As a lead up to the Chicago pop culture extravaganza that is C2E2 (where I will be officially stalking John Barrowman, Val Kilmer, and John Cusack), I started a series in my last article that focuses on one of the current driving forces in American pop culture: superheroes. In the previous article, I focused on working out just what exactly […]
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Every so often, it seems another politician seeks to spend his or her political capital on an endeavor aimed at curtailing video games. In the 1990s, such endeavors led to the formation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and the rating labels for video and computer games. After the formation of such a self-regulatory system, companies and states have sought […]
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In April I will be attending C2E2, the Chicago-based comic books, comix, graphic novels, and all around pop culture convention. As a lead up to that event, which I’ll write about in this column, I thought I would delve into a topic that, while the scholars may be in agreement, fans the world over are not. And that topic is: […]
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I’ll admit it. I liked Joss Whedon’s 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. I did not see the movie when it first premiered: I saw it a couple years later. When, I do not recall completely. What I do recall is that I had already been watching The X-Files and had fallen completely in love with the series. For me, […]
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What was the first video game console system you played on? Was it a PlayStation 2? A Sega Dreamcast? A Super Nintendo Entertainment System? An Atari 2600? A Magnavox Odyssey? In 1972, Magnavox released the Odyssey as the first computer system built to connect to a television set in order to allow people to play digital games in the comfort […]
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You’re in the middle of Hyderabad, India, on the hottest day of the year. You’re there for a business / pleasure trip, researching Bollywood culture for your book on globalized fandom. You’re looking for the easiest way to get to Ramoji Film City, a Bollywood response to Disneyland. You would ask someone, but your previous attempts at handling the region’s […]
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We often hear how the Internet and the World Wide Web were founded on, and should promote, the fundamental tenets of democracy. These technologies should be held as virtual spaces for open public discourse, to encourage conversation and innovation, and to promote the ideals of equality and fraternity around the globe. Being structured and lauded as open spaces, with no […]
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