Fanbase Press has one of the great unheralded stories of the comic-book publishing world. Run by Los Angeles-based husband-and-wife team Bryant and Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press has been putting out top-notch content for the past several years. The company’s first two titles, Identity Thief and Something Animal, were both painterly explorations of dark psychosis. Since those releases, they’ve steadfastly sought out new works by talented writers and illustrators, with impressive results.
Writing and Blog
Quick Hit: Doctor Strange
The Marvel brand is a fairly homogeneous one.
Random (And Spoiler-Filled) Thoughts on Suicide Squad
Well, it was the muddled mess I’d been told to expect, but it has its virtues. Briefly:
Continue reading “Random (And Spoiler-Filled) Thoughts on Suicide Squad”
Black Mirror, The Fountain, Film Crit Hulk, and The Need For Happy Endings
It’s time to talk about Black Mirror. Charlie Booker’s remarkable and disturbing—remarkably disturbing?—new show just dropped its third season on Netflix, and as with its first two outings, the reaction from across the critical spectrum is about the same: this show is messed up, but it’s one of the greatest shows of all time.
But there are some dissenting voices among the awestruck masses. Some critics—good ones, I might add—are growing tired of the show’s persistently downbeat tone and endings.
Continue reading “Black Mirror, The Fountain, Film Crit Hulk, and The Need For Happy Endings”
Quick Hit: The Secret History of Twin Peaks
One of the myriad pleasures of the classic TV series Twin Peaks is sensing the artistic tug-of-war between showrunners David Lynch and Mark Frost. By now it’s received wisdom that Frost—an alum of more traditional story-driven shows like Hill Street Blues—was a necessary correction for Lynch, the dreamy abstractionist.
Continue reading “Quick Hit: The Secret History of Twin Peaks”
Why The Heck Does Stranger Things Work So Well?
Hey gang! I’m back with another overlong examination of a pop-cultural touchstone. This time it’s Netflix’s much-ballyhooed (and beloved) limited series Stranger Things.
Continue reading “Why The Heck Does Stranger Things Work So Well?”
Quick Hit: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a southern-gothic masterpiece that borders ever so slightly on gonzo journalism—though it falls short of passing into that bizarro realm. Reading it spurred me to contemplate the border between the two major realms of nonfiction writing; the DMZ between the ordered lands of subject-first traditional journalism and the wild “bat country” of writer-first gonzo. It wasn’t a very long contemplation, of course, as Midnight in the Garden falls into the same tradition of literary journalism as Capote, Junger, or Bowden, though the author’s prominent role nudges it closer to “Thompson” territory than Junger’s or Bowden’s.
Continue reading “Quick Hit: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
Review: Batman Versus Superman
Now I’ve done it. I went and accidentally watched the whole three-hour extended cut of Batman Versus Superman, the stupid title I won’t write out. In case anyone cares, I liked it better than Civil War, though both movies had the consistency of tapioca — pure mush, pure cinematic gibberish.
Mild SPOILERS ahead for BvS, and the Netflix series Stranger Things.
April Fool’s Week 2015: Tony Lazlo Takes Down Two Versions of Romeo & Juliet and Two Versions of Henry V
To close out April Fool’s Week 2015, CC2K’s Tony Lazlo does some makeup homework, covering two versions of Romeo & Juliet, two versions of Henry V, all while finding time to revisit Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet and Julie Taymor’s Titus. Enjoy!
Mad Men Recap: “Severance”
Sometimes our subconscious can scare the hell out of us, but not for the reasons we expect. Let me explain:
Robert J. Peterson, Author 