Neil Gaiman

We Scare Coyotes: Ambient Chupacabra Lies

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Normally if you hand me a bunch of instrumental music I will respond with some variation on the famous Cave Johnson Lemon Speech except that I wi ... More >>

Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra

Rudy Ch. Garcia: The Closet of Discarded Dreams

5 Songs For International Children's Literature Day

Founded in 1967 and meant to coincide with the April 2 birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, the legendary Danish author of classic children's tales like The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and the Ugly Duckling, International Children's Literature Day is a celebration of books meant to encourage young p ... More >>

30 Years Later: 9 Songs For John Belushi

Thirty years ago today, we lost John Belushi, one of the most brilliant comedic actors of his time. He was a member of some of the best seasons of Saturday Night Live in the mid to late '70s, and starred in the classic comedy Animal House. He was one of the Blues Brothers with fellow SNL-cast member ... More >>

Gothic Council Stages Tim Burton Intervention

Tim Burton has become something of a trial to the goths of the world. On the one hand, his contribution to the sub-culture simply cannot be overstated. Films like Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and The Nightmare Before Christmas served as the gateway into the spooky side for many of us, and for t ... More >>

10 Bands We'd Rather See in 3D Than Metallica

Kreepin Deth​Metallica recently announced that they would be releasing a film in 3D. Whether or not we're talking a concert film, something more along the lines of Some Kind of Monster, or a different approach entirely they haven't confirmed. Still, it seems most likely that they will follow i ... More >>

Top 5 Pop Literary Lexicons

When you get right down to it, the concept of books about books is a little weird. After all, if you'd read the book in question, what could you have possibly missed that required another book to explain to you? Well, it turns out a lot. Sometimes you're dealing with a huge series that is so full o ... More >>

Happy World Mental Health Day! 5 Crazy Songs

Delirium is the youngest of the endless. She smells of sweat, sour wines, late nights, old leather. Her realm is close, and can be visited; however, human minds were not made to comprehend her domain, and those few who have made the journey have been incapable of reporting back more than the tiniest ... More >>

True Blood: In Death There Is A Heavy Peace

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood - which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Welcome to Bon Temps, population... dropping.​Maybe it's the ... More >>

Four Fictional Faces Of David Bowie

dishuponastar.wordpress.com​Recently, Rocks Off was sitting here predicting the end of the world, like we do most weeks, when we got the opportunity to plug one of our favorite animated films of all time, Rock and Rule. Now, there are lots of cool things about this film: The soundtrack is awes ... More >>

5 Songs for Jesus' Grandma St. Anne's Day

​If you grow up without any religion, you either avoid all trappings of it like the plague or you absolutely love to explore it. Rocks Off is firmly in the latter camp, and nothing gets us more excited than the culture of Saints in Catholicism. We've written many a letter to Wizards of the Coa ... More >>

Pop Rocks: For This Comic Book Summer, Five Superheroes Who Won't Be Getting Their Own Movies

Dream on, fish boy.​We're well into summer blockbuster season, and even if you couldn't tell by the sweltering temperatures outside, you'd only need to look at the number of superhero movies -- both in theaters and about to be released -- to realize it. Thor started us off in May, and X-Men: ... More >>

Four Comic-Book Characters Inspired By Musicians

​Rocks off just can't seem to get comic books out of our blood. Between being fully immersed in Comicpalooza last weekend and trying to point out to Broadway how many other comic characters would make better and safer musicals than Spider-Man, we've regressed to being 15 with ink-stained figur ... More >>

Four Comic Books That Would Make Better Musicals Than Spider-Man

superpunch.blogspot.com​Rocks Off has gotten through our lives so far without watching a single episode of American Idol, and we are justly proud of that fact. However, even we had to view the clip of the show after we heard that the most murderous musical of the modern era was going to be fea ... More >>

Gothic Council Debates How To Rule Our New Planet

​After years of searching, scientists have finally discovered a planet that may be able to support human life. Gliese 581d, as it is known is 20 light years from Earth, and though it's just a bit on the cool side for comfortable human habitation, it looks like a pretty good bet that he planet ... More >>

Gothic Council Debates Best Comic Book Character

​Gothtopia has been tapped to be the eyes and ears of the Houston Press at Comicpalooza. Considering that the first thing that gets put up whenever we move to a new apartment is a limited-edition poster advertising Sandman: Brief Lives - which by the way hangs over a small bookshelf dedicated ... More >>

Gothic Council Debates Possible Sandman TV Series

​Now that we've finally seen something as difficult as Alan Moore's Watchmen turned into a decent, if not groundbreaking, film, the question on many comic fans' minds is whether or not the long-awaited adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Sandman may finally happen. The past month has been a slew of c ... More >>

Pop Rocks: No One to Blame for Rebecca Black but Ourselves

Rebecca Black WANTS YOU to keep Twittering about her.​The Internet is a strange place. Its most dominant and pervasive bandwidth hogs are spam and porn, both completely voluntary (people actually open those Nigerian money request e-mails or they wouldn't still be sending them). It drives news ... More >>

Amanda Palmer

Coraline in Wonderland

Things are not as they seem in Henry Selick's stunning stop-motion fairy tale

Justice League: The New Frontier, The Darjeeling Limited, Death at a Funeral, Beowulf: Director's Cut

Stardust

Matthew Vaughn hacks at Neil Gaiman's fantasy wonderland

Get Inside. It's Summertime!

Your guide to the season's hottest films (and the other ones, too)

Grind It Out with Pam

Base Raps

Paul Wall and Chamillionaire each release Astros tributes, while rock radio churns out the cheesy montages

Hell to Pay

Constantine shuns its comic-book roots for real depth as Reeves returns in black

Fahrenheit 2004

Remembering the movies that heated up cinemas this year

Higher Ground

Northfork is the work of angels, real and imagined

The Bleeding Edge

A decade ago, Vertigo started a revolution by making comics for adults

Dr. Strange

Grant Morrison's the best writer in comics--and maybe the oddest

The Brave & the Bold

On September 11, the world needed superheroes. It found them not in comic books, but in real life.

A Wasted Mind

The Cell delves into a dark, psychotic unconscious and discovers -- a wounded child!

Dream Weaver

Sandman author Neil Gaiman finds magic in the damnedest place