Funnybooks, funny and otherwise.
To follow in the gargantuan footsteps of Barzun’s seminal (not to mention semeinal) work on the significance — and I use the word in its strictest structuralist sense — of the Hostess oeuvre, the immortal From Cupcakes to Chocodiles: The Decade of Difference, seems presumptuous, if not arrogant. And yet, …
You’re at home playing with your train set when your dad bursts in with a big smile on his face. “Say, sport!”, he says, lifting you up in his firm, rugged arms, “How’d you like to take in a movie with me and your mom tonight? The Mark of Zorro is playing …
Suicide, as a tactic of war, seems to hold a particular horror for us. Because it is so seemingly foreign to the West (although, really, it bears little distinction from the kind of hopeless charges entirely common to the era of modern warfare), we tend to cite it as a …
Auteur theory has been taking it on the chin lately. Never especially strong in this country — as opposed to Europe, where it has even been allowed to influence matters of copyright, in a shockingly communistic example of art being given primacy over commerce — it’s really taken a beating …
MEET THE DEFENDERS: Season 1, Week 1 *** #1: FAMILY TIES Panel 1: The Beast, Wasp, and Nighthawk are having coffee in the kitchen. Iceman enters through the rear door, taking off a heavy coat and scarf. NIGHTHAWK: Hey, Bobby! Is it cold out? Panel 2: Iceman pulls a stocking …
So far this Noirvember, we’ve looked at an incredibly dark noir novel masquerading as a domestic drama centered around a dance contest, and a non-fiction noir that frames a series of historical mass murderers as perfect little short stories. And today, having moved from crypto-noir to non-fiction noir, we’re going …
Continuing my wiseass commentary in conjunction with Calamity Jon’s OHOTMU Redux project, which you should be following like it was your dad and you wanted to buy a Slurpee: SUPREME INTELLIGENCE. The Kree were just as crazy-mad for adding superlatives to everything as were their enemies the Skrull. The leader …
An angel came down from heaven and give me twenty dollars, so I rolled my bones out to the picture show. My plan was to see the evening screening of The Dark Knight Rises, perpetual Batman mark that I am, but I had plenty of time to kill before it started, …
Some of you may be familiar with Calamity Jon Morris‘ nifty OHOTMU Reduxe project, where he’s solicited a raft of talented inksmiths to offer up their interpretations of that unforgettable nerdcyclopedia of the 1980s, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. If you aren’t, then get familiar with it — and click …
When I was young, and I was spending every penny I could scrape together on new comics at the 7-11 and older stuff at thrift stores and bookshops, I knew who the best artist was — the one who seemed like he was working and thinking a few steps ahead of …
Comic books, it is safe to say, made me who I am today. Though I was an unusually literate child, reading above my grade level practically from the time I learned to read, I never enjoyed anything as much as I did superhero comics. I devoured them from my early …
Born: 1969. The book: 1921. The movie: 1946. The music: 1984. The moment: 1871. The look: 1988. The food: 1929. The drink: 1825. The car: 1974. The drive: 1934. The show: 2002. The obsession: 1939. The game: 2000. The country: 1776. The dream: 1968. The art: 1884. The leader: 1932. …
Jose Ortega y Gasset called the metaphor “the most fertile power possessed by mankind”. He compared its potential to reshape the world to that of magic, a divine implement somehow handed down to mere humanity. Indeed, one could argue that the metaphor is humanity; it combines two of our most unique …
1. Highly controversial choice meant to enrage readers, thus drawing lots of links and hits 2. Conventional but ‘artsy’ choice to prove aesthetic credentials 3. Completely ordinary choice that is actually the thing you like best, but you put it third so as not to seem obvious 4. Another completely …
It continues to amaze me every day how completely and thoroughly we fail to understand our own culture. It’s especially baffling considering that this country, really, only has pop culture going for it; having given up on the Supermanly troika of truth, justice, and the American Way, and having shipped …
