Serious Fun

It only took them eleven years but finally a female hero is frontlining a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie! This week Bryan sits down with CU Boulder media studies professor and Captain Marvel superfan J. Richard Stevens to talk about the new movie, Carol Danvers' turbulent publishing history, and the feminist lessons the film provides for everyone. It's a whole flerken lot of fun!

Sound credits:

Audio from "Captain Marvel: Trailer 2" - Marvel Studios

Pinar Toprak - "Captain Marvel", Captain Marvel Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

This special episode of Serious Fun is a recording of a February 27, 2019 discussion of the film "BlacKkKlansman" featuring Bryan and Dr. Vince Lowery. The discussion was recorded after a screening of the Academy Award-winning film, and covers a wide variety of topics concerning how the film talks about race and racism in our contemporary climate, how it performed at the Academy Awards, its historical context, and what we do next. You'll also hear from UWGB students, staff, and community members who stayed to be part of the conversation and give their thoughts on the film and its surrounding issues.

Professional wrestling and comics are perhaps two of the purest art forms known to humanity, and much like the proverbial peanut butter and chocolate, when smashed together end up being quite tasty indeed. This episode of Serious Fun speaks with Lan Pitts, one such confectioner of this treat and writer for Boom! Studios' WWE comics series. Bryan and Lan talk about writing for comics, finding the story in professional wrestling, the mythic storytelling possibilities of The Million Dollar Man and Razor Ramon, Pitts' original work, and so much more in a wide-ranging interview. Everyone has a price, but luckily yours...is free! Listen now.

Music Credits:

Jim Johnston - "It's All About the Money"

Jim Johnston - "Bad Boy"

World Wrestling Entertainment - "Million Dollar Man" clip

You've spent all season arguing about whether it was a Christmas movie, but is it possible Die Hard is...so much more? This week we're launching a new subfeature on Serious Fun just in time for the holidays called Overthinkin' It! Bryan is joined by Dr. Ryan Martin (UWGB Psychology) and Dr. Michelle McQuade Dewhirst (UWGB Music) for a deep-dive, overthought analysis of the action classic Die Hard in time for its 30th anniversary! Is Die Hard secretly a feminist action movie? What can it teach us about scripting and plotting? And is John McClane a spiritual descendant of Ludwig van Beethoven? All that and more in this super-sized episode! Put it on your MP3 player and enjoy the holiday!

After a brief and largely unplanned hiatus, Serious Fun is back! This time around, Dr. Carr talks to representatives from the UWGB Anime Club about anime, anime fandom, and more! Ntxhee Yee Thao and Jacob Huempfner share their favorite shows, talk about the business and process of creating anime, and reflect on their fandom and the friends they made along the way.

It’s a special all-Frankenstein, all the Franken-time episode of Serious Fun! This episode stitches together two of Bryan’s presentations on the legacy of Mary Shelley’s work as part of our on-campus celebration of the novel’s 200th anniversary. First, gasp as Bryan talks about the surprising way Shelley’s work has been reinterpreted by pop culture icons you might not expect! Then, thrill to a discussion of Frankenstein’s monster, copyright law, and the public domain! Get your Halloween started off right with this new episode of Serious Fun!

NOTES:

Zac Fanni’s incredible analysis of David from the Alien franchise as a stand-in for the Romantic elements of the Frankenstein story can be found here: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/david-modern-frankenstein-romantic-analysis-alien-covenant/

Josh Corman’s discussion of the Alien franchise as ongoing Frankenstein allegory is here: https://bookriot.com/2017/06/06/the-alien-franchise-is-now-one-big-frankenstein-story/

Jonathan Bailey’s discussion of the copyright implications of Universal’s ownership of the Frankenstein monster is here: https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/10/24/how-universal-re-copyrighted-frankensteins-monster/

Jae Prowse’s excellent tribute to Frankenstein makeup artist Jack Pierce can be read here: https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3504334/can-human-jack-pierce-forgotten-monster-makeup-pioneer/

Credits:

Sound effects courtesy the BBC’s Sound Effects database and are used under the RemArc license for non-commercial use. Sound effects are available at http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/. bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2018 BBC.

Another great year of Brown County Library Comic-Con episodes comes to a grand finale with a special Phoenix Studios crossover event! Bryan joins forces with the powerful minds over at Psych and Stuff (represented here by Dr. Ryan Martin and Dr. Chuck Rybak) to talk about supervillains, psychology, mental health, and political philosophy! Is Killmonger justified? Does Lex Luthor have a complex? Can we read Two-Face as a metaphor for depression? And what of Thanos? All that and Bryan airs his grievances with the Joker and Suicide Squad in a riotous, hopefully insightful hour of podcasting.

Serious Fun at the Brown County Library Comic-Con continues as Bryan sits down with the Scribe award-winning author John Jackson Miller! Miller, the writer of countless comics, novels, and more for franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Simpsons talks about the challenges of working in established universes, the process of writing comics in a digital age, the perils of focusing too much on canonicity and continuity, and so much more in a wide-ranging and entertaining discussion that is a must-listen for any aspiring writer or fan. Come for the writing advice, stay for the snark about the Clone Saga - and check out JJM's new Battlestar Galactica comic, available at a shop near you!

The first of our three-episode series LIVE (to tape) from Brown County Library Comic-Con is here! Bryan sits down with local artist Carli Ihde to talk about her style, her experiences working in art forms ranging from murals to pumpkins, her time at the Kubert school and working in the comics industry, her advice for aspiring artists, and her thoughts on drawing powerful women. It's funny, it's inspiring, at points maybe even a little inappropriate - a great episode of Serious Fun with a fantastic artist.

LINKS:

We refer to Carli's work several times in this episode. You can check it out in lots of different places:

Carli's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlieyed/?hl=en

Carli's DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/carliihde

Carli's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carliihdeart/

The COUNTDOWN TO COMIC-CON at the Brown County Library continues on Serious Fun! This week - Bryan sits down with UWGB Psychology professor Dr. Regan Gurung to talk about comics and superheroes across borders as well as his own experience with the medium as a child growing up in India. What can Superman tell us about the immigrant experience? How can comics explain and find commonality across culture? What is the psychological payload of identity - dual or otherwise - in superhero media? And what is the impact of the rise of Afrofuturism as a genre and aesthetic? All this and more this week on Serious Fun!

Music clips:

Hans Zimmer - "Flight", Man of Steel (2013) Original Score

John Williams - "Superman March", Superman (1978) Original Score