Who Are the Next Titans of the Imagination?
Earlier this week Ray Harryhausen passed away. There was a wealth of coverage all over the media, and as expected, the fan community expressed a lot of appreciation and a sense of loss with his passing. But this has got me wondering. In the past I interviewed Paul Davids who produced the documentary The Sci-Fi [...]
Hotel Transylvania Release and Its Glaring Omission
Hotel Transylvania is now out on DVD and Blu-ray. My wife and I picked up a copy of the latter yesterday and watched it today. We had already seen it in the theaters and found it worthwhile. (My previous review can be read here.) I was especially looking forward to the Blu-ray extras. While these [...]
TOR.com: J.J. Abrams and the Homogenization of Geek Pop
Many fans enjoyed J.J. Abrams work on revisioning Star Trek with his 2009 film and thereby rebooting the franchise. Others, such as myself, were not so pleased with the efforts. After Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas it announced plans for a new film, and the search for a director began. After [...]
Kirk Hammett on the Inspiration of the Horrific
Kirk Hammett has a new video out promoting his book Too Much Horror Business. Not only does the viewer get a look at some of Hammett’s pieces in his collection, but the commentary associated with it is of interest. Along the way Hammett notes the influence of Bob Wilkins, the Bay Area horror host of [...]
Podcast Interview at ComicAttack.net
I am the guest in a podcast interview with Jeff Jackson of ComicAttack.net in his column “Comics Are My Religion.” In the podcast Jeff and I discuss my background and approach to the fantastic, the spiritual significance of science fiction and its fandom, and new books worth picking up that probe the fantastic more deeply. [...]
Forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons Documentary
Dungeons and Dragons is one of the most influential, and controversial games of the 20th century. A forthcoming film aims to tell the story in Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary, produced by Andrew Pascal, Anthony Savini, and James Sprattley. See the story on the film and some background on D&D in an essay in WIRED [...]
Shatner’s Insight on “Get a Life!”
William Shatner’s latest documentary was recently released, William Shatner’s Get a Life!. The title comes from the (in)famous Saturday Night Live episode in 1986 where Shatner poked fun at Star Trek fans and their devotion to the series and Trek universe. Yet with the passing of years the actors seems to not only have come [...]
Examiner.com Review of Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
I’ve started writing brief articles for Examiner.com. My in-depth analysis will continue here. My latest piece for the former is a review of the documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope. This is an interesting film that does not so much explore Comic-Con, but rather the significance of the convention and fantastic fandom to the [...]
New Fan Convention Documentary – Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
Documentaries on geek culture in connection with fan conventions are a continued item of interest for TheoFantastique. In addition to those explored in previous posts we are pleased to add Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope to the list. The film synopsis from the official website: Have you ever imagined a place where Vulcans and [...]
Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture
In my continuing quest to find interesting material in the area of the fantastic I stumbled across the book Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture (Quirk Books, 2011 ), edited by Stephen H. Segal. Segal is the Hugo Award winning senior contributing editor to Weird Tales, the world’s oldest fantasy/sci-fi/horror magazine, and an [...]
