This week, Justine and Gwen discuss Guillermo Del Toro's latest masterpiece, "The Shape Of Water", a film about a monstrous love story. Starring Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones and Octavia Spencer in a delightfully quirky romance and dark governmental conspiracy, we can't recommend this movie enough. We discuss the queer overtones, the role female sexuality plays and what sets this movie apart from Del Toro's previous movies.

Listeners, please take note of the explicit warning due to our discussion of sex and masturbation.

This week, Justine sits down with Jordan Alsaqa and Joni Miller, creators of the comic "Welderkin", a horror comic set in the backwoods of the United states where a dangerous legend may shed some light on the mysterious disappearances of married women from this little down. It’s a delightful spooky comic, drawn in a fantastic 80’s style by Joni Miller featuring a wide cast of women throughout the comic

The discussion goes into a behind the scenes look at their process for creating the comic and to talk about their influences when it came to the comic. You can find more about "Welderkin" here: https://welderkincomic.com/

Get in touch with Jordan and Joni here:

Jordan Alsaqa: @EndigoMaster

Joni Miller: @jocosejoni

This week, Justine and Gwen chat with Kai Cheng Thom, author of "Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir" about her creative storytelling process and her

main influences.

"Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars" has a unique storytelling style that blends together fairy tales and folk lore imagery with complex, real world issues and features the voices of powerful and resilient trans women. It's a great read, and we really recommend that you check it out.

More information about Kai Cheng Thom can be found here:https://ladysintrayda.wordpress.com/

Justine and Gwen chat with Vita Ayala about their comic book, "The Wilds" which is coming out February 28th. It's a beautifully drawn, post apocalyptic story about a young queer woman named Daisy trying to survive in a zombie ridden landscape and search for her lover. It's an amazing, compelling read with really fantastic characters in a gorgeous and haunting setting.

We talk to Vita about the process behind their work, motivations and influences and what their hopes are for the series.

Vita Ayala can be found on Twitter: @definatelyvita and you can find out more about "The Wilds" and preorder it here:https://previewsworld.com/Catalog/DEC171179

This week, Gwen and Justine discuss queer representation and feminism in Netflix's new show, "Big Mouth", an animated series about puberty and coming of age. Discussions range from asking if "Big Mouth" a feminist show to how it's queer storylines differ from other coming of age shows and how Nick Kroll finally won us over.

Listeners, have you checked out Big Mouth? What were your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments below

This week, it's all about podcast recommendations for your holiday listening needs. Justine sits down with Minh, a long time listener of "The Penumbra Podcast" about what they feel makes the podcast special and why you, dear listeners, should also check it out. The Penumbra Podcast is a great detective noir series that's set in a fantastical world and features plenty of queer representation. You can listen to it anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Listeners, have you checked out the Penumbra Podcast already? If so, what did you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

This episode, Gwen and Justine continue their mini series, "Portraits of Leadership" and discuss Jo from the fantastic YA comic, "Lumberjanes".

Heads up for spoilers throughout the episode! We talk about Jo's unique leadership style in a friend group that is very well developed and fleshed out with their own strengths and weaknesses, and what we hope to see out of Jo in future comics.

Listeners, if you've checked out the Lumberjanes before, share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

This week, we're reviewing "At Home With Monsters", an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario dedicated to the work and influences of Guillermo Del Toro. We discuss the spectrum of monster movies that Del Toro has directed and produced over the years, what makes his characters and stories so haunting and how queerness and feminism intersect in his movies.

"At Home With Monsters" will be available to experience at the AGO until January 8th, more information about the exhibit can be found here: https://ago.ca/exhibitions/guillermo-del-toro. This week's cover art is an installation view from "The Comic Room" at the AGO.

Listeners, have you had a chance to check out this exhibit? Let us know in the comments below. As always, if you have recommendations for us to check out, get in touch with us! We're always happy to talk to new artists and check out new media.

Welcome to Pop Queeries!

This is our first recording, and we wanted to give a bit of an introduction to what we’re about. This podcast series is going to be exploring the place of queer identities and feminism in pop culture and related media.

Throughout this series, we’ll be drawing from research and, interviews we’ve conducted, and sharing news that’s shaping our queer, geeky world.