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Articles
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Seven: “I Feel So Extraordinary”
Those were the opening lyrics to New Order’s breakthrough hit “True Faith,” but let’s be honest—they don’t have jack shit to do with the frame of mind of Nigel Gibson, the teenage protagonist in Garth… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #6 and some contemplations on Age of Ultron
Hydra’s new plan for world domination—safe sex! Brilliant! Here’s how it’s supposed to work: Hydra has created a new virus that make couples impotent. Only Hydra agents will get the antidote, which means that in… [more]
Tyler Durden Lives! : Fight Club 2 #1 Review
For a debut issue, novelist Chuck Palahniuk comes to the comic medium with such grace and talent one would think he is an old master returning to his craft. The best-selling novelist chose to continue… [more]
Giant Bugs, Children, and Hibernation: On Son of Godzilla
After Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Toho decided to task Jun Fukuda and his crew with making another Godzilla movie set in the South Pacific. This one would capitalize on the trendy location in a… [more]
Why Avengers: Age of Ultron is One of the Best Marvel Movies Yet
The first Avengers movie was magical. It’s almost indisputable at this point. The less analytical got a joyous and brilliant popcorn movie that featured big stars and entertaining and loved characters bouncing off one another.… [more]
Bonnie and Clyde … and The Cat in the Hat?
It’s funny what can happen to your mind when you’re bored. Recently, I saw a play at a local children’s theater and I had every reason to believe the play would be great. It’s a… [more]
Studio Ghibli and Fascism
Studio Ghibli’s films have inspired some introspection so far, but upon further inspection there is a very serious issue that preoccupies the studio’s middle cannon: that is fascism, and the portrayal of fascism in Studio… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 31
Issues #39-40 “The Hanged Man” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Steve Pugh, Dave McKean Colors: Tom Zuiko, Dave McKean Letters: Gaspar Saladino Cover: Kent Williams Over the past 34 issues and one annual[1] Jamie Delano has… [more]
The Meristems of Mad Men
[This piece contains major spoilers for the finale of Mad Men.] In most plants, vertical growth occurs from two points, right at the tip of the stem, from the “shoot apical meristem” and at the… [more]
A Very Australian Apocalypse: Mad Max: Fury Road
This is the way the world ends: This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. Luckily for cinema audiences, George Miller does… [more]
“Our Sonnet’s End Attained, Awaits The Hearse Let’s Raise Our Gaze From Verse… To Multiverse!”: Multiversity #2, Superjudge
Grant Morrison, and to some extent the metaphysics of the DC Multiverse, have a very Gnostic flavour with an affinity for Manichean Dualism. Universe A and Universe B, The Invisibles and the Archons, Apokolips and… [more]
A Vengeful Statue: Daiei’s Daimajin Trilogy
In the years after his death, the capital city was struck by heavy rain and lightning, and his chief Fujiwara adversary and Emperor Daigo’s crown prince died, while fires caused by lightning and floods destroyed many of residences. [more]
Flying Cars, Graphic Novels, and Superman Earth One
When it comes to predicting the future of the publishing industry, there are two types of people—those who have no idea what is going to happen and those who pretend like they do. Given the… [more]
The End of Mad Men
This week, I can almost guarantee, this water cooler conversation will be repeated throughout the world: “So, what was Mad Men all about?” “I’ve no idea.” It’s been seven seasons and eight years, and this… [more]
The Burden of Change: Mourning the Pastoral in Pom Poko
Japanese tales are burdened with loss, especially modern ones. Modern Japanese fiction, produced by such writers as Natsume Soseki, is conscious about the loss of innocence and the disintegration of Eastern culture against the Western… [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Six: A “Crisis” Of Faith
The next stop on our tour of British comics focused on disenfranchised teens/twentysomethings in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s brings us to True Faith, a smart, satirical, dare I say sometimes even poignant look… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 30
Issue #37-38 “Man’s Work” & ”Boy’s Play” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Steve Pugh Colors: Tom Zuiko Letters: Gaspar Saladino Cover: Kent Williams Ideological conflict has played a large role in Jamie Delano’s run on Hellblazer.… [more]
The Other Side of the Wind: Orson’s Last Stand
Few films would have been as knowing, satirical, poetic and ahead of their time as Orson Welles’ last famous “unfinished” film of the 1970s, The Other Side of the Wind. In one of the great… [more]
How The Avengers Became the Center of the Marvel Universe
From 1961 to 1965, in a white-hot blaze of publisher demand and creativity, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr. and others hammered out the entire Marvel Universe. In the process, they made… [more]
Deconstruction of Male Duality in American Comic Books: Robert Kirkman’s Invincible
***Editors Note: Following articles contains graphic imagery originally featured in Invincible #110. According to Judith Butler, gender is not a static, stable, and “natural” condition someone is born with, but rather a socially constructed concept… [more]
Godzilla’s Heartbeat: Sea Monsters, Chameleons, and a New Team for Toho
Cancer. The Crab is said to have been put among the stars by the favour of Hera, because, when Hercules had stood firm against the Lernaean Hydra, it had snapped at his foot from the swamp. Hercules, enraged at this, had killed it, and Hera put it among the constellations. [more]
“I Just Don’t Like Bullies”: Joss Whedon’s Interpretation of Captain America
2012 was inarguably Joss Whedon’s biggest year ever. Not only did he take center stage of a sold-out ravishing audience at the 10th anniversary Firefly reunion panel at San Diego Comic-Con, have his micro-budget adaptation… [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Five: Aim For The Head (Of State)
The fourth and final installment—this time un-numbered, as we’re through counting down to the day and find ourselves at it—of St. Swithin’s Day begins with the most painfully obvious line you could imagine: “today’s the… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 29
Issues #34-36 The Dead Boy’s Heart Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Sean Phillips Colors: Tom Zuiko Letters: Gaspar Saladino Cover: Kent Williams Demons are everywhere within Hellblazer. It’s commonplace that we see John Constantine staring down… [more]
Buffy, Angel, and the Guidebook to Growing Up, Part 2
“I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me.” If Buffy was teaching us how to survive, then Angel taught us how to provide. Buffy took us from high school to college; Angel… [more]