Download or read book The Collectible LEGO Minifigure written by Ed Maciorowski and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since their debut in 1978, LEGO minifigures have become the most iconic piece of the wildly popular toy line. Although small in stature, minifigures stand particularly tall as hot collector items. How hot? Consider the rare Mr. Gold (shown on the front cover), who has sold for $1,500 on the secondary market. Beautifully illustrated and amusing to page through, The Collectible LEGO Minifigure reveals why these pint-sized plastic powerhouses are the driving force in the LEGO Universe, whether collected for fun or profit. Featuring: • Up-to-date secondary-market prices for new and used minifigures from 2000 to present • Hundreds of the most significant and valuable minifigures priced and highlighted • More than 20 top categories of valuable LEGO minifigures organized by theme, including Adventurers, Batman, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Super Heroes • Hundreds of full-color photos • Useful tips for collecting, investment, and detecting counterfeits

Download or read book America s Changing Icons written by Annessa Ann Babic and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-02-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s Changing Icons is a discursive examination of the female patriotic icon in the United States. This creative and entertaining work examines her use and decline, particularly in the 20th century, with a particular focus on popular culture icons like Lady Columbia, Rosie the Riveter, and Wonder Woman. These fictional creations, used with advertisements; letters; and literature of the eras work together to craft a multi-layered and dynamic portrait of cultural politics, tides, and perceptions about American women, life, and place.

Download or read book The Science Fiction Fantasy Quiz Book written by Joseph A. McCullough and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-20 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quiz book containing over 1,000 questions about the classics of science-fiction and fantasy drawn from all media. In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, what is the name of Tom Bombadil's wife? Which character does Scarlett Johansson play in the 2012 film The Avengers? Who is the protagonist of the video game The Legend of Zelda? Which barbarian hero carried a sword called “Graywand”? How well do you know the who, where, what, when and how of science fiction and fantasy? Do you dare face the ultimate test of knowledge drawn from the greatest novels, movies, comic books, video games and televisions shows in the history of these genres? Complete with questions ranging from easy to mind-bogglingly hard and including true or false, multiple choice, short answer, and match-up sections, this fun-filled book is the perfect gift for all lovers of science fiction and fantasy.

Download or read book Graphic Novels written by Michael Pawuk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 758 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering genres from adventure and fantasy to horror, science fiction, and superheroes, this guide maps the vast terrain of graphic novels, describing and organizing titles to help librarians balance their graphic novel collections and direct patrons to read-alikes. New subgenres, new authors, new artists, and new titles appear daily in the comic book and manga world, joining thousands of existing titles—some of which are very popular and well-known to the enthusiastic readers of books in this genre. How do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This updated guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre. Containing mostly new information as compared to the previous edition, the book covers iconic super-hero comics and other classic and contemporary crime fighter-based comics; action and adventure comics, including prehistoric, heroic, explorer, and Far East adventure as well as Western adventure; science fiction titles that encompass space opera/fantasy, aliens, post-apocalyptic themes, and comics with storylines revolving around computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. There are also chapters dedicated to fantasy titles; horror titles, such as comics about vampires, werewolves, monsters, ghosts, and the occult; crime and mystery titles regarding detectives, police officers, junior sleuths, and true crime; comics on contemporary life, covering romance, coming-of-age stories, sports, and social and political issues; humorous titles; and various nonfiction graphic novels.

Download or read book Reboot Culture written by William Proctor and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-11-24 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the release of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins in 2005, there has been a pronounced surge in alternative uses of the computer term ‘reboot,’ a surge that has witnessed the term deployed in new contexts and new signifying practices, involving politics, fashion, sex, nature, sport, business, and media. As a narrative concept, however, reboot terminology remains widely misused, misunderstood, and misinterpreted across popular, journalistic, and academic discourses, being recklessly and relentlessly solicited as a way to describe a broad range of narrative operations and contradictory groupings, including prequels, sequels, adaptations, revivals, re-launches, generic ‘refreshes,’ and enactments of retroactive continuity. Adopting an inter-disciplinary approach that fuses cultural studies, media archaeology, and discursive approaches, this book challenges existing scholarship on the topic by providing new frameworks and taxonomies that illustrate key differences between reboots and other ‘strategies of regeneration,’ helping to spotlight the various ways in which the culture industries mine their intellectual properties in distinct and novel ways to present them anew. Reboot Culture: Comics, Film, Transmedia is the first academic study to critically explore and interrogate the reboot phenomenon as it emerged historically to describe superhero comics that sought to jettison existing narrative continuity in order to ‘begin again’ from scratch.of franchising in the twenty-first century. of franchising in the twenty-first century. /div

Download or read book The Novel as Network written by Tim Lanzendörfer and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-23 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Novel as Network: Forms, Ideas, Commodities engages with the contemporary Anglophone novel and its derivatives and by-products such as graphic novels, comics, podcasts, and Quality TV. This collection investigates the meaning of the novel in the larger system of contemporary media production and (post-)print culture, viewing the novel through the lens of actor network theory as a node in the novel network. Chapters underscore the deep interconnection between all the aspects of the novel, between the novel as a (literary) form, as an idea, and as a commodity. Bringing together experts from American, British, and Postcolonial Studies, as well as Book, Publishing, and Media Studies, this collection offers a new vantage point to view the novel in its multifaceted expressions today.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Weird Detectives written by Paul Green and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The detective genre has explored supernatural and paranormal themes throughout its colorful history. Stories of detectives investigating spiritualists, ghostly apparitions, the occult and psychics have spanned pulp fiction magazines, comic books, novels, film, television, animation and video games. This encyclopedia covers the history of the genre in its multiple forms and informs and adds to the knowledge of either the new or informed reader. Its A-Z format provides ready reference by title. Detective fans browsing for new discoveries will enjoy the entertaining style.

Download or read book Tech Noir written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical study traces the common origins of film noir and science fiction films, identifying the many instances in which the two have merged to form a distinctive subgenre known as Tech-Noir. From the German Expressionist cinema of the late 1920s to the present-day cyberpunk movement, the book examines more than 100 films in which the common noir elements of crime, mystery, surrealism, and human perversity intersect with the high technology of science fiction. The author also details the hybrid subgenre's considerable influences on contemporary music, fashion, and culture.

Download or read book The Rules of Screenwriting and Why You Should Break Them written by Bill Mesce, Jr. and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A couple of generations ago, the movie industry ran on gut instinct--film schools, audience research departments and seminars on screenwriting were not yet de rigueur. Today the standard is the analytical approach, intended to demystify filmmaking and guarantee success (or at least minimize failure). The trouble with this method is that nobody knows how to do it--they just think they do--and films are made based on models of predictability rather than the merits of the script. This insider's look at the craft and business of screenwriting explodes some of the popular myths, demonstrating how little relevance the rules have to actual filmmaking. With long experience in film and television, the author provides insightful how-not-to analyses, with commentary by such veterans as Josh Sapan (CEO of AMC Networks), bestselling author Adriana Trigiani and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas).

Download or read book TV The Book written by Alan Sepinwall and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is The Wire better than Breaking Bad? Is Cheers better than Seinfeld? What's the best high school show ever made? Why did Moonlighting really fall apart? Was the Arrested Development Netflix season brilliant or terrible? For twenty years-since they shared a TV column at Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper-critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz have been debating these questions and many more, but it all ultimately boils down to this: What's the greatest TV show ever? That debate reaches an epic conclusion in TV (THE BOOK). Sepinwall and Seitz have identified and ranked the 100 greatest scripted shows in American TV history. Using a complex, obsessively all-encompassing scoring system, they've created a Pantheon of top TV shows, each accompanied by essays delving into what made these shows great. From vintage classics like The Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy to modern masterpieces like Mad Men and Friday Night Lights, from huge hits like All in the Family and ER to short-lived favorites like Firefly and Freaks and Geeks, TV (THE BOOK) will bring the triumphs of the small screen together in one amazing compendium. Sepinwall and Seitz's argument has ended. Now it's time for yours to begin!

Download or read book Quinn Martin Producer written by Jonathan Etter and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Quinn Martin was the most innovative and most creative of his kind. He was a man in touch with the future, far more than the times. His characters were not stereotypical characters. His production methods were not stereotypical either. He was unique in a number of ways. That's why his shows did so well"--Lynda Day George, guest star on QM's The Fugitive, The FBI, and other shows. Producer of such television shows as The Invaders, Barnaby Jones, The Untouchables, The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon and 12 O'Clock High, Quinn Martin was widely admired for his devotion to his shows, his hands-on approach to the writing, casting and editing of each episode, his interactions with network executives, and the high standards he set for his crew and actors. This detailed study of Martin and his company examines each of his series in detail, from development through cancellation.

Download or read book Understanding Superhero Comic Books written by Alex Grand and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-05-30 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work dissects the origin and growth of superhero comic books, their major influences, and the creators behind them. It demonstrates how Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America and many more stand as time capsules of their eras, rising and falling with societal changes, and reflecting an amalgam of influences. The book covers in detail the iconic superhero comic book creators and their unique contributions in their quest for realism, including Julius Schwartz and the science-fiction origins of superheroes; the collaborative design of the Marvel Universe by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Steve Ditko; Jim Starlin’s incorporation of the death of superheroes in comic books; John Byrne and the revitalization of superheroes in the modern age; and Alan Moore’s deconstruction of superheroes.

Download or read book Justice League Origami written by John Montroll and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2015 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Provides instructions and diagrams for folding origami models of characters, objects, and symbols related to the Justice League"--

Download or read book A Feminist Companion to Tobit and Judith written by Athalya Brenner-Idan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Feminist Companion to Tobit and Judith extends the work of the hugely influential and respected Feminist Companion series, which continues to set the standard for feminist approaches to the Hebrew Bible and related texts. In the present volume Athalya Brenner-Idan (with Helen Efthimiadis-Keith) draws together a range of scholarly commentators and addresses the core issues relating to feminist interpretations of the two texts at hand. The volume examines attitudes to gender, identities, exile, social mores, beliefs, clothing, food and drink, personal relationships, and biblical reception. The contributors are: Beverly Bow and George Nickelsburg, Athalya Brenner-Idan, Ora Brison, Helen Efthimiadis-Keith, Renate Egger-Wenzel, Beate Ego, Emma England, Jennifer Glancy, Jan Willem van Henten, Naomi Jacobs, Amy-Jill Levine, Pamela Milne, and Barbara Schmitz.

Download or read book Contemporary Masculinities in Fiction Film and Television written by Brian Baker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While masculinity has been an increasingly visible field of study within several disciplines (sociology, literary studies, cultural studies, film and tv) over the last two decades, it is surprising that analysis of contemporary representations of the first part of the century has yet to emerge. Professor Brian Baker, evolving from his previous work Masculinities in Fiction and Film: Representing Men in Popular Genres 1945-2000, intervenes to rectify the scholarship in the field to produce a wide-ranging, readable text that deals with films and other texts produced since the year 2000. Focusing on representations of masculinity in cinema, popular fiction and television from the period 2000-2010, he argues that dominant forms of masculinity in Britain and the United States have become increasingly informed by anxiety, trauma and loss, and this has resulted in both narratives that reflect that trauma and others which attempt to return to a more complete and heroic form of masculinity. While focusing on a range of popular genres, such as Bond films, war movies, science fiction and the Gothic, the work places close analyses of individual films and texts in their cultural and historical contexts, arguing for the importance of these popular fictions in diagnosing how contemporary Britain and the United States understand themselves and their changing role in the world through the representation of men, fully recognising the issues of race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age. Baker draws upon current work in mobility studies and in the study of masculinities to produce the first book-length comparative study of masculinity in popular culture of the first decade of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Happy Holidays Animated written by William D. Crump and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-04-18 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 20th century, animated Christmas cartoons have brightened the holiday season around the world--first in theaters, then on television. From devotional portrayals of the Nativity to Santa battling villains and monsters, this encyclopedia catalogs more than 1,800 international Christmas-themed cartoons and others with year-end themes of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the New Year. Explore beloved television specials such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, theatrical shorts such as Santa's Workshop, holiday episodes from animated television series like American Dad! and The Simpsons, feature films like The Nutcracker Prince and obscure productions such as The Insects' Christmas, along with numerous adaptations and parodies of such classics as A Christmas Carol and Twas the Night before Christmas.

Download or read book Casting Might Have Beens written by Eila Mell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-01-24 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some acting careers are made by one great role and some fall into obscurity when one is declined. Would Al Pacino be the star he is today if Robert Redford had accepted the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather? Imagine Tom Hanks rejecting Uma Thurman, saying that she acted like someone in a high school play when she auditioned to play opposite him in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Picture Danny Thomas as The Godfather, or Marilyn Monroe as Cleopatra. This reference work lists hundreds of such stories: actors who didn't get cast or who turned down certain parts. Each entry, organized alphabetically by film title, gives the character and actor cast, a list of other actors considered for that role, and the details of the casting decision. Information is drawn from extensive research and interviews. From About Last Night (which John Belushi turned down at his brother's urging) to Zulu (in which Michael Caine was not cast because he didn't look "Cockney" enough), this book lets you imagine how different your favorite films could have been.