Category Archives: Comics/graphic novels
How to win the coming culture war in 2017
A version of this article first appeared in The Big Issue magazine in January 2017. Journalism worth paying for. Available weekly from street vendors or subscriptions here. History rarely falls into neat numerical decades. I would assert the 1980s (yuppies, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Film, Media, Music, Politics, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged ali smith, BIG ISSUE, books, cinema, culture, culture war, Disney, dr quinn medicine woman, dreamgirls, everbody's talking about jamie, feminism, film, FTW, henry krieger, Hollywood, jane seymour, jon musker, media, moana, pauline boty, politics, rogue one, ron clements, susan faludi, tv, tyrus wong, unforgotten, Wonder Woman
Leave a comment
Bryan Singer on: Chariots of the Gods, Valkyrie, Star Trek & the mythology of X-Men Apocalypse
Here’s my full interview with the very well-read Bryan Singer on X-Men Apocalypse. We talked the Bible, classic Star Trek, the 60s vogue for theories on space seeding aliens, and why the Holocaust is a presence in so many of … Continue reading
Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Film, Germany, History, Media, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV
Tagged 60s, bryan singer, chariots of the gods, cinema, film, Hollywood, Star Trek, who mourns for adonais, x men, x men apocalypse
5 Comments
The trouble with superheroes taking on terrorism..
I love superhero comics and they’ve never been handled with more love than by writers and filmmakers who grew up on them too. And yet.. And yet.. In the latest Captain America Civil War film, when a terrorist bomb goes … Continue reading
Why doesn’t Wonder Woman wear a mask?
Originally written for a recent Radio 4 programme pilot about “masked men”. In bicentennial year 1976 on first trip to the USA, I first confronted the conundrum of Wonder Woman and masks in three comics I bought. While most of … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 1976, 70s, Clark Kent, Diana Prince, feminism, FTW, Priscilla Rich, superman, The Cheetah, William Marston, Wonder Woman
15 Comments
Plotting the arc of darkness with Joss Whedon
Here’s a link to my interview with Joss Whedon for Radio 3’s Night Waves on June 12th. We covered his writing for Roseanne, Shakespearean superheroes, his love of musicals — especially Brigadoon — the way studios treat writers, (take Firefly … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Media, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged BBC, books, Brigadoon, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, cinema, culture, feminism, film, FTW, Hollywood, Joss Whedon, literature, media, music, Musicals, Roseanne, tv, zombies
4 Comments
Murder, Mirth and Care Bears: The uses of an Oxford English degree
Photo copyright and courtesy of: Ian Fraser at Virtual Archive Writing for news bulletins, writing for standup comedy, writing murders for tv drama, writing for comics and fantasy gaming novels. These were some of the uses to which a group … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Education, Media, Uncategorized
Tagged culture, elitism, English literature, FTW, journalism, literature, media, oxford, publishing, St Edmund Hall, Stewart Lee, terrorism, tv, universities
4 Comments
Something Warhammer This Way Comes
I discovered the world of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K through my son. Warhammer 40K was launched just over 25 years ago. To mark the anniversary I have written a feature about its world of table top fantasy wargaming for the BBC … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Games, War
Tagged culture, FTW, Games Workshop, media, Nottingham, war, Warhammer, zombies
Leave a comment
Noooooo Uderzo Nooooo: Asterix and the afterlife
This article originally appeared in The Guardian online on September 29th and in the print edition on October 1st. In Obelix and Co, a devious young Roman general, Caius Preposterus (a thinly veiled Jacques Chirac) tries to corrupt Asterix’s proud … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Comedy, Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Uncategorized
Tagged Asterix, Chirac, culture, France, Goscinny, media, publishing, Uderzo
Leave a comment
1951 then and now: Britain Mended, Britain on the Make
If you want to know what Britain was like before The Festival of Britain you should watch the masterful 1950 film noir, Night And The City. It features a chase around the industrial chimneys and postwar rubble of what was … Continue reading
Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Culture, Design, Film, Religion, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged 50s, cinema, culture, design, elitism, Festival of Britain, film, FTW, politics, Richard Widmark, universities
1 Comment
Eet is, ‘ow you say, uncanny, no?
Fans of Asterix will need no reminding that the comic featured a youthful Jacques Chirac as a thrusting young politician in Obelix and Co (1976). But this morning provided a particularly delightful example of the potential of looking at politics … Continue reading
Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Crime and Justice, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged Asterix, France, politics
Leave a comment
