My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie Phoebe McGregor likes to be called Phoenix, especially when she's in her "adventure" outfit. She uses the walking stick her father used, which is also the walking stick his father used, and so on and so forth. It's a lovely and sleek thing, smooth on the palm. Matches the coat and hat quite well. Phoenix's wife thinks she overdresses for an adventurer and opines that there's not much adventure to be had. Phoenix would disagree wholeheartedly. After all, she was able to return a lost cat to a grieving family two months ago, and last week, she retrieved a missing gift card for a nice Italian restaurant from deep within the vaults of a person's estate. And by vaults, she means basement, and by estate, she means two-story house worth way more than it looks these days. Phoenix was raised in the North Bay and went to school in the suburbs, though she has always loved the big cities. She's a bit overly imaginative - always has been. Is...

The panel consisted of three women and three men. Two of the men were gay, the other man was African-American, two of the women were Asian, and one of the women was trans. They discussed everything from comic books to film adaptations to the future of science fiction. And somehow, that rubbed the good ol' bigots the wrong way. It didn't matter that these queer and diverse artists were revolutionizing the culture of nerdery as we knew it: No, as long as they didn't fit the mold, they were traitors to the grossly narrow scope that was considered, "the mainstream."