PopCult

Sometimes, as we go in numerical order through all the video editions of Radio Free Charleston,  we come across a show that is just perfectly timed…and it’s perfectly coincidental. This time through, the only shows we’re skipping are our three “lost” episodes, and we blew past those over two years ago. It’s amazing how often, just going through the shows in order, the perfect show will just pop up for this feature.

And sometimes…we’re just off by “this much.”

This is one of those off weeks, as we take you back to October, 2015, for that year’s Halloween show, one full week after Halloween. By now, people are getting decorations and candy at 75% off and the spooky stuff is coming down as the Christmas stuff starts to go up.  Or at least some folks are putting Santa hats on their 12-foot skeletons. So consider this a last gasp of Halloween, until the next Halloween seaston begins…in about seven or eight months.

“Count Rudolf” is your host for Blood Red Shirt which is chock-full-o good Halloween-y stuff. We had music from Hurl Brickbat, The Renfields with Ari Lehman and HARRAH, plus we a plugged Kanawha Player’s production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and showed footage from the prior weekend’s Zombie Walk. We even had a batch of “weird stuff” that revisited the Pentagram Flowerbox cartoon from our first Halloween special.

‘Twas the season…at least it was last week.

Our final pick for the first week of The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is an online retailer who provides an invaluable service to action figure collectors, especially those working in the 1/6 scale that was used for the original run of GI Joe, Marx’s Best of the West and Captain Action.  I’ve been a happy and loyal customer of Cotswold Collectibles for 35 years, and I’ve been a friend and customer of their current owner, Greg Brown, for more than 30.

We’ve featured Cotswold Collectibles in the Gift Guide in previous years, and they are still the number-one source of all things 1/6 scale in the action figure hobby.  They also have some great offerings in other scales, too.

In the interest of full disclosure: As mentioned above, I’m friends with Greg Brown, who now owns the company. I mean, who wouldn’t be?  Greg’s a great guy and I buy tons of their GI Joe-compatible figures, toys and equipment from him every year.  Mel and I made a visit to Greg’s Hershey Toy and Action Figure Show as part of our anniversary trip back in August. You can see the video HERE.

Cotswold Collectibles carries a great assortment of vintage GI Joe and Action Man items, ranging from the 1960s to the revival toys in the 1990s and beyond, and they also make their own Elite Brigade items that bring back the glory days of The Adventure Team and also veer into the military side of things.

This is pretty much the coolest action figure shopping site on the planet. It’s a clearing house for all things 1/6 scale, but they’ve also branched out into other popular scales of figures, and they have a wide range of items available to fit any budget. This is where you go for replacement body or uniform parts, or newly-created pieces that you can kitbash into something creative and unique.

You’ll find diorama pieces, uniforms, complete dressed figures, vehicles, and anything that you might need to help you get down to the serious business of playing with your toys.

Made in the USA, by Bee Active Toys

They also have an impressive selection of cool items made right here in the USA by a collection of customizers and 3D-printing geniuses. They’ve really beefed up the offerings in this area over the past year.

Cotswold also sells Greg Autore’s inflatable Ghost Tank, which is a great toy with a real cool history behind it.

Recently they added a slew of Lanard’s “Corps” figures in 1/18 and 1/6 scale, and they’ll be offering even more in the future. The “Primal Clash” line, with soliders vs. dinosaurs, is particularly cool-lookinng. You’ll also find a huge assortment of figures that are compatible with the 1/12 scale GI Joe: Classified Line.

Cotswold also sells Adventure Command sets, showing their support for the revived Super Joe line that’s been very popular with PopCult readers.

If you want to find high-quality photos of their most recent offerings, check out their website and their Facebook Page.

Over the years Cotswold Collectibles has also reached out to import terrific new 1/6 scale items from Spain, Brazil and France and they also offer a great selection of products from Dragon Models, Sideshow Toys, Hot Toys, Threezero and many other top 1/6 high-end companies.

If you have a collector of the original 12-inch GI Joe action figure, or a dioramist or action figure fan of any scale on your holiday shopping list, you need to shop at Cotswold Collectibles.

The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide will continue Monday morning.

The first pick today in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is a thick collection of hilarious creator-owned comic book work by Evan Dorkin, who’s known primarily for Milk and Cheese (Gone Bad), The Bill and Ted comics and The Eltingville Club. This is the perfect gift for the comic book fan with a sense of humor on your holiday shopping list.  Please note that not all comic book fans have a sense of humor, so make sure that they do before you get this for them, or bad things might result. Here’s my review from last May…

Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin
by Evan Dorkin
Dark Horse Books
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1506753058
$34.99

I have been a fan of cartoonist/writer, Evan Dorkin, for nearly forty years, which is amazing, considering that he doesn’t have the decency to be older than I am. Even more amazing…and something I consider a huge failing on my part, is that I have only mentioned him three times before this in the twenty-plus years of PopCult.

I mean, he checks off all the boxes: He’s a terrific cartoonist with a cult following; He brilliantly lampoons nerd culture; He’s written for Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Crayon Shin-Chan: On top of all that, when Adult Swim produced a pilot for a series based on his Eltingville Club stories, he got The Aquabats to do the opening and closting themes.

Now, I get the chance to make up for lost time by telling you about this fairly comprehensive collection of his solo works. Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin collects just about every bit of creator-owned work that he’s produced over the last four decades.

It’s almost 650 pages of biting satire, brilliant cartooning, snark, adventure, more snark, hilarity and a touch more snark.

In this thick collection you get nearly every issue of Milk and Cheese (Gone Bad), Dork and The Eltingville Club, along with several stray comic strips done for other magazines over the years.

These mature-readers comics mine the rich pop culture landfill for gut-busting takes on everything from Ska to Punk to Comic Book Stores, Sitcoms, Action Movies and anything else that has happened in the last sixty years or so.

In addition to the adventures of Milk and Cheese, we also get to read about the extremely nerdy adventures of The Eltingville Club, and sitcom antics of The Murder Family plus the arcane wisdom of The Invisible College of Secret Knowledge. Plus there are hundreds of one-page gag strips and other gems.

This is all done with top-flight cartooning and a skill for riffing on pop culture that rivals the best of the MST3K crew.

This book is filled with hilarious takes on things like the surprising fates of Goofy Grape and The Cruchberry Beast, and side references to how Del Shannon almost became a Traveling Wilbury. This is a book that will evoke howls of recognition with its rich tapestry of all things nerdy, along with some very dark humor, biting satire and pure silliness.

Let me quote the publisher’s blurb:

Collecting the Milk and Cheese, Eltingville Club, and Dork by Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning comics creator Evan Dorkin. Collected for the first time in an affordable omnibus edition.

The entire Eltingville Club saga. Every Milk and Cheese comic. All the fun strips, gag panels and stories from Dork.

The entire shebang is now available in one big-ass Omnibus edition, a staggering display of satire, silliness, and stupidity featuring all the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz award-winning humor comics by semi-esteemed and somewhat-beloved cartoonist Evan Dorkin. It’s going to sell out and you will cry if you don’t get a copy, so get to it, kids (This message was approved by Evan’s therapist).

Nerd Inferno is an epic collection of Dorkin’s best solo works, and it belongs in every home, even those where the people inside won’t read it. It’s really thick and heavy and has many uses beyond simply containing hysterical comic strips.

I also need to mention the contributions of Sarah Dyer, Dorkin’s wife, colorist and sometime collaborator, and also a great cartoonist in her own right. Hopefully we get an omnibus of her work soon.

You can find Nerd Inferno: The Essential Evan Dorkin at particularly hip comic book stores and booksellers, or you can have any bookseller order it, using the ISBN code…or take the lazy way out and get it from Amazon, who finally have offered it at a nice discount. It is a wonderful gift IF the comic book fan on your gift list is capable of laughing at themself.

The PopCulteer
November 6, 2026

One of the most ethical ways to buy music these days is by using Bandcamp, which on a normal day, passes along a much more equitable amount of the money you spend to the artists who make the music that keeps them in business.

Today is BANDCAMP FRIDAY!  This is the day when my favored streaming service, Bandcamp, foregoes their usual cut of the dough and lets the artists keep all the money spent on their music and merch.

If you scroll down and check out almost any post about an episode of Radio Free Charleston that has a playlist in this blog since 2023, you will find that the list of artists have links, many of which take you directly to that artist’s Bandcamp page.  This harkens back to my mantra, “Support the Local Scene. Support Independent Music. And Buy Your Music In An Ethical Manner.”

You know what to do to support the local scene and independent artists. It doesn’t get much more ethical than this. Remember, it’s not just digital downloads. You can order vinyl, CDs, Cassettes, T Shirts, hats and all kinds of other cool band merch.

Not Good Times

I was out of town Saturday night/Sunday morning when news broke that Davi Della Fiamma, the owner of Wandering Wind Meadery, had been assaulted and severely beaten by a gang of underaged demon children while closing up the bar for the night.

I’ve known Davi for years, but not closely.  For instance, I didn’t know his real name was Dave Bragg, and I wasn’t aware that he owns Wandering Wind Meadery.  I know that they always have cool events there and I’ve plugged many of them here in the blog.  I tend to feel completely out of place at breweries, meaderies and distilleries and the like because I don’t drink.  Due to allergies, even a sip would make me very sick, but since I also  really hate the taste of anything alcoholic, I don’t consider it much of a loss.

Still, I’m glad that there are places like this out there.

And I’m really pissed off at this act of needless violence. Two juveniles have been arrested and charged with malicious wounding so far, and hopefully they face severe consequences and turn in all of their vicious little friends.

The point of mentioning this is to wish Davi a quick recovery, and plug the Go Fund Me to help him deal with the medical bills, and to mention that I will be running more graphics for events at Wandering Wind Meadery. Charleston is a cool little city filled with great venues and places, and we can’t let a few evil people scare good people away.

Speaking of STUFF TO DO

It seems like there’s not a lot happening this weekend, but we’ll give it a shot. STUFF TO DO is PopCult‘s weekly guide to just a few of the great events happening in Charleston, Huntington and a few other points here in West Virginia, and sometimes a little beyond our borders, in the coming days.  During the month of November, while your humble blogger is working his fingers to the bone writing The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide, a truncated version of this feature will run as part of Friday’s PopCulteer column.

Each week I try to tell you about a few cool events all around the state that you might not know about.  If you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future you can still contact me via Social Media at Facebook,  BlueSky,  Spoutible,  Instagram  or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote.  I do ask that you send a graphic that includes the date, time and location, of the event, as well as the cost to attend.

Keep in mind that I’ll need this several days in advance, so please don’t send me a graphic on the day of the event and expect it to show up in this feature.

For much more comprehensive guides to things you can get into in our region, check out these two wonderful resources:

Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at Taylor Books.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Here’s a few more select suggestions for STUFF TO DO in and around Charleston and Huntington this weekend, kicking off with a added feature to WWE’s live broadcast of Smackdown from the Charleston Colisseum on Friday night…

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back later today for more entries in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide, and check back for fresh content every day and all of our regular features too.

Our third entry today in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is a surprisingly cool Designer Barbie that, despite being a bit pricey, would fit right in with almost any 1/6 scale sci-fi diorama. It’s a great gift for the Barbie Collector or 1/6 scale hobbyist on your holiday shopping list.

Signature Barbie x Yoon Ahn Doll
by Mattel Creations
$100.00 plus tax and shipping

First of all, Yoon Ahn is the co-creator of the boundary-redefining style brand AMBUSH. A globally influential creative director, Yoon Ahn is a fashion force to be reckoned with. This first collaboration with Mattel looks like something straight out of a 1970s issue of Heavy Metal, and it’s a real winner.

The doll has action-figure-like articulation, some removable body armor, and a distinctive design that’s aesthetically  flexible enough to fit into any kind of science fiction scenario.

This doll (the doll design is by Suim Noh, while the package design is by Diana Leto) brings Yoon Ahn’s fashion concept to life using a newly-sculpted body and the neutral-expression “Kit” headsculpt. She has 13 points of articulation, which is way more than your average Barbie doll.

It’s pretty savvy of Mattel to create a doll with such a vast potential crossover audience.  There are an awful lot of lonely Astronaut GI Joes out there in space who’d appreciate some feminine companionship.

In addition, she comes with a robot cat, which has six points of articulation. This is a nice feature for the doll collectors, but it’s also a pretty cool add-on for people building futuristic dioramas.

There’s also a doll stand included, although the doll does actually hold her balance pretty well.

Here’s Mattel’s blurb:

Take a trip through time to the future of fashion innovation! We partnered with genre-defying designer Yoon Ahn to bring to life one of our most unique dolls ever, an exploration of the Barbie of tomorrow. Pulling inspiration from anime, street style, and Ahn’s distinct visionary perspective, this robot-esque Barbie and her pet robot cat blend clean minimalist lines with an artistically technological feel. Together, they’re a pair of creations unlike anything else we’ve ever made.

You can order the Yoon Anh Signature Barbie Doll directly from Mattel Creations. I don’t believe you need to be a member of any of the clubs to buy this item. It’s a great gift for the futurist Doll Collector or 1/6 scale action figure collector on your holiday shopping list.

2027 Calendar
Featuring Art by Ian Bode
$35.00, from Ian Bode Art

The second pick today in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is a new calendar (for 2027) featuring art by Charleston’s own, Ian Bode.

Ian is a longtime friend of PopCult (Mel and Rudy have turned up in the background of a few of his pieces), and he’s got a lovely, distinctive style that stakes out its own very original place somewhere near classic Psychedelic Art and the work of Keith Haring and Sergio Aragones. He truly elevates traidtional cartooning to the level of fine art.

He’s also been providing the caricatures for FestivAll’s “Three Things” for years.

I’m going to quote a bit from his official bio here:

Ian Bode was born and raised in Charleston, WV. After leaving WV in his late teens and traveling around the country, he returned to become a self-taught, full-time artist. His work is displayed in galleries, public buildings, and private collections across the country. He also collaborates with other visual artists and graphic designers on commercial projects.

In addition, he has individually and collaboratively made several 2D and 3D public art projects. His most recognizable style is a graphically narrative, cartoon-oriented world filled with his black and white faceless characters collectively called “The Passenger.” This faceless cartoon is a vacuum into which the viewer’s identify and awareness can be filled in. The viewer is in the emotive driver’s seat, much like The Passenger.

Using repeating themes, colors, and icons, he aims to establish a visual language that makes each piece relatable to the other creating a universe with loose laws and a sequential narrative that does not intrude or contradict itself. He was named WV Artist of the Year 2018 by West Virginia Living magazine.

If you live around Charleston, you’ve seen Ian’s art. Now you can bring some of it home to look at every day. Aside from this calendar, you can find Ian’s art on T-shirts, pins, prints and more at his website.

Orders placed now should arrive in time for Christmas.

Recommended for the art lover or proud (WV) Charlestonian on your holiday shopping list.

Today we’re kicking off The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide early with a bonus pick that’s a surefire perfect gift for the Batman fanatic on your holiday shopping list. Now, I have to be honest and give you fair warning here, I had planned to feature this pick next week, but Wednesday afternoon I received word that stock is running low on this item, so if you want it, you’d better act fast. There will be two additional Gift Guide entries posted later today.

Batmobile and Bat Boat 1967 Gift Set 3
Available only from The Corgi Model Club
$109.99

This beautifully crafted set from Corgi Model Club is a faithful reproduction of one of the most sought-after and rare diecast Batmobile collectibles. This is the real Batmobile, as designed by George Barris, not the later movie versions or the bogus “first licensed Batmobile” that a scam artist tried to pass off as genuine a dozen years ago.

This is the collector’s set that every kid of a certain age lusted after, and now it is finally attainable.

Introduced in time for Christmas 1967, this first issue of the GS3 gift set famously combined the second version of the Batmobile (featuring a tow hook) with the iconic ‘tin fin’ first edition of the Bat Boat.

Each model was presented with Batman and Robin figures – which when displayed together featured the unusual sight of Batman and Robin in both cockpits! To avoid that visual anomaly, this special Corgi Model Club edition has all four figures included separately, thus allowing you to position them as you wish.

Of course, that also means you can have two Robins or two Batmans in either vehicle if you wish, but then that’s the fun of playing with toys.

Corgi collectors will know the 1967 GS3 box for its unique illustrated header card – which folded flat, allowed it be sent to retailers without damage. The box also included a yellow plastic insert to hold the models in position. Later versions of the GS3 set omitted both the illustrated header and the yellow insert.

Included with this model is the die-cast metal trailer, operating instructions, lapel sticker, 12 x yellow rockets, two sets of Batman and Robin figures and the all important individually numbered Corgi Model Club certificate of authenticity.

It’s seriously one of the coolest iterations of The Batmobile that ever existed, and while the price may seem high, it’s a mere fraction of what original sets sell for these days.

You can only find this at The Corgi Model Club. While you’re there, you might want to consider joining, for yourself or for your giftee.  Members get a really cool reissued Corgi Model each month, with plenty of chances to catch up on older models. Aside from a few different versions of the Batmobile, the CMC also offers spectacular 1/50 scale diecast versions of iconic vehicles from the worlds of James Bond, The Saint, The Green Hornet, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Yellow Submarine, and coming next spring, The famed Monkeemobile.

But if you want this set, don’t put it off. This is in short supply and is very limited.

Our second pick today in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is an artbook that straddles a few different areas of interest and would be a great gift for fans of travel, history, retro art and stickers.

Hotel Retro: Vintage Luggage Labels from Tokyo to Buenos Aires (330 Travel Ephemera Stickers)
by Letterform Archive
ISBN 979-8-9891423-2-3
$40 from The Publisher, or discounted at Amazon 

Hotel Retro: Vintage Luggage Labels from Tokyo to Buenos Aires takes you on a trip around the world during the golden age of travel. Back in the day, the classy hotels all around the world would give out stickers for travellers to slap on their luggage as a memento of where they’d been.

Plus, it was also free advertising.

And it’s really cool to look at.

Let me quote the publisher’s blurb:

Journey across time and place with hundreds of vibrant steamer trunk labels from the Golden Age of Travel, faithfully reproduced as 330 charming full-color stickers

In the late nineteenth century, as industrialization allowed for the emergence of the leisure class, an unprecedented number of world travelers began touring the globe via train and sea. From far-off destinations they brought home a curious collection: eye-catching labels bearing the insignia of grand hotels, pasted to their steamer trunks as souvenirs.

Today, these labels are also souvenirs of graphic design—from the opulence of art deco to the minimalism of Swiss Style. Featuring hundreds of delightful examples from the collection of Letterform Archive, Hotel Retro highlights the labels’ artistry in illustration, lettering, and typography, and restores them to their original adhesive use for the pleasure of a new generation.

This is a great book that isn’t a difficult read, but it can spur your imagination and whisk you off to a vacation in your mind on the Orient Express or around India’s Golden Triangle, or on the Trans-Siberian Railway. You can check into the the grand historic hotels without leaving the comfort of your home, and if you are so inclined, remove the sticker from the book and put it on your suitcase.

Hotel Retro: Vintage Luggage Labels from Tokyo to Buenos Aires has 240 pages with 330 removable stickers depicting famous hotels from around the world.

Recommended as a gift for the traveller at a heart, romatic adventurer or fan of terrific graphic design. You can order Hotel Retro: Vintage Luggage Labels from Tokyo to Buenos Aires directly from the publisher, discounted from Amazon or from any bookseller by using the ISBN code.

Today’s first pick in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for fans of classic Looney Tunes…it’s a collection of recent cartoons orginally made for HBO MAX that perfectly capture the spirit and hilarity of the original products of Termite Terrace.

Looney Tunes Cartoons: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
From Warner Archive
Sold By Movie Zyng
$34.98

Since I chose this pick for The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide, the voice of many of the main characters in these cartoons, Eric Bauza, suddenly and shockingly passed away, and this collection would not be a bad way to remember his many talents.

Originally billed simply as “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” this 2019-2024 revival of the classic Warner Brothers cartoon characters was the first to get it right in decades.

Since they were created under the absent management of Leon Schlesinger, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons produced at “Termite Terrace” at the Warner Brothers Studio have been the gold standard of animated shorts. Only MGM and Max Fleisher came close to the chaos and hilarity of Looney Tunes. The other studio’s cartoons, expecially Disney’s, pale in comparison.

With animation legends Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng at the helm, Warner Brothers led the pack with a roster of animation superstars like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird and more. Even with top directors, Avery and Clampett, moving on after WWII, the Warner Brothers cartoons still cranked more hits than misses until around 1960.

After the animation unit was shut down in 1965, there had been many attempts to revive the Looney Tunes characters (at least once a decade) with mixed results. Some of the revivals have been commercially successful, and some get credit for trying, but none of the revivals have come close to matching the comedic craft and anarchy of the classic Looney Tunes of 1935 to 1945. In fact, a lot of the attempted revivals were downright horrid.

That’s why, when I settled in to watch Looney Tunes Cartoons, I was stunned. The animation was lush and easily as good as the golden age. The character designs skipped over the last few decades of ill-advised “updates” and returned to the classic looks. And the cartoons are funny as hell. There was none of that limited animation and angular design crap.

These were like finding freshly-discovered artifacts, unseen since the 1940s. If it weren’t for the occasional contemporary reference (flat screen TVs and smartphones), these would pass for vintage Looney Tunes gold.

Even more shocking to me was the credits. The producer of Looney Tunes Cartoons is Pete Browngardt, the creator of Uncle Grandpa. I loved Uncle Grandpa on Cartoon Network, but I never got any indication from the show that the same producer could make classic-style Looney Tunes cartoons. The show had more of a modern, Cal-Arts style to it.

Yet even way more shocking to me was the discovery that Johnny Ryan was one of the writers and story editors. I’ve been a fan of Ryan’s since Fantagraphics started publishing his underground comic, Angry Youth Comix, back in the 1990s, and with his extreme and obscene take on the world he is probably the last person on the planet that I would have pegged as ever working on a mainstream animated property.

I cannot stress how pleasant a surprise it is to see new Looney Tunes that are so faithful to the source material. The character designs harken back to the designs of Bob Clampett, Tex Avery and a young Chuck Jones. The Bugs Bunny you see in Looney Tunes Cartoons is primal Bugs. He’s not even the refined Bugs that we saw in the 1950s. This is pure, uncut Bugs Bunny.

There have been minor design changes, but they are miniscule. Bugs Bunny has yellow gloves instead of white.

Daffy Duck is the insane Bob Clampett Daffy, not the lame egotistical Daffy of the post-war era. This is manna from heaven for fans of classic animation.

Other Looney Tunes characters are revived as well. Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote return in new cartoons which are as funny as the three good ones that Chuck Jones made back in the 1950s. The crew behind these cartoons was responsible for the animated parts of Coyote vs. Acme, earlier this year.

We also get to see classic renditions of Marvin the Martian, Gossamer, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety and Sylvester, Beaky Buzzard, Taz, Porky Pig and others.

The Voice work by Bob Bergen, Candi Milo, Eric Bauza, Fred Tatasciore, Jeff Bergman and others is great. The direction and tone is perfect, and the animation is amazing. Check out HBO Max for the best Looney Tunes Cartoons in 75 years.

Now you can get all these animated gems in one glorious piece of physical media for you to wrap, put under the tree and treasure. You can even pet it and call it George.

You can order Looney Tunes Cartoons: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) from Movie Zyng, and poke around the site for plenty of other great Looney Tunes collections.

Today’s second entry in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide is a Blu-ray collection of a British sitcom that I raved about last August.  Ann Droid comes from the brilliant mind of Diane Morgan, AKA Philhomina Cunk, and it’s a great gift for fans of Cunk, cutting-edge British comedy, or just really great funny stuff in general.

Ann Droid (2026) 2-Disc Set Blu-ray
Available from Cinema Discs.com
$21.98 with free shipping

Frist I’ll let the blurb do the talking…

In the near future, when widow Sue (Sue Johnston) is left living alone, her well-meaning but hopeless son Michael (Paul Ready) gifts her a secondhand, discontinued eldercare robot named Linda (Diane Morgan). What follows is a brilliant blend of deadpan British humor and touching drama, as the socially inept, overly attentive robot turns Sue’s quiet life upside down. Created by Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall, this acclaimed BBC sitcom explores themes of aging, loneliness, and the absurdities of modern technology with sharp wit and genuine heart.

This 2-disc Blu-ray set includes all six episodes of the hit first season in stunning high definition. A must-have for fans of British comedy and smart sci-fi satire!

Here’s what I wrote:

Ann Droid is a brilliant six-episode sitcom, created by Diane Morgan (Cunk, Mandy) and Sarah Kendall and it manages to be fiercely hilarious and satirical while also being heartwarminig and engaging.

Ann Droid tells the story of Sue, a widow whose husband died 18 months earlier, and her new android assistant robot, whom she names Linda, after her sister…who she can’t stand.

Linda is a “pre-loved” and discontinued AnnDroid Z58/100 Basic Eldercare Robot given to Sue by her son, Michael, because he’s reconciling with a wife who cheated on him during the time his father was dying.

The series is set in 2029, so it’s not a far-flung futuristic tale. It’s quite plausible, given the rise of AI. Sue’s life is populated by a universe of realistic characters who happen to be ripe with comedic potential. We have the loser son, the overbearing friend that everybody hates, an array of cantakerous elderly friends, plus the cheating wife of the son, the guy she cheated with and the various employers of Michael.

What makes the show work, aside from the sharp and well-paced writing and direction, are the performances. Sue Johnston is well-known to Anglophiles from her work on Downton Abbey and The Royle Family, and Diane Morgan has never been less than incredible in everything she’s done. Whether she’s the dimwitted documentarian, Philomena Cunk, or the erratic underachiever, Mandy, she’s simply one of the most briliant comic actors around. As Linda, she manages to balance an almost alien-like naivety with a battery of knowledge equal to the internet, and she’s just as capable as AI of misconstruing reality and screwing things up completely.

She’s very much like ChatGPT with a body, and the comedic potential is fully-realized here.

The supporting cast is note-perfect as well, and the show is one of the rare programs that I’ve actually binged. It’s that compelling and hilarious.

Watch this preview…

Anyone who knows Morgan from her work on Cunk or Mandy knows how darkly hilarious she is.  This show manages to be both hysterical and heartwarming, which is a true claim here, unlike when they say it about other recent shows.  I’ve only seen the region-free Blu-ray at Cinema Discs.com, but it may turn up elsewhere.

Also of note, if you are already a fan of Diane Morgan, be advised that Cunk On Cinema, a three-part series, will hit The BBC on November 12, and Netflix a few days later.