I reflect on Stan Lee's life and legacy at First Things: "It was impossible not to look up to Stan Lee if you were a nerdy kid (like me) interested in creating fantastical universes (like me). Books like How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way interspersed comics-drawing tutorials with color commentary from Stan Lee. I got one of those books in a Christmas stocking when I was maybe ten and traced the figures in it to generate my very first superheroes. His personality was so strong

I made another appearance on the podcast God and Comics, this accompanied by my wife Leah Libresco Sargeant, chatting with a geeky priest and deacon about the latest and greatest superhero epic, Avengers: Infinity War. One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was our discussion of the real world resonance of the film's antagonist Thanos, who reflects the despairing anti-natalist bent of many real people. Here's a transcribed excerpt: ME: I really appreciate what

I returned to God and Comics to talk about comic book origin stories. Which are our favorites? What trends in origin stories do we find upsetting? Are all retcons and retreads of origins bad? How does this all relate to God and the Incarnation? Plus, as a third-time guest on the show, I have the distinct honor to run the This-or-That segment—the first guest to recur often enough to do so! Listen to the podcast at the God and Comics site. #Podcast #GodandComics #Comics #Superh

"The comic book world lost a mad master of the form last Sunday. Tributes to him on comic book sites have been mixed in tone. One reads, “Of all the many masterful artists that we’ve covered on ComicsAlliance, it seems safe to say that Jack T. Chick is the only one to regularly be described as ‘bizarre,’ ‘grotesque,’ ‘atavistic,’ and ‘savagely anti-Catholic.’” Chick backed into comic book history almost by accident. He was an irreligious veteran who was converted to Christian

Just in time for Halloween, I discussed the "scared-straight"-style evangelical tracts by the late artist Jack Chick. What made these grotesque propagandistic comics such a staple of American Christian culture? What are we to make of Chick's rabid anti-Catholic fear-mongering—and his opposition to trick-or-treating and playing Dungeons & Dragons? I sit down with Julia Yost on the First Things podcast to dissect Chick's legacy. You can hear our segment starting at the 18:30 ma

With Acculturated gone from the internet, I am reposting some of my Acculturated articles here, in their entirety. Enjoy. Not since the Anthony Hopkins’ brutally cultured Hannibal Lecter has a screen villain so frightened, enthralled, and twistedly delighted audiences. Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight will go down in history as a film-stealing antagonist, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. In my previous columns on Superman and Batman, I looked at how the themes

With Acculturated gone from the internet, I am reposting some of my Acculturated articles here, in their entirety. Enjoy. Quite possibly the most popular and profitable superhero of all time, Batman casts a long shadow over popular culture. The word “shadow” is not chosen unwittingly; unlike the sun-powered and brightly-colored Superman, the subject of the first post in this series, Batman is a creature of the night, a man who uses the shadows to turn fear against the fearmon