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“Text Is Vulnerable To Criticism.”:The Multiversity: Ultra Comics #1
Well. Here we are. The penultimate issue of the Multiversity event. If we are to take anything away from this issue it is the realization that, contrary to my initial impressions and predictions, the greater… [more]
Fighting Two Wars: George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead as a Critique of 1960s American Society
A. Introduction Night of the Living Dead is considered to be one of the most important horror films in the history of American cinema and is “widely recognized as the first modern horror movie” (Badley,… [more]
Portraits In Alienated British Youth Circa 1989-90, Part Four: Way Too Calm Before The Storm
First off, apologies to those of you who may be following this series for the delay between our last segment and this one. I wanted to wrap up on my OMAC retrospective here at Sequart… [more]
“Shut Up, Donny!”: An Existential Reading of The Big Lebowski
The Coen brothers’ most enduring film might be 1998’s improbable cult phenomenon, The Big Lebowski. Coming after the triumph of Fargo and before the inspired musical experience of O Brother, Where Are Thou?, Lebowski occupies… [more]
“It’s Not a Game!”: Sam Peckinpah’s The Westerner
You remember that amazing TV show that got cancelled after just a few episodes? The one from the respected TV writer who then went on to become a famous filmmaker? The show was sort of… [more]
“The Song and the People is the Same”: Authenticity and Interracial Suspicion in American Music
Amiri Baraka’s quotation “The song and the people is the same.” questions the philosophical conviction that the essence of a thing predates its existence and tells us something about music’s nature as an art form… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 25
Issue #29 “Sick at Heart” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Ron Tiner & Kevin Walker Colors: Tom Zuiko Letters: Gaspar Saladino Cover: Kent Williams While being comprised of many styles of stories that can be grouped… [more]
Community Season Six: “Laws of Robotics and Party Rights”
Episode five of the sixth season of Community, “Laws of Robotics and Party Rights”, might be the best episode of the season yet. I say “might” because it still has a few problems. Let’s get… [more]
Notes on Casanova: Acedia #1-2
This year I wrote a book, published by Sequart, called The Future of Comics, The Future of Men: Matt Fraction’s Casanova. That book argues that Fraction’s science-fiction spy series offers both a critique of capitalism,… [more]
A Countless Number of Small Items: King Kong vs Godzilla and Akira Ifukube Pt. 2
I visited temples in Rehe and saw numerous Buddha statues embedded all over the wall. Even though each statue was humble, seeing all of them together on the wall impressed me greatly. [more]
A Countless Number of Small Items: King Kong vs Godzilla and Akira Ifukube
Be done with rote learning and its attendant vexations; for is there distinction of a “yes” from a “yea” comparable now to the gulf between evil and good? What all men fear, I too must fear… how barren and pointless a thought! [more]
The Good and Bad of Diversity in Comics
Diversity has always been a problem in comics. In the early days, minorities were nigh invisible, and women were usually relegated to romantic interests/damsels in distress. In the modern era, however, DC and Marvel have… [more]
Such Beautiful Miniatures: Yasuyuki Inoue and a New Age for Toho
Earth Defence Force is the start of an important transition in Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s techniques, a transition that wouldn’t reach its peak until a new decade arrived. The bright and colourful space film required Eiji Tsuburaya to focus more on optical effects then he had to date. [more]
Robots Are Taking Over Hollywood
2015 is being called “The Year of AI” and “The Year of the Robot” due to the abnormal number of high profile sci-fi movies, featuring robotic and AI characters, being released this year including Avengers:… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 24
Issue #28 “Thicker Than Water” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Ron Tiner & Kevin Walker Colors: Tom Zuiko Letters: Gaspar Saladino Cover: Kent Williams Following the brief tenure of Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman on the… [more]
Defending the Much-Maligned X-Files I Want to Believe
With the recent announcement that there will be a new X-Files miniseries, the internet exploded this week with people aching to see Mulder and Scully in action again. It has been some time since we… [more]
Born on a Mountaintop in Tennessee: Davy Crockett and the Early American Superhero
A century before the Shadow, the Phantom, and Superman, the Crockett Almanacs had turned Davy Crockett into one of the first American superheroes. [more]
The First Kaiju Fight: Godzilla Raids Again
As Nakajima himself put it, “I had to stand in the middle of the set while a huge amount of crushed ice came tumbling down on me.” The weight of the ice, coupled with the weight of the GyakushuGoji suit, broke the platform Nakajima and a cable operator were situated on. [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 23
Issue 27 “Hold Me” Writer: Neil Gaiman Art & Cover: Dave McKean Colors: Dave McKean & Danny Vizzo Letters: Todd Klein Following Grant Morrison’s two part tale of nuclear terror, is arguably one of the… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 22
Issue 25 “Early Warning” Writer: Grant Morrison Art, Colors, & Cover: David Lloyd Letters: Tom Frame As stated before, over the 300 issue run Hellblazer would be written by many of the comic industry’s biggest… [more]
Tsuburaya Does Colour: Rodan
Rodan presented the special effects mastermind with a unique opportunity. Not only was Eiji Tsuburaya shooting in colour for only the second time but also he was allotted an unprecedented 60 percent of the film’s budget [more]
The Literary Art of Stephen King: “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away”
In this story, King is elevating an entire medium of expression that almost no one takes seriously, even though in many ways it has a purity that most of the finer arts lack. [more]
On Seeing Persona in Theatres
So Ingmar Bergman is one of those directors spoken of almost unanimously in apotheosized terms. He’s highly regarded by those film critics most driven by artistic pretension, and highly thought of even by his peers. [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed And Reconstructed, Part Sixteen
So—what was that all about, then? I assure you, it’s hardly a rhetorical question—Jack Kirby’s eight-issue run on OMAC is stuffed to the gills (and well beyond) with concepts, themes, often-eerily-prescient prognostication, and deft societal… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #4
In what is now a common trope, Sam Wilson, aka, the All-New Captain America, is getting his ass kicked, this time by Armadillo, a third-rate villain who first appeared in Cap #308 (August, 1985; Gruenwald/Neary/… [more]