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Eiji Tsuburaya’s Death and the Changing Face of Kaiju Films
On January 25th in 1970, the landscape of kaiju films changed forever. Eiji Tsuburaya had started work on a new television series by this point, a horror anthology show known as The Unbalance Zone. The… [more]
“How’d you do, my little Siren?”: Sensuality, Sentiment and Solipsism in Providence #3
Let’s begin by returning to the idea of Alan Moore infusing the Mythos with an emotional current and introducing the alien to well, the alien. I am undoubtedly one of those strange folk who doesn’t… [more]
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Conflict Resolution
Spoilers for The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. (But honestly, you should’ve read it by now anyway.) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Some chemical-induced villain comes into your campus looking for Spider-Man to fight… [more]
The Nostalgia Test: Re-examining Denny O’Neil, Denys Cowan, and Rick Magyar’s The Question
The Question strove for subtext—it was more about Vic’s spiritual journey than whether he could defeat a villain or escape a burning building. [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Eleven : Enter The Iron Lady
You knew it had to happen at some point in the pages of True Faith : Nigel, Terry, and their newfound “friends” have been entirely too successful in their church-burning campaign and, this being 1989… [more]
Race and Gender: Incognegro‘s Protagonist is Not the Hero He Hopes to Be
With the recent release of Strange Fruit #1 being critiqued for its lack of unique identity in its African-American (and even Alien-African-American) characters and unrealistic characterisation, my thoughts drew back to another piece. A comic… [more]
50 Shades of Grey and Male Silence: Why Christian Couldn’t Speak
E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey began in 2011 as self-published Twilight fan fiction, quickly became a bestselling ebook, was picked up by Vintage Books in March of 2012, and as of June 2015 has sold over… [more]
The Essentials: Two-Lane Blacktop
So I’m field testing a new title for the series previously known as “Movies You Should Watch.” I have grown tired with that name! Or, more accurately, I’ve decided to take the series in a… [more]
Time Paradox: Sound in Comics
Comics are unique in that it is the only medium where sound is seen, rather than heard by its audience. My previous discussion on this topic focused on some visual devices used in comics to… [more]
This is Your Comic on Drugs
How Drugs Killed Comics In 1954 the comic publishing industry faced a Galactus-sized threat from psychiatrist Fredric Wertham. His study linked comic book reading to juvenile delinquency and other social ills. The report whipped up… [more]
The Audacity of Hope, Geek Culture, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Part 2
A week ago I went to see the new Mission Impossible. While waiting for it to start, I was a bit amused to see trailers for two upcoming movies—The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the latest… [more]
Weird Worlds: The Minor Mainstream Works of Steve Gerber, Part 3 – Captain America
Of the works that I am considering in this series of articles, Steve Gerber’s run on Captain America is by far the shortest. Weighing in at a scant 3 and three quarter issues, this truncated… [more]
“And Thus Exemplify This Process.” – Duality, Duplicity and Dissolution in Providence #2
Providence thus far appears at the very least to be an exercise in dichotomy. The first issue portraying relatively liberated sexual play alongside tragic repression. The second issue appears to do much the same, only… [more]
Ex Machina and the Art of Appropriate Stylization
I want to be perfectly clear about something right from the start: I really liked Ex Machina. I’d go so far as to call it a great film. When it’s end-of-the-year-list time I suspect Ex… [more]
The Audacity of Hope, Geek Culture, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Part 1
When Emily Dickinson wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” she clearly didn’t anticipate geek culture. For despite popular stereotypes, one of the most dominant characteristics of many in the geek community is a deep… [more]
The Ravishing Repertoire of Jean Rollin
This is a guest post by the fabulous horror critic Goregirl. You can keep up with her writing at 366 Weird Movies, Tumblr, and follow her on Twitter. Jean Rollin directed over fifty films in… [more]
Madness is Waiting: Hannibal Season Three Episode Eight
With episode eight of Hannibal’s third season, The Great Red Dragon, we’ve jumped ahead three years in time to the events of the first Hannibal novel, Red Dragon. It’s a dramatic jump, one that fundamentally… [more]
Outdoor Basketball Goals, Ant-Man, and Twinkies: Ambivalence at the Multiplex
When we first decided to buy a house, I had one requirement. I wanted a basketball goal. It’s not that I was a serious basketball player or anything, but having an outdoor goal seemed necessary—like… [more]
Where the Kaiju Things Are: All Monsters Attack
After Destroy All Monsters, Toho took the Godzilla franchise in a controversial direction. The studio decided to throw their biggest director at their smallest film yet, birthing one of the least popular Godzilla movies ever.… [more]
We Are a Zero-Sum Game: Hannibal Season Three Episode Seven
Hannibal comes to its midseason point with this episode, “Digestivo.” Not only does it essentially dramatically conclude the current storylines (before a jump forward multiple years into the events of Red Dragon), it also provides… [more]
Celebrating Apollo 11 Day: A Short Look at Space Travel and Pop Culture
Today is an historic day in world history, and ironically it will probably be some sort of world holiday at some point in the future. But as of 2015, we’re still grappling with the historic… [more]
“And Then It Was Continued Thereafter. Unto All Eternity.”: A Quite Unexpected Afterthought on The Multiversity
By far the biggest news to come out of SDCC, for me personally, was She Makes Comics winning best documentary at the independent film festival. Second to this was the fruit borne of the “Multiversity… [more]