tank girl & barb wire (with kae whalen)

Pamela Anderson as a bounty hunter who impales nazis with the heel of her stilettos. Ice-T as the leader of a rebel group of half kangaroo men. A Courtney Love produced soundtrack featuring Björk and Face to Face. Lori Petty headlining an MGM-produced adaptation of a cult comic book series. Things that could have only existed in the mid-90s. For the seventh installment of our ROTTEN APOCALYPSE series, we're diving into a pair of steampunk Gen-X flicks that remind us what comic book movies looked like before the now-dominant behemoth of Marvel Studios. First up, it's the 1995 queer cult favorite "Tank Girl" starring Lori Petty, Ice-T and a young Naomi Watts. After that, we're jumping forward a year to 1996 for the softcore re-imagining of "Casablanca" you never knew existed with Pamela Anderson's notorious "Barb Wire." Podcast regular and co-host of Gay Wine, Kae Whalen, joins us to recount their "Tank Girl" Halloween costume and the cult following the movie amassed with young queer girls in the aftermath of its initial failure. We'll also be talking Pamela Anderson's cultural impact, "The L Word" creator Ilene Chaiken's first writing credit with "Barb Wire", Naomi Watts' quiet 90s, Kourtney's hatred of half-kangaroo men, and an unfortunate character named Big Fatso! You can follow Kae on Instagram @gaewhalen where you can catch up with their show, Gay Wine every week!