Glen Weldon
Glen Weldon is a host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. He reviews books, movies, comics and more for the NPR Arts Desk.
Over the course of his career, he has spent time as a theater critic, a science writer, an oral historian, a writing teacher, a bookstore clerk, a PR flack, a completely inept marine biologist and a slightly better-ept competitive swimmer.
Weldon is the author of two cultural histories: Superman: The Unauthorized Biography and The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Slate, McSweeney's and more; his fiction has appeared in several anthologies and other publications. He is the recipient of an NEA Arts Journalism Fellowship, an Amtrak Writers' Residency, a Ragdale Writing Fellowship and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Fiction.
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In Israeli artist Rutu Modan's The Property, a young woman accompanies her grandmother to Warsaw to reclaim an apartment building their family had to abandon in World War II. As they search through dusty records, family secrets soon come to light in this wryly funny and ultimately wrenching graphic novel.
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We've gotten our hands on an exclusive excerpt from the sequel to the Superman smash (by making it up ourselves). -
Director Zack Snyder doubles down on the sci-fi DNA of America's definitive superhero, but his Man of Steelnever quite becomes the inspirational saga some fans may have been expecting. -
Glen Weldon gives close attention to a story from what he calls "Superman: The Crazypants Years."
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In the multilayered graphic novel Red Handed, an ace detective solves a series of odd and seemingly unrelated crimes, only to find that they're all part of a grand design. Critic Glen Weldon admires artist Matt Kindt's mastery of the comics medium.
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A girl with the soul of a bird finds her wings in Audrey Niffenegger's haunting Raven Girl. The author of The Time Traveler's Wife illustrates this slight volume with her own moody etchings.
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Our comics blogger rounds up a long list of comics you may be able to find for free this weekend at your local comics shop and tells you which ones might work best for you. -
Believing evidence of life on Mars, a scientist sells a scheme to signal the red planet via a giant, burning triangle — each side 306 miles — dug in the Egyptian desert. Ken Kalfus' compact (at 207 pages) and deeply satisfying novel Equilateral sends up the arrogance and casual racism of the Victorian mindset.
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Our comics blogger examines the controversy surrounding the decision not to release an issue of the popular SAGA series for Apple devices. -
NPR contributor Glen Weldon talks about why he, a Superman nerd and a gay man, won't be reading a new iteration of the Man of Steel penned by author Orson Scott Card.
