Lots of items from modern men’s wardrobes come loaded with history, were featured in cult movies worn by famous actors or have a past strongly connected to popular culture, even if many are not aware of that. Everyday apparel, such as the baseball cap, Dr. Marten’s boots, a pair of jeans, chinos or the leather […]
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Category: B. R. PopCulture
The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta by Dian Hanson (ed.) (2022)
If there is one virtuoso who rightfully deserves the title “Godfather of Fantasy Art” it is Frank Frazetta (1928-2010). The “Brooklyn-born hustler and brawler” son of Italian immigrants quickly established a reputation for himself at the age of 16, when he entered the comic book business in 1944. His early works appeared in EC Comics, […]
Paul Weller and Popular Music. Identity, Idiolect and Image by Andrew West (2023)
There is hardly another active English musician who can look back on a catalog of great music and social comment like Paul Weller, former front man of significant bands of the 1970s, 1980s and well-known solo artist of the 2000s, and also as a political voice addressing important issues. On roughly 160 pages author Andrew […]
Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise by Joel Selvin ...
By introducing numerous future songwriters, musicians, and music producers, Joel Selvin presents a very colorful and intense picture of a California long gone. When with what he calls the “University High School class of 1958” the groundwork for the powerful American pop music of the 1960s and 1970s was laid, as some of that group […]
Marvel By Design. Graphic Design Strategies of the … by gestalten & Liz Stinson (eds.) (2021)
For more than 80 years Marvel, one of the most important comic book companies in the world, provided countless fans with adventure, mystery and tales of superheroes in spectacular arrangements. And over time, also a unique style of communication through layout was created through typesetting, lettering and altogether unparalleled design. The easily recognizable graphic […]
Marvel Comics Library. Fantastic Four. Vol. 1. 1961–1963 by Mark Waid, Mike Massimino … (2022)
With Fantastic Four. Vol. 1. 1961–1963, Taschen celebrates another idea of Marvel’s mastermind Stan Lee. Following the most welcome publication of recent volumes of the Taschen Marvel Comic Library, the superhero family of four is introduced here in a short text by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. Followed by a long essay from acclaimed Marvel […]
The History and Politics of Star Wars. Death Stars and Democracy by Chris Kempshall (2022)
As the most successful movie franchise in history, Star Wars has generated millions of fans worldwide, not to mention the billions of dollars revenue it has created already. Soon after the first movie release, critics and academics began their study of the background, intentions and inspirations of the saga. This project until today remains mostly […]
Italian Giallo in Film and Television: A Critical History by Roberto Curti (2022)
There is one particular modern genre that is strongly connected with the history of Italian filmmaking: the genre of “the yellow ones,” in Italian: “gialli”. The countless movies, dime novels, detective stories and murder mysteries in Italy are subsumed under that title, similar to “pulp” novels, and crime fiction that got their name from the […]
21st Century Retro: “Mad Men” and 1960s America in Film and Television by Debarchana Baruah (2021)
Revivals of cultural and retrospectively oriented tendencies in music, fashion and design have been around for a long time. Many contemporary American and European TV productions successfully revisit the 1940s, 1950s and very often the 1960s. The shows differ greatly in their amount of historical correctness and the many important events that influence the protagonists […]