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Articles
My (Very Brief) History with SF
Speculative Fiction, more commonly referred to as “Science Fiction”, has been described as perhaps the best means of conveying complex ideas. It is a broad genre that was, and for some remains pigeon-holed, like comic… [more]
Sid and Marty Krofft’s Wormholes to Hell
If you’re an American of a certain age, chances are you fondly remember the weird and wonderful worlds dreamed up by Sid and Marty Krofft—especially H. R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, and Land of the Lost. Those… [more]
The Stars My Destination: A Sci-Fi Masterpiece for Sci-Fi Week
When Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination was first recommended to me, it was with the promise that he “packs as much world-building, plot and character into 170 pages as Asimov did in the entire… [more]
Constructing a Perfect Reality
“Thus only in a dream we are at one, Thus only in a dream we give and take The faith that maketh rich who take or give”- Monna Innominata by Christina Rossetti The topic of… [more]
We are the Heroes of Earth-Prime: The Role of the Reader in the Multiverse
You. Yes, you. Staring at us. Studying us. Picking over these words and looking for meaning. Did it not occur to you that you are the one giving this significance? Every word you read is… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 39
Author’s note: Up to this point in my analysis I’ve tried to remain as objective as possible in the analysis of the content within the series, but the subject matter of the following issue, combined… [more]
Jessica Jones and Netflix’s New Storytelling
SPOILER WARNING Jessica Jones has a lot going on. It’s about trauma, PTSD, rape, and domestic abuse. (Oh, and superheroes, and Hell’s Kitchen, and the Marvel cinematic universe MCU). The fact is that Jessica Jones… [more]
Samuel Fuller’s Fraught Release: White Dog
The American film White Dog was finished in 1981. It was released in Europe in 1982. It wasn’t released in America until 2008, when Criterion released the film on DVD. You can probably tell by… [more]
Superheroes: The American Mythology Part I
Beginning in 1938, two simple creators will develop an entire genre of entertainment that will change the world. The humble beginnings of superheroes as pure heroes to guide America through the Great Depression. [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 38
Issue #47-48 “The Pub Where I Was Born” & “Love Kills” Writer: Garth Ennis; Pencils: Will Simpson, Mike Hoffman; Inker: Stan Woch; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Cover: Tom Canty; Being that Hellblazer is… [more]
Eco-Horror: Energy Crises, Pollution, & the End of Humanity
The eco-horror genre of films may now have a proper name, but it’s been around for a long time. Movie goers have been flocking to theaters to see the explosive battle between man and nature… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 37
Issue #46 “Falling into Hell” Writer: Garth Ennis; Pencils: Will Simpson; Inker: Mark Pennington, Mark McKenna, Kim DeMulder, Stan Woch; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Cover: Tom Canty; As with any ongoing comic series,… [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Sixteen : Meet Dave
So, who’s this “Dave” guy you heard mentioned in our last segment here, anyway? Yeah, okay, you may have gathered that he’s the central figure in John Smith and Sean Phillips’ Straitgate, but beyond that,… [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Fifteen : Les Enfants Terrible
Debuting in the pages of the well-regarded (and, at least by some of us, much-missed) British comics anthology series Crisis — specifically in issue number 50, cover-dated September, 1990 — John Smith and Sean Phillips’… [more]
Portraits in Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Fourteen : I Used To Think That The Day Would Never Come —
And you, dear reader, could be forgiven, what with the uber-sporadic nature of these posts in recent months (sue me, I’ve been busy), that the day would never come when yours truly would finally get… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 36
Issue #45 “The Sting” Writer: Garth Ennis; Pencils: Will Simpson; Inker: Tom Sutton; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Cover: Tom Canty; In the comic medium, every character or series has moments that become paramount… [more]
Feminism on the Fury Road: Imperfect Tropes in Mad Max
As part of my continuing effort to catch up with all the summer movies I missed (my home theatre is more comfortable, equal in quality and a whole lot cheaper than going to a theatre,… [more]
The Flashback Paradox: How Comic Book Television Deals with Remembrance of Things Past
In the eight decades or so of American comic books, finding obscure things in dark corners to dust off and reinvent has become an industry unto itself. Indeed, one of the first known printed uses… [more]
Another Day, Another Dollar: Harvey Pekar’s Last American Splendor
For the last few years of Harvey Pekar’s life, he was on a creative roll. His American Splendor comic had never really gone away, but in the 1990s and early 2000s, Pekar was focusing more… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 35
Issue #44 “My Way” Writer: Garth Ennis; Pencils: Will Simpson; Inker: Tom Sutton; Colors: Tom Zuiko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Cover: Tom Canty; American founding father Benjamin Franklin is famously known for the quote from a… [more]
Looking Glasses: Sexual Dangers and Curious Responses in Carroll’s Alice Books and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Part Two
Yet the Alice books do not celebrate our heroine’s change, as suggested by Alice’s several disturbing mirrorings with older women. Three of the four major women in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 34
Issue #43 “Friends in High Places” Writer: Garth Ennis; Pencils: Will Simpson; Inker: Malcolm Jones III; Colors: Tom Zuiko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Cover: Tom Canty; From a narrative perspective comic books offer many storytelling methods… [more]
Looking Glasses: Sexual Dangers and Curious Responses in Carroll’s Alice Books and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Part One
The seminal Batman graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, by writer Grant Morrison and artist Dave McKean, recontextualizes the themes and the motifs of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass… [more]
Home Invasion Movies And Women’s Fears
Horror movies scare us because they mirror what we fear – even the impossible, such as ghosts or supernatural monsters. But one subgenre of horror films tackles something more mundane: home invaders. The idea of… [more]
Reinventing Widescreen: Sorrentino’s Green Arrow
Fall of 2006, my freshman year of college, I sat in the television room of my dorm and watched Green Arrow make his live-action debut on Smallville. I remember the raw fanboy glee that swelled… [more]