Category Archives: Popular Culture

It’s All Part of the Plan

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Timothy Burke

So. The Dark Knight? Great. Though my wife hated it, I think maybe because she expects her superheroes to triumph in the end and thus found the film too psychologically relentless and unpleasant. —————– [spoilers to follow] If you’re deeply … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 6 Comments

If the Juggernaut Ran Into Thor’s Hammer…

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Timothy Burke

[This is my contribution to the Valve symposium on Douglas Wolk, Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean.] ————- What happens when the tide of a media panic recedes? Fans of a particular media form or genre … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 1 Comment

Abra Kadabra

Posted on June 27, 2008 by Timothy Burke

Wall-E is terrific, but I also really liked the Pixar short, Presto, beforehand. There have been some attempts to recapture the spirit of the classic Warner Brothers’ cartoons over the years. As far continuing series go, I liked both Pinky … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Popular Culture | 5 Comments

When Wertham Comes A-Calling

Posted on June 21, 2008 by Timothy Burke

I’m working through David Hajdu’s excellent The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. While it’s a story that I already knew well, Hadju has collected a lot of interesting reminiscences from comic-book creators of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Popular Culture | 18 Comments

It’s a Mystery

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Timothy Burke

Kind of on a nostalgic impulse, I decided to pick up the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which came out on June 6th. I haven’t played so-called tabletop games, including D&D, for a long time, but this release caught … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Popular Culture | 8 Comments

Research Notes: GI Joe

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Timothy Burke

Sorting through some old papers in my version of spring cleaning, I found some notes I wrote while watching two episodes of the 80s version of GI Joe while I was working on Saturday Morning Fever. It was one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 6 Comments

The Summer Scorecard

Posted on May 20, 2008 by Timothy Burke

1. This is the kind of issue my colleague Bob Rehak thinks about so very well, but I was really struck watching Prince Caspian at how poorly the WETA house style serves that film. The script was pretty decent considering … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 5 Comments

Midlife Crisis Man to the Rescue!

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Timothy Burke

Belle Waring, riffing off of Cala from Unfogged, imagines a political wife who spontaneously develops superpowers and vaporizes her cheating spouse on-camera with laser-beam eyes. This made me realize that there are very few regular comic-book superheroes whose powers spring … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | Comments Off

Dungeons and Dragons as Pedagogy and Sociology

Posted on March 7, 2008 by Timothy Burke

I may be the last person this week to blog about Gary Gygax’s death. This spares me of having to come up with a variant form of the “he failed his saving roll” jokes, at least. A lot of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Popular Culture | 5 Comments

Snow White, Sacheen Littlefeather and Great Dance Numbers on the Holocaust

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Timothy Burke

Is it just me, or are the Oscars now a real bore due to the efficiency and general good taste of the whole show? I used to watch it with my wife, who really loves the Oscars, and we’d both … Continue reading →