Gobbledygeek

It finally happened. After three long years of behind-the-scenes turmoil, Near Dark has made its way to Gobbledyween. A/V writer-director Joseph Lewis joins Paul and Arlo to discuss Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 vampiric Western, which reimagined the creatures of the night as filthy, lowdown rednecks. The gang discusses the influence Near Dark has had on vampire fiction, the late great Bill Paxton's immo...

Leaves are on the ground, blood is on the screen. It's time once again for Gobbledyween, that most beloved of Gobbledygeek institutions--and one that has not reared its horrific head in full since 2015! All month long, Paul and Arlo will be discussing horror or horror-adjacent movies, starting with one they actually discussed seven years ago: Drew Goddard's mega-meta 2011 genre critique The Cabin...

For another installment of this year's non-superhero Four-Color Flashback , Paul and Arlo look at the story of a real-life hero in Green River Killer: A True Detective Story , Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case's loving tribute to Jeff's dad, Detective Tom Jensen. Detective Jensen was instrumental in catching Gary Leon Ridgway AKA the Green River Killer, America's most prolific serial killer. The boys...

For the latest installment of this year's spandex-free Four-Color Flashback , Paul and Arlo tackle a big one: Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale , still the only comic book ever to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Joining them to discuss Spiegelman's harrowing account of his father Vladek's time in the concentration camps of Nazi-occupied Poland--and Art's own tense relationship with Vladek--is...

The Amazon is burning and all anyone cares about is Spider-Man. Yay! Welcome to another exciting episode of Gobbledygeek ! After nixing a fash-bashing Geek Challenge because Paul absolutely could not sit through three hours of The Sound of Music , he and Arlo decide to freestyle it and, well, all is not well! The world's on fire, the government is imploding, and Spider-Man might not get to be an A...

A long time ago in an industry far, far away...the end was nigh for Hollywood's good ol' days. Charles Manson had arrived, Family in tow, to disrupt the neverending Summer of Love. Quentin Tarantino's ninth (and penultimate?) film, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood , takes a look at L.A. in 1969, as Leonardo DiCaprio's washed-up actor and Brad Pitt's mysterious stuntman cross paths with rising star...

Paul and Arlo are in the place to be, rapping about Ed Piskor's Hip Hop Family Tree . For the latest Four-Color Flashback installment, our nerdy white heroes take on nerdy white cartoonist Piskor's quartet (so far) of graphic novels discussing the history of hip hop culture. The boys discuss Piskor's art, equally indebted to underground comix and superhero books of the '70s and '80s; how the physi...

Paul cannot get his fridge under control because these damn restaurants keep serving him so much damn food. He and Arlo discuss the uniquely American problem of ever-expanding portion sizes, stopping at the Cheesecake Factory before taking a detour into canine conundrums, parental pondering, and nostalgic nightmares. You'll never look at a Heffalump the same way. Featuring a cameo from Fatty Liver...

Pack your unnamed dead uncle's bags, grab your favorite designer sunglasses (that can also level whole cities), and fly on over for a discussion of Spider-Man: Far from Home. GameZone editor-in-chief Cade Onder swings by to join Paul and Arlo, becoming simultaneously the biggest Spider-Fan and the youngest guest to ever grace the podcast. The gang debates the moral implications of EDITH, the gentr...

We're tired. So tired. That's what you want to hear when you're about to fire up a podcast, right? You are reading this, aren't you? Buried among such illuminating subjects as the coffee Arlo's drinking, Paul's underhanded behind-the-scenes manipulations, and the boys' general unprofessionalism, there is indeed some pop culture palaver and parley. The boys are digging HBO's troubled teens drama Eu...

For the next installment of this year's superhero-free Four-Color Flashback , Paul and Arlo leave the realm of autobiography, semi- or otherwise, for some thrilling adventures in fictional China. Faith Erin Hicks' The Nameless City trilogy has everything: young men and women coming of age in trying times, political intrigue, backstabbing, betrayal, and some pretty cool martial arts fights. The boy...

For the next installment of this year's non-superheroic Four-Color Flashback , Paul and Arlo are joined by their pal Johny Ho to discuss Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese . While they've previously discussed Yang's work on the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics, Paul and Arlo discover a whole new side of Yang in this semi-autobiographical novel; while Johny finds pieces of his experience refle...

How does one go from lamenting the untimely demise of Tom King's Batman to discussing the power structures that dictate what one finds culturally acceptable in any given generation? There's only one way to find out: by listening to this week's Gobbledygeek ! Paul and Arlo blather about superheroic drama, including Superman: The Animated Series ; opinions that have evolved with time, whether they'r...

To paraphrase Olivia Newton-John, "Let's get political--political!" Paul and Arlo discuss politics only occasionally, but this week, they unload. With anti-abortion bills being signed into law in both of their home states, Alabama and Ohio, the boys have a thing or two to say. (Spoiler: they are loudly and clearly pro-choice.) Where do you go after that? Well, Paul saves a restaurant bird, Arlo go...

Welcome to another Freestyle episode of Gobbledygeek , wherein you can either choose to hear Paul yell at clouds or Arlo have an existential crisis about adulthood. Just remember: whatever you choose, it's gonna taste like watered-down Dr. Pepper. Paul and Arlo discuss Arlo's new house; their digitally-assisted strolls down memory lane; how nostalgia can lead to arrested development (neither the s...

All good things must come to an end. And while the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not one of those things--there's another one of these bad boys coming out in a few months-- Avengers: Endgame does represent the culmination of this first wave/cycle/saga of the MCU. Paul and Arlo are joined by their The Deli Counter of Justice co-creator Eric Sipple to discuss just how in the hell directors Anthony an...

For the next black-and-white non-fiction graphic novel of Four-Color Flashback 2k19, Paul and Arlo head East to discuss Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis . Published between 2000-04, Persepolis tells Satrapi's autobiographical story of growing up during the Iranian Revolution and coming of age in a totalitarian society. The boys discuss Satrapi's simplistic, cartoony artwork and its heavy use of black...

It's 11:11, better grab your gardening shears and press play on this week's Gobbledygeek , a discussion of writer-director Jordan Peele's Us . This is a tricky one; it's got more layers than a cake. Paul and Arlo discuss Peele's extensive use of duality and mirroring, the awards categories they're going to have to invent to honor Lupita Nyong'o's tremendous performance, the film's transitions betw...

Marks on paper, sheets of snow, first loves crowned with halos. These are some of the images that make up Craig Thompson's 2003 illustrated novel Blankets , a modern classic if ever there was one. Paul and Arlo continue this year's "nondenominational" Four-Color Flashback with a discussion of Thompson's masterpiece, an autobiographical story of childhood, sexuality, first love, and the author's st...

It only took 'em 21 movies, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally debuted a solo female superhero with Captain Marvel . Acclaimed indie filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck take to the stars for the story of Carol Danvers, ace pilot turned intergalactic warrior. Drenched in '90s nostalgia, the film finds buddy comedy with the spirited Brie Larson/Samuel L. Jackson dynamic; it finds Memento...

In which our daring duo defies devilish dentists. In all sincerity, here's a big fat content warning : if, like Paul and Arlo, you are one of the 5-15% of adults with dentophobia, we talk about the dentist. A whole bunch. From childhood orthodontic nightmares to phantasmagoric periodontics of the present day, the boys discuss in (perhaps excruciating) detail their toothy troubles. Plus, if that do...

Paul and Arlo return to the land of Berk one last time for a discussion of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World . Joining them is their fellow dragon rider (and The Deli Counter of Justice co-editor) Eric Sipple. The gang discusses their journey through the years with Hiccup and Toothless, whether or not the supporting cast weighs the series down, writer-director Dean DeBlois' original inten...

In honor of Black History Month, Paul and Arlo are discussing John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell's March for their second Four-Color Flashback of 2019. This three-volume set, published from 2013-16, follows Rep. Lewis from his days raising (and baptizing) chickens in Pike County, Alabama, to standing side-by-side with leading figures of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. The boys discuss how...

This week finds Paul and Arlo being a coupla ding-dong daddies as another musical Geek Challenge is summoned from a mail-order spellbook. First, Paul challenges Arlo to Bedknobs and Broomsticks , Robert Stevenson's 1971 follow-up to Mary Poppins . Then, Arlo forces Paul to endure Rob Marshall's 2002 Best Picture winner Chicago . Witchcraft and murder...this one's got it all. The boys discuss Bedkn...

For Four-Color Flashback 2019, Paul and Arlo are venturing beyond the realm of superheroes and into the wide world of comics many Americans never visit. To first appreciate comics, though, it's important to understand their capabilities. There's nowhere better to turn than Scott McCloud's seminal 1993 tome Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art . It's an academic, analytical study of the comics f...