Special Topics in Media

Send us Fan Mail In this Special Topics in Media Dossier Special , comics correspondent Allison Bratcher joins host Garret Castleberry to visit the Fabian Nicieza Thunderbolts tie-in issues spinning out of Marvel Comics's Civil War (2006-07). Who are the Thunderbolts? Where do they come from? Why should readers care about these characters versus celebrate their narrative role within the Marve...

Send us Fan Mail THIS IS IT. The culminating final issue to writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's landmark 7-part superhero event series, Marvel Comics'  Civil War Issue #7 . Host Garret Castleberry sits down with burgeoning comics pedagog Kyle Hammonds in a GIANT-SIZED entry to Special Topics in Media. The pair formulate a dialogic analysis of the Civil War comic finale, joistin...

Send us Fan Mail In this spinoff to our Marvel: Civil War season of Special Topics in Media , host Garret Castleberry is joined again by comics correspondent Allison Bratcher to discuss the tie-in graphic novel to the event series from Marvel Comics, Civil War (Millar & McNiven, 2006-07). This week Garret leads an abbreviated investigation into Marvel's "First Family", as featur...

Send us Fan Mail In this penultimate analysis of Marvel Comics Civil War: Issue #6 , hosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds unpack the messy entanglements between superhero faction in this best-selling event series from writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven. The Marvel Universe heroes reach an impasse as Captain America and his Secret Avengers seek to liberate the heroes held prisoner in...

Send us Fan Mail In this continuation of our Marvel Civil War: Dossier Specials , Nerd Alert co-founder Allison Bratcher joins host Garret Castleberry to discuss the Spider-Man graphic novel that corresponds with Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's best-selling event comic series.  The graphic novel comprises issues of The Amazing Spider-Man (primarily #532-538) written by J. Michael Straczenski....

Send us Fan Mail In this first follow-up to the Season 6 " Marvel Civil War Dossier Special ," host Garret Castleberry is  once again joined by Allison Bratcher to discuss the tie-ins released continuity alongside Civil War . The goal with this discussion series is not to confuse the continuity of the Special Topics dialogic lecture series between Garret and Kyle Hammonds. Rather, their...

Send us Fan Mail In in episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds further this season's mission to examine and assess writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's crossover comic book event series, Marvel: Civil War . Conversation begins with a discussion about "crossover events" and the value they provide as a storytelling device in the superhero genre. Garret then c...

Send us Fan Mail The plot thickens! Host Garret is joined by season regular Kyle Hammonds for a dialogic close reading of the explosive events culminating in the comic book event series from writer Mark Millar and artist Steven McNiven, Civil War . Marvel's Civil War provides the season 6 focus for Special Topics in Media Studies , and this season's hosts aim to not only explicate narrat...

Send us Fan Mail In this ONE-OFF Dossier Special, host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to local leader and connector on MACU's campus, Allison Bratcher. One of the early incubators of ESPORTS at MACU, Allison serves as I.T. Specialist and the Executive Assistant to the Chief Information Officer. As a legacy contributor to the "Nerd Alert" student organization, Allison also s...

Send us Fan Mail In the third installation to our Marvel: Civil War season, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds assess the superhero culture clash under way in writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's event mini-series. Following polarized debate concerning the "Superhero Registration Act" legislation in Issue #2, part 3 focuses on the growing division within the super...

Send us Fan Mail In the second installation to our Marvel: Civil War season, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds dive deeper into the unfolding cultural clash at the heart of writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's event mini-series. Issue #2 focuses on the political fallout that results from the explosive encounter facing the superhero community amidst the terroristic tragedy...

Send us Fan Mail In the season six premiere, Special Topics in Media host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds in an effort to introduce readers to the best-selling comic book event series from Marvel Entertainment, Civil War (2006-2007). This seven-issue mini-series provided a competitive economic property in a decade where comic-publishing titans Marvel and DC Comics dueled for commerci...

Send us Fan Mail In this teaser episode, Special Topics in Media host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to the new topic and recurring cohost joining the lecturecast for season six. In season six, two key shifts provide an opportunity to examine media from alternate angles. First, Special Topics season six shifts mass mediums away from film to focus on the literary medium of comic books. Spe...

Send us Fan Mail In this Season Seven Finale, Garret Castleberry hosts a leadership quorum comprised of students completing the Special Topics in Media Studies course emphasizing "Communicating Fears in Film". To facilitate a roundtable discussion on season seven, contributors were provided a set of course-related prompts to prepare for a hybridized  media production/oral final. While ev...

Send us Fan Mail Following this Season Seven focus on Communicating Fears in Film, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry pause to reflect on the season, examine course themes, and assess past and future potentialities for Special Topics in Media . In an homage to academic form, the dialogic duo engage in a bit of scholarly form that includes reviewing season seven's  themes (00:54), th...

Send us Fan Mail It is the end of the road for the Eastern Othering focus, as well as the course-centered discussion series in this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media . Coinciding with the cult cinema 80s emphasis on Eastern Othering, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry investigate the ways in which director Joe Dante's 1984 feature film Gremlins mixes and...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing the Eastern Othering unit for this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media (5:18), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine a second consecutive cult film from the 1980s, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China . While Carpenter's feature was distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1986, the project lingered in development for...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry initiate what could be considered the least identifiable "horror" entry to date in this "Communicating Fears in Film seventh season of Special Topics in Media . The dialogic duo venture into a fifth  theme, "Eastern Othering", and inaugurate this topic with an unconventional selection, director John Mil...

Send us Fan Mail This week Special Topics in Media expands discussion of Nightmarish Nature by welcoming special guest new voice to the program, Hannah Herron. An author and and avid reader of horror, thrillers, and sci-fi, Hannah joins Garret to discuss director three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont's 2007 adaptation of the Stephen King novella, "The Mist". Garret and Han...

Send us Fan Mail Rounding out our formal trilogy of "Nightmarish Nature" films in this Communicating Fears in Film season of  Special Topics in Media , cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry collaborate on on a unique outlier to the (mostly) horror focus with a biological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh in 2011, Contagion . Shot in Soderbergh's frequent handheld, clos...

Send us Fan Mail Special Topics in Media continues its trek into "Nightmarish Nature" in our Communicating Fears in Film season with a exploration of director Ron Underwood's cult classic Tremors (1990). Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unpack origins both filmic and ephemeral as this southwestern creature feature horror-comedy from Universal Studios occupies a unique sp...

Send us Fan Mail Special Topics in Media is back! After an unscheduled hiatus in programming to usher in the New Year (while preparing for the new spring semester!), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry RETURN with a transitional film conversation that bridges our previous focus on "Astrophobia" with a new emphasis this month, "Nightmarish Nature".  Continuing season se...

Send us Fan Mail In part 3 of the "Astrophobia" discussion series to the Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry jump ahead fifty years from recent coverage of 50s sci-fi chillers to discuss and dissect M. Night Shyamalan's blockbuster homage to Hitchcock,  Signs (2002). The dialogic duo struggle with words (more Garret than...

Send us Fan Mail Still reeling from last week's calamitous "Thing-off!" double-feature, the dialogic duo dare to stare into the abyss once more in their continuation of the "Astrophobia" unit for this "Communicating Fears in Film" season of Special Topics . Crossing the mid-point of season 7, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine another key fixtur...

Send us Fan Mail Blasting off into the upper atmosphere of film discussion, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry ignite their third unit focus for season seven of Special Topics in Media . This new unit carries over some trends from the previous unit, Cold War Creatures, but settles in on a focused fear of things from above, or as Stephen Prince calls it, "Astrophobia". The dialo...