Battling Boy is a small, colorful volume put out by publisher First Second, and written and drawn by Paul Pope. It takes place mainly in the wrecked city of Arcopolis, and stars the eponymous youth known as Battling Boy (or simply Boy). Put simply, if Thor came to an alternate history, early twentieth century earth…
First aired July 22nd, 2013. The army has organized a Visitor’s Day for the residents of Chester’s Mill, bringing in friends and loved ones. Everyone communicates using pads and message boards or in Linda’s case “kissing” her fiancé through the dome (not ten seconds after saying nobody should get anywhere near it). The cheerful mood…
First aired July 15th, 2013. After about two days of hanging out outside the dome the army has decided to hit the road. But, before any large-scale riots can ensue, people begin collapsing with what’s later diagnosed as an outbreak of meningitis. It stands to reason that, being trapped in a confined space, illness could…
First aired July 8th, 2013. Crazy Cop from the previous episode is hauled into jail for killing his fellow officer. He is quick to blame the dome for what happened. Main cop Linda Esquivel locks him up but he pulls the oldest trick in the book: sick prisoner. Crazy Cop manages to outsmart Linda and…
The book-turned-movie Ender’s Game is what made me first ponder this subject, and thanks to the theater release of dystopian YA series, Divergent, I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Perhaps a change in medium can be enlivening to some books, but it is also true that there are just some beloved stories that we would hate…
First aired July 1, 2013. Day two under the dome and the town of Chester’s Mill is brimming with activity. The military has set up camp outside the dome to run experiments and generally ignore the people trapped inside. The real action, of course, takes place in town and in the middle of everything is…
Recently there have been a few key color-blind casting choices in superhero films. This shift toward an openness for non-traditional casting probably occurred when Marvel cast Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. He’s now played that traditionally white character with his own signature swagger in four films (plus cameos in two and an Agents of…
First aired June 24th, 2013. People who live in small towns often have a fear of becoming trapped there for the rest of their lives. The residents of Chester’s Mill are condemned to rural life when a nearly invisible dome smashes down (slicing a cow in half in the process) and cuts them off from…
The world is changing faster than it has at any other point in its history. Science and technology are evolving and advancing in ways previously thought to be impossible. As they have done so, philosophy, politics and many other societal elements have also gone through significant shifts. These are all leading to a variety of possibilities, all under the heading…
I’ve talked a lot about the Ender’s Game film adaptation. I’ve also compared it often to the book it’s based on. However, I haven’t discussed the novel in detail yet. I’ve decided now is the time for me to do so. Unfortunately, for those who haven’t read it, you should know I’m doing this solely for…
The cover that launched a thousand hopes. You can imagine my delight when I discovered Podkayne of Mars at my local bookstore some months back. I was still fresh from Have Spacesuit, Will Travel—the book that made me a Heinlein fan—and here was another Heinlein book, with a female protagonist who wanted to defy social…
