Three years before Batman donned his cape and cowl, and two before Superman crashed into a field in Smallville, there was another hero who would leave an indelible mark on the history of pop culture.
He wore a skin tight costume and a black mask. He left his symbol upon those he vanquished; a permanent skull-shaped brand so that all would know these were evil men. He may not have been a superhero as we know them today, but he taught those who were to come a thing or two.
Debuting as a newspaper strip on February 17th, 1936, American…
In one of my previous articles I discussed how The Phantom became — and remains — one of the most popular adventure comic strips in the world and yet is all but ignored by the American comics industry. In this follow up article, I’ll be looking at how the character has influenced cultures around the world.
What the very first comic book (as in a magazine-style publication of 20 pages or more focusing on the one character) featuring The Phantom was is something that was up for debate until recently. Originally, it was thought that the honour went to the…
Among all the epidemics and crazy world “leaders” being deposed, you could be forgiven for having missed the news that Google is currently swinging its proverbial wang around, trying to bully the Australian government.
If you’re not aware, the tl;dr version is this; Last year the Aussie government passed a law that would require major online news vendors — in particular news sites and aggregators — to pay a fee for linking to stories posted on sites from Australian media companies, although not for the content itself. Any site not following the new rule would incur millions in fines. …
I’ve never quite fit the stereotype.
Growing up in the town I did, boys were expected to be into sports and cars. Neither of these things interested me. My reaction to sport was basically the same as Moss from IT Crowd (see below) and, unless you were talking about the Ecto-1, the Batmobile or Doc Brown’s DeLorian, cars were just practical tools to get you places. Oh, and I’m into art which, in that town, made you something of a leper.
Now at 35, those opinions have not changed. In fact I’ve realised that even within the less mainstream interests and sub cultures I’ve been a…
Obviously 2020 wasn’t the best year. I’m not going to go into all that, because we all know it. Instead, here I’m going to focus on the things I liked the most in 2020, particularly my favourite movies, games, books and graphic novels.
A quick note; some of the following may not have been released in 2020, but 2020 was the year I saw/read/played them. Also, these are my opinions, which generally tend to differ from the popular.
Films
In 2020 I watched 58 movies (although this number is probably out a little bit as I only started using Letterboxd late…
Rumours are starting to swirl that the first female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, may be regenerating by the end of the 2021 season of the BBC’s popular sci-fi series. The timing would not be out of the ordinary as many past Doctors have only stayed for three years (there was no 2019 season); David Tennant, Matt Smith and even Second and Fifth Doctors Patrick Throughton and Peter Davidson left the TARDIS after their third seasons. So if Jodie was to leave at the end of 2021 it would have precedent.
Also, I kind of wouldn’t blame her. Her tenure as the…
This is a story about why collections are important, and how they can change your life.
There are moments, they say, that shape you. Sometimes they are big, grand, Earth shaking moments. Other times, they are small, at first seeming insignificant in the series of events that shape your life.
One of these such moments was my birthday, I think my 6th or 7th. Birthdays are always fun of course, but this particular birthday now stands out as one that shaped who I would become. It was the birthday on which I was gifted my first Mighty Max playset.
Within this small, roughly 5cm playset lay a world of danger and excitement. I could create my…
Gamers will often feel the nostalgic call to revisit a game they remember fondly only to find there is not easy way to play it on modern systems. Thankfully, many skilled fans have put their hand to keeping some of these games alive. Here, I’m going to look at five of the best fan projects that resurrect older games.
NeoLemmix
Recently Google announced that the free storage of high quality images in their Google Photos service is coming to an end. The free storage of “unlimited” photos has been going for five years, so as you can imaging this announcement has upset some people.
Personally, I’m not surprised by this move. I am surprised that it took five years to get here. Storage isn’t cheap so it’s pretty cool that it’s been as long as it has. …
“I Know A Little Bit About Everything And A Great Deal About Nothing.” — Gene Kelly, Jack & the Beanstalk TV Movie (1967)
I know people always say that hate writing about themselves, but I really hate writing about myself. However, when Quy Ma kindly asked me to participate in the About Me Stories publication I could not very well say “no.” So…
G’day.
My name, as you’ve probably gathered from the title of this article, is Joe. I’m an Aussie who moved to the UK in 2016. I initially planned to stay only two years, but after meeting an…
Joe Douglas
Collector. Writer. Artist. Geek. I write mostly about the hobby of collecting. Check out my full portfolio at JMDWorks.org.
