Okie Geek

This summer was filled with blockbuster movies hitting the big screen. But in Oklahoma City, you could find pop-up retro screenings in bars, art galleries and toy stores thanks to VHS & Chill.For the last 10 years, Sean Peel has been making it his mission to spread cinema across Oklahoma City via VHS tapes.He screened nostalgic and obscure movies across the metro area and even hooked up his VHS tape deck to a big screen movie projector.At one point, he had thousands of VHS tapes, probably the most in Oklahoma. But now he’s letting them all go.“When I would do VHS and Chill Screenings, I would always introduce it by saying this is not an art house screening," said Peel. "You can talk, you can laugh, you can throw popcorn at the screen.”His last screening is at the Oklahoma Film Exchange Friday, August 14th, but VHS & Chill will be continuing under new owners.

Mythopoeic. The word means myth-making and it is the name of the fantasy society that is coming to Weatherford.Part fan club and part literary academics, the Mythopoeic Society was formed in the late 1960s after the group’s founder threw a birthday party for Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in Los Angeles, California.This year they’re hosting their biannual conference in the town where an Oklahoma librarian has made Southwest Oklahoma State University the home for the society’s fantastical archive.Since 2017, archivist and librarian Phillip Fitzsimmons has digitized about five thousand items belonging to the society that have been downloaded more than 1.5 million times around the world.Members have come from across the US and the world to attend the conference and discuss fantasy.“It's not just a matter of hiding from the real world,” Fitzsimmons said. “Sometimes reading these books gives the reader answers as to how it is that they can survive and prosper in the real world.”Fitzsimmons first read Tolkien in middle school and is now 63, and he says The Lord of the Rings still provides guidance for him.“I would say that in many ways, The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's work feeds me emotionally, psychologically in a way that, you know, I have lots of books that interest me that I read and like, but they're not doing anything other than satisfying my curiosity or entertaining me."This year’s theme is “Get Your Fantasy Kicks on Route 66.” The keynote speakers are fantasy author David R. Slayton and Mythopoeic scholar Dr. Joe R. Christopher.You can find out more about Mythcon 54 here.

Matt Price remembers reading Team America Racing and seeing the toys as a kid. And now, he’s bringing the team back.His new comic book follows a team of young competitive motocross racers as they compete across the U.S.Originally published by Marvel and owned by Ideal Toys, the brand ended up in the hands of the owner of Comic Shop News, a news publication that Matt Price also writes and edits for.Despite the new publisher not owning the rights to the Marvel comics, Price considers the book a spiritual sequel that is updated for a new generation of readers.“I kind of took the tactic of what is different in 2025,2026 about being a young person competing at a high level. What does representing your country mean in 2026.”

Literati Press founder Charles Martin talks about the turning ownership of the Paseo bookstore to a writer's co-op. Later he is joined by OU E-sports director Mike Aguilar to talk about Symphonicon where the Oklahoma City Philharmonic will be playing music from from Cowboy Bebop, Interstellar, to Mario and the Legend of Zelda.

Actor Tim Blake Nelson, known for roles in “O Brother Where Art Thou” and most recently “The Lowdown,” is coming back to Tulsa with his new book, Superhero.He will be at Congregation B’nai Emunah in Tulsa on Thursday for a book talk presented by Magic City Books and will also host a screening of his new film “On the End” at Circle Cinema on Friday.He talks about his upbringing in Tulsa and filming in Oklahoma and why superhero movies reflect American society.