The Incomparable Mothership

Here be dragons! Special guest hosts Glenn Fleishman and Lisa Schmeiser discuss books featuring winged and scaly creatures, from Anne McCaffrey to George R.R. Martin. Glenn and Lisa are joined by special guest stars Dori Smith and Sarah Barbour, who are also knowledgeable in the ways of the dragon.

Get out your magic wands, prepare your incantations, and prepare for a battle of wills involving ancient powers and callow youths. We discuss two recent novels with magic at the fore: Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians” and Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus.” One of them we liked a lot… the other, not so much! Prepare yourself for a magical podcast.

It’s the Incomparable Game Show! In a clash of young(ish) versus old(ish), two teams vie for the honor of being the team who wins. Sci-fi questions, confused androids, and a visit from a parallel-universe version of The Incomparable are all part of the story. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you won’t learn a darned thing. Join us, won’t you?

Please join us for Jason and John’s survey of the films of director Hayao Miyazaki. Even if you don’t have kids, like animation, or care about Japan, we think these are some of the greatest films ever made. From “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” to “Spirited Away” and “Nausicaa,” we cover the highlights (and oddities) of his filmmaking career.

Who Watches the Watchmen? We discuss Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s classic comic “Watchmen.” What made it remarkable and influential? Is it too stuck in an ’80s sensibility? Did the movie ruin everything? And will the recently-announced prequels stink?

It’s the end of the world! And since our eyeglasses are intact, we have time enough at last, to read. We discuss Maureen McHugh’s “After the Apocalypse” short-story collection, Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” and other apocalypse tales we have known. Do zombies have their own David Attenborough, leading expeditions into Cleveland? Why should you be afraid if heavy snowfall combines with the appearance of strange invisible magic ghost sex-dragon monsters? And why does John Siracusa plan to ride out the apocalypse in style? We ask several of these questions, but you’ll have to listen to see if we ever answer any of them.

We close the books on the first Incomparable Film Festival with this special follow-up episode. We provide the show times for each day of the festival, share your feedback, and reveal the results of your vote for the best slate of films. We also check in with two panelists who couldn’t make the original draft, one of whom has a bone to pick with John Siracusa. The other one instead tells a heartwarming tale of projectile vomiting. (Part 3 of 2.)

Continuing our assembly of the Incomparable Film Festival! We fill out our list of 35 classic films for imaginary display to imaginary crowds. Find out our final 21 (or is it 22?) choices! Then vote for your favorites. (Part 2 of 2.)

We’re creating the Incomparable Film Festival! Each day for a week, one of us will introduce five films (to be screened at an imaginary location not to be determined). To prevent duplication of selections, our seven participants will choose favorite films in a draft format. When all is said and done, 35 classic movies will be chosen by our panel of geeks. (Part 1 of 2.)

Our Comic Book Club gets in a romantic mood with a discussion of comic-book romances—the (very) few that have stood the test of time and the (very) many that have been thwarted by clones, telepaths, cloned telepaths, and—worst of all—Satan’s Annulment. Also, what are we reading?