Glen Weldon

Coined in an era when comics were considered junk culture, graphic novel is a hoary, meaningless, and often completely inaccurate term. Comics are comics; stop apologizing for them.

Superheroes preserve the status quo, employ symbolic visual imagery, have flawless bodies and use their powers to place themselves above the law. Are they just fascists in tights?

Oh, sure, it's bluntly descriptive. But the title Affleck has announced for his upcoming Batmovie has got no oomph, no zazz, no moxie. We offer some humble, better suggestions.

The movie titles of the late splatter-film director are evocative ... and wonderfully terrible. Can you tell them apart from the titles of some less-than-classic kids' books?

Every year the Small Press Expo (SPX) brings creators of independent comics together with passionate fans. Many of those fans make comics themselves and say they're inspired by SPX's "funkier" feel.

Arm yourself with NPR's ruthlessly rigorous Emmy predictions, which are based on acute cultural analysis and industry savvy, and thus are totally not wild guesses, at all, seriously.

Last Saturday and Sunday, the 2016 Creative Arts Emmys — 91 of them — were handed out in Los Angeles. We review some notable winners.

This week, the discussion takes a decidedly domestic turn as Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Kat Chow and Barrie Hardymon talk real estate shows, home renovation shows, and cooking shows.

Star Trek turns 50 tomorrow. Each of the various shows and films that make up the franchise feature a character who offers a third-person view of humanity; they're what make Star Trek what it is.

TV has a bad guy problem. The rise of morally ambiguous anti-heroes like Tony Soprano has pushed chewier, more melodramatic villains aside. What we gained in nuance, we lost in sheer, hiss-worthy fun.

The actor and writer who brought his signature manic energy to comedy classics died at his home in Stamford, Conn., of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 83.

The search for America's Next Drag Superstar(TM) continues, as the drag competition returns for a second All-Star season on Thursday. We humbly offer a guide for the perplexed.

The Fire Still (Side)Burns: Jackman recently took to social media to shave off the distinctive facial hair he sported for the role of Wolverine. Those mutton chops are not handling the breakup well.

In the Olympics, and in many other areas of life, from comic-book eras to health care plans, "bronze" has come to signify the least of three things. It shouldn't.

This week, a slightly reconstituted panel tackles two big summer movies featuring rogues who do right. Plus: what's making us happy this week.

At the 2016 International Yo-Yo Slam, being held now in Cleveland, several adorable nerds in T-shirts are getting their yo-yos out.

The Adam West-Burt Ward film, shot and released between the TV series' 1st and 2nd seasons, is a thing of gloriously goofy beauty that will make your life better.

McPherson, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, has died at 72. His work explored the intersection of white and black lives with deftness, subtlety and wry humor.

Three recent properties - a Netflix series, a comic book and a 2011 Hollywood film - borrow key elements from Steven Spielberg and Stephen King to comment on adolescence in very different ways.

Fans of science fiction have long wrestled with the question of just how much science should be in their fiction. Advocates of different approaches met at San Diego's Comic-Con.