Blogs I Like: Dread Media

First off, Dread Media isn't so much a blog as it is a host site for a weekly podcast. Second, I'm not what you'd call a fan of podcasts in general, though I don't exactly dislike them. It's just that they can be time consuming for listeners, and so many are often self indulgent (though that's certainly a "people in glass houses" kind of thing to say.)

Dread Media isn't all that different in a lot of respects. It can run run a little long sometimes, though host Desmond Reddick does his level best to keep them at 90 minutes or under. Considering it's basically a one-man show he does a fine job of mixing up the content so that something new is coming at the listener every 10 minutes or so, whether it's guest spots, themed discussions, feedback from listeners and the occasional song. It's a well edited program. In fact, it has such a magazine-like quality that I've had to correct this post several times to replace the word reader with listener.

You can also subscribe to the program through iTunes, which is how I keep up with the show. I say check it out!

Blogs I Like: News from ME

News from Me is a blog created by writer Mark Evanier. Mark's written for just about every medium you can imagine, ranging from a stint as an editorial assistant to Jack Kirby in the early 1970s to television work like Garfield and Friends and Scooby Doo. He's even published a few books over the years about folks like Kirby and June Foray.

Mark's got a lot of insight into the entertainment business and it's always fun to read grounded opinions on a community that is rarely ever grounded. He's also got first-hand experience with such notable moments in geek history like the controversial creation of Scappy Doo, the life and death of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and has an encyclopedic knowledge of classic comedy. All that and he's the co-creator (with Sergio Aragones) of Groo the Wanderer, a feat that will surely reserve him a spot in Valhalla.

Blogs I Like: Frankensteinia

It's no secret that I love Frankenstein (you guys know that right?) So where else could I hang out besides Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog?

Managed by artist Pierre Fournier, the site tracks just about everything related to Frankenstein and houses an insane amount of data about Frankenstein-related memorabilia. Movies and books are just the tips of the iceberg: Frankensteinia has photos and essays on toys, models, costumes, games and just about every kind of pop culture item you could imagine (and a few you probably can't.)

One of his most recent threads concerns one of my ten favorite movies, The Bride of Frankenstein. In celebration of the movie's 75th anniversary Fournier has been running a series of stories about the film, ranging in topics like vintage marketing materials, to detailed looks at the whimsical "little people" created by the film's Dr. Pretorius.

And (ahem) Frankensteinia was also one of the first sites to send a little traffic toward my band, which has recorded a number of songs about Frankenstein. So I'm admittedly a little biased.

Blogs I Like

There aren't a lot of comic characters I follow with any great passion. I can count most of them on one hand: Daredevil, Batman and the Teen Titans come immediately to mind. As does Aquaman.

I'm not sure where the anti-Aquaman mania started. The blame sometimes gets placed at the feet of the various Super-Friends cartoons, but those shows did nobody any favors. The characters were all interchangeable and flat at construction paper, and Aquaman didn't come across any worse than Batman or Wonder Woman.

Still, the idea that Aquaman is some loser who "talks to fish" is part of the common culture today, and that kind of skit makes me want to get all Brodie up in here. Just because You fuckers think just because a guy reads comics he can't start some shit?

Anyway, Aquaman has had some great fan pages over the years. The most important is Tegan's The Aquaman Website, which has been running for more than a decade now. Right after that is Rob's The Aquaman Shrine, a site that delivers daily doses of Atlantean goodness. Whether it's the adventures of the Aquaman Hoodie or regular features on the various Aquaman-related toys over the years, TAqS is a real treat for hardcore fans.

Blogs I Like

On paper, Fully Jointed Play Figures sounds like an incredibly dull idea. The author is (more or less) just buying toys for his son and taking photos of the experience. Why not just show is slides of your family vacation, dude?

Surprisingly, though, Fully Jointed Play Figures works. It's a blog that manages to do something that's almost impossible in geek circles: evoke an emotion other than rage. Seriously ... how can you not smile at the photo above?

The site also conveys why so many of us still love toys after all these years, and does so without stooping to pretension, cynicism or hostility. It's actually very genuine and sweet.

It might not be the edgiest blog on the planet, but there's nothing wrong with that. I say check it out!