SectionCulture12 pagesUpdated
Culture: comics, books, wrestling, podcasts and convention interviews
Every comics, books, wrestling, podcast and convention piece on Rough Cut Review, each linked back to the screen coverage it relates to.
Where comics, books and wrestling fit
Rough Cut Review is a TV and film publication, and the culture section covers the material that feeds and surrounds it. Comics and books are the source of many adaptations, so a review of a comic run or a novel often sits next to the show or film built from it. Wrestling is covered as performance and storytelling, in the same terms used for a long-running drama, with attention to characters, rivalries and how a long arc is paced.
Podcasts and convention interviews give the section its voice. A podcast piece summarizes or responds to an episode, naming the show and the date. A convention interview is a record of a conversation with a writer, artist, actor or performer at an event, with the event and date on the page and the speaker's words quoted exactly. Nothing is attributed to a person who did not say it, and an interview is never padded with invented detail. When a piece is a summary of a conversation, it says so.
The test for including a piece is whether a reader of the TV and film pages would plausibly want it next. A guide to the comics behind a series, an interview about a franchise or a review of a book that became a show all pass. A piece with no link to the screen coverage has a weaker claim and is edited accordingly. Each culture page links to the relevant review, guide or ranking, and those pages link back. Use the list below to browse, or return to the TV and movies sections for the screen reviews themselves. Because these topics sit beside the main subjects, each piece is held to the same standards as a TV or film review: facts are sourced, spoilers are labeled, and the verdict or takeaway is written out. A reader who arrives from a comics piece should find the same clarity as one who arrives from a recap.
12 kept
Browse this section
Pieces are listed below by topic, with the related show or film named on each page.
- No. 01A Brief History of the Silver Ball: How Pinball SurvivedThe silver ball has been rolling since the early 1930s, and pinball has survived a flipper revolution, a 1990s boom, a 1999 manufacturer exit and a rebirth in arcade bars, museums and software. This history traces the machines, the companies and the communities that kept the game alive.
- No. 02A Boy's Own Story Graphic Novel Review: Edmund White in WatercolorThe graphic novel of A Boy's Own Story, adapted by Brian Alessandro and Michael Carroll and painted by Igor Karash, treats Edmund White's 1982 novel as what it always was: a book about memory. The adaptation reads like a classic in its own right, and its watercolors are the reason.
- No. 03The Raven Boys Series Explained: The Raven Cycle and Its TV AdaptationMaggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys series, formally The Raven Cycle, was announced as a television adaptation on April 10, 2017, with Universal Cable Productions as the studio, Andrew Miller as showrunner and Catherine Hardwicke attached to direct the pilot. The four novels follow four prep-school boys and a psychic's daughter hunting a sleeping Welsh king in Virginia, and the road from announcement to screen has been long.
- No. 04Studio Ghibli Composer Joe Hisaishi Brings Miyazaki to Radio CityJoe Hisaishi, the Studio Ghibli music composer behind the scores of Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro, conducted a symphonic concert at Radio City Music Hall on August 13, 2022, in front of nearly 6,000 fans. The program rebuilt film cues as choral and orchestral pieces, and the night showed how much of the music's feeling survives when the screen is no longer the main event.
- No. 05Making Space Bastards: Eric Peterson and Joe AubreySpace Bastards is a comic about a violent interplanetary postal service from writers Eric Peterson and Joe Aubrey, with art by Darick Robertson. The creators explain how a no-budget film project became a Humanoids series, why the postal premise works and how they fund the next volume.
- No. 06True Believers Comic: Cosplay Slasher Horror on KickstarterThe True Believers comic is a three-issue horror miniseries co-written by Stephen Graham Jones and Joshua Viola, with art by Ben Matsuya, about a slasher villain called Killr who stalks a fan convention. It debuted at the Colorado Festival of Horror in Denver and launched on Kickstarter with a soundtrack, variant covers and a latex mask.
- No. 07Drowning in the Floating World Review: Meg Eden’s Tohoku PoemsDrowning in the Floating World is a collection of poems by Meg Eden about the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that followed. This review finds a collection that is moving and hard to read, with a clear point of view on loss, survivor guilt and the failures of government.
- No. 08NYCC 2022: Fans Pay Tribute to Artist Kim Jung GiAt New York Comic Con 2022, fans covered the Artist Alley table reserved for Kim Jung Gi with notes, flowers, cards and drawings, days after the Korean artist died of a heart attack at 47. The tribute filled nearly every inch of the table within hours of Artist Alley opening on Thursday.
- No. 09NYCC 2022 Interview: Kayden Phoenix on A La BravaKayden Phoenix is the creator of A La Brava, a comic about five Latina heroes that she says is the first fully Latina superhero team in the medium. At New York Comic Con 2022 she explained how it began, who makes it and what each hero does.
- No. 10Peter David and The Fans Are Buried Tales KickstarterThe Fans Are Buried Tales is a 410-page fan-themed anthology from Crazy 8 Press, built by Peter David around a snowed-in Star Trek convention and funded through a Kickstarter after the Farpoint sales plan fell apart. The campaign pays every contributing author, and it adds signed copies and leftover comics from David's own stash.
- No. 11Wake Me Up When September Ends Meaning: Green Day's SongThe Wake Me Up When September Ends meaning is personal: Billie Joe Armstrong wrote it about his father's death in September 1982, when he was 10. The meme about waking him at month's end sits on top of a very different story.
- No. 12WWE Raw Recap, March 30, 2015: Brock Lesnar Destroys Raw in San JoseOn the Raw after WrestleMania 31, held at the SAP Center in San Jose on March 30, 2015, Brock Lesnar demanded his rematch, watched Seth Rollins run, and wrecked the announce desk. It was the defining Brock Lesnar 2015 moment of the night, in front of a rowdy crowd that chanted at everything.
Questions about this section
What does the culture section cover?
It covers comics, books, wrestling, podcasts and convention interviews. These are the materials that feed or surround the TV and film coverage. A comic run or novel often sits next to the show or film built from it.
How are convention interviews presented?
An interview is a record of a conversation with a writer, artist, actor or performer at an event. The event and date are on the page and the speaker's words are quoted exactly. When a piece is a summary of a conversation, it says so.
How is wrestling covered?
Wrestling is covered as performance and storytelling, in the same terms used for a long-running drama. The focus is characters, rivalries and how a long arc is paced.
What decides whether a piece belongs in this section?
The test is whether a reader of the TV and film pages would plausibly want it next. A piece with no link to the screen coverage has a weaker claim and is edited accordingly.
Do culture pages follow the same standards as reviews?
Yes. Facts are sourced, spoilers are labeled, and the verdict or takeaway is written out. Each culture page links to the relevant review, guide or ranking.