Stunningly
sad story about one of the
greatest comics artists who ever lived: Jeffrey Jones. He got sick and
lost everything (someone should take a look at our health care system and
how it kills artists. I still think Effinger would still be walking around
if we had nationalized health care even though I have heard he didn't take
good care of himself...)and, worse, he's not well enough to draw anymore.
Horrific. Please get well Jeff. He's definitely in the Frazetta class. He's
a great artist who just happens to do comics.
I posted these pieces over at
Technoccult, which I should have dumped over here earlier.
Moore Dominates Harveys
Posted by Philip
Shropshire at 4 Aug 03 @ 09:22 PM
Speaking of Alan Moore,
it looks like he took home a bunch of Harveys. He won for best writer of
Promethea.
I have
mixed feelings about that because I don't think much of the occult and a
lot of those issues were thinly disguised explorations of his own mystic
philosophy, something that he's already explored in some of those
performance art comics of his. Still, there were some wondrous moments. I've
gone back to enjoying the series again now that Promethea has returned to
Earth so to speak...The latest issue features a guest appearance by the Tom
Strong crew, or an alt universe Tom Strong considering how they jump around
realities so much.
The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen also won two awards: one for best single issue (the first issue of
Volume II with that incredible Martian Warrior cover) and for best
continuing series. Certainly, these are well deserved. I still can't believe
one guy can do this many quality comics. I've always thought
Steve Gerber could
hang with him--like Moore he knows a lot about the Dark Arts as well as
physics--but he couldn't produce such a quantity of ambitious stuff. I
suppose Gerber gets his revenge with Howard the Duck,
where he makes fun of both Moore and a thinly disguised Warren Ellis.
Discuss (0 comments)
Free Energy Might Be Free
Posted by Philip
Shropshire at 14 Aug 03 @ 06:49 PM
There's a website
that claims that all of those free energy devices out there just might work.
The website
is produced by the Vasant corporation. From the website, you get to
learn all about the cool idea of Spintronics.
There's even an online powerpoint presentation.
The concept is
explained here:
It is this sea of
standing waves rather than quantum probability waves that best account for
the wave like nature of matter. Particles move to quantized states because
of electromagnetic forces that keep particle motions synchronized with this
sea of standing waves.
This is an
interaction among all matter that Ernst Mach alluded to as necessary to
cause matter's characteristic of inertia. Einstein called this Mach's
Principle. Einstein studied Mach's ideas while developing his theory of
General Relativity.
Using common sense
and classical electrodynamics, Bugh explains how these particle spin
interactions are possible even among compensating spins. Technology
advancements are possible based on these particle spin interactions.
I have no idea if
this is real or not. Sounds like a job for David Appell...Oh, and if you
think this weird science is cool then definitely check out
American
Antigravity.com.,
where you can learn how to build your own Lifter (looks like anti-grav)
and read an interview with
noted science fiction writer Ben Bova.
Discuss (3 comments)
I'm
Not Dead Yet!
Posted by Philip
Shropshire at 31 Aug 03 @ 04:23 PM
I actually wanted to say a few
things before being booted off, then again I guess I haven't been booted
off because I'm writing this stuff. Think of me as the houseguest who
just doesn't have the sense to leave...
Earlier, I mentioned other
blogs that were in Technoccult's karass. But I forgot the fifth Beatle:
Warren Ellis' "Die
Puny Humans". What's really thrilling about reading Warren's blog is
that it answers quite vividly "Where do you crazy writers get your ideas
from?" Today, for example, he's praising Hunter Thompson, who I've
always thought Spider Jerusalem was based on. I've also been reading
every thrilling issue of Global Frequency and it's clear that the phonecam photos and videos are not accidents. He's also been putting in
a lot of the weird science stuff. My favorite was a recent episode which
featured this machine:
Also
check out his online fiction novel. Some of the best online prose
that I've ever read. Here's a snippet:
I necked a dexidrene
and watched the morning fester.
Jarrow wanted me to come
into his office to talk the job over. Having to talk to Jarrow in person
is almost the worst part, as he has possibly the most punchable face
I've ever seen.
It was getting hot
outside. I dug out an old pair of combat pants I picked up from one of
the US Army clearance sales, years and years ago. White and black and
grey, urban camouflage, baggy and lightweight - probably what the
well-dressed soldier was wearing when shooting city-gooks a decade back.
Black and silver streetsocks, with the rubberised soles. A sleeveless
black t-shirt I got given last year by a nullpunkt band from Hamburg
called Biss. The only shades I could find were some crappy plastic
CamoCam things I got on the way out of Narita Airport, first time I was
in Japan. They have little cameras in the back of the headstrap that
pick up what's behind you and stream it on the shades lenses, so it
looks like you have two big round holes in your head. But it was these
or a sunlight headache, and I was in shitty enough condition as it was.
Discuss (2 comments)
June 29th thru July 5th
(Pic of the great
John McLaughlin)
I went over to my evil friend's house,
again. He lives on the dark side of town. Once, I think I saw him shoot a
man just to watch him die. He thinks the Sopranos is a light comedy. (He
keeps worshipful online profiles of prominent Russian mobsters or what he
calls "real criminals".) He abuses his cat with overtly aggressive hand
wrestling and general annoyances (putting the cat in high places to watch
him jump for example). He is a bad man and he downloads music. I brought a
gun this time. If provoked, during one of our discussions where I take the
Pro-RIAA Hilary Rosen, quite forcefully I might note, then I will shoot him
where he stands. I'm sure the RIAA will get Johnnie Cochran on the phone and
I'll walk. Dead file-traders and whores. Who gives a fuck. I'll walk.
Unfortunately, before I could reach for the semi-automatic thrust into my
belt, shoot him, and thereby Fight Crime, he showed me several
Mahavishnu Orchestra clips. I was in awe, even though I knew the evil of his
Emule downloading pathology. I had simply and still do worship that band and
follow John McLaughlin to this day. He had gotten 10 minutes (full of vile
downloaded evil) of a BBC recording with the original quintet, with a
youthful Billy Cobham on drums. I kept on looking for tension between John
and Jan "Miami Vice theme" Hammer. They had a big Rock n Roll fallout and I
understand that's where the tension was. This evil man, whom on a ethical
and moral level I completely loathe, also had the second Big Band
incarnation of the Orchestra, featuring Jon Luc Ponty, Micheal Narada Walton
(who was fierce by the way) and Chick Corea's high pitched vocalist wife
Gayle Moran. I never liked her voice. Think of Joan Baez singing jazz rock
and you see the problem. Yet I can see why people liked Gayle. She was
getting into the Miles Davis groove and offered a seriously sensuous radiant
smile throughout. These are concerts I would have never seen of bands and
hero musicians, thanks to
Emule and the criminal element
that uses it. I couldn't shoot the evil one. Not this time. But there will
be another. And one day I'll end our discussion about piracy and the rights
of artists, with a gun. With a gun.
Scott McCloud,
tired of waiting for the future to catch up with him, is putting his
micropayment theories into action. It also has some very cool bits of
animation and the storytelling method is completely different. You just
haven't seen anything like this before, even though I sense that McCloud is
a better critic than an artist. Go support this effort, especially if you
would like to make money doing this online stuff one day. It's easy to do if
you have either Paypal or a credit card, which I think is every person on
Earth. I threw in my quarter with pride. Here's to our self-sufficient
future.
June 15 through June 21
I've been looking for a good excuse to
post this Jaco Pastorius (one of the world's great bassists and tragic
stories) pic for a long time and now I've found one. As you may know if you
visit Three River Tech Review, where I do most of my posting on my four
blogs here, I know a person
that Orrin
Hatch wouldn't like who is using a new service called
Emule which allows you to
quietly download larger video files, in the 100 to 500 mb range and beyond.
And let me tell you at Emule there are several Weather Report videos. Teen
Town, with the original Heavy Weather lineup, was from the Midnight Special.
There's also a version of Black Market that my evil friend is downloading,
which I probably won't watch, because it's just wrong and the corporate
media channels are just saturated with progressive jazz rock. I was
watching the computer screen of my evil friend and I couldn't believe my
eyes. Jaco was one of the coolest cats ever. Zawinul synth chords sound just
so, so cool. Then I thought I should probably turn him in for prosecution
but I thought better of it...so if you have broadband and you're looking for
live video footage of Allan Holdsworth, Weather Report and Pat Metheny then
you should probably have your eyes plucked out and your computers
destroyed because you are just bad and wrong and don't even know it...
Week of May 18 thru May 24th
(By putting a date on here I'm
committing myself to more posts...we'll see.)
I thought the Matrix was decent, but
not great. I have to confess that I enjoyed X2 a lot more. I just felt that
its mutant politics hit a lot closer to home for me. And how could you have
Roy Jones in a movie and not have him in a decent fight scene? Now that's
criminal (perhaps he does some stuff in the video game...) Yet there were
some grand moments in the film. I thought the speech by Morpheus was
especially effective. It was terribly sad watching the Oracle and knowing
that the actress who played her had passed away. I thought the Ghosts were
kinda cool. I feel like I just won't know entirely how I feel until I see
the second half...
Over at the
official Sonic Youth
website you can find protest songs. I actually think that they aren't
very good (and no Sonic Youth tunes? C'mon...)...
But there are two really good
professional tunes by this lovely lass:
Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall
strikes again. Catpower's two protest tunes "Rockets"
and "Maybe Not", are very good, sung in that eternally somber sad voice
of hers, yet one of the tunes sounds vaguely anthemic.
And there's
also a video for He War, which they played during the last seven minutes
of 120 minutes last Sunday, the corporate swine...And
here's a good fan site, where I downloaded the new video.
The New
Animatrix Film Rocks: The two anime films that have been released have been
impressive. I've always liked the visual poetry of anime but felt that the writing was
always a bit lacking. Not in these cases. Both of the free downloaded anime shorts are
stunning. They look good and they answer some uncomfortable questions. The first one makes
you think that the machines, much like the tortured AIs in the film "AI", were
simply victims who tried to protect themselves. The second one answers kind of an awkward
question: What security precautions do you take in light of what happened in the first
Matrix film? Simulations, like life itself, can be decisively unpleasant...
This is a book written by a local Pittsburgh
freelancer and I just haven't had time to read it! But my good friend Bill Boichel has
posted a fairly praiseworthy review. Mark Best wrote a
good, literary
analysis of the book. I would never have gotten the King Arthur stuff anyway. (God,
who I don't really believe in, why won't Bill blog?):
"Despite Wise's
skill at adapting Arthurian legend, if that were all King of Summer had going for it, the
novel would run the risk of being just quaint pastiche. Fortunately, Wise proves to be
equally adept at portraying contemporary American adolescence. He offers us a wide range
of varied and well-developed characters, often using minor details to add depth to each
one. One girl's fingernails, described early in the novel as "chewed and covered in
chipped bubblegum pink polish," hint at her status as a "bad" girl from the
poor part of town and give us insight into the hopelessness that comes with it (not to
mention providing the basis for one of the novel's most striking images at its
conclusion). Similarly, Wise hints that Artie's older sister Wren, who loosely corresponds
to Morgan le Fey, has an eating disorder. However, he chooses never to address this
problem directly or resolve it. Instead, this information serves to add depth to our
understanding of the almost paralyzing anxieties that plague her throughout the novel.
Such details add texture to King of Summer that makes reading it much more pleasurable
than just following the plot.
Alienation is a normal quality in these kids'
lives. The teenagers who confronted the Winter King 70 years earlier already shared the
common bond of their baseball team. In the present, Artie's task of uniting his friends
seems almost more difficult than dealing with the novels supernatural evil. Indeed, this
is a key theme of the novel, and each moment of divisiveness is a victory for the Winter
King. While occasionally characters receive a supernatural nudge from the presence in the
lake, more often their own differences, fears, or self-absorption is sufficient to further
the advance of evil in the world. For example, a birthday party put on for Artie by his
sister provides the perfect opportunity for these friends to come together around Artie
and confirm his status as their "leader." Instead, Wise shows us small cliques
drifting into different rooms or focusing only on the videogame in front of them. The
result of this moment of disunity is sudden and tragic disaster."
All
of the Lush Videos Can Be Found Here: (Don't know how long they'll be up so get 'em
while they're hot...)
I always thought that Lush, at their best, was a
female U2. The two women wrote and sang mostly ethereal ambient tunes, with intrinsic
aural highs. They were produced by the Cocteau Twins so you can triangulate the vibe from
that, but try to imagine just stellar harmonies and unusual dissonant jangly chord
progressions. I recommend "Superblast" (It might be their best tune and I had
never heard of it before...) both versions of "Deluxe" and "Nothing
Natural". Probably won't be a reunion anytime soon. The guy drummer on the left hand
side passed Spinal Tap style recently. But we do have these cool vid memories...and
downloads fast even on dialup. Try 'em out.
There's something Freudian Cool about petite women strumming their big
electric phallic guitars...
Incredible Alan Moore
Tribute Site Here: I've been emailing this guy, José Carlos Neves, off and on for the
last year or so. He's Brazilian (I think) and he's probably one of the biggest Alan Moore
fans alive.
His tribute site is up and features some of his
tribute art and rare photos. (I didn't know Alan used a computer. I thought he wrote in
longhand with blood or something...) Very cool with some scans of Big Numbers pages...! Be
forewarned: You will need Babelfish.
First,
does this Quick Topic link work?
Second, I thought the
animatrix toon
that I saw was very very intense. It had kind of a Ralph Bakshi adult feel to it. It
was well written, well crafted. The most unusual thing about it is how it turns around the
moral high ground of the series. The bots look a lot like persecuted slaves who were
simply trying to defend themselves. I look forward to seeing the rest of the shorts.
You can now get this on a
tshirt and it's about time.
(Tip of The Hat to Porn
Blogstress Reverse Cowgirl)
Sorry For The Long Wait Between
Updates. I'm seriously thinking of turning this into an advertising vehicle. I'm feeling
reckless and dangerous.
On With The Show:
Photo of Catpower Lead Vocalist Chan Marshall:
You must check out this
MP3. It's
beautiful. It's called He War. Note the Haunting "Hey Hey Heys" near the
middle of the piece...Perhaps I should try out the other songs when I have more time.
Meanwhile, during my search for cool and meaningful music that's free:
Dave Cross, of Mr. Show
fame, has put out a political and funny comedy album. He openly asks why he has
to get all his news about the United States from the Guardian. You can get a listen if you
click right here, I mean,
right
here.
Some Other Cool Music Sites: It
looks like one old young lion is reaching into none other than...fusion! Check out
Christian McBride doing a Weather
Report tune! It's very cool. Weather Report tunes just go very interesting places. I
also happened to stumble upon
a cool Frank
Zappa site, while searching in vain for the video for "Peaches En Regalia".
I highly recommend the guitar solo by the late great Mike Hedges. He does a Zappa tune
called "Sofa". Now, while looking for a video to download I kind of fell into a
record company called
Buckyball Records,
which, as you might have guessed, does fusion. And not only do they do fusion they
showcase the tattered yet talented remnants of Brand X (!), or the European version of
Weather Report for the ill-informed. There's lots and lots of audio clips to check out.
The Comics
Journal Blog is Truly Superior: As you know, I consider the Journal's position on
genre contemptuous and evil but Gary Groth has always represented excellence. And the
Comics Journal blog is excellent. Every important thing that I could even imagine of
importance happening in the comics field this guy gets, or maybe it's added by the
staffers...It's still impressive. Here are some of the more startling entries I've seen: police beating up a
Cameroon cartoonist (Ted Rall isn't the only hellraiser apparently),
how Taiwan wants to
subsidize its comics industry, and their
usual jihad against
superheroes, mixed with some interesting stuff about how Fantagraphics is breaking
into the books (Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc.). It's become a must read.
ABC
Books Update: This is a long interview with the guys who actually produce Alan Moore's
incredible ABC books and it gives you invaluable scoops about the Top Ten graphic novel, a
special alt universe Tom Strong and there's some news about Promethea.
Tom Strong Characters
Are Actually Public Domain (You Too Can Write a Black Terror Story! (And no one will sue
you...yet.)): I found this over at Boing Boing. It turns out that those
characters in a recent Tom Strong story arc were public domain. After Top Ten and
Promethea, which have dozens of throwaway characters, I had just assumed that Alan Moore
had delved into his black warlock soul and just made 'em up. I was wrong. It's a good
piece of reporting on comics as well. That's kind of rare. Here's an excerpt:
For Moore aficionados, his
account of later discoveries after creating both Tom Strong and Promethea come as little
surprise, and fit into the creators' theories about ideaspace and the fact that he
occasionally runs off and prays to a snake god... or... something under his house. "I
didn't know there was The Book of Promethea by Hélène Cixous, or things like that,"
Moore told Previews. "I didn't know John Kendrick Bangs had written a bunch of
stories about a place very much like the Immateria when I made Sophie Bangs the secret
identity of Promethea. All of these things are delicious coincidences. I even found a
character created from about 1910 in a series of novels published by the Boy Scouts of
America about this ultimate Boy Scout named Tom Strong. It's just great! If you're hitting
the right kind of vein of archetypal stuff then things like this will just happen. I'm
just tapping into something. It works out."
In a recent interview with
Newsarama, Moore expanded upon his decision to use the characters. "The original idea
for the whole thing came when somebody, it may have been Rick Veitch, told me that there
had been, back in the '40s, an America's Best Comics which I wasn't aware of," Moore
said. "I thought it was a striking coincidence that we had America's Best Comics, and
there was a series by the same name in the '40s. I asked [ABC editor] Scott Dunbier to
check it out and see if he could find out anything about this comic, and whether there
were any interesting characters.
Writer
Robert Forward Died: I never read any of his science fiction, but I stumbled onto a
number of his essays on space. He also
wrote
his own obituary. It's kind of flattering. I guess there's an advantage to not being
squimish about such things.
Here's an excerpt:
The intelligent pattern of
protoplasm that had been Robert L. Forward ceased coherent operation on September 21,
2002.
Robert Lull Forward died at home of
brain cancer at the age of 70. Forward was born 15 August 1932 in Geneva, New York. After
graduation from the University of Maryland in 1954 with a BS degree in Physics and a
Second Lieutenant commission in the Air Force, he married Martha Neil Dodson and served
two years stateside during the closing years of the Korean War. Upon leaving the service
Forward was awarded a Hughes Aircraft Company Graduate Research Fellowship, which he used
to obtain a MS in Applied Physics from UCLA in 1958 and a PhD in Physics from the
University of Maryland in 1965. Forward was one of the early pioneers in the field of
experimental gravitational radiation astronomy. For his PhD thesis he built and operated
the first bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation under the direction of
Profs. Weber and Zipoy. The antenna is now in the Smithsonian Museum.
Save
Frellin' Farscape!: I have a thing for Gigi Edgely who plays the lovely blue Chiana. I
have dreams about her blue lithe athletic body and none of them are G-Rated. It's also the
best show the Sci-Channel has ever produced. I've borrowed this from Tom Tomorrow. Write
and call. I know I will. Yeah, it costs a lot but it shows up on the screen. You can
see the difference whenever you watch Andromeda. Here are the numbers from Tom Tomorrow:
Update redux:
Here's the
latest. And here's contact info for the Sci Fi Channel:
Sci Fi Channel
Address to one of:
Michael Jackson, President and CEO of USA Entertainment (KEY CONTACT)
Bonnie Hammer, Executive Vice President and General Manager
Thomas Vitale, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Scheduling, and Program Planning
c/o Sci Fi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513
Email: programming@scifi.com
Phone:
Viewer comment line: 212-413-5000
Programming line: 212-413-5821
Comments line: 212-413-5577
General line: 212-413-6531
Incredible Art By Seth Fisher
(Check Out His Online
Gallery)
Reviews of John Malloy's "Amnesia", Carla Speed McNeil's "Finder" and NBM
Publishing's "Wake"
Essay Entitled "What the
Unabomber Wants"
I really enjoyed Wake. The reason I love science
fiction is that you can use the form as a prism for social and political exploration.
Successful science fiction is also full of cool ideas and Wake has plenty. Just a few that
I liked: The steampunk look of the world—with its steam trams, big flame-emitting
mechanical droids and dirty industrial feel. I liked the revolutionary group that Navee
finds herself thrown in with, a group that senses that all is not right on their world. I
liked the idea of genetically mixing the native species—who look like big peaceful
sentient polar bears—with human DNA in order to get a new species. I liked the
manipulative human geneticist who uses cryonics as a kind of time travel to watch his
“experiment” unfold. And finally, l loved the beautiful curvy European look to
the book. The city scapes are gorgeous. The coloring and draftsmenship evoke remarkable
moods. There's even a hint of Whiteout on an alien world. All in all, it’s highly recommended and worth the
$9.95 price. I look forward to more adventures with Navee...More:
Spock Does Nude Art and It's
Really Really Good: These two photos are from Leonard Nimoy's new book of photographs,
which include tastefully done nudes. Over at Three River I make this joke and I'll make it
again over here: I understand that he has to do these photos every seven years or he'll
start throwing his food and ordering changes in the ship's direction and otherwise act all
tense...
Complete
List of Annotations For Alan Moore (This is a public service...): If you're amazed at
all of the amazing books being put out by Alan Moore and you're looking for footnotes to
explain every little detail, then I highly recommend that you check out this page. The
above picture is from Top Ten. I felt like I had gotten every little point. I didn't. Did
you know those were Indian symbols on the back of Multi-Girl? That's the price you pay I
guess for being an agnostic. Top Stops: The
Annotated Top Ten and the Annotated
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2, Issue One. (The first issue of the League
looks stunning by the way and speaking of the League...)
Lovely
Peta Gets Role For Mina Harker in League Film (Also With Connery): I guess I was
rooting for Winona Ryder to get the role of Mina Harker, because she already played her in
Coppola's great Dracula film, but Peta is all right with me...In fact, when she was around
and Section was doing it's "job" we didn't seem to have so many problems.
Incredible Debate Over
Minority Report: I actually liked Minority Report and I agreed with John Shirley's
favorable review of it. That's until I read a counterpoint with Jeff VandeMeer.
11) The second precog
vision of the murder(s) central to Minority Report's plot does not include the identity of
the man who did it. Yet it is clear throughout the movie that the precogs track the scene
prior to a murder occurring. Later, the murderer clearly puts on his mask just a few
minutes before the murder. Therefore, there is no logical reason why the murderer's
identity would not have been known after the second precog vision, rather than only at the
end of the movie.
These are just a few examples — we don't have the patience
to go into the stupidity of the Cruise-embedded-in-a-new-car scene, etc.
And then I thought maybe the film wasn't so good. So
then heavyweight John
Shirley rolls in with a counter counterpoint:
11) I seem to recall that the precog
knows the killer but is interfered with before she can express who it is. There’s
some technical issue having to do with seeing the event backwards for some reason and
having to show it again forward too... All this could’ve been a little clearer in the
film but I think it’s all there.
What worked
for me in the film was the world depicted. The overall plot, which worked well enough
— despite that annoying drain business and the action — was just a framework for
that vision. The lady scientist (you might’ve complained about the rather too
convenient info dump she provided, telling Anderton things he should already have known)
was a great character and her relationship to her genetically engineered intelligent
plants was good science fiction. The scenes in the tenement were great. Some of the car
scenes. I had no problem with the eyeball-lock-opening trick. It seems to me it could work
and that’s what matters.
So I liked it again. Read all
the incredible letters...
Preview
of Vertigo Pop and Incredible Art by Seth Fisher: DC doesn't allow you to directly
link to their pages so you have to scroll down to take a look at the artwork. Seth
Fisher's artwork continues to amaze me.
Interesting Ken Macleod Interviews: I just came
across a couple of the links about a writer that was described as a Trotskyite socialist.
I haven't read his work but I'm probably going to start digging in. Here's one of his
fan pages, one
interview and then another.
I've decided to turn
Vast
Wasteland into a television blog since I'm watching so much television these days.
Lately I've been writing about Saturday night live, Enterprise and the music channels.
Incredible Art By Seth Fisher (Check Review for More
info, links)
Revolution
Sci Fi: This is actually a pretty good site that I'm going to be checking out more in
the future. Actually, I need to revamp the links around here. I could just steal most of
the ones at Locus but I'm supposed to have a job afterall. Speaking of
Locus, there's a great discussion about
science fiction and the
mainstream over at their letters section. By the way, Mark Kelly is doing a great job
over there and I would feel that way even if he wasn't my editor who was actually paying
me to write comic book reviews. In fact, the reason I haven't posted more Locus stuff is
that it might seem to really be blatant logrolling in our time stuff, as
Bill Boichel might
point out.
Long Piece About Egan and Baxter
at Kuroshin: It's kind of a nice primer on both writers and how terribly complicated
their stories are--at least to me.
Eisner Nominees
Announced: Alan Moore didn't get nominated and I'm completely stunned. There is a
science fiction comic called Finder that was nominated but I have to admit I haven't read
it. I'll have to try and check it out.
Praise
for Greg Egan's New Novel: Like most rave reviews for new books this appears at an
intense mathematics site. Egan also wrote an interesting
political piece.
I'm assuming that it appeared at an Aussie paper someplace but I'm not sure.
Incredibly Bizarre
Nation Piece on Star Trek: This is just one of the worst pieces on Star Trek that I
have ever read. I've always thought that Star Trek was one of the more progressive shows
out there. It's so bad that it makes me question my own left wing politics.
More
Tunes: Speaking of Star Trek, I still hate that theme. If you want to listen to a real
theme then try this
one
for Cowboy Bebop. Scroll down and click on Cowboy Bebop's Tank. That theme looks like
a film all unto itself. On the jazz front there's a new album by John Scofield. In
fact, the last time I checked they were offering the whole album online.
Carter Scholz Has New
Novel Out: He's probably one of the finest craftsmen you've never heard of, or the
Allan Holdsworth of science fiction. But trust me: His short stories, usually found in
Terry Carr's old Universe anthologies, are like finely crafted jewels. His work is a
perfect mix of poetry and storytelling. He's not the fastest writer out there, but he's
also heavily into music, as you can probably see from this
bibliography. His new novel is
called Radiance. I'm actually not sure what it's about, but it seems to
be a naturalistic novel about science, or a science fiction novel without the fiction, or
a modern day naturalistic novel, which of course if done at all well would certainly feel
science fictional. Here's a
review here.
And here's an essay about his
own
novel here
Cordwainer
Smith Fan Site: I bumped into this at Metafilter. This guy has one of the most unusual
styles that I've ever come across. His stories, which featured the usual stuff of science
fiction weirdness, felt natural and relaxed. The guy was also a Spy, high level it would
appear. I keep on wondering whether his stories (As well as
Alice Sheldon's, otherwise
known as James Tiptree Jr., who also worked for The Company.) were somehow woven into his
experiences with the company. Check out the great tribute quotes at the site, especially
one by Frank Zappa. I wasn't aware that Frank was ever a big reader, but if he was a big
Cordwainer fan that would explain so much...
Great
Alex Ross Site: Alex Ross has produced some of the most memorable comics art
ever.There's just an emotional power that resonates from his work, particularly in the way
he shows facial emotion, that few artists, not just in comics, can match. Notice above:
The Might and Power (!) of the Ambigiously Gay Duo....
List of Important Science
Fiction Books For Leftie, Pinko commie troublemakers: This is must reading and it's
composed by Brit socialist candidate China Mieville, who's a great writer (if the critics
are right) but who lost his election bid. There are some books on this list that I've
never heard of, but I'll try to check them out. I sure learned a few things. I had no idea
that Mack Reynolds was a member of the socialist worker's party or that Jack London's best
novel, according to the list, was a science fiction novel. It even lists Ayn Rand's
"Atlas Shrugged" because you should "know the enemy". It also lists a
number of obscure works by Russian writers that go back 60 to 100 years. Oh, of course,
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy makes the list. 1984 doesn't make the list but I guess
that one would be too obvious...
You could do the same for comics...Hmmm
Frank
Cho's New Site: Frank Cho has taken his site off of the comics pages and decided to
give comics a try. I wish him the best of luck but I can't help but think that he's making
a tactical error. On the other hand, he's one of the best artists to arise during the last
several years and it would be cool to see him illustrating Alan Moore somewhere down the
line.
Billionaire Paul Allen Rocks:
Actually, it really does rock. It's actual music, full of tasty guitar licks (That
figures. Allen is a big Hendrix fan and it shows)...Definitely not boy band stuff, which
is probably why the band is called Grown Men. You could safely characterize it as Garage
Pink Floyd. Too bad that it probably won't get any airplay. Being that Paul is a
billionaire and that he's one of the few people putting out tunes that happens to be the
multibillionaire owner of a cable conglomerate (Actually, I'm pretty sure that he's the
only one...) why doesn't he start his own MTV? Can you imagine a music station that
showcased virtuoso guitar acts, even occasionally, say three hours a week? Steve Vai, John
McLaughlin, Stanley Jordan and Victor Wooten would all thank you...I actually emailed him
about this twice, yet so far he's totally ignored my advice! And I'm shocked, totally
shocked...Something else cool about the album: The cover is drawn by legendary cartoonist
Berke Breathed...! (Imagine: A Billionaire with good taste...)
Incredible Pat
Metheny Tune: I've never been that impressed with Metheny the player, but as a
composer he's first rank, right up there with Zawinul and Shorter. He's written dozens of
brilliant, stellar tunes. The link takes you to a cut from his newest album and it's
pretty impressive.
New Warren
Ellis Site: Warren Ellis, perhaps in response to the genre hating rigidity of
everyone's favorite Comics Journal, has started his own critical comics site. He's very
adept at using the web so I expect his site will have some success. It's clear that the
writers will be reviewing everything that comes their way. That's the way it should be.
Best
Online Comics Sez The Journal: I'd really like to check these out. I'm sure they'll be
no spandex allowed but I'll give it a shot anyway.
My New Reviews Are Up, Plus
Random Thoughts: I'm definitely getting more fanboy as I get older. I'm reviewing a
Star Trek Graphic Novel, the new Frank Miller Batman and an incredibly drawn Green Lantern
story.
Look For More Music and Book Links in the Future:
I've decided to add more music and book industry links. I'm adding the music just because
I think its cool and it gives the reader something else to do. I'm adding the book links
because I'm planning to publish soon and I plan to learn as much as I can about the book
publishing business. Here are the music links that I've posted over at Three River.
Equally Scary
Arpeggio Laced Free Jazz Version of Spain
(By Chick Corea Himself)(Scroll Down)
Check Out Very Alt Rock
Pixies-like Cat Power Video
(Tune I Like Is Called Nude of the News)
Music/Vid Clips From
Brad Mehldau,
Cyress Chestnut, others
Big
LA Weekly Stories About Comics: There were tons of stories here earlier, but now I can
only find the Alan Moore, which is quite impressive actually.
Here's
My Review of Blowback at Africana.com:
And here's my own much more irresponsible, less professionally edited and probably more
interesting version on my own site.
Very
Well Written Science Fiction Cliches Organized by Bruce Sterling, Others: My own short
story would seem to fall into the "Oh Poor Me" Category. Ah well. Every aspiring
science fiction writer should memorize this list of dos and do nots.
New Infinite
Matrix Site Up: Speaking of Bruce Sterling, he's supposed to be doing a weblog for
this site which so far I've found to be extremely unimpressive.. But the site looks good.
Interesting
Preview of New Frank Miller Dark Knight Series: I guess I'm looking forward to this as
a fanboy. There's a preview of the title with plenty of teaser art at the DC website. It
looks like Miller will reinvent the entirety of the DC Line. His Plastic Man not only
suggests perverse sexual opportunites but a hardcore science geekiness. His Wonder Woman
is definitely black.
Here's the
Flash animation teaser, which I still think is the future of comics.
Interview With Fearless Boondocks
Writer: He's probably been the boldest cartoonist out there. He actually comments
about the war and the comment isn't a bit praiseworthy of the seemingly endless bombing.
New Site
From Local Pittsburgh Hero/Hippie: Check out this new site from my long time friend
and comics dealer Bill Boichel. Bill is a real talented guy and his website kind of shows
off Bill’s outrageous ability as both a writer and an artist. His essays on comics
are publishable. I’d better not tell Locus about this guy…He also sells comics,
books and CDs at his new store in Squirrel Hill. Bill probably ran the coolest comics
store in Pittsburgh before closing it down in the early 90s. Apparently, he put his
metafictional masterpiece on the site. It kind of feels like a primitive version of the
Grammaticon of a few years back. I’ll have to check it out and see what’s
there…One of his art pieces is to the left. He's heavily influenced by Kandinsky. No
shock there.
Joffo’s Site: I
grew up with this guy and, hey, if I can pitch Stanley Jordan’s site, I can pitch
Joffo’s site. He hasn’t had a completely money mad career as a pro drummer, but
he’s had a career, and he’s jammed with some heavyhitters like Bruce Springsteen
and Stevie Ray Vaughn. I hope that he breaks through one day and some reporter will talk
about his overnight success (in reality going on 20 years) as an artist and Joffo will
just laugh and laugh…(And yeah I’m the one who named him Joffo so what…?)
One word of advice on the music links: Can you give me a whole song, or at least a one
minute drum solo? It’s not that I’m not enthralled by seven seconds of music but
more is better…
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know
About Mutant X But Was Afraid To Ask: There's a long Howie Chaykin interview
about this new show, which could be very very good. I even like the X Men cartoons even
though I kind of liked the Fox cartoon better. It struck me as better written...Anyway,
this story gives you a lot of background about Howie and the theory behind the show. I've
found Howie's work on shows like Earth Final Conflict and the Flash to be mixed. But it
looks like he has a lot of creative control here so I look forward to X. You know, these
are actually pretty good times for the science fiction fan on television. There's
Andromeda, Farscape, Mutant X, Enterprise, Earth Final Conflict and the Outer Limits.
That's a lot of shows. Then there are the Trek shows on the Sci Fi channel and TNN (I kind
of thought that the Sci Fi channel would be a better place for the Trek shows, but if
they're going to create new shows like Farscape and the Outer Limits (I hope that recent
OL episode with the Black Gun Totin' Frontier Judge gets picked up as a series. It
was a nice primer on why we need civil liberties and innocent until proven guilty, even
for fanged and snarlish purple aliens..) then I like the idea of them spending money on
new programming.
Preview
of This Year's Science Fiction Shows and Offerings: This is a handy guide to every
science fiction show out there. It even has some information about why Earth Final
Conflict was pulled from the Science Fiction Channel (low ratings.). Personally, I'm
looking forward to Red Mars and the LeGuin adaptations. Here's the second part.
Great Stanley
Jordan Site: I was kind of wondering what super two handed tap guitarist Stanley
Jordan was doing these days and it turns out you can check him out at Stanley Jordan
dotcom. Stanley isn't just a guitar genius, he's an all around genius who's also into
computers and general deep thoughts. Check out his links section. Truly impressive. Be
amazed by his math and physics links. He also contributes to message boards and we find
out that in the future we might be seeing Stanley with an Emmet Chapman stick, which is an
instrument that we all think that Stanley would naturally be using. I guess I'll be
posting more music stuff here and in the future. I've got to start updating Vast Wasteland
again...
Sweet Kevin
Smith Cartoon About His Wife (From the New York Times?): This is a nice Kevin Smith
cartoon that appears in the New York Times no less. His wife sure is hot. If I ever make
it I have to ask someone to draw me Image style! We know Kevin is portly and shlubby
lookin' but not here.
Interesting Story About
How Art Helps Prison Inmates: In these beat them with a stick times it's nice to see a
story about how we can rehabilitate prisoners instead of whipping them silly. But what's
interesting about the story is the art by the Post Gazette's Tim Menees. He's not the
funniest editorial cartoonist at the PG but he's definitely the best artist. For comics
fans, his style resembles that of Ted McKeever's, who used to be an editorial cartoonist
surprisingly enough.
WTC Tragedy Touches Science Fiction
Writer Jerry Pournelle: I actually found this over at Ellison Webderland. I live in
Pittsburgh and I believe this account. I think it's why that plane never made its target.
Those were heroic people. But what a terrible choice to have to make. What a horrible way
to die...
Here's what was posted:
Jerry Pournelle posted this
earlier tonight in one of the SFF Net newsgroups, and I have no reason to believe it's
anything but authentic.
*********
Dear Jerry,
Following is a message which my one of my best friends passed along with permission to
distribute to those who might be interested. It fills in the details that I missed in my
original conversation with him and attempted to relate to you.
Tom has given me permission to distribute the message - please feel free to post it if you
deem it appropriate.
Sincerely,
Art Russell
Major, US Army (Retired)
Message Follows:
Today was a tragedy for all of America and to my family, a very personal one. Lynn and my
Niece Liz's husband, Jeremy Glick was on United flight 93 this morning. When the Hijackers
took control of flight 93. Jeremy called my niece who in-turn conferenced him to 911.
Jeremy relayed to the police what was happening as the hijacking unfolded. As our niece
Liz listened, Jeremy told the police there were three Arab terrorists with knives and a
large red box that they claimed contained a bomb. Jeremy tracked the second by second
details and relayed them to the police by phone. After several minutes of describing the
scene, Jeremy and several other passengers decided there was nothing to lose by rushing
the hijackers. Although United Flight 93 crashed outside of Pittsburgh, with the loss of
all souls. Jeremy and the other patriotic heroes saved the lives of many people on the
ground that would have died if the Arab terrorists had been able to complete their heinous
mission.
Please offer your prayers for all of those who perished or were injured in this tragic of
all days and to our niece Liz Glick and her 2-month-old child, Emerson, who are left
without their loving Husband and Father. May we remember Jeremy and the other brave souls
as heroes, soldiers and Americans' on United flight 93 whom so gallantry gave their lives
to save many others.
Lynn, our four adult children and I are headed to New York to be with our family during
this time of great sadness
All of my best,
Tom
Very Well-Done Essays By Jonathon Lethem:
Nice essay about Marvel comics where he uses the Item! icon over and over again..
Brand New Scott McCloud Site:
Scott is now doing something daily for his site. I have to say I hate the content
I've seen so far. I hope he reads my email and adapts one or both of my stories. And
no I don't believe in Santa Claus.
Incredibly Interesting Pro Drugs
Comics: This comic manages to break a number of taboos at once. I don't do drugs
myself but I can certainly understand this guy's perspective. Well written.
I Started Harlan Ellison Uncensored:
It turns out that I may not have been censored over at Harlan Ellison's Webderland message
board. But I really didn't like the attitude of the webmaster anyway. So I started my own
where you can good things or bad things about Harlan. That site has received a whopping
seven visitors, some anonymous, and no posts. However, when I announced the topic over at
wildly popular Warren Ellis (Transmet, City of Silence) Delphi Forum it quickly gained 76
visitors and then it was mysteriously stopped. Ah well...I'll just have to promote from
within...
Collection of Online Science Fiction Comics:
I've only looked through a number of these comics and they're very good.
New Reviews
of Rall's 2020, Orwell for Beginners and New Promethea: These reviews also appear
at Locus Magazine, but I added a detail or two about Promethea.
New
Linklater (Slacker Scribe) Work is Animated: Richard Linklator, whose name I'm
probably mispelling, is working on a new movie. It's going to be animated and the preview
is already on the net. The web site looks very stylish and features one of the better uses
of Flash that I've seen. In fact, like the AI sites, these Flash comics can kind of stand
on their own.
Lucius Shepard Does Film Reviews:
Here's yet another High End Stylist who is doing film reviews right now for one of
the many science-fiction sites out there.
Steve
Gerber's Site is Finally Up: Gerber has always been one of my favorite writers,
period. Check out some of his early fiction on the site. Nobody sounds like this guy. Now,
if he would only bring back Void Indigo....
Big Thinker Cards on the Net: If you
like your trading cards to feature artists, writers and philosophers then this site is for
you.
Flash Award Winners: If
you're as fascinated by Flash as I am, then you might be interested in what judges think
are the best efforts out there.
Wolverine Flash Ad: I really think comics in the
future should look like this. Flash is just a great medium for comics.
Two, count em' two, stories on
comics on Comics: First story deals with the general
depressed state of the
comics industry and the other
deals with Scott
McCloud, which makes sense.
Alan Moore Does His Allen Ginsberg
Impression: I'm really not into the rhyming poetry that Moore is doing in the latest
Prometheas, but lo and behold he did do some beat-like poetry that I was more into. As
usual, very impressive stuff from Moore. On a related note: the fan site also links to a long long Alan Moore
interview. Face it: Alan is smarter than the average bear although I hate this Majick
Wiccan Pagan thing he's into. Sort of like U2 and their roots rock phase.
New Scott McCloud Piece
on Micropayments: Sort of an incidental rebuttal to Gary Groth. No doubt though on
who's the better artist. Interesting take on Napster and the future potential of
micropayments, and a link to the Reinventing Comics message board.
Special Nerve Science-Fiction
Issue: Pretty good stuff over at Nerve. It also features a very
good interview with Samuel
Delany. He must like these guys usually he just interviews himself. Nice profile of
Cecilia Tan who also publishes erotic science fiction. I think she's the only one. She
didn't like my dirty science fiction story
"The Science Fiction
Story as Life Metaphor", available on this site somewhere, and I'm deeply
embittered about it. I recommend Caryatids by Chris Barzak, although this is nothing new
to McAuley or Egan fans (reminds me a little of Egan's Closer).
Cool Beans Trying to Do New Media Comics Right:
I kind of had a hunch that the Stan Lee new media wouldn't go anywhere. Stan hasn't been a
vital artistic force for over three decades. These guys at Cool Beans are trying to do it
right. Features Pat Mills, yet another great Brit writer (must grow 'em on trees)
and a number of other great artists and writers like Disreali, John Bolton and Clive
Barker. I threw in $2.98 for four weeks. I hope its successful. Definitely feels like the
future of comics. Something that you could place on a cd disk or would be optimal for
broadband.
Check out new
Reviews: I actually wrote a critical review of the AI websites. Reviews also include
Batman: Outlaws, sort of the Oliver Stone film reinterpreted, Bendis' Fortune and Glory,
about his attempts to get his books made into film, Streetwise, picture above and which
features comic pros doing their best Harvey Pekar impressions, and 39 reasons to buy
Prometheas 6 - 11 and some doubts about 12 - 14. And Brave Old World, a very nice mixture
of tech and history by the man behind The Maxx, famously obscure MTV cartoon.
Here's the abridged version
at Locus...
Web Sites About the Proliferation of Fake AI Web Sites:
This isn't really a new idea, the website for the series Andromeda is also pretty
involved. I guess this takes it to another level in that they're establishing websites all
over the web. The big question is what does this have to do with the artificial kid in AI
or is it just interesting backgrounding. The most interesting thing about the number of
websites is that it definitely points to a new kind of storytelling. I was thinking about
doing a fiction story for the Wild Read section called The North American Man Robot Love
Association using snippets and stylings from NAMBLA inspired sites. But how do you make
that sequential, or should you even try? Plus, how would I translate those stories to
print, or would it even be possible?
Anywho, here are the pertinent AI
sites. Your first stop should be the AI sites that compile all the many AI sites, and that
figure out word puzzles, hidden source code clues and the many hints scattered on various
pages. It has something to do with Evan Chan and a war between pro and anti AI terrorists.
Compilation AI Site One
Compilation AI Site Two
Join the Anti Robot Militia!
Bangalore World University
Photons Be Free (AI Rights Organization)
Spherewatch
(AI Watchdog Group)
Murder
of Evan Chan
Catskill
Dream Center
Harvey
Award Winners: No big news here except that Alan Moore finally gets his due for his
incredible work on Promethea. He won best writer.
Surprisingly Hostile Review of Scott McCloud's
Reinventing Comics: Gary Groth doesn't like the new Scott McCloud book. He really
doesn't.
Nice Interview with Paul McAuley: I like
his definition of radical hard science fiction. I guess this is something that I'm trying
to do myself with mixed results.
Interesting Exploration of
Andromedean Nietzschean Theory: If you've been watching Andromeda, which with
the season pretty much half over I can proudly announce is uneven, you might be interested
in this site, which explores Tyr's philosophy a bit more deeply.
Vernor
Vinge Essay on What the Singularity Means: I've always defined the singularity as the
Big Change that changes everything, but the man who coined the term has a slightly more
complicated viewpoint about it.
Long Chip Delany Interview: Sam Delany is
one of the great stylists of our time. This is a very long and involved interview with
him. He was actually here in Pittsburgh recently and I had the opportunity to shake his
hand. A long time ago he did a comic with Howie Chaykin and I asked him if there were any
copies left. He said they were in lost in a factory fire some time ago. I have to admit
that I was a little dissappointed in his talk, which was kind of short and abrubt and left
no time for questions, but I had heard later that he was a little tired. Also, if you read
the interview, you learn that he's a big comics fan and loves all the new Alan Moore
titles. I actually had an issue of Promethea on me. I thought about asking him to
autograph that but then I thought he might be insulted. Oh well.
Other stories of note:
Scott McCloud Feature on
Micropayments and What It Means
Matt Groehning
Feature
William Gibson
Feature
Quickie Reviews of
Dune, Andromeda, Farscape, and Earth Final Conflict: Welp, I have to say I’m very
impressed with what I’ve seen of the first few episodes of Andromeda. True, it has
its faults. The show’s look, apart from the now perfunctory cool computer generated
space scenes which even Babylon 5 got right those many years ago, is kind of bad. The
costumes are terrible. I now appreciate Harlan’s job of coming up with costumes and
fashion for Babylon 5 much more now. The actors aren’t that talented or interesting,
with the exception of the Rev guy. Then again, they probably don’t have that $1
million per episode budget that Farscape has (click here for
more)…
Salon Alan Moore
Interview: There was some talk on the newsboards over at the Comics Journal that Moore
got a bad review. But it looks like a fairly long winded and favorable piece about what
Moore is up to now and why he’s writing so many books. (Apparently, he went broke
trying to self produce Big Numbers and lost all of his Watchmen money. Why somebody in
Hollywood doesn’t snap up Moore and pay him a lot is beyond me. If ever there was
anybody whose whole approach sez "I should direct" it’s Alan Moore. Surely,
if they can make essential silliness like Spawn look cool, then shouldn’t Tom Strong
or Promethea get a shot. It would immediately approach The Maxx and Aeon Flux as the best
cartoons you deserve to see, other than what’s on the WB.)
The article seems to argue that Alan’s single
handed crafting of the aptly named America’s Best Comics is his attempt to restore
the superhero genre. Sales are only so so, according to Salon, but as a self-hired critic,
I can safely say that the quality of these books is outstanding. He should delegate some
though. Hire out some guys for some short pieces. Hey, contact those science fiction
writers. I hear they’re as broke as the comics guys. Steve Gerber could always use a
meal. Give Lucius Shepard for Tom Strong or George Alec Effinger for Top Ten, if he’s
up to it. Alan also takes an offhand shot at Gary Groth saying something to the effect
that all his well reviewed Comics Journal stuff doesn’t pay the bills. Ouch.
Personally, I take the heretical position that Moore’s genre stuff, particularily
Promethea, is as good as anything that he’s ever written. But I would like him to
take a shot at espionage and political writing again like in Brought to Light. I’d
pay good money to read Vladimar Putin: Secret Agent.
More Frightening Proof of
Greg Egan’s "Superhuman Mind": Recently, there was a debunking of a
story that claimed that the Speed of Light had been exceeded in a lab. Not only did Greg
Egan, for my money the best writer in science fiction circles right now,
help debunk the story
in Locus, but he pointed people toward his site, where he also built one of those cool
animated gifs of his (not sure whether its his own code or if just has access to all the
cool really expensive software out there) that pulse and move. By the way, the science
theory here is way beyond me, but Egan sure has a way of making it look cool.
Impressive
Andromeda Website: It looks to me like the new Roddenberry influenced Andromeda
series could be pretty good. I highly recommend the site as it serves as a fairly
impressive background bible for the series. It's also clear that the plot will diverge
from classic trek. One of the things that always troubled me about the Trek Universe
was their stand on genetic engineering. Namely, a kind of just don't do it approach. To
me, it was always clear that even if humans didn't do it, the Klingons and the Cardassians
certainly would. I could even imagine the Vulcans dabbling into it. They could simply wipe
out their emotional states, or at least modify them. There's a very interesting Andromeda
race called the Nietzscheans that turns the Federation theory inside out.
The show also looks to be a much more complex show
both thematically and technically. There are some things happening now, primarily with
computing, which proves that the old trek just didn't have the evolution of some tech
right, not that anybody else did, but it's clear now that Palm Pilots and the Web
just weren't logical future outcomes. From the hints of plotlines that I've heard,
Andromeda will include "smart" weapons (Imagine: Photon torpedos that think),
not to mention liberal uses of nan and string theory. I look forward to this show,
although I'm not sure if it could beat out Farscape.
Great
Alan Moore Site for Obsessed Fans Only: If you've been overwhelmed by the
stunning quality of the appropriately named America's Best Comics, then check out this
site. It features snippets of news about Moore. Interesting bits I found included: Heather
Graham set to star in film version of From Hell, both Tom Strong and Top Ten will probably
be discontinued or altered, and Moore will probably stick to ABC for one more year. (Link
is apparently down. Pray for it to come back.)
April 18, 2000:
Warren Ellis Enters the
Online Comics World: I have to say this story is quite stunning. I couldn't click it
off so to speak. It's definitely dark, definitely edgy. (Link down! Link down! Abandon
ship!)
Very
Cool Site: The site that hosts the Warren Ellis online comic is very cool in itself
and should be checked out. They're running a new online comic almost every day. (Link
down. What to do.)
Silverberg's
Great Piece on the Pathetic State of the Space Program: Fine essay by Robert
Silverberg about what went wrong with the space program. (Link also down. Damn Galaxy
online.)
New Star Trek
To Be Set During the Origins of the Federation: Looks like the new Star Trek could be
very very interesting. There are two main links here. The one above is from Slashdot and the other is from Ain't it Cool,
which I should create a link for.
March 8, 2000
Arthur Clarke Profiled
Over at Salon: Nice piece about the legend. Best quote about the stupidity of
organized religion: "...and as the hierarchy of the universe is disclosed to us, we
may have to recognize this chilling truth: if there are any gods whose chief concern is
man, they cannot be very important gods."
Paul
McAuley's Home Page: One of the great younger writers of our time. Site includes Gene
Wars, one of the best books ever on biotech as well as several interviews. Soon,
hopefully, before the next millenium comes around, I'll have finally written my review of
The Invisible Country. An excellent work. State of the art stuff.
Galaxy
Online: Well, this site is certainly coming along nicely. There are setbacks, however.
Even using a cable modem, I wasn't able to see all the video stuff all that clearly. I
also wish they would give you the choice between the Microsoft platform and Real Networks.
However, while I was at the display computer at Comp USA, I did catch Harlan Ellison's
video essay. I thought it was very good. He makes a good point about giving out the
Grandmaster award to older writers before they die or grow too old to appreciate it. Then
again, with his bad heart, he could have just as easily have been pleading his own case.
There's also a good piece by Len Wein about why your friendly neighborhood comics store is
an endangered species.
February 14th, 2000:
Wild Boondocks Creater Spouts off
in Yet Another Interview, Plus Frank Cho of Liberty Meadows: The brilliant writer
behind the Boondocks spouts off in yet another interview. He's created the best black
characters ever seen in a daily strip. This story also features an interview with Frank
Cho, who does a great strip called Liberty Meadows. We don't get it here in Pittsburgh,
but he puts out his strips in a comic book version. I just read it and its very good. He
has a nice humane touch. His women are gorgeous, they look like 50's era Frazetta women.
His one male character looks like he stepped out of Eisner. The animals seem to be freshly
cloned from Pogo. Just a well-written, well drawn strip.
Charles Schultz Appreciation
at Ain't It Cool: Two heartfelt obits for the late Charles Schultz. I thought the
strip had been in steady decline over the last fifteen years, but when I was younger
Peanuts practically taught me not only to read, but to look at reading as an addiction.
So, You've Been A Good Man Charlie Brown. By the way, my idea for a more tasteless
headline is:
Good Grief! Charles Schultz is Dead! Aaugh! Here's a complete wrap
up of stories that I ripped off from Romensko's Media Watch.
Interesting Read on the Future of
Comics at the Journal's Website: The headline says it all. I thought this piece to be
a little downbeat, but interesting. On the other hand, as of February 14th, there is no
Journal update of either the deaths of Gil Kane or Charles Schultz. Get with it guys.
You've done multiple interviews with both. Why not post them?
February 4th, 2000:
Wicked
Salon Interview with Orson Scott Card:
Orson doesn't
come off to well in this Salon Interview. He claims he's not a homophobe, but he sure
sounds like one. What do you call a guy who dismisses, in so many words, the sexual
preferences of a certain group as deviant? And who then bases it on that nutty Mormon
dogma of his? Oh well. Love the art not the artist.
Gil Kane Passed
Away: He will be missed. One of the most intelligent and outspoken
persons in comics.
Augie
Reviews and Raves About Moore's ABC Comics: Augie, one of the comics
reviewers at Comic Book Resources, asks the question can a Brit really be writing
America's Best Comics? Turns out that the answer is yes. My only disagreement is that he
likes Top Ten the most when I clearly believe that Promothea is the best book. Here are my
fuller feelings that I posted on
SFFNET a
while back.
Moore Talks about
Proposed Big Numbers Series: Big Numbers is the great yet uncompleted
series that was written by Alan Moore sometime ago but never finished. Someone at the BBC
had the bright idea of turning this into a series. There's a long interview with Moore
about this.
January 21, 2000:
Galaxy
Online Two: I know I mentioned them earlier, but their debut really
wasn't on time. But it's worth the wait. The initial essays are all wonderfully written.
They're publishable. But, these are published writers. There's even some fiction by Orson
Scott Card, who, while I'm not impressed with him, usually does not allow me to put down
anything that he actually writes. However, I'm being put to the test in that I have to go
through 10 or more pages before finishing this thing. That's work you know. Still,
automatically a must read. I'm going to put it on the left to replace the departed Event
Horizon. Check out the initial essays by Gregory Benford and Jack Dann. But they're all of
fine quality.
For the Serious Alan
Moore Fanatic: Just to prove that there's always somebody on the internet
who's more obsessed than you are, please check out this annotated version of the Watchmen.
It clued me on to things even I had missed, after reading Watchmen for a dozen times or
more.
Good
Phil Dick History: I was trolling along the internet and I found this
very concise history of Phil Dick. It taught me some things that I just didn't know, for
example, how he tried to off himself several times. It makes me rethink the pity I felt
for him for dying so young.
Great Delany Piece
for the Voice: Delany writes about the Year 3000 and its pretty
impressive. I mean, it's kind of impossible to predict more than ten years out, but he's
your guy if you want to go a thousand years out. It's also interesting that he's been
reading the nantech stuff that's out there. He describes it in two ways: the Majic Foam
and the Mites of Destruction, to paraphrase. By the way, on a note of possible vanity, he
has a friend who copies everything on the internet he might find of interest. So I suppose
he's read my review of that terrible graphic novel he wrote. That's good to know. One of
the smartest men on Earth probably hates me. You can link to the voice story above
and
the amazon reviews here. I started a correspondence with one of the other reviewers
who took a look at it. She's pretty interesting and I'll probably post a few of her
letters when I get the time.
Cool Batman Rumor:
The word on the street, or at least Ain't It Cool, is that they're working to draft Paul
Dini, who's behind some of those great animated Batman shows, to work on the rumored live
action Batman: Beyond live action film. I agree with Harry that this would be a great idea
that could restore intellectual integrity to the series.
Cool Star Trek
Rumor: They are testing Star Trek ideas in front of focus groups, again
according to Harry at Ain't. Turns out that the Section 31 idea, which I wrote about here
sometime in the summer and declared "cool", was the favorite. But it looks like
its evolving more into Navy Seals in Space as opposed to the CIA in space. That's not
quite as interesting. I still want Garak and Doctor Bashir back in recurring roles. Won't
that be harder now? Oh well. Now, if they could just get Paul Dini to do it…(Some of
this is in blue because it contrasts better with Bat's fae.)
December 29, 1999:
Galaxy Online or The
Old Sci Fi Guard Strikes Back: I was wondering when the Old Guard would
ever recognize the net and get involved with it in some way. I guess this is my answer.
They’ve just been studying it apparently. It reads like a who’s who list of the
old Science Fiction Guard: Ben Bova, Harlan Ellison, D.C. Fontana, Greg Benford, David
Gerrold, John Varley and others. Some of those writers will be involved in monthly
columns. There’s even some new school guys contributing monthly columns such as Rudy
Rucker and the sensational stylist Elizabeth Hand. Apparently, they anticipate broadband
in a big way and they’re setting up galaxy online as a way to market everything from
children’s stories to television shows. I had heard that D.C. Fontana and others were
working on something secret and big over the last year or so…This must be it. The
network begins Jan. 1st. It has the potential to be vast and something much
better than the Sci Fi network. I, for one, look forward to it.
Harlan
to help Read, Produce 26 Classic Science Fiction Tales for NPR: If you
check out Harlan’s site, then you’ll find out that he’s helping bring 26
classics to the audio format. Harlan may not be the best writer in science fiction, but he
certainly is the genre's most charismatic performer. These acting jobs he gets are
no accident.
Greg
Egan Site Offers Wild Computer Animations and Hugo Winner Oceanic:
If you
weren’t already intimidated enough by Egan’s Fiction, then go check out his
website. He has illustrations that pulse and move. And each time you touch them it seems
to look different. Keep in mind that even though Egan writes about all the sciences really
really well, his degree is in computer science. That certainly shows. It’s also
terribly designed, so hey, I guess he is a technician. By the way you can also read
Oceanic, one of the best stories ever, here as well.
Warren
Ellis is Spider Jerusalem: I’ve always wondered whether Warren Ellis
could write as well as Spider Jerusalem, the bald, spider tatooed future journalist in the
well written yet horribly drawn Transmetropolitan. Well, wonder no more. He’s
actually pretty good. His new column for Comic Book Resources is actually pretty good. Not
only does he talk shop, but he passes along great recommendations for reads.
Matrix
Site: Need another fix of this groundbreaking film? Check out the site.
There are two big news items. One, they’re considering doing the prequel as
animation, or anime to be more precise. The brothers who created the Matrix are huge fans
of Japanese animation. Personally, if they’re doing both a prequel and a sequel you
could probably run both films concurrently. The other story is that there are going to be
Matrix comics. I had heard Harlan was going to be involved in this in some way, but
I’m not sure. They do show one illustration by John Van Fleet—the artist who did
such a spectacular job on The Chalice—and it looks pretty good.
The About Com Comics Page:
This is a nice listing of whats out there in comics. As you can see, the
place where you can find everything reviewed is kind of sparse. Comics review sites sort
of breakdown into either the mainstream or indy camps. In other words, sites either review
nothing but Harvey Pekar/Hate or nothing but the X Men/Batman. I have liked both
occasionally so I’m attempting to walk a middle ground. This week I’m focusing a
lot on the mainstream titles, but these titles are impressive.
December 9, 1999:
Scott
McCloud Website: If you were blown away by Understanding Comics as I was, then
take a look at McCloud's equally impressive website. You know the weird thing about Scott
McCloud is that Understanding Comics is probably the best thing he's ever done. Zot never
impressed me that much. Being that he's at the forefront of visual philosophy it only
makes sense that he try some different things with the internet. Of the stories that he's
put online I highly recommend his piece on Chess. Just stunning stuff. Way better than Zot
and you can tell he's really thinking about how to use this new medium.
Godman vs. Blasphemy
Boy: The two comics that Salon publishes that I really care about are Tom the
Dancing Bug and Tom Tomorrow. This is an excerpt from Tom the Dancing Bug, where Ruben
Bolling brings out his superhero Godman. With Godman he not only pokes fun at religion but
comics. If you notice its quite clear that Blasphemy Boy is clearly filmmaker Kevin Smith.
By the way you can read my
Epinions review of
Dogma here. I'll be pointing out more strips in the future and also taking a look at
what's online. Just give me some time.
Batman: Before Year One:
Looks as if they're planning on making a live action show about Bruce Wayne before he
became the Batman. That could be pretty good or it could be Lois and Clark, who knows.
The Joy of Shockwave:
I discovered some cool shockwave stuff at this very cool site. I'm just getting into it.
It's very good animation and there's a lot of potential here. These are all pretty good
pieces. I think I also might have seen the future of music video. Try Nut, Bolt and Sparky
to see what I mean.
November 14th through 21st:
New Star Trek Ideas Thrown
Around:
There have been various stories about the proposed new Star Treks. The one
that came from
Ain't It
Cool seems to confirm that it will be The CIA meets Star Trek, something that I and a lot of fans have probably proposed.
What the other stories reveal, the ones I've seen at Ain't anyway, is that not only is
there a goal of creating the next Trek series, but apparently
there is a struggle between
Paramount and Trek head honchos Brannon Braga and Rick Berman for the control of the
franchise's direction. I have mixed feelings about that. There have been some very good
things about the contemporary treks (The music could be better. They should draft people
like Portishead or Stewart Copeland to give them a cooler futuristic sound. Never happen
though.) Personally, I think they should draft new blood. John Shirley or even Steve
Gerber would be nice. They've both got genre connections, are wildly reinventive, and have
written at least one Trek episode. One of the rejected ideas by the way was a Trek before
Trek. I still think that's a cool idea. How about that disastrous First Contact with the
Klingons? How did Earth tech catch up with everybody else's being that we were so far
behind?
Norman Spinrad
Interviews Woody Allen: I found this interview on the Spinrad website. By the way,
I was thinking about calling this website Spinrad. It sounds science fictional and he's a
pretty good writer, but I thought there might be some copyright problems. As for the
interview, I can't say it was a hard hitting interview. You wouldn't know from this
interview that Woody has been involved in some troubles. It's really kind of a dual
interview. I also found out that Spinrad is also having one of his screenplays filmed.
Transmetropolitan's
Scribe (Warren Ellis) website: Interesting Transmet writer Warren Ellis has his
own website and it features some pretty cool writing. I actually think his lead essay is
better than anything that Spider Jerusalem has ever written.
Oct 25 though 30:
Comprehensive Salon
Story about Trek Problems: Very good, ambitious--obviously written by a
fan--survey of current Trek problems. Tired writing, bad direction from the top and
botched opportunities. Plus, it features great quotes from Spock. You know, even though
Nimoy wrote that book about him not being Spock, there is something noble and intelligent
about him. There's also mention of this Spock vs. Q deal that sounds entertaining. Feel
free to compare it to my How to Save Trek essay.
Television
is only a game: Harsh Realm Cancelled: Well that was quick. I can't believe
they didn't give this show time to grow. Chris Carter, who might be a bit overextended, is
their best property. Why would they treat him so badly? Virtual reality is coming. Why
cancel a show that explores it? Where's Mulder? Now, I really am paranoid. I suppose the
sci fi channel could do something nutty and buy it and Crusade. With Farscape, they would
have three quality sci fi shows to build around. Nah, that's just a dream.
Salon Features
Comics 2 Days in a Row: Salon featured comics twice in one week this week.
First, they featured a review of Alan Moore's From Hell. It also features a very funny
Dilbert like tech cartoon called
User Friendly.
Author
C. Clark in America: He's interviewed by the New York Times this time. He's
still interesting and lucid.
Oct 17th through Oct. 24th:
Reviews of
Gibson's New Rose Hotel are mixed: Locus, which for a long time had kind of an
unimpressive site, is getting better and the main way they're doing it is through having a
daily presence. They're doing a good job of finding pertinent info about writers and their
projects. They list several reviews of New Rose Hotel and the reviews are mixed. But it
has Chris Walken so I'll be happy to look at it when or if it ever gets to my town.
Asaro
interviews Neal Stephenson at Sci Fi Site: Interesting interview with Neal Stephenson.
I'm curious as to why it wasn't a little longer. After all, in cyberspace there aren't
space restrictions.
Carter Scholtz and
Barry Malzberg essay in Event Horizon: Embittered dual essay by two great writers.
Carter Scholtz is as good as anybody but he's not that prolific or fast. Scholtz is also
the only person on Earth that gave a bad review to Watchmen. Malzberg also wrote the most
downcast history of science fiction I've ever read called Engines of the Night. It's
what you read when you need to be persuaded to not write science fiction.
Boondocks interviews:
Clearly, the most interesting new strip to invade the staid wasteland of daily cartoon
strips. Also check out the
website, it's full of
interesting links that I wasn't aware of.
Ain’t it Cool stuff about
possible Batman films: Chubby Harry does it again and gives us news of not just one,
but two very interesting Batman projects. One: there is a possibility of Warner's doing
Batman Year One and Ben Affleck, who would be perfect, is mentioned. I guess the
continuity of the first four films would be thrown out the window but who cares. The
second idea is a Batman Beyond version which would be incredible. I love the cartoon and
it certainly would be science fiction. How about Sean Connery as the elder Batman?
Comics
Journal Interview with Kurt Busiek: The great storyteller behind Astro City gets a
long long interview in the print version and a shortened conversation here.
(Background picture by Alex Ross)
