Recent Features

Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism

Ray Harryhausen passed away last week. This has been noted by people more qualified than I to discuss the master of stop-motion magic—Rick Baker, Adam Savage, Todd Masters, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and more. The superhuman talent and perseverance evident in a Harryhausen effects sequence can easily be seen in countless visual effects artists since he first brought his creations to frame-by-frame life on the big screen. That makes sense. So how can I really say anything of worth when I say that I was also profoundly influenced by the artistry of Ray Harryhausen? With modesty, and a story about Clash of the Titans. Continue reading…

Category: Guest Star

Things That Change You Forever

I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.

My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).

So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…

Category: Romance

Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes

A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees in front of an empty chair, hands outstretched.

There’s something about the way Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role in the BBC series Sherlock that seems like it could be Holmes’ fantasy version of how a brilliant detective behaves. Continue reading…

Category: Screen

My New Weapon of Choice

In April, the Guttersnipes like to mix it up a little. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about romance.

“You hit him with a frying pan,” he said to her. “How come you didn’t grab a knife?”

“The frying pan was closer.” Her eyes slid away. “It’s not like I had time to pick a weapon. It’s not like the frying pan is my weapon of choice.” –Agnes And The Hitman (27)

Growing up in a town where Elvis was sighted post mortem, I despised and mocked The King. Now, I have held wakes in his honor. I used to only like punk. Then I used to say I liked everything but country. Now I don’t even bother arguing that I’m listening to “Americana,” not country. It is a truth universally acknowledged that something I once despised I will come to appreciate and, often, love. So when both Chris and alex recommended Jennifer Crusie, the author of many romance novels, and in particular her collaboration with Bob Mayer, Agnes And The Hitman, I knew I needed to read it. Continue reading…

Category: Comics, Romance

Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism

Mr. Harryhausen with his creations brought down to size.

Comics about Comics

Comic Book Attic talks about comics about comics, with plenty of pages from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s The Newsboy Legion for your enjoyment.

Collaborators

Paul Williams, Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder talk about their careers, music and working with Daft Punk. (via Daily Grindhouse)

The State of the RPG Union

At Functional Nerds, J.T. Evans discusses Open Game Licensing, Paizo the Old School Renaissance and the future of Dungeons & Dragons. “’D&D Next’ might very well be ‘D&D Last.’”

“The Extraordinary, Mischievous, Too Short Life of Sean Smith”

Kotaku remembers Sean Smith, an Information Management Officer for the US State Department killed in Benghazi, Libya. He was also Vile Rat, a famous/infamous high level player in Eve Online.

The Daughter of Dawn

The 1920 film, Daughter of Dawn has been restored. Daughter of Dawn is set before European settlers landed in the Americas and features a cast of 300 Kiowa and Comanche actors, including the children of Quanah Parker, White and Wandada Parker, and also includes footage of the Tipi with Battle Pictures, an important part of [...]

Interview with Kim Gordon

“What the breach of generations shows is that there’s more than one way to be feminist.” Lizzie Goodman interviews musician and artist, Kim Gordon.

“Where Have All The Midnight Movies Gone?”

Midnight Madness Programmer and Gutter Friend, Colin Geddes, is interviewed (along with many others) about the history of midnight movies from El Topo and Eraserhead till now.

A Brut Production

Movie Morlocks ‘ R. Emmet Sweeney explores the filmmaking history of Fabergé fragrance CEO, George Barrie: “Barrie produced his films under a ‘Brut Productions’ shingle, while Brut Records put out albums by comedian Robert Klein and Brut Television co-produced the popular spy thriller series The Protectors starring Robert Vaughn. There was even a Brut Publishing [...]

“We Can Be Superheroines”

The Gutter‘s own Carol Borden wrote a review of Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines for the 2012 ActionFest Blog: “I’ve seen reviews suggesting this movie is a great one to show your daughter or niece, and it is. But it’s not just about letting little girls know that they can be heroes, [...]

RIP, Jonathan Winters

Comedian Jonathan Winters has died. The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times have obituaries. And here Marc Maron talks with Winters on the WTF Podcast.

Return of Mad Style

Tom & Lorenzo look at the fashion–and its implications–in Mad Men‘s first episode of season 6: “[W]e’re on the cusp of 1968, in the wake of the Summer of Love; a time when design, but particularly fashion design, exploded all over the masses in a way it hasn’t done before or since.”

The Dragonlance Chronicles: Innovative, Ubiquitous and Terribly-Written

At Pornokitsch, Jared takes a look at The Dragonlance Chronicles’ influence on contemporary fantasy: “[C]ool or not, Dragonlance has done more than almost any other post-Tolkien property in influencing fantasy. Its narrative and conceptual tropes can be found in every nook and cranny of the genre, and much of the modern low fantasy resurgence can be traced [...]

Illustrating Mad Men

Mad Men‘s latest ad was created by veteran illustrator, Brian Sanders. The New York Times profiles Sanders and a little bit of illustration in the 1960s. “Illustrating for and watching the series was doubly meaningful for him, Mr. Sanders said, because Mad Men depicts a world he was once very much a part of. ‘The [...]

The History of Mexploitation Cinema

Filmmaker and writer Aaron Soto discusses the history of Mexploitation cinema with Miguel Rodriguez on Monster Island Resort Podcast!

The Interrelatedness of Historical Context, Audience and Batman

“[T]here is a sound narrative logic behind the sustained popularity of this impossible person in tights. There is one appeal whose effectiveness has remained operative since 1939.” Acephalous explains “[h]ow to teach the interrelatedness of historical context and audience via Warren Ellis’s Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth.” (via @aytiws)

The Empire of Crime: Mabuse vs. Wertham vs. Marston

When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven insane by fear and horror, and when chaos has become supreme law, then the time will have come for the empire of crime.” –The Testament of Dr. Mabuse “[W]hatever factors come into play in the cases that we have studied, the conclusion is inescapable [...]

Diverse Writers, Diverse Readers and Happily Ever Afters

NPR talks about romance written by and for people of color with authors Brenda Jackson, Michelle Monkou, Camy Tang and romance critic Sarah Wendell at the Romance Writers of American convention. (The radio piece is stronger than the written synopsis).

Wonder Woman and “Blood-Curdling Masculinity”

At The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky writes about the new incarnation of Wonder Woman. “[M]aking Wonder Woman more violent doesn’t make her more mature or more real. It just makes her more conventional.” (via @BlackComix)

“Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing”

George Herriman animated this Krazy Kat cartoon in 1916 and while any time is good to revisit it, Black History Month seems a particularly good one.

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Of Note Elsewhere

This tumblr collects many bad jokes kids have invented.

“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.

It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.

Oh, and it’s not true.”

Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)

Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.

Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”

The Black Girl Nerds Podcast discusses Black girls and women in the Heavy Metal industry with author and journalist Laina Dawes and Ursula “She-Wolf” Parson from Hear Evil News.

The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”

The Cultural Gutter

taking the dumb out of fandom

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