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
The darkest of knights
I was recently at a party in which I met a gentleman who tried to convince me that the third Matrix film is the finest of the trilogy. Needless to say, I was aghast and spent the next several minutes arguing against this delusional notion until finally my wife wisely and diplomatically separated me from … 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
Parallel lives
As I pulled into my office parking lot this morning and turned off the car I noticed that the digital dashboard clock showed “6:16.” In my early morning pre-coffee daze my mind registered that 616 is the main Marvel universe’s designation as provided by Alan Moore. I always respected Moore for giving the universe a … 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
They’re watching you
These kids today. As I get older I struggle to not become of those, “these kids today” kinds of people. I worry that I might be becoming a crotchety old man though. You see, I grew up in the 1980s and hold a fondness for the decade and its popular culture. I also remember the … Continue reading
The coyote savior
I have a confession to make; I don’t understand some of Grant Morrison’s stories. What I mean to say is that I usually can follow the plot and generally comprehend the basic narrative but I feel like I’m missing important things within the tales. It seems as if I am only reading the surface and … 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
Saga: An excitingly new same old story
There is a longstanding observation, which contends that writers are thieves and liars who steal stories from their daily lives and lie about the details. While this reflection is comical in nature, at its heart is a kernel of truth. Each of us — not only writers — is a storyteller who steals tales from … 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
