Leah Wilson's Blog, page 4
August 20, 2021
Smart Pop Fall 2021 Events
Smart Poppers, we’re thrilled to share the first of our fall events with you! Pandemic permitting we’ll see some of you in-person, but there’s also plenty of virtual fun to be had for all. Get your calendars ready, and stay tuned for additions to this list.
October 7-10: New York Comic ConThat’s right: come October, you’ll find us masked, sanitized, and mingling on the floor of the Javits Center in NYC! We’ll have show exclusives and signed books available, plus more fun to be announced at a la...
August 13, 2021
Smart Pop Classics: Come Home: West Texas Identities
In the Smart Pop Classics series, we share greatest hits from our throwback essay collections. This week in “Come Home: West Texas Identifies” from A Friday Night Lights Companion, West Texas native Jacob Clifton offers a meditation on one of Friday Night Lights’ most fundamental values: being a part of something bigger than yourself
1. Texas Radio“Wait, so in West Texas do they really have a radio show about high school football?”
“In West Texas they have entire stations about high school foot...
August 6, 2021
Things We Loved This Week #6
In this week’s Things We Loved This Week we share (spoiler alert)…the things we loved! Read on for our pop culture recommendations including a plethora of Hollywood Chrises, comics geekery with J.K. Woodward, and an emotional Star Trek featurette with Kenneth Mitchell.
Bring a Hollywood Chris home for the holidays. Or, at the very least, a coloring and activity book starring everyone’s favorite Hollywood Chrises, from Evans and Hemsworth to Meloni and Rock, and of course, Pratt! I’m Dreaming of ...
July 30, 2021
Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance: Women Who Love Vampires Who Eat Women
In the Smart Pop Classics series, we share greatest hits from our throwback essay collections. This week, Sarah Reese Brennan dives into gender dynamics in her essay “Women Who Love Vampires Who Eat Women” from A Visitor’s Guide to Mystic Falls .
Buffy Summers and Bella Swan. What do they have in common? I know, they have the same initials. Isn’t that weird?
Oh, and they both date vampires.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired in 1997, and Twilight was published in 2005. But in 1991, before thes...
July 23, 2021
Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance: From Factions to Fire Signs
In the Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance series, we share greatest hits from our throwback YA essay collections. This week, Rosemary Clement-Moore explores personality types and elements of heroism in her essay “From Factions to Fire Signs” from Divergent Thinking .
What’s your sign?
It’s a pickup line so old that dinosaurs used it to hook up down at the Tar Pit Lounge.
Back in the day, in the time between matchmakers and Match.com, people had to go places in person when they wanted to me...
July 16, 2021
Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance: The Emotional Pleasures of Reading Twilight
In the Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance series, we share greatest hits from our throwback YA essay collections. This week, Peter Stromberg breaks down how how reading about intense emotions can help us feel those emotions, and the positive impact this has on the human psyche, in his essay “The Emotional Pleasures of Reading Twilight” from The Psychology of Twilight .
The Twilight Saga is, simplified, a tale of the romance and adventures of a young woman and an immortal vampire she meets ...
July 9, 2021
Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance: Why the Best Friend Never Gets the Girl
In the Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance series, we share greatest hits from our throwback YA essay collections. This week, Kami Garcia tells it straight—Simon never stood a chance with Clary—in her essay “Why the Best Friend Never Gets the Girl” from Shadowhunters and Downworlders .
I’m just going to come right out and say it because we’re friends, and I don’t want there to be any secrets between us (unless, of course, I’m your best friend and I’m madly in love with you). Brace yourself...
July 2, 2021
Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance: Misunderstood
In the Smart Pop Classics’ Summer of YA Romance series, we share greatest hits from our throwback YA essay collections. This week, Kristin Cast discusses the normalcy of polygamy in the House of Night in her essay “Misunderstood,” from Nyx in the House of Night .
Zoey Redbird takes a lot of crap for having multiple boyfriends. I’m sure, if she were sitting here next to me, she would be pretty upset about being called a slut, a tramp, a whore, and all of the other negative nouns that are thrown at...
June 25, 2021
Meet the Team: Illustrator J.K. Woodward
Our Meet the Team series spotlights members of the Smart Pop family through a Q&A designed to reveal the depths of our nerdy, pop culture–loving souls. Today, we’re joined by illustrator J.K. Woodward who created the art for The Con-a-Sutra.
What do you do at Smart Pop?Freelance illustrator.
When needed, I’m hired under a standard work-for-hire arrangement, much the same way I work in the comics industry.
What are your fandoms?All of them. My first that I remember was Spiderman comics in t...
June 18, 2021
Smart Pop Classics: Cross My Heart and Hope to Die in Wakanda
In the Smart Pop Classics series, we share greatest hits from our throwback essay collections. This week, Felicia Stewart discusses the significance of the movie, Black Panther, on Black culture in her essay “Cross My Heart and Hope to Die in Wakanda” from Why Wakanda Matters.
“If You Can See It, You Can Be It; Black Panther’s Black Woman Magic” (Allen, 2018)
“Making Wakanda Great Again” (Cooper, 2018)
“I Dream a World: Black Panther and the Re-Making of Blackness” (White, 2018)
“O Wakanda, Our ...
