There’s an argument that the current wave of superhero dominated content that pervades popular media doesn’t begin with the MCU but with X-men the Animated Series, a cartoon that ran from 1992-1997 and is a formative touchstone for many millennial viewers who have come of age today. This argument may be somewhat backed up by…
Tag: comics
e313. PCA2024: Adapting X-Men
On this week’s special epsiode we take one last look at this year’s Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago with a look at papers from one of the panels in the Comics Studies group. Mav is joined by Joseph and John Darowski who will be appearing with him in the upcoming book Adapting X-men from…
e305. Dark Academia: a Deep Dive into Murder, Mystery & Midterms
Have you seen that new Dark Academia show about the mysterious elite school for special kids where there’s the one kid who doesn’t seem to belong even amongst the other weirdos at the weird school and there’s some sinister plot going on that no one is talking about but it’s probably people being murdered and…
e303. Our Lives in Pop Culture
It could be argued that the pop culture that you absorb makes you who you are. That’s certainly true of the hosts of this show. After all, it’s a show about pop culture hosted by pop culture nerds. So obviously we got this way… somehow! But how? On today’s show Mav takes Hannah and Wayne…
CFC: Superhero fatigue and the Illusion of Change
From Mav: If you’re the kinda person who reads pop culture think pieces on the internet (which, I assume you must be if you’re reading this) you’ve probably come across some that talk about the impending death of the MCU. In fact, if Tatiana Siegel of Variety is to be believed, even Marvel is a…
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…
Call For Comments: Publishing the Public Domain
From Mav: So if you don’t live in the tiny corner of the internet that follows creators rights within the comic book publishing world, you probably missed a story a couple weeks ago that few of us who do live in that corner were obsessed with. Bill Willingham, creator of the comic Fables, decided to…
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,…
Call For Comments: So How About That Harley Quinn?
From Mav: So I want to talk about Harley Quinn. Why? Because I think she has a very interesting and near unique (maybe along with Deadpool) place in current superhero fandom. I’ve had this ongoing conversation with Wayne about the difficulty in creating major new comic characters for the Big Two (Marvel and DC) in…