PopCult

This week we go back to late July, 2013, for an edition of Radio Free Charleston that was intended to promote that year’s ShockaCon, which happened two months later. Radio Free Charleston 188, “NU-TRA Shirt,” welcomed back two old friends to the show, but also showcased them in two venues which hadn’t been on our show before. We also had the first of a new batch of Frank Panucci’s compilations of public domain footage. The main thrust of this episode was to raise awareness of ShockaCon, which was coming up in less than two months for its second-go round.

Among the bands who performed at ShockaCon that year were our musical guests, The Nanker Phelge and HarraH. We recorded The Nanker Phelge at the still-being-built performance space at Dunbar Lanes. We got a cool punk vibe capturing the band in a venue that was far from renovated, and it’s a real shame that Dunbar Lanes didn’t get a fair chance to continue, since the completed venue was such a great place to catch live music. We recorded HARRAH at the ECMC “Kick Cancer For Kids” benefit show at the Eagles Club on Charleston’s West Side.

And you might as well get used to see our dear friend, the late Lee Harrah, in this feature. He was all over the show at this time, in front of and behind the camera.

You can find the full production notes for this episode HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 22, 2026

The PopCult Comix Bookshelf

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 don’t even have the humanity to have a discount on it as I write this.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content and all our regular features.

Just before Memorial Day, 2016, I ran the following post here as an essay in The PopCulteer.  Ten years on, folks are still asking me to re-post it, so I figured today is a good day for that, with the holiday weekend looming again. This is mostly as it was originally written, with a few typos corrected and some info updated. 

 It’s a short PopCulteer this week as your loyal correspondent doesn’t really have much to say.

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and while there is a ton of stuff happening in and around Charleston, this is a holiday weekend that doesn’t really affect me that much. Let me explain.

When I was growing up, Memorial Day always meant traumatic and stressful running around for my family. My aunts and uncles and grandmother all had family buried all over the state. They were all hung up on going out each year and decorating the graves. it was a major family obligation. The graves absolutely had to have new (plastic) flowers every Memorial Day, even though we didn’t have a lot of military folks in the family. By the time I came along the holiday had evolved (devolved?) from its original intent to honor veterans and had turned in a generic “honor all dead folks” day, an economic stimulus for florists and Chinese plastic flower factories.

Continue reading

The big things going on in Charleston this Memorial Day Weekend include the return of Live On The Levee, and the beginning of FestivALL.  but that’s not all of the cool STUFF TO DO all over and just beyond the borders of the state, to tell you about, noted as briefly as possible.  This weekend is cram-packed with stuff all over Charleston this weekend, so for ful details please follow the links provided.

FestivALL kicks off with the Pride Window displays on Wednesday, and ArtWalk plus a drum circle at Slack Plaza in Charleston on Thursday. This year FestivALL been restored to cover ten days over two full weekends. You can find the whole schedule HERE.

Also this weekend, at the WV State Capitol Grounds, we have The Vandalia Gathering.

And Live On The Levee is back with a full slate of shows this year, beginning Friday with Bruce Springsteen’s great, great grandaughter (not really…I have to throw jokes into these posts to keep myself amused).

Again, I’m just scratching the surface here. Please don’t think this is all we have to offer.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, even if your promotional graphic uses cruddy AI slop art, 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.

We are very happy to remind you that 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.

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have music from Emmy Davis on Friday and Sean Richardson, Brooke Brown and Sean Knisely on Saturday.

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.

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. Friday at 6:30 PM you can attend and even perform at their popular Open Mic Night.

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.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Continue reading

After a rare two-week break, we return this week with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston on Tuesdays on The AIR.  Our reruns this past couple of weeks were both great episodes, and each one included an hour of cool surf music…and now that we’re back pressing our nose to the grindstone, I decided to give you TWO HOURS of Surf Music this week, as a super-special bonus for taking time off.  To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

We open our show with an hour of great new local, independent and cult-following music that includes almost exclusively-new or newly-released tunes. You get local  stuff from Blue Twisted Steel, David Synn, The Tunesmiths, Cricketman, The Apurna Project, The Moon My Twin and Ghoulbox.  Indie tracks come our way from Stratifaction Music and Sirius Blueray, The Anchoress, Chvrches, James McCartney, and more.

Our second and third hours are devoted to Surf Music. You’ll hear tons of new and innovative surf tracks as well as some of the seminal classics of the form.  It took a while to get back in the groove of doing a show this week, but I think the end result is pretty epic.

The links in the playlist will take you to the pages for the artists in this week’s show where possible…

RFC V5 269

hour one
Blue Twisted Steel “Eternal Fire”
Stratifaction Music, Sirius Blueray and David Synn “Inside The Tarot”
The Apurna Project “Treading Forward (demo)”
The Anchoress featuring Eaves Wilder “Damsels”
Chvrches “Addicted To Love”
Peter Frampton “Carry The Light”
Cricketman “Love Song”
James McCartney “I’ll Say what I Want To”
The Tunesmiths “Totally To You”
Linda Perry “Push Me In The River”
The Moon My Twin “Posession”
The Holler Hounds “I Am The Man”
Tori Amos “Gasoline Girls”
Ghoulbox “JuJu Bag”
David Synn featuring Across the Frostlands “Duality (The Choice)”

hour two
I. Jeziak and The Surfers “The Swell”
GOONS “Land Of A Thousand Crimes”
Shorty’s Swingin’ Coconuts “Theme From Star Trek”
The Ventures “Hawaii Five-O”
The Pornadoes “Rail Ripper (Surf Theme from Isle of the Forbidden)”
The Other Timelines “Deckard’s Dilemma”
GWAR “Surf of Syn”
Guitarmy of One “Zombie Detectives Lurk for Work”
The Surfrajettes “Lickity Split”
Thee Leviathans “Unholy Mackeral”
The Tikiyaki Orchestra “Hit It Shorty”
The Volcanics “Booby Trap”
Los Grainders “Buff”
The Tentakills “Escape From Bermuda”
Dark Entities “March of the Skulls”
Lords of Atlantis “Leading Edge”
The Madeira “Caravela”
Test Subject 17 “Patient Zero”
The Jagaloons “Disco Volante

hour three
The Routes “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
The Wipeouters “Wounded Surfer”
Messer Chups “Model”
Dick Dale “Lonesome Road”
The Surfaris “Wipe Out”
The Chantays “Pipeline”
The Sunrays “I Live For The Sun”
Disco Circus “Barbara Ann”
Jim And The Sea Dragons “Aqua Regia”
The 4D Man “Revenge of the Gamma People”
The Sentinals “Latin’ia”
The Shadows “Guitar Tango”
The Trashmen “Surfin’ Bird”
The Beach Boys “Boogie Woodie”
Wall of Voodoo “Don’t Spill My Courage”
The Rivieras “California Sun”
The Markett’s “Out of Limits”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM get ready for two classic episodes of The Swing Shift.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

This week’s art is inspired by a series of photos I took with my phone while I was a passenger riding up Route 35 on our way to wonderful adventures last weekend.

Mel asked what I was taking pictures of, and I replied, “Nothing.” Then I thought for a moment, and said, “But it sure looks beautiful.”

I grabbed elements from several of those photos and used them as inspiration for this acrylic on illustration board painting.

It isn’t really anything, but it sure looks nice. It’s also a return to working in color with paint for the first time in a month or so.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR,  we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page. Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

Tonight at 8 PM, tune in for a classic edition of The Comedy Vault. That’s followed by two-hour blocks of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast at 9 PM and 11 PM, and then an overnight assortment of our Haversham Recording Institute programs at 1 AM.

Above you see an episode of The Midnight Special from November, 1973.  This departure episode was hosted by David Bowie from London England with his 1980 Floor Show and special guest appearance by Carmen, Dooshenka, Marianne Faithfull and The Troggs.

I think this was the first time I ever saw Bowie on television. This is widely considered one of the most important post-Beatles TV appearances in Rock N Roll history.

This week we go back to July, 2013, for the seventh anniversary show of Radio Free Charleston. We didn’t do a huge celebration of this landmark, but we came up with a very special episode nonetheless. Usually we feature local artists on our show, but for this episode we took a bit of a departure. We went to visit Dave Roberts’ house on Montrose Avenue in South Charleston, where we witnessed a house concert by two internationally renowned musicians.

Our cameras were invited in that night for an amazing house concert featuring two virtuoso musicians:  From Nashville, bassist Sean O’Bryan Smith and from Cleveland, guitar wizard, Neil Zaza. They were joined by drummer Garrett Janos to form an amazing progressive power trio, The Monsters Under The Bed. “Formed” is the key word. Prior to the performance seen in this episode of RFC, Sean and Neil had not only never played together…they’d never met in person until the afternoon of this house concert, when they showed up at Dave’s house.

Dave has been on our show numerous times as a member of The Nanker Phelge, Trielement and other bands. For this show, Dave and his lovely wife, Lisa, opened the doors to their house and turned their living room into a concert venue.

Sean is an acclaimed solo artist, but is also an in-demand session musician, having played or toured with Keith Urban, Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Rogers, Billy Ray Cyrus and Malcom Jamal-Warner, to name just a few. Neil is also an acclaimed solo artist who pioneered the “melodic instrumental rock” genre with his breakthrough hit, “I’m Alright.”. His “One Silent Night” concerts have become an annual holiday tradition in Cleveland, and he has recorded with Dweezil Zappa, Eric Carmen, Michael Stanley and Stewart Copeland.

It was a real treat meeting the guys and it’s an honor to have them on Radio Free Charleston for our seventh video anniversary. To be honest, we didn’t really have anything planned for the anniversary show that year before this epic house concert fell into our laps. Check out the full production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 15, 2026

How do I explain Jungle Jim’s?

Basically…it’s a grocery store…a very large grocery store.

But it’s much more than that.

Imagine if you wanted to design a grocery store, so you brought in a room full of hyperactive children, plied them loads of sugary treats, and tasked them with the job of designing the store and selecting its inventory.

Jungle Jim’s is more than a grocery store. It’s also a toy store, a world market, an amusement park, a gift shop and the number one place in the world that cruel people would take their friends to if they’d just dropped acid.

It is a psychotronic wonderland, filled with food, household goods, animatronic singing animals, curated music in certain aisles, and inexplicable non-sequitors throughout.

There are only two locations, and they’re both in the Cinncinnati area. They are also quite different, so to get the full experience, you need to visit them both. They’re a little more than a half-hour drive apart, with one in Fairfield and the other in Eastgate, both part of the Greater Cinncinnati area.

They are also gigantic. When navigating to them on our trip last weekend, I noticed while looking at the satellite view that one of them was more than double the size of a nearby Walmart Supercenter.

Yes, they sell groceries. Each store also has two distinctly different toy departments (that’s a total of four between them), plus the Eastgate location has over three hundred Bandai Gashapon machines. The international market section of the Fairfield location is TEN TIMES the size of a World Market store, and it’s all food items, organized by country or continent.

The remainder of this post is a large photo essay. Except for the feature image at the head of this post, and the images of the Gashapon machines, all of the pictures were taken at the Fairfield location. These images are a TINY part of the store. This is just a taste.

You really need to check out this place. I can’t understand why anybody would waste their time at King’s Island when Jungle Jim’s is nearby.

Seriously, just check out the photos…

The Approach

Just walking to the place from the parking lot fills you with a foreboding sense of unrepentant joy.

Sadly, the elephant fountains weren’t turned on while we were there. Not a phrase you say a lot about Kroger.

Yes They Have Toys

It was not until I was editing the photo of this Joe Bidenesque Lafufu that I noticed the disclaimer at the bottom. This makes it even more wonderful. This was seen at the first of the two toy departments at the Fairfield location.

After yesterday’s photo essay from The Toy Department, I’m not going to load up today’s PopCulteer with pictures of toys, but…here’s a teensy selection.

Going In The Main Store

Entering the belly of the beast. parking is at a premium.

Continue reading

The PopCult Toybox

Last weekend your humble blogger and his lovely wife took a low-pressure trip to the Cinncinnati/Dayton area just to get away for a bit after a few weeks of intense work and various medical tests.

And part of our journey took us to an extremely cool toy store that I’ve been hearing about almost since they opened, back in 2018.

They’ve actually expanded and moved twice since then, so you can now find The Toy Department at 5960 Dixie Hwy in Fairfield, Ohio…maybe half an hour North of Downtown Cinncinnati. It’s very easy to find, and it’s a very special store.

For one thing, it’s a destination store. They do no online selling, not even on eBay. You either have to go to the store in person, or if you’re lucky, check out a selection of their vast inventory at one of the many toy shows they attend throughout the year. And they do a pretty healthy number of toy shows. One recent weekend saw them set up at Xenia, ToyLanta and The Lexington Comic Con, all at the same time, while keeping their store open!

However, if you don’t go to the store, you’re missing the big attraction. The store is pretty sizable, and it’s filled from floor to ceiling with an amazing assortment of toys. There’s plenty of vintage stuff, going back to the 1980s (and I saw a few pieces that dated back to the 1960s, which warmed the aging heart of this longtime toy collector), but they also have an outstanding selection of current action figures from major toy companies as well as the more interesting smaller upstarts. If you collect 1/12 scale figures, which are currently dominating the hobby, then this place is your Mecca.

The store is loaded with GI Joe: Classified figures, but they also have Marvel Legends, Star Wars, and several incredible and compatible new lines like Warriors of the Animal Kingdom, Crimson Moon, Operation Monster Force, Soldiers of Fortune and tons of others.

You’ll see those below, along with just a sliver of their other offerings. Seriously, this photo essay doesn’t really do them justice. You might want to follow them on Instagram until you have time to plan your own trip.

Let’s just let the photos do the talking, shall we?

It’s a wide storefront, right off the highway.

This is just part of their GI Joe: Classified stock

They have other scales of Joes, and related lines, too.

Continue reading