Star Wars Director Dave Filoni Chronicles Life During Clone Wartime
One of pop culture’s most accessible entry points for understanding a War on Terror is a cartoon from George Lucas.
morphizm writers
Peak Oil and Climate Change Suck. High-Speed Rail Can Help.
I recently revisited the War on Terra for AlterNet. This time, in a double-barreled breakdown of the national high-speed rail network gaining ground in America, which is still lamely to […]
Newest, Youngest Doctor Who Matt Smith Metamorphs Into Comics
I’m an old-school Doctor Who fan, who’s always loved its subversive sci-fi on television and in comics. The latest Time Lord is Matt Smith, who’s a hoot, who’s finally getting […]
Plastic Planet Pollutes Our Minds With Truth
It floated atop a garbage patch of discarded water bottles.
Sucker Punch Artist Alex Pardee Probes Nightmares in Vertigo
I’ve been covering a lot of art lately, given that film is lately a wasteland and television hasn’t really started back up again after the holidays. But artist Alex Pardee […]
Merlin’s Magical Sci-Fantasy Catches Fire
One of my guilty television pleasures is the BBC’s reboot Merlin, which mashes Arthurian legend through the teen soap trope with surprisingly funny and rewarding results. I took the opportunity […]
Best of 2010? Inception, Batman, Sym-Bionic Titan, Iron Man…
“Animation has always had the problem of being perceived as purely for kids,” Tartakovsky told me before Sym-Bionic Titan’s stellar launch. “I think things are better than a few years ago, but the stigma still exists.”
Robot Chicken’s Final Star Wars Spoof
I talked to head Chickens about sympathizing the Star Wars biggest assholes Emperor Palpatine and Boba Fett, George Lucas’ evil chuckles, and more for Wired.
Bill Gates Is Not a Great Teacher
America sniffs the global average when it comes education. And the last thing it needs is lame advice from Microsoft’s Bill Gates. But that’s what it’s getting, according to my […]
Facebook Co-Founder Unveils Socially Conscious Networker Jumo
Facebook is great for sharing hyperbole about what we ate, saw or spent. But its co-founder Chris Hughes has a new startup called Jumo, which takes social networking into the […]
Cli-Fi: Happy Methane Apocalypse!
“At first we thought it was a hoax; sadly it’s not. The melting ice caps are the fuse. The trapped methane released into the atmosphere is the bomb.”
Dark Horse Delves Into Digicomics, Keeps Change
Digital comics are ascendant, and it won’t be long until they replace the majority of print comics, which are fast becoming earnings losers as well as environmental wastes of space […]
John Lennon’s Assassination Simulations
Unable to shoulder the burden, reality splintered and began to virally replicate the assassination and its effects across media, slowly replacing that reality along the way.
Daniel Clowes + Wilson + Death Ray = Hollywood Comics Smarts
At last Hollywood is turning back to Daniel Clowes, one of indie comics’ crossover titans.
Liz Sherman, Hellboy Firestarter
Mike Mignola’s paranormal mystery Hellboy is one of the finest comics franchises of all time, and its sidekick spin-off Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense is no slouch either. Ask […]
Cli-Fi: Green Patriots Posterize War On Terra
The visual meditations on sustainability and overload evoke World War II–era posters that inspired the campaign. The posters can be torn out of the book and plastered somewhere useful.
Aeon Flux’s Peter Chung Launches Cross-Species Firebreather
Infamously risky but rewarding animator Peter Chung has finally made a film for everyone.
The Shaving Racket
I’ll be totally honest with you. I never really thought much about the intricate working of the mundane razor industry. That is, until AlterNet asked me to look into it. […]
Deerhunter’s Desire Lines Redraw Space-Pop
One of my favorite albums this year is Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest. “Desire Lines” is its best song, so thanks to AOL’s online music mag Spinner for giving Deerhunter the chance […]
The World Bank Water Grab
Billions have been spent allowing corporations to profit from public water sources even though water privatization has been an epic failure. But don’t tell that to loansharks at the World Bank.
Carly Fiorina = California Disaster
AlterNet asked me to heckle ex-HP CEO and itinerant ideologist Carly Fiorina before the November election, in hopes of shedding some light on why should we make California suck even […]
John Lennon, Working Class Mythmaker
Because he is unfairly lost to us now, all we have are mounting media replications to inform and console us.
Foreclosure House of Cards Implodes
I’ve been writing about the econopocalypse for years now, so news of robosigners executing thousands of baseless foreclosures on a conveyor belt to hell is not news to me. So […]
Chemical Catastrophe, Coming Right Up!
Responsibility for chemical security may be shared among federal, state and local governments, as well as the private sector. But right now they’re all epically failing us, which make us sitting ducks if there is a catastrophe.
Samurai Jack Sensei Genndy Tartakovsky Powers Up Sym-Bionic Titan
Cartoon brainiac Genndy Tartakovsky revitalized American animation with anime-inspired knockouts like Samurai Jack and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now he’s crashing mecha convention.