Features
The Death of the Artist Alley?
For smaller artists, increased costs and outsized merchandise expectations are putting convention-selling out of reach.
Lanterns: The Last Manhunter
In episode 2, John has a surprising alien encounter while Hal continues his investigation in Rushville.
Putting Away Childish Things
In The Book of Dust trilogy, Philip Pullman does what few authors for young readers ever attempt: he lets his protagonist grow up.
Lanterns: Are You Afraid?
In episode 1, Hal Jordan and his protégé, John Stewart, investigate a shooting in small-town Nebraska.
The Bachelor and the Fantasy of Performance
In Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor, Ilana Masad imagines competing on the show, imaginary straightness and all.
What Spider-Man Can’t Save
In which our hero contemplates a career writing about superheroes and pop culture—and imagines an ending.
Special Episode 38: The Odyssey
“Wet and normal”—just two of many descriptors for Christopher Nolan’s epic.
How Fans Make Fictional Languages Real
Na’vi, Klingon, and other conlangs get more use IRL than they ever have onscreen.
The Vampire Lestat: The Queen of the Damned
In episode 5, “New York,” Lestat strips back his rock-star facade and confronts his memories of Akasha.
Be Gay, Do (Sea) Crimes: Pirate Tropes and Queer Resistance
As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, pirate stories thrive on “all the old romance, retold exactly in the ancient way.”
The Vampire Lestat: Hurtling Towards End Times
In episode 4, “The Devil’s Road,” Lestat’s reality begins to fracture as Armand returns with portents of doom.
The Global Crackdown on Creativity
Governments around the world are censoring—and criminalizing—the currents in which fanworks flow.
The Vampire Lestat: You Have to Ask for It
In episode 3, “Toronto,” the show takes bold creative swings as Lestat tries (and fails) to rewrite his own sexual trauma.