Episode 125: Our Flag Means Death

Our Flag Means Death: alt-history fanfic rom-com for pirates! 

Andi and Lise really, really enjoyed the immensely popular first season of the HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death, which is a delightful take on the story of “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet and the legendary Blackbeard. Includes a slow-burn M/M romance, a nonbinary character (and romance!), wonderful dialogue, excellent storytelling, diverse characters. Includes great seafaring scenes, laughs, and interesting underlying messages about identity and the choices we make. Unfortunately, HBO Max has not announced plans for a second season. Andi and Lise find that…troublesome. Regardless, watch this season while you can! 

Trailer HERE

More info HERE

Smithsonian article about Stede Bonnet HERE

Shout-outs: Lise started watching another HBO Max series, Minx, set in 1970s Los Angeles in which a young white feminist teams up with a publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. Lise finds the main character’s evolution as a feminist a key part of the series, as the character has certain views that are challenged by reality. Meanwhile, Andi has started some seedlings for her vegetable planters and she’s excited about that. Yay, gardening! 

Find us on Twitter @LGOPodcast; @andimarquette; @LiseMactague. Please like and subscribe! It helps! 

Episode 33: Raven the Pirate Princess

This week, Andi and Lise rave about the comic Raven the Pirate Princess, a spinoff of the Princeless series, both written by Jeremy Whitley and, in the case of Raven, arted up by Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt.

This is Volume 1, a compilation of initial issues (chapters) 1-4, in which Raven Tsingtao, the daughter of a pirate king, is double-crossed by her brothers. Her father’s legacy was supposed to be handed down to her, but her brothers poisoned him against her and now she’s looking for a pirate crew to reclaim her legacy and get revenge on her brothers. Follow Raven as she auditions potential crewmates, meets other strong badass women, and prepares to find her brothers.

Andi and Lise rate Raven the Pirate Princess, as A—Awesome! Not only in characterization and storyline and art, but in diversity (many different body types, backgrounds, ethnicities, and races) and Awesome in potential queer rep. Raven is most likely a lesbian, and there are a few other characters who probably identify that way, too.

Find it at Action Lab Comics and Amazon.

Want more info? Check Keri Crist-Wagner’s piece at BookRiot and Mey Rude’s observations at Autostraddle.

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