Lower Decks

I had a most curious awakening recently. I know how common it is to stick with pretty rigid opinions in the sci-fi/fantasy community (the “genre” of both Lower Decks’ and HYGOTS’ focus), but I also know that in my own life, I seem capable of pretty radically changing my own, sometimes at the drop [...]

Would you believe it? I’m about to do a column about something I like that’s actually popular, that I don’t have to defend at all. Unbelievable! What’s the world coming to?!? Oh, and that topic’s Green Lantern.

When it comes to superheroes, there may be any number who can claim to be the most popular at any given moment, but none are more famous than Superman. Without the Man of Steel, there would inarguably be no comic books today. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find a fictional character get less [...]

One of the truly interesting things about being around for this era of comic books, either its first hundred years or during a really interesting fad, is that you get to see just how the iconic characters are handled. Everyone knows what ended up happening to such fictional figures as King Arthur and Robin [...]

Here’s another subject I haven’t gotten around to yet (if you’ll indulge me, this isn’t the first time I’ve done a column, but it is the first time I’ve apparently found it exceedingly easy to come up with new topics on a regular, weekly basis), and that’s been my interest in the Arthurian legend. [...]

Well, it’s not as if we weren’t warned in advance. Since the third season, we’ve known that ‘Lost’ was coming to an end with its sixth season. From the introduction of flashforwards onward, it’s been one breathless sprint to this moment. The fourth and fifth seasons were abbreviated runs that were broadcast [...]

Here’s one of the big ones. I know, it’s called “How I Got These Scars.” Most of the topics I’ve covered in this column since I launched it two falls ago have been big ones. I’ve found it surprisingly easy to find material to sustain the column. I don’t know what [...]

One of pop culture’s perennial figures for the past forty years, Terry Gilliam has done a good job of hiding in plain sight. He’s the American in Monty Python. Along with John Cleese and Eric Idle, he’s managed to make a career of the success he enjoyed from the handful of TV seasons [...]

One of the great things about the DVD era is that it can make it exceedingly easy to catch up with TV shows you skipped on original broadcast. Now, I know a lot of programming is also available on the Internet, but I’m, well, just a tad old-fashioned. It may be why I [...]

This was supposed to be a transition year. Everything about January 2009 said as much. Heroes & Dragons, the comics shop I’d been visiting since I moved to Colorado Springs in November of 2007, was moving. I didn’t know if I could depend on Bargain Comics to deliver quite the same experience. [...]