Special Topics in Media

In this episode, our Special Topics "Film Listology" focus captures the spirit of summer movie popcorn fun with the 1985 time-travel comedy classic from director Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future. Released from Universal Pictures and co-produced by Amblin Entertainment, Back to the Future situates a cultural moment in time torn between the "me-generation" vibe of 1980s America and its nostalgic reverence for 1950s America. With no shortage of quotable lines, memorable scenes, spirited film score, and throwback comedic timing, hosts Garret and Scott make a clear case for why the film earns its cultural significance factor on the film listology super index. Suit up, strap in, and don't forget the spare plutonium, lest you need "1.21 gigawatts!" of power to listen to this episode of Special Topics in Media.
Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry
Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)
Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.
Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.
"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).
Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.
Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.
Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

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 commercial supremacy. Marvel typically dominated monthly sales among the top 10 and top 25 single-issue releases, while DC held steady in the quickly growing graphic novel reprint market. Marvel's Civil War thus provides a meta-narrative that in some ways commemorates the industry-old sales tactics used to attract reader-consumers. Ultimately, Marvel succeeded at generating mainstream publicity for Civil War, primarily because the storyline suggested audacious key character shifts that allegorically reflected real-world anxieties in the post-9/11 cultural zeitgeist.
Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds
Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)
Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War":
Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War. Marvel Comics, 2006.
Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.
Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.
"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).
Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.
Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.
Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.
Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

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, joisting over the narrative outcomes depicted in Marvel's best-selling series. Garret and Kyle weigh Civil War's short-term versus longterm impacts, the shadow this mini-series casts over superhero storytelling, and it's loose connections to several key theories, theorists, and concepts relevant to academic studies of popular culture. Conversation culminates in a broader consideration of sides taken and what such fantasy decisions have to say about real-world beliefs and belief systems.
Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds
Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)
Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War":
Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War. Marvel Comics, 2006.
Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.
Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.
"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).
Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.
Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.
Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.
Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

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 focus is to evaluate and assess the merits of key comics that lead up to, parallel with, or spin out of writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's groundbreaking event series. After a brief orientation, Garret establishes the context for these dossier specials before introducing the lead-off collected in the Marvel Civil War: Prologue hardcover edition, writer Zeb Wells and artist Scottie Young's New Warriors (8:51). Conceived by Tom DeFalco and reinvented in various cycles, the latest incarnation of this C-level superteam cleverly carves a cultural commentary on the intersection of twenty-first century economics in ways mimic the reality TV boom while prophetically anticipating the rise of mass mediated influencers monetizing largely staged public adventures. Two key questions will drive these dossier specials. First, it is important to consider the value any given tie-in book provides to the main story when weighed against time, labor, and economic constraints (books cost money!). Second, our hosts conclude the special by evaluating whether the Marvel Civil War: Prologue can be considered "Essential or Expendable".
Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Bratcher
Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)
Recommended readings paired with Season Six "Marvel's Civil War":
Mark Millar & Steve McNiven. Civil War. Marvel Comics, 2006.
Marvel Civil War: Prologue (Hardcover). Zeb Wells & Scottie Young. New Warriors #1-6. Marvel Comics, 2016.
Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.
Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.
"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).
Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.
Follow Kyla Hammonds's hot-topic media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.
Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.
Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

The summer heat reaches its epoch, and so does the 2023 Summer Movie Season with this Special Topics first, a "Lightning Review" of the Warner Bros./DC Entertainment franchise killer, The Flash (2023). Culminating the volatile and polarizing "Zack Snyder Universe" in the DC Extended Universe, The Flash was strategically delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to receive advanced buzz as possibly "the greatest superhero movie ever made". The hype turned out to be mostly window dressing for yet another baffling movie experience that truly falls apart at the seams, visual and narratively. Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds bring the pain as they reign down scholarly arguments that establish the merits of The Flash's ambitions before questioning the many factors that led to its monumental disappointment as a movie, a franchise, and a cultural opportunity that grinds to a halt at the mid-point of the 2023 summer movie season.
Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds
Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)
Repressed Screening Split Decision (Garret/Kyle):
Andy Muschietti. (Director). The Flash [Film]. USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand: Warner Bros./DC Comics/DC Entertainment/New Zealand Entertainment, 2023.
Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.
"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).
Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.
Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.
Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.