e291. Fables, Fanfic and Fair Using the Public Domain

On this week’s episode we explore the complex topic of public domain publishing by tackling the recent controversy surrounding comic book author Bill Willingham, creator of Fables. After a long battle over ownership with DC Comics, Willingham recently announced that he was releasing the intellectual property of Fables into the public domain so that anyone…

e290. Figuring Out Fall & Analyzing Autumn

Fall may be the weirdest season for pop culture. Think about it, we have celebrations based around the winter holidays… not just Christmas… but the whole season is just full of movies and media celebrating the very concept of winter. Summer is much the same. We have summer blockbusters and beach reads. We have the…

e289. Superman in Cleveland

Did you know it’s Superman’s 85th Anniversary? You might have. Did you know that he was created in Cleveland? Maybe. And if you didn’t know these things, well, it is and he was. And in celebration, the city of Cleveland has been running a series of events for the last several weeks which led up…

e286. The Legend of Harley Quinn

On last week’s episode, we delved into the world of classic literary character Hercule Poirot and his cultural significance across multiple iterations. This week, we go in the exact opposite direction. Recorded at the exact same time as last week’s show, Wayne and Mav are joined by returning guest Andrew Deman and first time guest,…

e284. Making the Band of Theseus

How many members of a musical band need to present to make the band the band. Is it different if a member dies than it is if a member simply quits or is kicked out? If a band splits exactly in two, are both halfs still the band or does one half become the band…

e283. Is Josie and the Pussycats a Bad Movie?

A few weeks ago when we did our episode saying goodbye to Riverdale, Monica made Mav promise that we could do an episode watching and analyzing one of her favorite nostalgic films, Josie and the Pussycats, a 2001 movie drawn from the same IP as Riverdale was. Mav agreed and so here we are. Was…

e282. Misunderstood Pop Music Politics

A couple weeks ago the RNC presidential primary debates opened with a segment where each candidate got to explain why they best epitomized the conservative values for the real american laid out by Oliver Anthony’s country folk song “Rich Men North of Richmond”. They sounded like idiots, and even more so when Anthony himself released…

e281. Saying Goodbye to Riverdale, the Best Show on Television

Riverdale has been a constant for this podcast since almost the very beginning. We devoted our sixth episode to talking about it. Calling it “the best show on television” has become a long running joke in the DNA of our show. However, last week, the CW aired the final episode of Riverdale, closing the door…

Call For Comments: The Theory Of The Band Of Theseus

From Mav: Time for a little thought experiment. Recently, I came across an article on the Guardian called “‘I’m the only one that can say I never quit’: meet the bands with no original members left”. In it, Michael Hann interviews long-standing members of old rock bands who don’t have any original members left. For…

e276. Old Heroes Never Die! (But Do They Even Fade Away?)

There’s a lot of roles for old guys in media these days. Or rather, not just roles for old guys, there’s a lot of roles for characters that we’ve seen grow older in their movies and TV shows. For instance, there’s an Indiana Jones movie floating around theaters at time of recording, as well as…