ON COMICS CHARACTERS
ON SCI-FI FRANCHISES
ON GRANT MORRISON
ON TV AND MOVIES
OTHER BOOKS
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Magazine Archives for:
March 2016
Why CBS Would be Right to Cancel Supergirl: A Ratings and Narrative Analysis
Before diving into this very long article I feel that I should lay my cards on the table. I enjoy watching Supergirl. I enjoy watching most television shows based on comic books. I also have a… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 7: Parallel Lines
There’s no point in me doing this if I can’t be myself. Every time I try to do things someone else’s way, it blows up in my face. I’ve been trying to be the person… [more]
The Trailer Park Boys Return for Season 10
Trailer Park Boys has turned itself into a cottage industry. Growing organically (pardon the pun) from a short film by Nova Scotia filmmaker Mike Clattenburg, the Boys had their own Showcase TV series from 2000-2007,… [more]
Science Fiction Elements of Infinite Jest: Part 2, Giant Feral Hamsters and Infants
A worldwide reread of the greatest novel ever written, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, is currently underway, celebrating twenty years since its first publication. “Infinite Winter” began January 31; readers consume about 75 pages per… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 6: Changing Masks
Though it doesn’t pass the Bechdel test (there are too few female characters to meet that very specific bar), Better Call Saul is, in its way, a very feminist show. Not just because there’s a… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 54
Issue #65 “Fear and Loathing Part Two: London Kills Me” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Cover: Glenn Fabry; By know the inevitability of John Constantine’s… [more]
Smorgasbord #39: A Fistful of Nothing
This week on the Smorgasbord: Tom and Shawn discuss AMC’s Preacher, the Civil War trailer (you know which one), the return of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to their iconic roles, questionable decisions at Valiant,… [more]
An Interview with Julian Darius on the Canals of Mars Kickstarter
Julian Darius, the founder of Sequart Organization and Martian Lit, has been running a Kickstarter for his new Sci-Fi anthology comic series, Martian Comics. I got a chance to interview him about the world and… [more]
Returning to the Overlook: A Kubrick Fan Finally Reads The Shining
When I was in college, fancying myself a budding film nerd, I began deep diving into the canon of essential films, and in my mind none were more essential or important than those of Stanley… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 5: Shifting Sands
It’s something of an understatement to call Better Call Saul a subtle show, but the label fits. Few American TV shows have had the boldness to fold their dramatic tension into small character moments, revelations… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 53
Issue #64 “Fear and Loathing Part One: For God and Country” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Cover: Glenn Fabry; Although overly cynical there is some… [more]
Energy and Environmental Conservation Took the Stage with Leo’s Oscar Win
On a night packed to the brim with the brightest stars in the Hollywood universe, none of them shone brighter than Leonardo DiCaprio. After two decades and four near-misses, the film icon finally reeled in… [more]
I Keep Talking Louder Because You Haven’t Heard: Appreciating The Paper
[NOTE: The following is something I worked on sporadically for a while, as a way to understand more about how I work inside a relationship (any relationship, generally, but with my wife, specifically). Only then… [more]
I Just Want Them to Know That They Didn’t Break Me: Pretty in Pink Thirty Years On
Pretty in Pink turns thirty this year. Written by John Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch, the film stars Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, John Cryer, James Spader, Annie Potts, and Harry Dean Stanton. It would… [more]
The Near and Distant Horizon
Timeliness is next to prescience, or something like that. Here I was preparing this screed when I chanced upon an article by a person who insists that the survival of comic books is dependent upon… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 52
Issue #63 “Forty” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Cover: Glenn Fabry; As discussed in prior installments of this column, Hellblazer was one of the few… [more]
Descender #11: Stuck in the Middle
The moral sides are rather sharply drawn now in issue #11 of Descender. We’ve met humanoid fanatics, bent on the destruction of all robotic life (The Scrappers of Gnish) and now we’ve met the other… [more]
Smorgasbord #38: Moon Witch is Gonna Get Ya
The Iron Fist casting news brings with it a large discussion which dominates the episode as Shawn and Tom discuss the Marvel monochrome universe, the diminished importance of source fidelity, and being uncomfortable by heaving… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 4: Half-Measures
If there were any doubts about the nature of Jimmy McGill’s feelings for and commitment to Kim Wexler, the latest episode of Better Call Saul lays them to rest. Jimmy has made mistakes, and will… [more]
“It’s Like Underneath Everything There Is Just Chaos…” – Perspective and Politics in Providence #7
“Any magazine-cover hack can splash paint around wildly and call it a nightmare or a Witches’ Sabbath or a portrait of the devil, but only a great painter can make such a thing really scare… [more]
The X-Men Series Re-Watch: X-Men
Does the first X-Men stand the test of time, or is it a film that is better remembered than revisited? [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 51
Issue #62 “End of the Line” Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon; Colors: Tom Ziuko; Letters: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Stuart Moore; Cover: Glenn Fabry; Life is full of many choices and in a way it… [more]
Plutona #4: The Power of Imagination
One of the many things Plutona gets right about children is how seriously they take their imaginations. It isn’t as if they don’t know the difference between what’s “real” and what’s not — they just… [more]
The Boys are Back in Town: Power Man and Iron Fist #1
Nostalgia played a big role in why I picked up the first issue of Marvel’s new Power Man and Iron Fist series. From the pre-release buzz, it appeared that writer David F. Walker, artist Sanford Greene,… [more]
Better Call Saul Season 2, Episode 3: The Scorpion and the Frog
Breaking Bad certainly had its share of contemplative scenes, but it still had suspense, action and tension. It’s offspring, Better Call Saul is in an entirely different key, drawing out the slow game, lingering on… [more]