Monthly Archives: April 2011

Leonard Primiano: True Blood, Post-9/11 Spirituality, and “Vernacular Religion”

What might the opening title sequence from HBO’s popular vampire series True Blood tell us about “vernacular religion” in our post-9/11 context? And what does this say back to institutional religion? While researching Burning Man Festival for my MA thesis a few years ago the book God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, […]

Fan Culture Documentaries: Back to Space-Con, and Four Days at Dragon*Con

This weekend I had the opportunity to watch two documentaries, Back to Space-Con, produced and directed by Tom Wyrsch of Garfield Lane Productions, and Four Days at Dragon*Con, produced and directed by Jack Walsh of Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. Taken together, these films tell the story of the development of science fiction and fantasy conventions, […]

Happy Easter

TheoFantastique wishes everyone a very happy Easter.

Invisible Universe: A History of Blackness in Speculative Fiction

How have African Americans been represented in, played a part in, and contributed to speculative fiction? How have we come from depictions of African Americans in speculative fiction (defined broadly to include horror) in black exploitation horror like Blacula to more positive representations in the action-horror film Blade? These interesting questions and others are explored […]

Elf Ears: New Trend in Body Modification

Today I became aware of a new trend in body modification, the creation of pointed ears reminiscent of those on Elves from Lord of the Rings, Avatar‘s Na’vi, and Star Trek‘s Vulcans. There is a lot of discussion and examples of it on the Internet, but an ABC News/Health online video provides an interesting, and […]

’68: Zombie Horror Comic Preview by Image Comics

A new horror comic series with a focus on zombies titled ’68 is debuting from Image Comics. USA Today recently ran an article which discusses the series based upon the premise of a zombie apocalypse breaking out in connection with the Vietnam War. ’68 Exclusive Preview

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Poster and Trailer

Rupert Wyatt, the director for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, promises that the forthcoming film will be better than the Tim Burton effort of 2001. He also says it will mark a return to the social commentary of the original film of 1968. Read an interesting interview with him at Film School Rejects. […]

The Walking Dead: Beware of Product Placement

An item from the mail online in the UK caught my attention as it describes the understandably negative reaction when an ad agency put an advertisement for The Walking Dead on the side of The co-Operative Funeralcare building. The article quotes someone from a nearby hospice saying the following: Mrs Jones said grieving families could […]

Weta Digital Discusses Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I didn’t hear about it until after the event, but earlier today Weta Digital hosted a livestream chat about the special digital effects associated with the forthcoming Rise of the Apes that represents Twentieth Century Fox’s attempt at rebooting the Planet of the Apes franchise after the disappointing Tim Burton effort in 2001. A longer […]

Paul Davids and The Strange Case of Forrest J. Ackerman

A while ago I came across an article online by Paul Davids from FATE magazine (Sep.-Oct. 2010) titled “THE ACKERMAN ENIGMA: The Strange Case of Forrest J. Ackerman.” The article brought together a number of elements of interest, from the late horror culture icon Forrest J. Ackerman to the paranormal. Since I had interacted with […]

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