For many centuries stories, tales, parables and myths not only have been sources of inspiration or simple methods of entertainment; those creations were models to live and judge by and inspirations of how to react in certain situations (as well as guidelines of how not to). Tales and stories told over and over again finally […]
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Category: B. R. PopCulture
75 Years of Marvel Comics. From the Golden Age… by Roy Thomas and Josh Baker (2014)
After two big books on DC Comics, Taschen presents a heavy, heavy book on the other major name in comic publishing: Marvel Comics. Both publishers together dominate the US comic book market, approximately up to 80 percent of all superhero comics sold come from these two big players. The book on 720(!) pages commemorates not […]
Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice … by Nickie D. Phillips and Staci Strobl (2013)
Since superhero comic books often display in their stories characters, settings, possible problems and wishful thinking of their readers, even if the location is on another planet, it is only natural that also a sense of justice and the following punishment as felt by the readers is transported through the action heroes. There is a […]
All-American Ads of the 40s by Jim Heimann and W. R. Wilkerson III (2014)
While the 1940s saw a terrible war and allied troops fighting on various continents, those Americans who stayed behind were assured of their role in the war effort not by fighting but consuming for the final victory. Even though many goods such as tires, gasoline, metals, fibers and sometimes even electricity were rationed, the marketing […]
Super-History. Comic Book Superheroes and American Society… by Jeffrey K. Johnson (2012)
There are many ways to describe and finally explain not only the evolution of the comic book superhero but find causes and reasons for their change, adjustment and complete modification throughout superhero history. As World War II historian Jeffrey K. Johnson unfolds very carefully, there is mostly one explanation why the colorful superheroes changed with […]
Alfred Hitchcock’s America by Murray Pomerance (2013)
With his second publication on Alfred Hitchcock, Professor Pomerance has now given focus to the Americanization of the great director’s themes and film settings. After all, Hitchcock remained British in character all of his life and probably had not imagined becoming an American subject in his early days. That things would turn out so well […]
Tiki Pop. America Imagines its Own Polynesian Paradise by Sven Kirsten (2014)
The 1960s in the United States saw the peak of the Tiki craze, the fascination with physical products of Polynesia and, more important than that, the easy and happy way of life, as it was glorified by the American public. There actually was a very strong influence of Tiki culture on American everyday life then, […]
The Occult Arts of Music: An Esoteric Survey… by David Huckvale (2013)
To start with: there are very, very few books that deal with this subject-matter. So finding literature about the music linked to the unspeakable, mysterious, secret and hidden (hence: lat. occultus) is interesting enough. But David Huckvale is not a novice when it comes to exotic topics, he is a writer and journalist who has […]
Working Class Heroes: Rock Music and British Society… by David Simonelli (2012)
David Simonelli, associate professor of history at Youngstown State University, must have plundered archive after archive, at least the ones of the NME, Melody Maker, Billboard and the BBC as well. At the center of his study is the approach to the shifting image of a young generation of musicians and their fans, by then […]