On multiple occasions during the Cold War, the fate of all humanity hinged on individuals like Vasili Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov choosing to do the right thing. Given similarly awesome responsibilities, our leaders have done the exact wrong thing on every issue, from Gaza to Epstein. Not ideal.

one of my favorites (in an otherwise just-ok book): the social fabric of the town fraying slowly, then all at once in NEEDFUL THINGS

People have been dragging Stephen King lately for his (justifiably notorious) inability to write sex scenes, but the Pluribus premiere reminded me of how great he is at sketching rapidly unfolding catastrophes: the Captain Trips outbreak, the Dome falling, the Mist rolling in, etc.

The Knightfall episode is going to be special.

Tearing through John Fowles’ The Magus over the weekend has me feeling reinvigorated. Man cannot live on picture books, occult bullshit, and scholarly writing alone

the angry base has been right and the savvy "calm down" caucus has been wrong every step of the way for the last 10 years

Chuck Schumer is a James Buchanan-tier political operator. Elite stuff

I saw this guy on an interview recently and he got those really bad ultra white veneers that make you look like a Thunderbirds puppet. Addicted to getting fleeced

Was very surprised to learn that Young Justice apparently compared Orion having Darkseid’s genes to being autistic, much as this movie presents autism as a secret weapon to the Predators. Wouldn’t expect that plot point to happen even once, let alone twice in quick succession

I understand people following their passions, but this is what’s known as being a sucker. How can an aging comics creator watch what happened to PAD (and others, for decades) and conclude “RIP to them but I’m different”?

In New England for a wedding. I was expecting to find sinister eldritch forces lurking behind a wholesome Puritan facade, but mostly I feel like Vito from The Sopranos when he went on the run in Vermont

BONUS EPISODE! We're talking New Gods, baby. After a little keynote essay about Kirby and the resonance of his idiosyncratic Fourth World Saga, we open up the mailbag to answer burning questions on topics ranging from the most kissable New God to Tom King's loyal service to Darkseid.

Biggest news of the night: the New Gods mailbag episode is out tomorrow for patrons (or people who want to pay me $3 without subscribing for some reason)

The people in power- real, actual power- did not want this to happen. They put everything they had into stopping it. They couldn’t. We can shape our own future.

@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social do you like Batman

Dick Cheney was the single person most responsible for the mess we're in today. I'd like to think the degradation of the American imperial project bothered him, but I doubt it; he achieved the power he worshiped, exercised it ruthlessly, and lived out his days with impunity. He won.

How I’d rank the Conan stories I’ve read so far: 1. The Scarlet Citadel [significant gap] 2. Black Colossus 3. The Tower of the Elephant [gap] 4. The Slithering Shadow 5. The Phoenix on the Sword [gap] 6. The God in the Bowl 7. The Pool of the Black One

I feel so bad for Laura Dern, man

A movie you've seen more than seven times with a gif

When you get your ass beat so bad you turn into a Mike Mignola character

RIP Richard Gott. After putting it off for ages, I recently read his exploration of Che Guevara's life in the LRB. Written in 1997, it's a document of socialism at its lowest ebb, as the man who identified Che's body once again finds the man beneath the legend. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v1...

I still have to edit it, but the New Gods bonus ep is officially in the can. Thank you to everybody for sending in questions and giving me a chance to branch out a little—I’m hoping to make this a regular thing, because even I cannot subsist on Batman alone

Gonna try out a new signature sign-off: “Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe”

"And then, in a halo of blazing light that seems to complete *everything*, the old man passes like a dream. Like smoke. But the fire burns forever."

I fall somewhere between these two (excellent) reviews, but at the end of the day I simply have to respect any film this committed to being evil.

Possession and Sleepaway Camp have the same kind of sublime insanity. The products of unwell minds

The Scarecrow is so twisted and messed up that Halloween is normal to him

Never heard the term until recently, but apparently my show consists of "braided essays." Or as I like to call them, "essays."

will kim is still in ICE detention

I know people aren't as crazy about The Forever People as the rest of Kirby's Fourth World, but where else are you going to see a cowboy hippie demigod give a disabled child Cosmic LSD?

There's still time to send in questions for the Fourth World Casebook, btw. You can DM me or email them to blackcasebookpod at gmail dot com. Messages sent on the astral plane will be disregarded for reasons of psychic self-defense

We love to see it.

Live and Let Die is Exhibit A in my case for the Bond franchise as a fascinating cultural artifact: signifier and signified melding as Bond—the congratulatory self-image of an undead empire—struggles to remain relevant with a detour to the colonies. It also just fucking rocks.

THERE CAME A TIME WHEN THE OLD GODS DIED!

Fans of my Gordon voice are gonna be eating good with the Dark Knight Returns episode. Excellent showcase for my buddy Jim.

It’s drawing on multiple fascist precedents, obviously—Caesar himself has a lot of Mussolini in him—but Caesar’s Legion still feels like an omen of the modern rightist coalition, from roid-brained Manosphere misogynists to blackpilled Groypers to Roman statue avi dweebs.

Outstanding analysis of Dario Argento's Three Mothers—Suspiria's Mother of Sighs, Helena Markos, and Inferno's Mothers of Tears and Shadows—as metaphors for the unfettered rapaciousness and petty, short-sighted cruelty of global capital: peterraleigh.substack.com/p/sighs-from...

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

This song encapsulates 95% of Grant Morrison's politics youtube.com/watch?v=DL7-CKirWZE&list=RDDL7-CKirWZE&start_radio=1&pp=ygUibmV3IHJhZGljYWxzIHlvdSBnZXQgd2hhdCB5b3UgZ2l2ZaAHAQ%3D%3D

Many months ago, Ram hit me up to ask if I'd consider unretiring for one last thing. I asked him what he had in mind. He'd decided not to renew at DC, and said he wanted to step away from superheroes, as well as just monthly DM comics. I thought it over. I said yes. www.tcj.com/you-have-to-...

Part of its magic is breaking it in two. Bottom of page, leading action: "Whatever knows fear..." -- then turn to full-page splash with fire igniting, "BURNS at the Man-Thing's touch!!!" I read those stories when first printed and they seared into the brain cells.

If I ever write the Fantastic Four I’m going to make The Thing call everybody Stretcho, not just Mister Fantastic. People will start to worry about him

"Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!" is such a bad, cumbersome slogan that it wraps back around to being great. That’s the magic of comics

2400 years after Socrates' execution for corrupting the youth of Athens, the world turns to another Greek gadfly to save the children: