Author Neil Gaiman has written some of our all-time favorite stories, including Sandman, Good Omens, American Gods, and The Doctor's Wife. He's got a wonderfully creative mind which has led us into worlds of darkness, fantasy, and whimsy, and he strikes a chord for us in a way that is distinctly Gaiman-esque. We consider him a creative role model in many ways, so that's why we were excited to check out his new book: Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change the World. (Release date: November 20, 2018.) The book is a collection of four previous Gaiman essays, which are... Read more →

It's great to finally have the Doctor back in action. After what felt like years of waiting, #13 and her friends jumped right into the action, and the new era is off to a strong start. The problem is that it leaves us even more impatient for each week's new episode to arrive. That's why we recently treated ourselves to The Thirteenth Doctor: The Many Lives of Doctor Who, from Titan Comics, to help pass some time between shows. Written by Richard Dinnick, and beautifully drawn by a number of illustrators, The Many Lives takes place right as #12 is... Read more →

Professional wrestling has always seemed like like an over-the-top circus (fittingly, given the industry's roots.) Loud overgrown men vowing to defeat their opponents, putting on an entertaining physical show in front of cheering audiences, and then packing up and moving on to do it all over again in the next city. The travel is intense, and the job security is temporary, but these guys (we're only focusing on male wrestlers here) grind away at it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. The audience might sometimes forget that these performers are real people with real... Read more →

Friends is one of the all-time great TV versions of comfort food. Just saying, "Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey," can trigger a sensation similar to the idea of sitting down to a plate of mac and cheese. The show stopped airing new episodes in 2004, but it doesn't feel like this group ever left us. That's largely because you can find multi-hour blocks of reruns airing every weekday on various cable stations. What is it about Friends that's given it such staying power? Kelsey Miller takes a look at that question, as well as the rest of the... Read more →

New York Times Magazine Chief National Correspondent Mark Leibovich was looking for a distraction from his regular job covering politics so he decided to examine something far less controversial: the National Football League. (Wait, that doesn't sound right.) Leibovich dove head-first into the saga that is the NFL over a period of four years and came out on the other end with his new book, Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times. (Release date: September 4, 2018.) The author doesn't hide the fact that he's a lifelong New England Patriots fan. In fact, he fully embraces it. Whether you think... Read more →

Longtime fans remember well the dramatic transformation that hit the pro wrestling landscape in the mid-1980's. A longstanding collection of regional wrestling territories were challenged by Vince McMahon as he sought to turn his father's Northeast-based (then) WWF into a national company. McMahon upended tradition with sweeping talent raids, aggressive use of the emerging cable television industry, maximizing the new pay-per-view universe, and providing a more cartoonish form of wrestling aimed towards children. The other promoters tried a variety of ways to block McMahon's plans. One by one they fell, and wrestling would never be the same. It's a fascinating... Read more →

Bob Woodward's latest book, Fear: Trump in the White House, has been all over the news for the last few weeks, and with good reason. The veteran political reporter provides a harrowing look into the inner workings of Donald Trump's administration, and it's alarming. It's not that the book reveals another side of Trump, it's that it demonstrates his known failings are even more extensive and dangerous than have been reported. Fear shows that the biggest daily task his staff and cabinet face is not carrying out his agenda (not that he has a defined one in the first place.)... Read more →

Fred Rogers was a key figure in the lives of millions of children over the course of his career. They watched his groundbreaking television program, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and learned about kindness, compassion, love (for themselves and others), and other critical values which would stay with them for the rest of their lives. Rogers believed that adults needed to respect children and understand that they were not simply "little adults," but rather individuals who had their own unique hopes, fears, and questions. He believed that emotional learning was more important than factual information for young children, and he dedicated his... Read more →

Sumner Redstone has been a media titan for decades. The son of a movie chain owner from Boston, Redstone expanded the reach of that business until it was an empire that included CBS and Viacom (which also meant companies like Paramount Studios and MTV, among others.) He made a lot of aggressive decisions and angered many people along the way (including numerous relatives who ended up suing him.) His seemingly biggest ally/foe is none other than his daughter Shari Redstone, who has now replaced him at the top of the mountain, although her father's presence is still felt. The Redstone... Read more →

There are millions across the country who long for a return to the days when Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in the White House. The bad news is that they won't be returning to fix our immigration policy. The good news is that the two men reunite in the new action-packed crime thriller/bromance parody, Hope Never Dies, by Andrew Shaffer. (release date: July 10) The book is set a few months after the 2016 election, and Joe Biden is still figuring out what to next with his life. His former best friend Barack Obama doesn't seem to be having... Read more →