgar St.

I'm reading alongside some fab company—Justin Ancheta, Allister Thompson & Matthew J. Stafford.

Guest speaker Xio Axelrod will discuss the topic "From Pen to Platform: Author Branding in the Age of Noise."

Do I know anybody in Toronto—or anywhere—who would dig this?

They will also livestream the event on the series' YouTube channel.

Link in comments.

The Brockton Writers Series (#BWS) is a bi-monthly literary reading series. The reading is PWYC (suggested $3-$5) and features a Q&A with the writers afterward. Books are available for sale.

#writersseries #writersevent #readingevent #bookevent #gladdaybookshop #torontoevents #bwsevent #brocktonwritersseries #brocktonwriters #canlit #torontolit #queerauthors #queerwriters

Public Lending Rights Chuff

Been struggling lately to feel like a writer, and to work on my stuff.  But last week, I received my annual payment from the Public Lending Rights Program from the Canada Council for the Arts, as my books Town & Train and Fear Itself (both Lethe Press) are available in Canadian libraries. It's a reminder that I'm still a writer.

Thank you, casual library users, avid bibliophiles, the Canada Council, The Writers' Union of Canada, all you readers out there and, of course, other writers carving out their craft. 

Work-in-progress: reviews, poetry, fiction

Currently reviewing Soundtrack, a Book*hug Press poetry collection by my pal Michael V. Smith. Each poem is titled after a popular 1970's, 1980's or 1990's pop song, his personal experience with that song, and growing up queer in our hometown of Cornwall, Ontario. 

Also trying to place a review of San Francisco-area writer Scott Terry's 2025 literary novel, The Gift (Torchwood Books), the story of both a single mother, Pansy, and her son William (aka Butch), a queer kid who embraces the cowboy lifestyle, growing up in a strict Jehovah's Witness household in the Siskiyou Mountains in the late 1950's to the late 1970's.

Then also continually organizing my poetry and editing my second short-story collection, which fab editor-writer Andrew Wilmot edited last year.