Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the biggest movie in the world for the last week has been Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Despite a concerted right-wing campaign to pretend that no one is interested in the film, it appears to be wildly successful. This is hardly a surprise; Nolan is…
Month: July 2026
e431. Henchmen, Heavies, Minions & Muscle: Narrative Dynamics of the Hired Goon
Behind every great villain is… frankly, well, often there’s another bigger villain pulling the strings. But the truth is, while we often celebrate “the big bad” some of the most interesting villainy comes from the lieutenants that the hero meets along the way to facing the big bad. Sometimes, these henchmen might even eclipse the…
e430. Tyrant: Dinosaurs and the Evolution of Indie Comics
To a lot of people “comics” seems to mean superheroes. So much that “comic book movies” is the term that we sometimes use for what should properly be called “superhero movies”. This makes sense, given the stranglehold that DC and Marvel comics have had over the American comic publishing industry for nearly a century. However,…
e429. Out of this World: Alien Archetypes in Pop Culture
Aliens are one of the most enduring concepts in popular culture. It makes sense really. If we know there are other planets then it stands to reason that we might wonder what’s on them. There’s no shortage of books, films, TV shows and video games that explore this. So it’s kind of weird that we…