Pop Culture
Dennis the Menace in the 1950s
Some classics get a little too mellow with time. Dennis the Menace started out so good. If you’ve never read the early strips from the 1950s, you’re really missing out. In those early strips, he’s clever, carefree, self-centered and more than a little dangerous. Most of all he’s funny...
Tagging along with Frank and His Friend
You might be a couple of minutes late to the party, but you haven’t missed any of the action. One of my favorite things about Frank and His Friend is how open the storylines are. You often get the feeling that you’re just coming in on the middle of...
Hedging your bets
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, buddies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a friendly bet. Star Wars is a billion-dollar franchise. When Disney bought the property last year, it sold for another 4 billion dollars, and with new films planned, it’s safe to say...
Slowing down with Frank and His Friend
Let comics help you unwind. When things get a little crazy and stress starts to overwhelm you, it can certainly seem like the last thing you have time for is to stop and smell the roses. But that might just be the time to break out the flowers. I have...
Blacksad
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, especially if you’re a cat. Quiet as a mouse, sly as a fox, busy as a beaver – animals carry a lot of meaning for us humans. So when your comic book is made up solely of anthropomorphized animals, you’re going to be able...
The Spaceman Jax Family
Despite blasting into adventures among the stars, maybe Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures was really just another show about family. It’s no surprise that family is so important to Spaceman Jax. He and his niece Dekkin were the only survivors of the blast that destroyed their home planet,...
Bash Brannigan, 1965
Some films create such a realistic – and hilarious – world that you wish their supporting brands were real. One of our favorite fake comic strips was created for the 1965 film How to Murder Your Wife, staring Jack Lemmon as a cartoonist playboy who wakes up from a friend’s...
In praise of the bad guys
Every story needs a strong villain, but in the case of Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures, it’s the villains’ weakness that makes them so hilarious. Each episode of Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures saw the intrepid, but dimwitted, hero Spaceman Jax facing a variety of perils – at...
The theft of time
Peter Lorre on the concept of time. Despite what the critics said back in 1953, Beat the Devil is a terrific film. And why shouldn’t it be? You’ve got Humphrey Bogart and the lovely Gina Lollobrigida. You’ve got John Huston directing a story about international crooks stranded in Italy...
The Last Straw
It may not break the camel’s back, but a straw can really take you back. A lot of people will argue that beverages taste better out of a glass container or over ice, and there is a lot of science that goes into the shape of a container to maximize...
V for Vendetta, 1982
The comic creates a world that is more than the sum of its parts. V for Vendetta is an extremely popular comic book for good reason. The powerful story of freedom and identity is told through haunting visuals in stark black and white tinted with pastels. The V for...
Vintage illustrations
A picture sells a thousand words when it’s a vintage advertisement. It’s hard to imagine collecting any of the advertisements we are bombarded with today. From ads on toilet paper to spam in our inbox, it seems like someone’s always trying to sell you something. Maybe that’s one of...