This site is updated Thursday afternoon with a new article about an artistic pursuit generally considered to be beneath consideration. James Schellenberg probes science-fiction, Carol Borden draws out the best in comics, Chris Szego dallies with romance and Ian Driscoll stares deeply into the screen. Click here for their bios and individual takes on the gutter. Our Guest Stars shine here
While the writers have considerable enthusiasm for their subjects, they don't let it numb their critical faculties. Tossing away the shield of journalistic objectivity and refusing the shovel of fannish boosterism, they write in the hopes of starting honest and intelligent discussions about these oft-enjoyed but rarely examined artforms. Contact us here.
Recent Features
Noir, With Feelings
Some types of stories are so familiar that the only way to tell your own version of, say, a detective yarn is to find an interesting new angle. Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series makes the title character a wizard who solves supernatural crimes in Chicago. Additionally, Harry has feelings, which seems like the more interesting wrinkle to me. Continue reading...
Holding Out For a Hero
I recently read a column by Ilona Andrews about heroes, which A) though light-hearted was also informative, and B) I immediately decided to steal use as a springboard for an article of my own.<
There’s a lot of discussion as to the role of the hero in modern Romance. Is he a placeholder for the reader, as some would suggest? A Jungian construct created to be the catalyst for the heroine’s own transformation? The prize for surviving the plot? Maybe. But I don’t think the hero represents any one thing - at least, not all the time. And definitely not every hero.
"Fisher," they'd cry, "we're going to find you." They were looking in the wrong place. I was already somewhere else. And as they approached the last position they saw me,
that somewhere else was right behind them. Either a clean bullet to the head or some other form of quick, close, personal death, they slump to the floor, and I leave them for their friends to find.
Before the press conferences of the Big Three at E3 2006, TIME magazine explains why Nintendo’s strategy for success is “don’t listen to your customers”. And given the anticipation for their revolutionary new console, it seems to be working.
The ever-wondrous Pink Tentacle is waving around creepy children's book illustrations by Gojin Ishihara. They're like the little lure on an angler fish and I'm totally going for it.
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Share your most tentacular and... tentual?... erotica with Cthulhurotica. I bet they'd even take your H.P. Lovecraft/August Derleth slash fiction...
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Bladewood provides us all a much needed timeline of the events in the Doctor Who season/series 5 finale. Watch your head, please.
Some types of stories are so familiar that the only way to tell your own version of, say, a detective yarn is to find an interesting new angle. Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series makes the title character a wizard who solves supernatural crimes in Chicago. Additionally, Harry has feelings, which seems like the more interesting wrinkle to me.
I recently read a 