Jeremy Willard column about Wonder Woman creator

Kudos go to author Jill Lepore for revealing

Wonder Woman's real-life origins.

Journalist Jeremy Willard, who talked to me about Town & Train, also pens a very compelling History Boys column for Daily Xtra (along with Michael Lyons). I particularly liked Willard's fairly recent analysis of Jill Lepore's new book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Lepore uncovered a startling discovery—William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman along with the two women with whom he was having a polygamous, three-way, relationship. 

 

I have a copy of Secret History and it's high on my reading list.

Willard's article, Fetish, feminism and Wonder Woman: Creator William Marston had a very kinky side, is here.

Daily Xtra interviews me about Town & Train

In some fantastic media coverage, Daily Xtra recently interviewed me about my horror novel, Town & Train. 

 

I have been freelance writing for Daily Xtra since 1999, when it was then called Capital Xtra! Having covered a gamut of beats, including news, book reviews and arts, I know all about being the interviewer. So, being on the other side of the interview was a little surreal. However, I thought that reporter Jeremy Willard did a lovely summation of my writing process. He also did some thoughtful follow-up tweets regarding Town & Train. Thank you, Jeremy.

 

You can find the Jan. 29 article, The phantasmal engine: James K Moran’s horror novel features queer heroes and an ominous train, here.

Best Documentaries Viewed in 2014

I like good documentaries that expand my worldview or explain the worldviews of others to me. With a voracious—or, as Jeffrey Round would put it, infinite—curiosity, I want to learn all I can about all that I can. All of these docs expanded my perspective in 2014. 

Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown

Wyrd Studios, 2008

For a long view on H. P. Lovecraft’s writing and life, this informative Wyrd Studio production delivers. Talking heads abound, as prominent horror creators Caitlin R. Kiernan, John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, Guillermo Del Toro and Stuart Gordon (among others) expound on Lovecraft’s ascending genius, as well as his foibles. Gordon is the director who has been arguably the most successful at adapting Lovecraft’s works (Take his unnerving dark film, Dagon, for example). The interviews are interspersed with archival footage and beautiful, often stunning, renderings by a variety of artists, including paintings, comic book imagery, and sometimes depictions of Lovecraft himself. Fear of the Unknown is enlightening and honest, acknowledging and contextualizing Lovecraft’s xenophobia. They raise the question of whether Lovecraft intended to construct a Cthulu mythos from the start of his career or whether this was a delightful accident. However, the luminaries don't have an answer. This is an understandable quandary since this debate about Lovecraft's intentions still persists among his aficionados. However, Lovecraft’s resultant admirable body of work and genius is undeniable—as well as his pervasive influence on modern horror.

 

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

Directed by Morgan Spurlock, 2012

Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock does it again, explaining why aspiring comic book artists, costume designers and fans flock to San Diego’s Comic-Con. Many celebrities have their say in this feature, some of dubious importance. However, it is always fun to hear Stan Lee reminisce or, better yet, to hear Seth Green describe meeting his future wife at a convention. Spurlock also mixes in many transitional scenes featuring cosplayers (costume players) and fans flocking to the convention. The documentary’s “characters” are among them, such as one hopeful fan planning to propose to his fiancée during a talk by Kevin Smith. By the end, Spurlock pulls of a neat trick. You care for these convention-goers’ dreams and hopes.

 

Small Town Gay Bar

Directed by Malcolm Ingram

View Askew Productions, 2006

How did two gay bars in the middle of Deep South, Texas, give people of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer (LGBTQ) community somewhere to be themselves and galvanize some of them in the face of homophobia? Watch this documentary, in awe, and find out. Director Malcolm Ingram examines two small-town gay bars in Mississippi. Ingram also looks at the lives of the locals who come out to drink and play. And they're only human. Patrons want a watering hole and simply want to be themselves—openly gay or trans—without fearing mockery or reprisals. Ironically, the owner of one of the establishments, although quite out of the closet at work, is not out to his parents for fear of their negative reaction. Ingram documents how one bar went through a death and rebirth like that of a Phoenix. The film also looks at the hate murder of gay 18-year-old Scotty Weaver, adding a layer of tragic immediacy to the work. The human interest element in this feature is utterly compelling. Impressively, director Kevin Smith served as executive producer for this affecting documentary.

My Poetry Review of Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang's Status Update

My review of Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang's poetry collection, Status Update, is up on the Arc Poetry Magazine website. Tsiang takes Facebook status updates, and turns them into beautiful, unsettling, incisive things.

Newspaper coverage of my horror novel Town & Train

Talk about hometown coverage! The Cornwall Standard-Freeholder interviewed me this week about my first horror novel, Town & Train. The online edition appeared January 20 and the hard copy edition ran on January 21, 2014. You can find the article, with the headline, "Mysterious train focus for first-time novelist", here. 

Best Reads of 2014: Comic Books - Justin Hall's No Straight Lines

No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics edited by Justin Hall

Fantagraphics Books, 2012

 

No Straight Lines is no guys-in-tights escapade, but realism writ large. Editor Justin Hall pulls from dozens of sources, both artists and writers, portraying queer life, and the whole spectrum therein. Here readers will find portrayals of everything from gay single men bar-hopping to people enduring the height of the HIV/AIDs crisis of the 1980s to lesbian folk festival-goers experiencing burn-out to transsexuals trying to make the next step. No Straight Lines left me breathless. My only qualm was that Hall could only sample a little of everything. The result is an eclectic buffet of form and style and voice from the past 40 years of queer portrayal in comic books. Sometimes it is not enough of one thing. Nonetheless, Hall proves there is an overwhelming breadth of visions out there that have and continue to portray realism, instead of only escapism, in comics. Please don’t misunderstand me—there’s nothing wrong with escapism and super heroics. However, as the man said, the man being Scott McCloud, comic artist and writer (author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics), reading super hero comics is like eating chocolate cake. And you don’t want to eat only chocolate cake your whole life, do you? Better to have a smorgasbord of flavours and foods. And, as it turns out, editor Justin Hall is just the chef to introduce new foods to you.

Best Reads of 2014 Addendum: 'Nathan Burgoine's novel, Light

Light by ‘Nathan Burgoine

Bold Strokes Books, October 2013

Light should have been in my original “Best Reads of 2014” list, so I am adding the mini-review here. This first effort from fellow Ottawa scribe ‘Nathan Burgoine is funny, immersing and interesting. Single gay protagonist Kieran Quinn has always had a super power and has always vacationed during the Ottawa Gay Pride Festival. Throw in a husky leather bear as his love interest, an evangelical villain who also possesses a power, and Kieran’s family dynamic (a straight brother who is perpetually single), and you have a winner. That the hero can read others’ thoughts, including those of dogs (i.e.: ‘Play! Friend? Play?’) adds a great texture to inter-character exchanges. He can tell what the other person is thinking. Burgoine also possesses a super power himself—a whiplash sense of humour. This humour is evidenced by an ongoing contest in which people can vote on the new hero’s moniker (‘Rainbow Man’ and ‘Disco’ are options.). In setting the story in Ottawa’s Pride week, Burgoine gives the narrative a rich, authentic, localized feel. Readers not only get to tag along with endearing characters, but also tour the nation’s capital in the summertime, when the city is actually warm.