One and done
Comic books aren’t great with beginnings and endings, to be honest. As a serialized medium, very few stories have their complete start and finish in a single volume and often rely on a whole host of other stories to make complete sense. When I was a kid, though, nobody I knew really cared if it … Continue reading
True crime
Very few things titillate us like a good serial killer story. Those who kill irrationally have become our new movie monster, as the horror of a Frankenstein’s Monster or Dracula has waned in our imagination over the decades. We see vampires and werewolves as teenage celebrities more often than not in today’s media, but serial … Continue reading
Earth’s mightiest heroes — sort of
A mythical warrior wielding armaments of legend. A hero encased in metal who becomes a living weapon. A normal man thrown into extraordinary circumstances armed simply with a shield. A big green monster caught in the crosshairs of a secret government agency. All told, seven soldiers out to save the world from an incursion too … Continue reading
Catman, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways
It’s been a year since I wrote my first column for The Idler, and in that time I’ve been able to tackle a whole host of things I felt were important to me. From the earliest comics that drew me into the medium to some of the most thought-provoking material I’ve encountered as an adult, … Continue reading
Five years later — a thousand years from now
Imagining the future can be tricky. On one hand, we picture ourselves wearing jetpacks, flying through the open sky to get to work in the morning, and sending our relatives off (if we’re lucky) to live in space colonies on the moon. Love triumphs over our petty hatreds and we live in peace, not just … Continue reading
Just beneath the surface
Occasionally, I read something that I know is intrinsically good, but I can’t quite figure out why it resonates with me. It’s not a common occurrence, but when it happens, I’m always left feeling a bit uneasy. Suffice to say, I’ve read a lot of comic books, and I can rush to judgment as fast … Continue reading
Better by half
It’s been almost seventeen years since I came out, not yet half my life, but edging closer to it year after year. Even way back then, I felt like I was coming into myself late, twenty-one years old and in my last year of college. Today, I read about out LGBT teenagers in high school … Continue reading
From last to first
It’s amazing how much we want to see ourselves reflected in the animal kingdom. From horoscopic astrological signs to Disney’s The Lion King, we seem to desperately want to understand humans by terms of bestial natures and vice versa. We ascribe personalities to all manner of animals — from those snooty giraffes at the zoo … Continue reading
The end of the world as we know it
So that’s that. Time to pack on up and get on out of this universe. Today’s date — December 21, 2012 — has long been the source of much consternation for conspiracy theorists of all manners, driving scientists, writers and artists of all types to support or disprove the armageddon it supposedly brings in its … Continue reading
The truth is in here
Everybody loves a good conspiracy theory. Books, movies, and television are chock full of fictional and non-fictional attempts to make sense of the world — not with the simplest of explanations, but in the most interesting way possible. We want all dots to connect, even if matching point A to point B is frightening, because … Continue reading
