Yesterday was one of those really busy days where I wasn’t able to get to the briefing at the end of it! I guess we should call this the not-so-daily briefing. Really appreciate that over the weekend the new book, The Wages of Sin, hit #1 bestseller again. Thank you, guys, so much for reading it. It’s really energizing watching as this all grows, and people read entertainment news, religious philosophy, sci-fi and fantasy, and comics. There are very few authors out there who get to do so many different things, and it’s extremely creatively fulfilling.
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Larry Hama Accuses Toy Dealer of Stealing His G.I. Joe Collection, Then Calls a Truce
Larry Hama, the writer who built the mythology behind Marvel’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, spent part of this week airing a very public dispute with toy dealer Mark Bellomo over a haul of vehicles and figures that vanished from his hands before the pandemic and never came back.
The William Morrow Tolkien Boxed Sets: A Collector’s Guide
HarperCollins has spent the last few years quietly assembling one of the best entry points into serious Tolkien collecting in decades. Working through its William Morrow imprint in the US and HarperCollins proper in the UK, the publisher has been repackaging Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year editorial project into a run of affordable hardcover boxed sets…
From “Next Tolkien” to Cautionary Tale: Mike’s Book Reviews Tells How Brandon Sanderson Lost the Room
There was a time when a new Brandon Sanderson release felt like a holiday. YouTuber Mike, of Nightsradiant, says that’s no longer true. What follows it now, in his words, is dread. His new video tracing the arc of the Stormlight Archive doesn’t play like a hit piece. It plays like a longtime believer working through a breakup, and that makes his criticism land harder than most.
Naughty Dog Is Sitting on a Time Bomb, and Yellowflash Is Calling It
Naughty Dog has spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars on a game that will never ship, and the team that built it is now years deep into a genre the studio has never proven it can handle. Yellowflash laid out the case plainly. After digging into the background, the underlying facts hold up.
Marvel Never Told Wonder Man’s Star Why His Show Died
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II got a season two renewal in March. He got an Emmy nomination in July. Sixteen days after that nomination was announced, Marvel and Disney+ un-renewed his show and never told him why.
Lanterns Episode 2 Review: HBO Can’t Resist the Shock Value Even When the Mystery Works
HBO’s “Lanterns” returned this week with episode two, “Trust Fall,” and the show still can’t decide whether it wants to be a grounded sci-fi detective mystery or another vehicle for the network’s addiction to gratuitous shock content.
Horror Writers Association Election Collapses as Lone Candidate Steps Down
The Horror Writers Association is heading into its 2026 presidential election without a candidate. According to horror author Brian Keene, the sole person running for HWA president, who was unopposed, withdrew after allegations surfaced online, leaving the organization weeks from voting with nobody on the ballot. Keene broke the news on his blog on August 20, and by his own account nobody stepped up to replace the withdrawn candidate.
Deadpool & Wolverine - Copyright Continuity As a Metaphysical Necessity
There’s a part in Deadpool & Wolverine that keeps replaying in my head, and likely not for the reason the movie’s writers want.
Billie Piper Tells Doctor Who Fans to “Chill Out” as Show Faces Up to Five Years Off Air
Billie Piper got asked the question every Doctor Who fan wants answered, and she didn’t want to answer it. Speaking at the For the Love of Fantasy & Sci-Fi convention in London on August 22, Piper addressed her surprise appearance at the end of last year’s finale, “The Reality War,” where Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor regenerated into a figure who look…
Spider-Man 2: When Superhero Movies Were Made With Love
There are superhero movies that are successful. There are superhero movies that are entertaining. And then there are superhero movies that remind you why you fell in love with superheroes in the first place.
Grant Morrison Watches “Lanterns,” Delivers Mixed Verdict After Slamming Damon Lindelof
Grant Morrison has weighed in on HBO’s “Lanterns” after months of feuding with showrunner Damon Lindelof over a dismissive joke about the color green, and the acclaimed “Green Lantern” writer’s verdict lands somewhere between grudging respect and continued skepticism.
Daniel Greene Runs Cover for George R.R. Martin’s Excuses, But Fans Deserve Better
George R.R. Martin published five Song of Ice and Fire books between 1996 and 2011. Since then: nothing. The Winds of Winter has been “in progress” for well over a decade, past multiple deadlines Martin set for himself in public and then missed. HBO ran out of source material, finished the story without him, and delivered an ending large parts of the fanbase still consider a disaster, one that could have been avoided if the books existed to guide it. Patrick Rothfuss is arguably worse off. The Wise Man’s Fear came out in 2011. The Doors of Stone has no release date fourteen years later, and Rothfuss spent part of that gap running a charity livestream fans felt mocked by how long they’d been left hanging. Into that record steps YouTuber Daniel Greene with a video that isn’t a reckoning. It’s an apology tour on Martin’s behalf.
Reclaiming The Shire CONCLUSION: The Myth That Really Happened
This is the end! The full retrospective on Tolkien’s rise to superstardom, which began with a left-wing movement in the 1970s appropriating his work and has slowly migrated over time to people realizing how right-wing and Christian Lord of the Rings is. I’ll probably release this as a book in the near future. Now, we continue.