Imaginary Worlds

Witness if you will a writer: Rod Serling. This is the story of a man with a vision -- a vision of what television could... Read more

Ever since George Lucas cited Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” as the inspiration for Star ... Read more

To kick off our mini-series on sidekicks, we look at the most iconic and long-standing sidekick in pop culture: Doctor W... Read more

Movie trailers have come a long way from the voice-of-God narrators in the ‘80s and ‘90s. So why do the big budget sci-f... Read more

One of the most popular anime series just became widely available when Netflix started streaming Neon Genesis Evangelion... Read more

Walt Disney pioneered the art of hand drawn animation, but it was really his top animators, “The Nine Old Men,” who were... Read more

We all know Godzilla’s iconic roar, but the musician who scored Godzilla's rampages is not as well known. The composer A... Read more

In the conclusion of our mini-series on sidekicks, we look at how Harley Quinn began as a sidekick to a villain, and fou... Read more

Imagine walking into your living room, and alongside your couch is a prop from one of your favorite childhood movies. Su... Read more

In part two of our mini series on sidekicks, we look at two characters that have travelled in parallel since they came o... Read more

Burlesque has merged with geek culture to form nerdlesque – where characters from familiar fantasy franchises strip down... Read more

He's one of the most popular pro-wrestlers of all time, but Mark Calaway’s undead character The Undertaker is also an an... Read more

Mexican wrestling (aka Lucha Libre) has a lot in common with the superhero genre, but trying to be a superhero in real l... Read more

I talked with legendary audio drama producer Dirk Maggs for an episode about the history of radio dramas last year-- but... Read more

Every sci-fi fantasy world comes with a canon of rules and back stories. Fans can be fiercely protective of their favori... Read more

Fascism is a common theme in fantasy worlds, especially the rebels vs. evil empire scenario. But what can we learn from ... Read more

Time travel is one of my favorite genres, and it’s also my go-to daydream. But I’ve begun to wonder whether time travel ... Read more

When things go wrong, it’s tempting to say something’s cursed as a joke. But when things go dreadfully wrong on horror m... Read more

Many of us have imaginary friends when we’re young in the guise of a doll, stuffed animal or toy that give us a sense of... Read more

Cyberpunk was cool. Steampunk was hip. Get ready for Solarpunk. This new emerging genre of art and fiction imagines a fu... Read more