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MAD Magazine, Superheroes, and Inventing the Comics
Drew Friedman talks about the famous and not-so-famous men and women cartoonists who created superheroes, Mad magazine, and more. He’s joined by Mad magazine’s Al Jaffee. Friedman’s book Heroes of the...
View ArticleAre Comics Bad for Children?
Comic Con has descended on New York City. We dug this little snippet from the archives of Angelina Kruppe, a parent of Junior High School 29 in Brooklyn, interviewed on the WNYC show Youth Builders in...
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Alison Bechdel Passes the Test
Any time you see a movie with two female characters who talk to each other — about something other than a man — that movie has passed what’s become known as the Bechdel Test, and you might be...
View ArticleThe Secret History of the Man who Created Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Her creator, William Moulton Marston, was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, starting with Emmeline...
View ArticleBoiled Angel
Freedom of speech is a right guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. One exception to the rule is obscenity. But determining what is obscene is difficult – especially for the very...
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Small Batch Edition: 'The Sculptor' And Other Grand Graphic Novels
Petra Mayer of NPR Books sat down with our regular panelist Glen Weldon to chat about the massive graphic novel The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud. They talk about what the book does and what they wanted...
View ArticleArt Spiegelman and Phillip Johnston's New Collaboration
The multi-award winning artist Art Spiegelman and critically acclaimed jazz composer Phillip Johnston talk about their collaboration, “Wordless!” Originally commissioned by The Sydney Opera House,...
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“The Sculptor”: An Artist Makes a Deal with the Devil
What will your legacy be? How will you be remembered? And for how long?Those are the questions that obsess the title character in Scott McCloud’s new graphic novel The Sculptor. He's young, ambitious,...
View ArticleThe Best Ever Batman vs. Darth Vader Death Match
Batman vs. Bane? Seen it. Batman vs. Superman? Someone's on it already. But what if Gotham's Dark Knight faced off against the Dark Lord of a galaxy far, far away? It's not a matchup you're likely ever...
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Ada Lovelace Reborn in Graphic Novel
The historic story of mathematician Ada Lovelace's life is a tragic one. Born to Annabella Milbanke and the poet Lord Byron, Lovelace was a modern visionary that ultimately led a tragic life, dying...
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Free Comic Book Day: A Guide To The Heroes, Musicians And Mutants
Another first Saturday in May, another blockbuster superhero movie set to bust our collective blocks, another Free Comic Book Day."What's Free Comic Book Day?" you ask, because you've managed to ignore...
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Pop Culture Happy Hour: Free Comic Book Day And Rabbit Holes
Another year, another Free Comic Book Day!This year, we had our comics guide, Glen Weldon, take a break from reviewing the entire haul of 50 comics available this year at participating shops and bring...
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Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron,' Pop Culture Pariahs
You may have heard about a plucky little indie film called Avengers: Age Of Ultron, which opened last weekend. (You might remember our show about the previous Avengers movie, but I don't, because I...
View ArticleBring on The Apocalypse: Why We Love Stories About the End of the World
A remake of the 1979 post-apocalyptic action flick "Mad Max" hits theaters today. It's being billed as one of the largest releases for the summer of 2015. The original "Mad Max" was filmed by a doctor...
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Floating Eyeballs, Trained Bees: History's Most Cringeworthy Crusaders
Think about superheroes for a minute.NO THANKS, you say. KIND OF SUPERHEROED OUT, you say. I'M TIRED OF BEING FORCE-FED AN ALL-SUPERHERO DIET IN MOVIES AND TV, SO ACTUALLY IT'D BE GREAT IF I COULD NOT...
View ArticleMovies Were Their Only Connection to the Outside World. Watch Them Do a Scene...
The Wolfpack is a documentary about seven siblings who grew up locked inside the top floor of a New York apartment building. They only access the outside world through a window — and films. Two of the...
View ArticleLive And Let Spy
Former Soviet spymaster Oleg Kalugin reminisces about his time recruiting Americans to spy for the USSR-- and how the U.S. eventually became his home.
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After 25 Years, A Comics Publisher Pauses To Collect And Reflect
Drawn and Quarterly, the Montreal-based publisher of comics and graphic novels, began life as a magazine, released in April of 1990. That first issue served as a de facto mission statement, laying out...
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French, English, Comics: Proust On Memory, In Any Language
[Deep breath.]So there's this new English translation of a French graphic novel adaptation of Swann's Way, the first of seven novels in Marcel Proust's masterwork, In Search of Lost Time.Got all that?...
View ArticleVideo: Neil Gaiman's Definitive Victor in the Battle of Sandman Versus Thor
The Leonard Lopate Show Book club received an outstanding number of questions for fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. In this video, he addresses a few of those queries, including which universe he'd rather...
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