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The Only Part I’ll Remember: The Dream States in Charles Burns’ X’ed Out Trilogy and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil
This article will attempt to explore of some of the obvious and not so obvious similarities of the dream imagery that appears in both the X’ed Out trilogy and Brazil and what that imagery represents.… [more]
Nameless #2: All Spaced Out
While the first issue of Nameless explored dream territory and the kind of dark modern-day occultism of Sandman or Constantine, the second issue literally takes right off into space, going to Event Horizon territory and… [more]
Nikkatsu Noir: A Colt is My Passport
Nikkatsu is Japan’s oldest movie studio. It was founded in 1912 but hit its peak from the fifties to the sixties. After that they started pushing pink films, basically Japanese soft-core. However before that slow… [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 20
Issue #23 “Larger Than Life” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Dean Motter, Ron Tiner Colors: Tom Zuiko Letters: Elitta Fell Cover: Dave McKean Without a doubt, the most memorable aspect of fiction are the characters—figures that… [more]
Spotlighting Underrated Films: The Hit (1986)
Boy, do I love the poster for the Stephen Frears film The Hit. It looks like a super-cool 80s noir and it sports the wonderful tag line: “Even bad guys have bad days.” Now, the… [more]
Better Call Saul vs “Slippin’ Jimmy”
Here we are, back in the world of Better Call Saul, where the themes of ethics and fraternal loyalty are firmly in the foreground. We learn a little more about Chuck’s specific medical condition, and… [more]
Honest Bees and a Critique of Capitalism: Jupiter Ascending
I loved the design of this movie. Jupiter Ascending feels like someone took Dune (the book) and mashed it up with every Tor book cover, then seasoned it with the kind of contemporary science-fiction design that rarely makes it into movies. [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed and Reconstructed, Part Fifteen
Sometimes, friends, it seems like OMAC is a comic that can’t win no matter how hard it tries. Fans of Jack Kirby’s original eight-issue run didn’t like how it ended, while readers who weren’t fans… [more]
A Look at Better Call Saul, The Comic Book
The first Better Call Saul comic book I’ve had the chance to read is an online comic, available freely from AMC, titled “Client Development”. It tells a story from the Breaking Bad days, covering scenes… [more]
Arrow Season 3 Episode 15 Review
The League of Assassins has loomed large over the third season of Arrow. Malcolm’s attempts to escape the death sentence he’s been saddled with has been the motivating factor for much of the season’s overarching… [more]
Smorgasbord #13: Satan, TM
In this hour-and-40-minutes spectacular, Shawn and Tom wrestle with the solicitations for the month of May, grapple with the first image of the cienametic Aquaman, tussle with a whole host of TV announcements (including a… [more]
James Bond and Class Politics: Kingsman
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a killer action flick with a cool aesthetic, great actors, and a surprisingly vivid thematic bent. [more]
“I’m Making Dream Art”: Further Thoughts on Nameless #1
There are at least two ways to write Lovecraftian horror. One is to take the various elements of the Cthulhu mythos and tell your own story within that framework. Another way is to use various… [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed And Reconstructed, Part Fourteen
After the original OMAC series ended with a literal—if too-goddamn-tidy-for-its-own-good—bang in 1975, all was quiet in “The World That’s Coming!” for a couple of years, but one should never underestimate DC’s ability to milk a… [more]
The End of Gamera
So not only is this the last of Kaneko’s trilogy it’s the last Daiei Gamera movie and the last Gamera movie distributed by Toho, all of which is sort of a big deal. So even if this isn’t the last Gamera movie I’ll review it’s still a bit of a milestone. [more]
Sifting Through the Ashes: Analyzing Hellblazer, Part 19
Issue #21 “The God of All Gods” Writer: Jamie Delano Art: Mark Buckingham, Alfredo Alcala Colors: Lovern Kindzierski Letters: Elitta Fell Cover: Dave McKean Continuing directly from the previous issue, “The God of All Gods”… [more]
Rasputin Comes to an End of Sorts in Issue #5
One of the questions with historical fantasy books like Rasputin or Manifest Destiny is how close they’re going to parallel the true recorded history. In the case of Manifest Destiny, they follow the general outlines… [more]
The Frank Miller & Alan Moore Adaptations
As we near the climax of comparing Miller and Moore it’s worth talking about the adaptations. Is there any good adaptation of Alan Moore’s work? Is there a bad adaptation of Miller’s work? [more]
The Marx Brothers as Guardian Angels of Young Lovers in Jeopardy–Part 1
Harpo! When did you seem like an angel the last time? And played the grey harp of gold? -Jack Kerouac, ”To Harpo Marx” Are the Marx Brothers believable guardian angels? It may be difficult to… [more]
Ethics and Brothers in Better Call Saul Episode 4
Better Call Saul is going to be a show about ethics. At least, that was the prediction of some of my fellow Breaking Bad scholars that emerged from our conversations last week in Albuquerque. I… [more]
Oh, My Aching Cranium!: Jack Kirby’s OMAC Deconstructed And Reconstructed, Part Thirteen
It’s panic time! When last we left “The World That’s Coming!,” OMAC had reverted to the form of his human alter-ego, Buddy Blank, who had no knowledge of where he was or how he got… [more]
Don’t Underestimate Jimmy on Better Call Saul
It’s easy to forget, when watching Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman in action, that he’s one of the smartest guys in any given room. Jimmy’s street-tough use of language, his lack of “cool”, his too-formal suits all… [more]
Journey to the West Kicks Ass With a Giant Foot
There are fat suits and demons and cartoonish feet and attempts at actual emotion all scrambled together into one movie. [more]