Arts and Entertainment

Inspired by comic books, ordinary citizens are putting on masks to fight crime

Scientology may be a bizarre faith invented by a sci-fi hack. But it's not a cult.

There are quite a few documents out there that claim to be guides for a virtuous and productive life from the Bible, to the Koran, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist and, of course, Big Tony Robbins's Unleash the Giant Within.

The closet has finally outlived its usefulness. So why do gay celebrities insist on staying in? And why do journalists guard the door?

The following paper traces the movement of the "Pokemon" phenomenon from its origins in the Japanese market to its introduction into the United States and beyond.

Superman's dad predicted Krypton catastrophe, just like Al Gore's global-warming warning, says the superhero's former writer.

By Elliot S. Maggin, Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2006

by Matthew Herper, 12/07/05
"The Forbes Fictional Fifteen," Forbes magazine

The rivalry between multibillionaires Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne is mutating into outright hatred, associates say, as both men become publicly embroiled in the national debate over whether the government should try to regulate superpowered beings.

The explosive rise of the Web, going from nothing to everything in one decade, has encouraged us to believe in the impossible: Might the long-heralded great library of all knowledge really be within our grasp?

On April 29, 2006, Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert gave a scathing satirical "tribute" to President George W. Bush at the White House Correspondent Dinner.

Needless to say, President and Mrs. Bush were not amused. Read on and learn why...

Suddenly, John Lasseter is Walt Disney Co.'s $7.4-billion man.

Returning to the company where he worked more than 20 years ago as a low-level artist, computer animation's master storyteller faces a daunting task: how to merge his community of hit-making mavericks at Pixar Animation Studios with a more staid Disney animation group that has struggled for much of the last decade to regain its stride.

Jim Davis' cartoon cat is inoffensive, predictable, and marketable -- by intent.

Or, why everyone is really a Stooge.

How your local radio personality is -- literally -- phoning it in.

How the pixel-packing upstart became an animation superpower and left Disney in the dust.

A Really Lousy Trick for Really Lousy People

by Penn Jillette & Teller

Reprinted with permission

A cruise is a great way to take a break — as long as you're not belowdecks

Michael Barrier dives deeply into the life and thoughts of Charles Schulz.

The controversial singer takes on record label profits, Napster and "sucka VCs."

By Courtney Love

A defiant Pole used Lego blocks to depict a Nazi death camp to show the gap between the ideal world marketed to children and reality. Works spark fight over free speech, Poland's sensitivity about its past.

Somewhere at the top of the Hundred Acre Wood a little boy and his bear play. On the surface it is an innocent world, but on closer examination by our group of experts we find a forest where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated.