My childhood hobbies included watching cartoons and superhero shows, with a side of horror movies during weekends. When feeling energetic, I’d hit my oldest brother up for rides to Bob Sidebottom’s Comic Collector Shop where I’d stock up for what I was doing when not watching cartoons, superhero shows, or horror movies – reading comics. […]

From 1968 to 1976, Gold Key Comics published Dark Shadows, a series based on the hit television show of the same name, but which focused more on the vampire Barnabas Collins, his werewolf cousin Quentin, and Angelique, the ghost-witch devising new tortures and trials for Barnabas, as if cursing him with vampirism hadn’t been enough.  […]

On September 24, 2020, Hermes Press began re-releasing the initial Dark Shadows novels that originally appeared from 1966 to 1972.  Each will come out in enlarged formats more in line with contemporary paperbacks, but they’ll have the original cover art or photographs, and the archival paper bond.  As of this writing, twenty of the thirty-two […]

I’m writing this article after reading the first three novels from Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series.  Clearly, Maupin loves San Francisco.  He leads readers through the City’s varied neighborhoods like a romantic obsessive showing off memories and souvenirs related to his hyper-adored paramour.  New arrival Mary Ann Singleton moves into 28 Barbary Lane, […]

To celebrate Pride 2021, the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) streamed its production of Tales of the City, the Musical, based upon Armistead Maupin’s literary phenomenon of the same name.  I had no idea that this existed, but as a newly minted diehard fan of the novels I couldn’t wait to see how this would work, […]

Drunk History? I’ve watched only the first three episodes and the segments featuring Paget Brewster, but I understand the concept.  Derek Waters lights up friends with adult beverages, after which they narrate historical incidents while comedic actors perform reenactments.  Over my brief viewing, I witnessed vomiting, inhibited logic, loss of coordination . . . diagnosis: […]

The 1960s and 1970s were great times for Disney live-action films.  Before Kurt Russell became Snake Plissken and Jack Burton, he was Dexter Riley, the computer who wore tennis shoes and then later the world’s strongest man.  Hayley Mills won our hearts as Pollyanna and then again as twins setting a diabolical parent trap.  Jodie […]

The Six Million Dollar Man (SMDM), which ran from 1973 to 1978 on ABC, includes episodes that have defined forever my vision of Sasquatch or, as he’s known colloquially to the show’s fans, Bionic Bigfoot. “The Secret of Bigfoot” first aired February 1, 1976, a two-parter that scored huge ratings, enough to inspire the following […]

Among the notable inmates of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was Dr. Morris “Louie the Rabbi” Bolber who’d started his life sentence in 1942.  Shortly after his arrival, Bolber, a Russian immigrant, began interacting within the prison synagogue where, apparently, he made friends like Joseph Paull, a volunteer especially interested in Bolber.  Before Bolber […]

Every few months, certain images cluster on my Facebook newsfeed. You’ve seen them, of course: memes featuring Captain America, Wonder Woman, and other red-white-and-blue clad figures modeling for us the proper way to punch Nazis. I can imagine the accompanying audio commentary. Lean into it! Aim beyond the jaw to maintain your motion! You’re representing […]