Tate McFadden
@janethesturgeon.bsky.social
Comics critic for The Comics Journal, Comics Beat, and Fanbase Press
Editor of Thick Lines Podcast, co-host of Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Podcast
Fiction writer and cartoonist
The trans madwoman in your attic
BA in Literary Arts from UC San Diego
Editor of Thick Lines Podcast, co-host of Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Podcast
Fiction writer and cartoonist
The trans madwoman in your attic
BA in Literary Arts from UC San Diego
Pinned
Capes comics i'm reading and really enjoying right now, a slowly developing thread:
1. Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family is back! And they're thrust into a real damn FF adventure story. @ryannorth.ca & @humbertoramos.bsky.social did a little bait-and-switch on the first page with a fight scene
1. Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family is back! And they're thrust into a real damn FF adventure story. @ryannorth.ca & @humbertoramos.bsky.social did a little bait-and-switch on the first page with a fight scene
Y'all! The newest episodes of the Absolute Ultimate Escapist Podcast are up! They're available on Youtube now along with Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iARj...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iARj...
Episode 5.2: What to Expect When You're Expecting to Expect a Princess Shark Baby
YouTube video by Tate McFadden
www.youtube.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Y'all! The newest episodes of the Absolute Ultimate Escapist Podcast are up! They're available on Youtube now along with Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iARj...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iARj...
Go check out the review and definitely pick up these comics! it's a great run!
‘Adventure Time #7’ (@oni-press.bsky.social): Comic Book Review by Fanbase Press Guest Contributor @janethesturgeon.bsky.social
‘Adventure Time #7:’ Comic Book Review - Fanbasepress
Adventure Time #7 was published November 5, 2025, by Oni Press. It was written and drawn by Nick Winn, Derek Ballard, and Shawn Lee.
fanbasepress.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Go check out the review and definitely pick up these comics! it's a great run!
A new episode of the Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Podcast is up! This time we talk almost exclusively new monthlies, since Perl is busy testing a game! Give me and @plaguingpossum.bsky.social a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/28nW...
open.spotify.com/episode/28nW...
Episode 4: Perl No More!!
open.spotify.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:48 PM
A new episode of the Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Podcast is up! This time we talk almost exclusively new monthlies, since Perl is busy testing a game! Give me and @plaguingpossum.bsky.social a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/28nW...
open.spotify.com/episode/28nW...
It's crazy to read Grant Morrison nailing the tech billionaire rhetoric and jargon so early in its evolution. Elon Musk would absolutely harvest mutant organs to implant into himself all the while spouting transphobic insanity if he was in an X-Men comic
November 2, 2025 at 5:10 PM
It's crazy to read Grant Morrison nailing the tech billionaire rhetoric and jargon so early in its evolution. Elon Musk would absolutely harvest mutant organs to implant into himself all the while spouting transphobic insanity if he was in an X-Men comic
Reposted by Tate McFadden
Thanks for the nice review, I’m glad someone is following my million IG stories.
Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Pod Episode 3.1 just dropped on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! YouTube is soon to come once they verify my identity! Give it a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/268O...
open.spotify.com/episode/268O...
Episode 3.1: The Escapies Bring Tidings of a New Deathstroke...by Mariko Tamaki??
open.spotify.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Thanks for the nice review, I’m glad someone is following my million IG stories.
Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Pod Episode 3.1 just dropped on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! YouTube is soon to come once they verify my identity! Give it a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/268O...
open.spotify.com/episode/268O...
Episode 3.1: The Escapies Bring Tidings of a New Deathstroke...by Mariko Tamaki??
open.spotify.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics Pod Episode 3.1 just dropped on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! YouTube is soon to come once they verify my identity! Give it a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/268O...
open.spotify.com/episode/268O...
Another episode of Thick Lines pod from Katie Skelly and Sally Madden that I edited! This one’s on Junji Ito’s Uzumaki! Give it a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/43eK...
open.spotify.com/episode/43eK...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Another episode of Thick Lines pod from Katie Skelly and Sally Madden that I edited! This one’s on Junji Ito’s Uzumaki! Give it a listen!
open.spotify.com/episode/43eK...
open.spotify.com/episode/43eK...
@comicsbeat.bsky.social just published the first iteration of my biweekly column on swipe comics "A Year of Free Comics!" This first piece is on @deepdarkfears.bsky.social whose work is really wonderful and creative!
www.comicsbeat.com/a-year-of-fr...
www.comicsbeat.com/a-year-of-fr...
A Year of Free Comics: Plumbing the Depths of Fear in Deep Dark Fears
Deep Dark Fears investigates our irrational fears, each panel rationalizing the next until an inevitable, horrifying conclusion.
www.comicsbeat.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:14 PM
@comicsbeat.bsky.social just published the first iteration of my biweekly column on swipe comics "A Year of Free Comics!" This first piece is on @deepdarkfears.bsky.social whose work is really wonderful and creative!
www.comicsbeat.com/a-year-of-fr...
www.comicsbeat.com/a-year-of-fr...
My new review of Lumberjanes by @gingerhaze.bsky.social Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen, and Shannon Watter through @boom-studios.com for @fanbasepress.bsky.social ! This is one of my children's comics favs! Huge huge fan!
fanbasepress.com/press/review...
fanbasepress.com/press/review...
‘Lumberjanes: Book One’ - Trade Paperback Review - Fanbasepress
Lumberjanes: Book One was created by ND Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, Gus Allen, and Casey Nowak and published by BOOM! Studios.
fanbasepress.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:06 PM
My new review of Lumberjanes by @gingerhaze.bsky.social Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen, and Shannon Watter through @boom-studios.com for @fanbasepress.bsky.social ! This is one of my children's comics favs! Huge huge fan!
fanbasepress.com/press/review...
fanbasepress.com/press/review...
This is my favorite panel so far from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social / New York Review of Comics’s wonderful and long overdue Hothead Paisan collection which everyone should be reading right now!
CHICKEN STOP VOGUEING!
CHICKEN STOP VOGUEING!
October 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM
This is my favorite panel so far from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social / New York Review of Comics’s wonderful and long overdue Hothead Paisan collection which everyone should be reading right now!
CHICKEN STOP VOGUEING!
CHICKEN STOP VOGUEING!
An R. Crumb Mr. Natural comic but it's Mr. Natural*s* and he has huge bazongas
October 27, 2025 at 3:20 AM
An R. Crumb Mr. Natural comic but it's Mr. Natural*s* and he has huge bazongas
We’re soooooooooo interestingggggggg you want to hear our takes sooooooo baddddd
October 26, 2025 at 5:43 PM
We’re soooooooooo interestingggggggg you want to hear our takes sooooooo baddddd
I started up the Escapist Comics podcast! The first episode is live, it's funny and fun and co-hosted by Perl and Persephone from the store!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Episode One: Who the %^$&@# are we?
Podcast Episode · Absolute Ultimate Escapist Comics · 10/24/2025 · 42m
podcasts.apple.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I started up the Escapist Comics podcast! The first episode is live, it's funny and fun and co-hosted by Perl and Persephone from the store!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Reposted by Tate McFadden
Join “Office Hours” with Fanbase Press' @barbrajdillon.bsky.social every Tuesday from 2-3 PM/PT for those needing a place to troubleshoot issues, celebrate wins, or simply see a familiar face. #BuildYourCommunity
Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
October 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Join “Office Hours” with Fanbase Press' @barbrajdillon.bsky.social every Tuesday from 2-3 PM/PT for those needing a place to troubleshoot issues, celebrate wins, or simply see a familiar face. #BuildYourCommunity
Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Capes comics i'm reading and really enjoying right now, a slowly developing thread:
1. Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family is back! And they're thrust into a real damn FF adventure story. @ryannorth.ca & @humbertoramos.bsky.social did a little bait-and-switch on the first page with a fight scene
1. Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family is back! And they're thrust into a real damn FF adventure story. @ryannorth.ca & @humbertoramos.bsky.social did a little bait-and-switch on the first page with a fight scene
October 17, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Capes comics i'm reading and really enjoying right now, a slowly developing thread:
1. Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family is back! And they're thrust into a real damn FF adventure story. @ryannorth.ca & @humbertoramos.bsky.social did a little bait-and-switch on the first page with a fight scene
1. Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family is back! And they're thrust into a real damn FF adventure story. @ryannorth.ca & @humbertoramos.bsky.social did a little bait-and-switch on the first page with a fight scene
Really crazy little piece of trivia i learned as a comics retailer today while attempting to price a bunch of erotica, a prolific erotica illustrator by the name of Enrique Villagran was also an artist on a bunch of Punisher Comics, and Robin comics!
October 16, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Really crazy little piece of trivia i learned as a comics retailer today while attempting to price a bunch of erotica, a prolific erotica illustrator by the name of Enrique Villagran was also an artist on a bunch of Punisher Comics, and Robin comics!
I'm halfway through reading the Monstress compendium by Marjorie Liu and @sanatakeda.bsky.social for @fanbasepress.bsky.social and from a sheer reading perspective it's one of the funnest, but also hardest assignments I've had. I'm so impressed by how long a fantasy comic this dense is. Bravo!
October 16, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I'm halfway through reading the Monstress compendium by Marjorie Liu and @sanatakeda.bsky.social for @fanbasepress.bsky.social and from a sheer reading perspective it's one of the funnest, but also hardest assignments I've had. I'm so impressed by how long a fantasy comic this dense is. Bravo!
Read the @comicsjournal.bsky.social review from @briannicholson.bsky.social of Assorted Crisis Events. I'm probably going to keep ranting about it too, but you should read Brian's review. He goes into the context of the genre in a really interesting way.
www.tcj.com/reviews/asso...
www.tcj.com/reviews/asso...
Assorted Crisis Events Volume One - The Comics Journal
Brian Nicholson takes a look at Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki's new ongoing series for Image.
www.tcj.com
October 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Read the @comicsjournal.bsky.social review from @briannicholson.bsky.social of Assorted Crisis Events. I'm probably going to keep ranting about it too, but you should read Brian's review. He goes into the context of the genre in a really interesting way.
www.tcj.com/reviews/asso...
www.tcj.com/reviews/asso...
Assorted Crisis Events by @denizcamp.bsky.social @ericzawadzki.bsky.social Jordie Bellaire, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou is the best thing @imagecomics.com is putting out right now, hands down. You could take just ONE aspect of this book alone and it would take the top spot.
October 15, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Assorted Crisis Events by @denizcamp.bsky.social @ericzawadzki.bsky.social Jordie Bellaire, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou is the best thing @imagecomics.com is putting out right now, hands down. You could take just ONE aspect of this book alone and it would take the top spot.
Also in other reading news, @denizcamp.bsky.social somehow snuck Michel Foucault's 'Discipline and Punish' as well as a nonbinary anticolonial indigenous Hawkeye into a friggin Avengers(Ultimates Comic) and that STILL isn't the coolest thing they're writing just for the big two!
October 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Also in other reading news, @denizcamp.bsky.social somehow snuck Michel Foucault's 'Discipline and Punish' as well as a nonbinary anticolonial indigenous Hawkeye into a friggin Avengers(Ultimates Comic) and that STILL isn't the coolest thing they're writing just for the big two!
I am once again taking to this app to scream the praises of another Lee Lai x @fantagraphics.bsky.social book, this time, her second novel "Cannon," which shows off Lee's incredible character writing. Stone Fruit's character work was obviously beautiful, but the real strength of that work was formal
October 15, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I am once again taking to this app to scream the praises of another Lee Lai x @fantagraphics.bsky.social book, this time, her second novel "Cannon," which shows off Lee's incredible character writing. Stone Fruit's character work was obviously beautiful, but the real strength of that work was formal
Okay so I started reading DC's Dark Knights Metal in lieu of finishing up some indie reviews for TCJ(sorry Sally). I've been so stressed with moving and everything I decided I needed some good mindless fun, and oh nelly, it is immediately that! Page three of issue 1
October 13, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Okay so I started reading DC's Dark Knights Metal in lieu of finishing up some indie reviews for TCJ(sorry Sally). I've been so stressed with moving and everything I decided I needed some good mindless fun, and oh nelly, it is immediately that! Page three of issue 1
In other "stuff I'm reading right now," I just finished the first trade of @peachmomoko.bsky.social Ultimate X-Men. I've been enjoying a lot of the new Ultimate line, but Peach's is definitely the most original of them all(the rest are just really well-written capes comics).
October 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
In other "stuff I'm reading right now," I just finished the first trade of @peachmomoko.bsky.social Ultimate X-Men. I've been enjoying a lot of the new Ultimate line, but Peach's is definitely the most original of them all(the rest are just really well-written capes comics).
I sat down today and read this incredible book from Lee Lai and @fantagraphics.bsky.social occasionally I read a book that depicts the deep difficulties of queerness in such an unflinching manner that I find myself having to put it down ever few minutes and take a deep breath.
October 10, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I sat down today and read this incredible book from Lee Lai and @fantagraphics.bsky.social occasionally I read a book that depicts the deep difficulties of queerness in such an unflinching manner that I find myself having to put it down ever few minutes and take a deep breath.