
The Doors: Unbound and Dangerous
A lifelong Doors fan revisits Unbound and Dangerous and explores seven standout concert albums, explaining why the band’s music keeps revealing something new.

A lifelong Doors fan revisits Unbound and Dangerous and explores seven standout concert albums, explaining why the band’s music keeps revealing something new.

Growing up, a Tex Avery cartoon meant something special was about to happen. Discover the legendary animator’s outrageous humour and the MGM cartoon collection celebrating his enduring legacy.

Anthony Perkins had a musical secret lurking beyond Psycho. Listen to his early jazz career, 1950s hit “Moon-Light Swim,” and rare recordings emerging from the shadows.

A personal journey from Elwy Yost’s Kubrick introductions to The Plot Thickens: Stanley and Criterion’s ultimate Kubrick collection.

Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop Art legacy takes center stage at the Whitney Museum’s Like New exhibition, exploring comic books, originality and today’s AI art debate.

Find the best free pumpkin carving stencils for Halloween, from classic jack-o’-lantern faces to cats, monsters and printable pop culture designs.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown reveals a surprisingly dark Halloween story about disappointment, faith, childhood cruelty and the kindness that can make things better.

August Lamm’s You Don’t Need a Smartphone sparks a funny, personal look at digital dependence, analog living, privacy and our obsession with apps.

Old cookbooks weren’t always harmless. Some mixed food, medicine and household chemistry in ways that can make Grandma’s apple pie look downright safe.

During the Siege of Paris, starving Parisians ate zoo animals. Here’s the bizarre story behind elephant, camel and kangaroo appearing on a Paris menu.

America has so much stuff that we now pay to store it. A funny look at self-storage, consumerism, collecting, George Carlin and our obsession with stuff.

That stupid little pocket in your jeans has a long history, from pocket watches and the real 5th pocket to its cheeky modern reputation as the condom pocket.

Meet Christina the Astonishing, Saint Denis and the Flying Friar, three unusual saints whose medieval stories are filled with remarkable legends, strange adventures and a touch of heavenly mayhem.

A mischievous Montreal raccoon leads to the story of Rascal the Raccoon, the 1977 anime that helped fuel Japan’s real-world raccoon pet boom.

Marvel and DC have turned movie credits into a guessing game. But how many hours are we willing to spend waiting for one last scene.

Meet Vampira, the iconic horror host who helped make monster movies television magic, alongside Elvira, Zacherley, Svengoolie and Count Floyd.

Folks you might be seeing quite a lot of Squid Games costumes out for Halloween this year. The psychologically thrilling Korean drama — which premiered on September 17 is catching the world by surprise. Amazon and Etsy are selling non-sanctioned costumes. Most of the costumes are unisex, I am sure some sicko will come out with a sexy version of the Squid Games costume. Netflix fell asleep behind the wheel with this one. Better get one before Halloween gets here, shipping could be a problem if you do not watch out from where you are getting the costume.

It’s not every day an actor leaves a series after season one and gets replaced in season two with a completely different actor. Perhaps Darrin from Bewitched but that is a whole different story. Javicia Leslie who plays Batwoman in season two gives the character more meat to chew on. Caroline Dries, who developed the series returns season two of Batwoman gives us non-stop action once again. Batwoman is a fun series outside the Bat-Universe with all the same things you would expect in a superhero soap opera swashbuckling series. Some fans consider the series to be a self-serious superhero melodrama sprinkled with choreographed fighting scenes. If you want escapism from reality and inspirational hope, Batwoman: The Complete Second Season is your ticket to fun. Batwoman is in good hands with Javicia Leslie. The third season of Batwoman was announced in February 2021 and is set to premiere on The CW on October 13, 2021. Same bat-channel, same bat-time. This is a perfect way to binge-watch the series before season three begins.

Woody Gutherie has to be the most important lyrist in the history of music. His words have weight if you study the man and the times he grew up in. Kung-fu introduced me indirectly to Woody Guthrie through David Carradine’s “Bound for Glory.” Carradine channeled Gutherie’s life as no other actor has done for a musical artist. Nora Guthrie the daughter of Woody with the help of Robert Santelli has brilliantly captured the essence of one greatest musician. Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art, Words and Wisdom by Nora Guthrie and Robert Santelli collects some of Gutherie’s personal writings and scribbles. The book is graced with original Woody drawings and copies from the various copybooks of his lyrics that he jotted when he was alive. This is the most personal book on Woody Guthrie in book form. You get the see a passionate human fighting corruption in politics and big business with his music and various artistic extensions of his core believes. You don’t have to love Woody’s music. This testament to his legacy will surprise both and new and old fans. You can’t be more personal than this unless you talked to the man himself.

But Inked is more than a book of cartoons. Dator also dives into the creative process, offering bonus commentary on how ideas have come to fruition, how one idea has led to another, and the various attempts to get an idea right. Along the way, he shows how a spark of imagination has turned into a laugh-out-loud moment with only a single image and caption, and how other attempts have found themselves on the cutting-room floor.

That question has haunted Jeff Finn since 1985 when he first researched the infamous vocalist and lyricist of the legendary 1960s rock band, The Doors. Finn is the writer, director and narrator of Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrison, a forthcoming limited film series that rips the hinges off Morrison’s purported official story. Indie film production company Z-Machine has released a new extended preview of this hard-boiled but empathic documystery. What If everything we think we know about Jim Morrison is wrong?

Everything old is new again. Argle Bargle Books is onto something special. Their winning formula is quite simple. They take public domain comic books and repurpose them with new pertinent dialogue. I love the old comic book feel. This is a winning formula for the Ottawa-based independent publisher. The Canuck publisher supports Canadian and international underground comic creators who exhibit something new to say in the 4-color medium. Argle Bargle Books’ new offering is called, GREENIE JOSEPHENIE. Just think of it as a rap song with loops and mixes cobbled together with new lyrics.

In the 70s it was a thing to gather a whole bunch of musicians to create a concept/rock opera album. Albums as Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and The Wiz are perfect examples of rock operas that cobbled some up and coming talent of the time. Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is another record released in 1975 with rock icons such as Manfred Mann, Gary Moore, Brian Eno, Phil Collins, and Cozy Powell.

Scary for Halloween or every day of the year: The officially licensed Super7 Universal Monsters retro monster masks! A collaboration with Retro-a-go-go and designed by artist Doug P’gosh. Made of high-quality plastic with an elastic headband and with retro packaging that will remind you of being a child before the Internet.

You can’t keep a good book down. Even if it’s a children’s book. Vote For Me! by Ben Clanton is enjoying a resurgence due to his Narwhal and Jelly fame. Vote For Me! was Clanton’s first published book. It was re-issued a year ago. It is so apropos for today’s political divide so Tundra Books decided to reprint the book. The whole notion of the book is silly but rooted in reality at many times. Since the book’s first printing in 2012, politics has grown to new shameful heights and Vote for Me! parodies the opposite polarities in both political parties. There is no right or wrong, and blue or red. They just want your vote.

The U.S. Postal Service commemorates the Day of the Dead, an increasingly popular holiday in the United States, with the release of four new Forever stamps. A dedication ceremony for the stamps was held today at the El Paso Museum of Art.

AllHorror.com, a movie database like IMDb but only for horror, was created by Adrian DeGus along with a team of fellow horror fans as a way to help others find new movies based on the exact types of movies they already love. Horror seekers can browse through over 8,725 movies organized into over 150 different horror sub-genres, 25 different styles, 107 different years and the streaming platforms they can be watched on. Seekers can also find new horror movies similar to movies they already know using AllHorror’s “Movies Like” system that is curated manually by horror fans who have personally seen all movies mentioned. All movies are rated, have hand-picked screengrabs, trailers, critic reviews, spoiler-free “What to Expect” write-ups and similar movie recommendations. Horror fans can also browse through hundreds of top lists curated by AllHorror staff as well as lists curated by fellow fans.

Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy was a bitter pill for fans to swallow. The band was no longer hungry, most of them had nothing left in the can. Drugs had taken over the band and the music suffered. Sabbath strayed away from their roots and gave us perhaps the worst album in their recording catalog. However, a song like “She’s Gone” is a polished gem that stood out from the lot. “It’s Alright,” is the first time we hear Bill Ward sing on a Sabbath album. There was nothing technical or ecstatic about this album. It was a train wreck from the beginning. It is rare if ever any songs are played live from this album. Time can be forgiving, Rhino has given us an extremely extended version of the album with new live songs and 90 minutes of new studio outtakes and alternate versions of the songs recorded. This deep dive is a welcome addition and perhaps salvation to a greatly misunderstood album. This offering is meant for the true Black Sabbath super-fan.