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Magazine
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]
8House Kiem: Another House, Another Story
It’s fairly well established that Brandon Graham conceived of 8House as not just a connected series of stories, set in the same science fiction universe, but as a “label”, under which any number of stories… [more]
Blood and Breath: Hannibal‘s Series Finale
Hannibal’s series finale winds to a close with an obvious note of hope. Much like the season two finale, no one is definitely alive, but no one is definitively done either. It ends with a… [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]
The Value of Cultural Literacy
Cultural literacy doesn’t appear to be a value that all segments of society embrace. Or, at least, some groups in our world embrace it in a very different way from me. I’ve recently had a… [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]
We Bare Bears: A Charming Series With Potential
Over the last few years Cartoon Network has seen an astounding resurgence (in terms of quality at the very least). Greenlighting cartoons such as Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Steven Universe, the network has near… [more]
Silence Speaks Volumes: The Tribe
I wasn’t sure I’d like The Tribe. I certainly wanted too, because it sounded like the sort of thing that could be very interesting, but its particular brand of interesting also seemed like a double-edged… [more]
The Beast in the Pit: Hannibal Season Three Episode Twelve
The penultimate episode of the third season of Hannibal, “The Number of the Beast Is 666”, likely the penultimate episode of the show, perfectly sets the show for the season’s endgame. It’s too soon for… [more]
Rasputin #8: A Cold Night
When I was in high school, all of us history nerds (or nerds in general) knew one thing and one thing only about Rasputin: the way he was killed. For a young and growing boy,… [more]
Invisible Republic TPB Vol 1: Great Science Fiction
Invisible Republic is celebrating its first TPB release this week, collecting issues #1-5, and this is the perfect opportunity to catch up with this fascinating and intelligent science fiction comic. While ostensibly a science fiction… [more]
The Essentials: Aguirre, The Wrath of God
If one were curating a definitive list of essential films, or even a muddled constantly changing one, you would be remiss to not include a film by Werner Herzog. To be honest Herzog would deserve… [more]
Smorgasbord #25: How Dare You, Chip Zdarsky
Stephen Amell takes method acting to new levels, Mark Millar seeks greener pastures for his fertilizer, the Ignatz Awards nominees are announced, a new legal precedent for Kickstarter may have some interesting ripple effects, and… [more]
A Grim Thriller: The Gift
So there’s a movie in theatres you should see. It’s called The Gift and if you haven’t seen it you might not want to read much about it. It’s a small little thriller directed by… [more]
The Summer of the Compromised Blockbuster Continues With Ant-Man and Fantastic Four
Tis the season of the confused blockbuster. I wrote an article back when Jurassic World came out about how that film felt like it was at war with itself. I didn’t bother writing about it… [more]
Inside Out: A Mostly Great Film
I did a pretty aggressive catch-up day in the theatres the other day. I’ve been trying to do a better job of keeping up on current releases this year. So I managed to cross off… [more]
Manifest Destiny #16: Sacrifice
Improbable as it may seem to some readers, who may be out off by the sharp turn towards fantasy taken in the previous issue of Manifest Destiny, this book is still thoroughly about America, and… [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]
Kill Them All: Hannibal Season Three Episode Eleven
Episode eleven of Hannibal’s third season, “…And the Beast from the Sea” is another good episode of the show, though at times it strikes me as a bit of a funny episode. Namely because every… [more]
Comics and Literacy: Still Struggling
I recently encountered some (sadly) all-too-familiar anti-comics sentiment, and alas I think it reflects an attitude in society that has yet to pass away. When I am engaged to teach students, particularly students trying to… [more]
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Part 3: The Guy Ritchie Affair
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been writing about The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a high-concept spy show that briefly became a pop culture sensation in the mid-‘60s. The show lasted for only 3 ½… [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]
Pixels and Why Video Game Films Never Succeed
The release and instantaneous failure of Adam Sandler’s latest production Pixels shines light on one of Hollywood’s longtime pitfalls – movie adaptations of video games and their utter lack of success. While not a direct… [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]