An unexpected trio

A picture of my Uncle Arth (age 4), Roy Rogers, and my grandfather Irving Klaw backstage at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo in 1944.

I own a copy of this picture. As does Arth. I was unaware that anyone outside my family had a copy. I wonder how they got it?

(Thanks to Arth for the link.)

UPDATE: Arth gave a copy of the picture to Boyd, who publishes Western Clippings. Arth just neglected to tell me that when he sent me the link to the image.

Superman Copyright FAQ

Brian Conin of Comics Should Be Good put together this excellent, thorough FAQ on the whole Superman Copyright issue.

So, who owns the copyright of Superman?

As of this moment, as per the ruling by Judge Stephen Larson on March 26, 2008, Superman’s copyright is owned in two equal parts by DC Comics/Time Warner and the heirs of Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel.

Why do the Siegels own half?

Because, in 1997, they gave notice that they were terminating their half of the 1938 transfer of the Superman copyright from Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to DC Comics, and the termination became effective as of 1999 (Joe Shuster’s half remains owned by DC).

Continued...

Fold-Ins, Past and Present

The New York Times, of all places, offers this sensational interactive gallery of Al Jaffe's surprisingly prescient Mad fold-ins. Enjoy!

(Thanks to Mark Williams for the link.)

Amateur sleuths name anonymous dead

Very interesting article about the Doe Network.

Amateur sleuths name anonymous dead
By HELEN O'NEILL, AP Special Correspondent

In the process, Matthews discovered something extraordinary. All over the country, people just like him were gingerly tapping into the new technology, creating a movement — a network of amateur sleuths as curious and impassioned as Matthews.

Today the Doe Network has volunteers and chapters in every state. Bank managers and waitresses, factory workers and farmers, computer technicians and grandmothers, all believing that with enough time and effort, modern technology can solve the mysteries of the missing dead.

Increasingly, they are succeeding.
Continued...

Jonah Hex and Lone Ranger films announced

I'm as happy as the next guy about the announcements of both a Jonah Hex and Lone Ranger films. What puzzles me is that neither movie plans on involving Joe R. Lansdale with the script.

From ShockTillYouDrop:

In just a little over a month, powerhouse writing-directing team Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Game) begin shooting a sequel to their pumped-up, kinetic actioner Crank. Following that, it's Jonah Hex, the DC comics western steeped in the supernatural.

"I think it's the best script we've written," Taylor told me during a late-night soiree in Hollywood thrown in anticipation of Pathology, a film he co-penned with Neveldine. Warner Bros. apparently loves the script and understands the tone the pair have brought to this tale of true grit and blood - and if you've seen Crank and Pathology, you know all bets are off and you're in for a unpredictable, f'ed-up ride.

It may be the best script they've written, but no incarnation of Jonah Hex has ever matched Lansdale's interpretations. In his three DC/Vertigo mini-series, Lansdale (along with his frequent artistic cohort Tim Truman) re-imagined the scarred gunfighter's adventures with a supernatural bent.


From Lansdale's intro to Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo:

I remembered reading the Hex stories as being somewhat spooky, supernatural. But when I began rereading those written by Hex's creator, John Albano, I was astonished to discover they were good, tough Western stories, but they weren't any supernatural elements. Nary a one. [...] This surprised me. My memory had play tricks on me.

[...]The old comics were great, but I decided I wanted to bring in the elements of my false memory, tie them to Albano's creation, and let the good times roll.

I wrote my story to reflect the old Hex,[...] but I gave the story an echo of what I thought had been in the early Hex stories, but wasn't. I decided to keep it subtle however, so that the reader could, to some extent, read it either way-- as real supernatural business, or as real-life weird business.

Course the reason for not including Lansdale may have had to do with the 1996 lawsuit surrounding the second Lansdale-Truman Hex series, Riders of the Worm and Such.

The Winter brothers sued DC, as well as writer Joe Lansdale and artists TimTruman and Sam Glanzman, on the basis of two unsavory characters introduced into the Jonah Hex storyline as the Autumn brothers, which the Winters argued constituted a defamatory representation and a misappropriation of the musicians' likenesses. Like the Winters, the Autumn brothers were albinos from the South named Johnny and Edgar. The fourth issue of the miniseries was entitled "The Autumns of Our Discontent," replacing "Autumns" for "Winter" in the famous phrase from the first line of Shakespeare's Richard III. Though singing cowboys figured in the story, the Autumn brothers were anti-singing. They were also dim-witted,murdering, pig-humping, inbred offspring of raped humans and supernatural worms.

The case worked its way through the legal system, finally being resolved in 2003, when the California Supreme Court sided with DC.

Thought DC never collected Riders of the Worm and Such, the duo returned to Hex in 1999 with Shadows West (also never collected. Imagine an Absolute Jonah Hex collecting the three Lansdale-Truman series?). Lansdale also scripted the Jonah Hex appearance on The Adventures of Batman and Robin.

Typical Hollywood b.s. probably has more to do with why Lansdale isn't writing the upcoming movie, but one never knows. Still, I'd be much more eager if he was involved.



And then this announcement from Disney via Hollywood Reporter:

Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio are going from "shiver me timbers!" to "Hi-ho Silver!"

The writing duo, best known for their work on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, are in final negotiations to write a live-action big-screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger" for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Soon after the success of their first Jonah Hex series, Lansdale and Truman tackled the iconic Western characters The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Their controversial take started with Tonto decking the Lone Ranger. This humanized Tonto grew the ire of Rush Limbaugh, who cited it as an example of what is wrong with America, and applauded by Native American groups. This one had some weirdness and supernatural as well, but it was one of the finest portrayals of the Lone Ranger. And yet, Lansdale is not working on this script either.


Lansdale has become a sought after screenwriter over the past several years with a half a dozen productions in their early stages. So having him work on two characters that he clearly understands might make sense, but this is Hollywood, where sense need not apply.

JAMES BOND: The History of the Illustrated 007

I've been merrily plodding along researching and writing my upcoming book on James Bond's various comics book adventures, when this week the publisher decides to announce it to the world. Solicitation copy, front cover design and a listing on Amazon.

Oh, and he pulled the publication date forward two months -- that deadline that seemed comfortably off in the future - it's now looming very large and seems to be approaching fast!

Anyway here's some of the official blurb...

JAMES BOND: The History of the Illustrated 007



From the Publishers PR -

Now for the first time, the complete history of the illustrated James Bond is chronicled by pop culture historian Alan J. Porter in James Bond: The History Of The Illustrated 007. Porter’s new book examines James Bond’s adventures in newspaper strips and comic books. Before Bond became world famous with his movie series, the character was the subject of successful English newspaper strips and later in comic books. With the explosion of Bond on the screen the character and his exploits become even more popular in comic strip and comic book versions all over the world. James Bond: The History Of The Illustrated 007 examines it all, and covers Bond’s newspaper strip and comic book appearances from the 1950s to the present. The release of this all-new history is timed to coincide with James Bond’s newest movie appearance and is sure to be a must for all Bond fans. The cover of the book presents a never-before-seen painting by noted artist Bob Peak who made a significant contribution to the Bond canon’s movie poster art.

JAMES BOND: The History of the Illustrated 007 will be published by Hermes Press and be available on September 15th, 2008.

It is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com

You can keep up with my on going research on my LiveJournal blog.

Dental Revelations

Today, as I have every six months for the past ten years, I got my teeth cleaned. During that same period except when she is on vacation, the same technician has cleaned my teeth. The visit started normally enough. We discussed the weekend and what we've been up to.

"You are a writer? What do you write? Have you written a book?" I know I had mention previously that I'm a writer. Not exactly something you hide.

I had just finished telling her about me and Brandy's upcoming New York vacation and how my last trip was work related. A research trip for something I was writing.

"I'm a critic. Primarily write about pop culture. I have two pieces in the current [Austin] Chronicle."

"Yeah, but have you written a book?" Why does that always come up? Am I not a "real" writer with some 300,000 published words over the best decade but no book? Sadly for most, the book, regardless of its quality or who published it, legitimatizes a writer. Thankfully for these occasions, I have produced a book. I tell her about Geek Confidential.

"So what's next? What were you researching in New York?"


"Have you heard of Irving Klaw? He's my grandfather." I wasn't expect much of a response. The technician, as evident by her family photos and her manners of speech, is clearly a suburbanite and not the type usually knowledgeable about Bettie Page and Irving Klaw.

"As in Bettie Page? No way! I saw that movie [The Notorious Bettie Page] about her on HBO. That was your grandfather and grandmother taking the pics?"



I then explained about how the woman, Paula, was actually my grandfather's sister and filled her in on a some family history. She enjoyed the movie and was astonished about some of the things I told her about Irving. About how he practically invented the pin up industry in 1940s and his works helped to change the public perceptions about pornography.

It continually amazes me who knows about my grandfather and who wants to learn more. With HBO showing Notorious six times in April, I imagine more interested folks are going to be asking about my grandfather. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Bunny weirdness, RevSF-style

The twisted Joe Crowe over at RevolutionSF offers a special Easter treat: A top ten list of Sci-Fi bunnies!

Rabbits are one of nature's most beautiful creatures, and they play many important roles. In sci-fi, they are equally necessary, just as in nature, where they outwit our coyotes, tell our hunters and our ducks which hunting season it is, fend off our cowboy / pirates, and dress up like our female Tasmanian devils.

Moorcock on Clarke

Michael Moorcock offers this moving, heartfelt eulogy for his friend Arthur C. Clarke.

His view of our world, rather like PG Wodehouse's (whom he resembled physically) didn't include much room for the Four Horsemen galloping through his rhododendrons. His preferred future was extremely Wellsian, full of brainy people sitting about in togas swapping theorems.

And he was unflappably The Ego. After we watched the preview of 2001, Brian Aldiss, JG Ballard and I all admitted it had left us a bit cold in the visionary department. He took our poor response with his usual amused forgiveness reserved for lesser mortals and told us how many millions the movie had already made in America.
Continued...

Bradbury and EC

As longtime readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of Brian Cronin's excellent Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed column. In last week's entry (#146 March 13), Cronin explored an urban legend involving Ray Bradbury, revealing a story I had never heard.

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Ray Bradbury had a rather interesting response to finding out his stories were being adapted into comic form without his permission.

STATUS: True

We tend to have pretty lofty ideas of famous personalities - there is an almost unspoken expectation that writers and actors are constantly “on,” and that they are as clever in their personal lives as they are in their professional ones.

That is not often the case, but in the case of the legendary Ray Bradbury, his letter exchange with William Gaines certainly lives up to our expectations of the man.

The situation began in 1951, when William Gaines and Al Feldstein, in a rush to come up with an original story for one of their numerous magazines, decided to simply swipe a Ray Bradbury story.

The story, “A Strange Undertaking…,” a swipe of Bradbury’s “The Handler,” appeared in Haunt of Fear #6.

Feldstein did a couple more swipes after that, but it was one he did in 1952’s Weird Fantasy #13 that caught Ray Bradbury’s eye (and, presumably, a bit of his ire).

The story, titled “Home To Stay!,” was cobbled together between two Bradbury stories, “Kaleidoscope” and “The Rocket Man.”

Now, some writers would react to their work being swiped by getting angry. Bradbury, however, decided to play it a different way, by sending the following brilliant letter to Gaines in 1952:

Just a note to remind you of an oversight. You have not as yet sent on the check for $50.00 to cover the use of secondary rights on my two stories THE ROCKET MAN and KALEIDOSCOPE…I feel this was probably overlooked in the general confusion of office work, and look forward to your payment in the near future.

Gaines was no fool - he quickly sent the money, along with a cordial response, and pretty soon, Bradbury was authorizing EC Comics to do OFFICIAL adaptations of his stories, and that became a draw for their science fiction titles, so long as they lasted.

That is how to handle a potentially ugly situation.

The New Wolfman

Entertainment Weekly offers up the first images from the Benicio Del Toro-starring, Joe Johnston-helmed The Wolfman remake. Pretty impressive, but with Rick Baker behind the makeup, I wasn't too concerned. With the under appreciated Johnston directing and the perfect Del Toro casting, this might actually be pretty good. Course, I thought the same of the disastrous Van Helsing, so initial looks can be deceiving.




(Tip of the hat to Arth.)

Paul's Ten-Cent Plague review

Our fellow co-conspirator and partner-in-crime Paul Miles contributed to RevolutionSF an excellent review of David Hadju's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (far superior to my own interpretation). As always, Paul argues many excellent points in some conventional ways. I'm betting not many reviewers mentioned (fittingly enough) Soupy Sales.

In The Ten Cent Plague: The Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, David Hajdu suggests that the Frederic Wertham-inspired Senate hearings and local anti-comics censorship laws of the fifties were a witch-hunt that destroyed comics as a mass medium. I think he gets much closer to showing the first part of his theory but whiffs on the second.

Hajdu fetchingly recreates the New York centric world of the comic book. This has certainly been done before, most recently in Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow, but where Hajdu excels is in an emphasis on the industry’s underbelly. For the most part, he bypasses familiar companies like DC/National and Marvel/Timely to concentrate on lesser known creators and titles such as Charles Biro's over the top Crime Does Not Pay. The book is worth reading for this alone.
Continued...

Ivan Dixon, RIP

Ivan Dixon, who died Sunday, was best known as Sergeant Kinch on Hogan's Heroes. To be honest, he was bland compared to the rest of the actors on that show and I used to roll my eyes every time they'd dress him up in an SS uniform. But Dixon had a pretty successful second career as a director. Nothing But a Man is well regarded and this trailer is from another film of his, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, one of my absolute favorite blaxploitation movies of the 70s.

Borders Considers Sale

From Publishers Weekly, March 19:

The possibility that Borders may one day be for sale has been discussed in publishing circles for several years, but that chance became more likely with the early morning announcement from the bookstore chain that it had hired J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch to help it explore strategic alternatives. Those options, Borders said, include the possible sale of the company and/or some of its divisions.
Continued...

This could be terrifying news for the American book industry. What happens if Barnes & Noble buys Borders? Or if Borders is chopped up into smaller companies?

Imagine the megalithic Barnes & Noble tromping throughout the US with no stiff competition? Sure, Amazon offers some resistance but online has yet to replace the neighborhood book store.

What happens if B&N decides to not carry an author or title? With no Borders, publishers will have little recourse.

What's worse than two gigantic book chains? There being only one...

To write books is easy, it requires only pen and ink and the ever-patient paper. To print books is a little more difficult, because genius so often rejoices in illegible handwriting. To read books is more difficult still, because of a tendency to go to sleep. But the most difficult task of all that a mortal man can embark on is to sell a book.

from a poem by Felix Dahn, paraphrased by Sir Stanley Unwin

(Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer for the link and for offering a unique solution)

Shameless Plug

My review of David Hadju's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America ran in today's Austin Chronicle.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, these 10-cent illustrated pulp magazines – intended primarily for children – featured stories of superheroes, teen angst, crime, romance, and horror. Many individual issues sold in the millions of copies. To the ire of many "right-thinking" adults, these tales often contained such unsavory elements as sexual innuendo, detailed crime depictions, and excessive violence. Parent groups routinely blamed comic books for "juvenile delinquency." The hysteria reached a fever pitch with the publication of Fredric Wertham's controversial vilification of comic books, Seduction of the Innocent (1954). The ensuing televised congressional hearings almost destroyed the industry, forcing hundreds of publishers out of business and nearly 1,000 people out of work.
Continued...

Animated Opinions

The latest issue of The Austin Chronicle contains my feature on the unique internet movie review site, Spill.

Like most weeks over the past six years, Martin Thomas, C. Robert Cargill, Chris Cox, and Korey Coleman gather to record their movie discussions. But now, instead of weekly Austin cable-access show The Reel Deal, they bring their act – equal parts critique, comedy troupe, and sideshow – to the Internet as a series of animated shorts under the moniker Spill.

Continued...

The Horror!

I'm a podcast junkie. While every one else's iPod is full of music, mine is bursting with internet shows on sports, movies, news, and gaming. One of my favorites is The Horror!, a podcast that every couple of days uploads a classic radio horror show for my listening pleasure. Arch Oboler's Lights Out (It. . is. . .later. . . than . . . you. . .think) and Suspense are shows I'd heard before, but there are more obscure ones with titles like The Hermit's Cave and Beyond Midnight and Nightmare (as hosted by Peter Lorre).

Each episode of The Horror! begins with an introduction by the show's host, Jim Serresseque with information on when the show originally aired--you'll be surprised at the late air dates of some of these, stretching all the way into the 1970s. Give the two-part Donovan's Brain with Orson Welles a try.

What the Frak Is Going On?

In advance of the forthcoming final season, SciFi produced this eight minute recap of BSG. If you have been watching only on DVD, DO NOT watch this. Talk about your reveals.

Live action John Carter?

According to JimHillMedia.com, Pixar is mulling over the prospect of filming the first John Carter of Mars movie, projected as a trilogy, as a live action feature. This would be the first non-animated anything from the award-winning studio. My question is why?

No one makes animated movies like Pixar. Even their lesser films such as Bug's Life and Cars offer more humanity and better crafted stories than the vast majority of live action movies currently in the cineplex. As demonstrated in The Incredibles, portraying people involved in science fictional concepts is certainly no problem. So why even consider the change?

From JimHill:

[S]tudio suits seem to be cooling to the idea of producing movie versions of all seven of C.S. Lewis's "Narnia" books. [U]nless "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" does truly huge box office once it's released to theaters in May of this year ... Disney & Walden Media (i.e. Mickey's partner on the "Narnia" film series) will probably still go forward with production of the already-in-development "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." But after that ... The Mouse would then mostly likely pull the plug on the rest of the proposed "Narnia" film series.

That leaves a huge live action hole in the studio schedule starting in 2011.


So who would play a live action John Carter? When the idea of the movie was kicked around in the 80's and early 90s, Kevin Costner's name was batted around. While he was an excellent choice back then, at 53 he's probably a bit long in the tooth now. (Course with the 65 year old Harrison Ford reprising his role as Indiana Jones and the 61 year old Stallone playing both Rocky and Rambo once again, I guess anything is possible.)

Ideally, John Carter should be a Southerner in his early 30s in excellent shape. It better not be Will Smith. While Smith is proving to be a better actor than I thought, John Carter is a SOLDIER FOR THE SOUTH during the CIVIL WAR. Not many black men doing that.

Both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, depending on their abilities to use Southern accents, might be good. As might Mark Walberg. The film will be heavy on action.


Of course as we all know, the truly important role is Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Mars.

Apparently back in the 1970s, another live action version was attempted and even got to the design sketch stage. Sadly, it was never filmed.

The Steam Man of the Prairies

Over at The Valve, John Holbo, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore, discusses Edward Sylvester Ellis' classic dime novel The Huge Hunter or, The Steam Man of the Prairies (1868) including cover samples and story excerpts.

‘HOWLY vargin! what is that?’ exclaimed Mickey McSquizzle, with something like horrified amazement,

‘By the Jumping Jehosiphat, naow if that don’t, beat all natur’!’

‘It’s the divil, broke loose, wid full steam on!’

There was good cause for these exclamations upon the part of the Yankee and Irishman, as they stood on the margin of Wolf Ravine, and gazed off over the prairie. Several miles to the north, something like a gigantic man could be seen approaching, apparently at a rapid gait for a few seconds, when it slackened its speed, until it scarcely moved.

Occasionally it changed its course, so that it went nearly at right angles. At such times, its colossal proportions were brought out in full relief, looking like some Titan as it took its giant strides over the prairie.

The distance was too great to scrutinize the phenomenon closely; but they could see that a black volume of smoke issued either from its mouth or the top of its head, while it was drawing behind it a sort of carriage, in which a single man was seated, who appeared to control the movements of the extraordinary being in front of him.

No wonder that something like superstitious have filled the breasts of the two men who had ceased hunting for gold, for a few minutes, to view the singular apparition; for such a thing had scarcely been dreamed of at that day, by the most imaginative philosophers; much less had it ever entered the head of these two men on the western prairies.

‘Begorrah, but it’s the ould divil, hitched to his throttin ‘waging, wid his ould wife howlding the reins!’ exclaimed Mickey, who had scarcely removed his eyes from the singular object.

‘That there critter in the wagon is a man,’ said Hopkins, looking as intently in the same direction. ‘It seems to me,’ he added, a moment later, ‘that there’s somebody else a-sit-ting alongside of him, either a dog or a boy. Wal, naow, ain’t that queer?’

‘Begorrah! begorrah! do ye hear that? What shall we do?’

Holbo relates his own challenges in offering a definitive print edition.

Project Gutenberg, other places round the web, have free e-versions of his novel. But, on internal grounds, I suspect there are quality-control problems. [...] I bought a Kessinger reprint, hoping for guidance. I’ve bought Kessinger stuff before, and it’s worked out. They just scan old books. But this time they obviously just scooped and poured straight from Gutenberg. They didn’t even bother to format it. Bah. Anyway, to get even with that sort of shoddiness, I hauled off and made a Lulu version. Paperback. I’m claiming zero royalties. (I’m just messing about.) If you just want a free PDF, you are supposed to be able to download one for free. But I’m not seeing a download link at Lulu, even though I asked for that. So here you go. Go ahead, download a free e-book.

Now in an effort to further clean up the text, Holbo is looking for an old print edition of the book. He's offering a free copy of of Seven Soldiers of Victory, vol. 1 to the person who gets him a copy that enables Holbo to publish a definitive edition of The Huge Hunter or, The Steam Man of the Prairies, under the Creative Commons license. If a second person comes to his aid, Holbo has a copy of Stanley Cavell's The Claim of Reason to offer as well.

Kirby: King of Comics

I'd been looking forward to Kirby: King of Comics since I first heard about it a couple of months ago. I saw it over at Bookstop the other day. Most of the copies were in shrinkwrap but one was open. I don't think I'll be buying this, after all. The first sign of trouble was that it was oversized, at $40 perfect for a coffee table book. And from my thumb through standing in the aisle, that's in large part what it is, Kirby's art and the book design overshadowing Evanier's writing. I guess my disappointment stems not so much from what Kirby: King of Comics is as from the fact that it's not what I'd hoped and thought it would be: a mainstream but scholarly biography of Kirby's life. 

He's been dead over ten years and it's certainly time for such a dominant figure of comics and pop culture to get the biography he deserves, more in line with David Michaelis' Schulz and Peanuts from last year. Or Gabler's Walt Disney. Just think about what a Kirby biographer would get to play with, even in pop culture beyond comics:  the history of American animation from Kirby working as an inbetweener at the Fleisher Studios on Popeye cartoons in the 30s to his design work for television animation in the 70s. And in fine art, his work was "appropriated" by Roy Lichtenstein in the 1960s. The man grew up in a world that no longer exists, New York's Lower East Side, pretty much a real Bowery Boy, and he fought in World War II. Not to mention that his life pretty much is the history of the American comic book industry. To me, he screams out for a writer (don't laugh) capable of the depth Robert Caro has shown in his three volume LBJ biography. Funny enough, I still think Mark Evanier--who has always shown such an impressive grasp of comics history in his blogging and other writing---might be the person to tell such a big story; he worked with Kirby, and he himself has spent years in the industry, but I just don't think he had the space to do it here. 

Of course with all that said, I was just thumbing through it standing in the aisle so maybe I'm dead wrong. 

It's safe to hate Wal-Mart again

Back in November I bragged on Wal-mart for carrying Everex's TC2502 gPC, the first mass-market under $200 desktop computer. The low-cost PC featured gOS, a custom distribution of Ubuntu Linux. At the time, reports circulated that the new computer had completely sold out at the 630 Wal-Marts that offered the product.

Now this from Wal-Mart:

Computers that run the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows didn't attract enough attention from Wal-Mart customers, and the chain has stopped selling them in stores, a spokeswoman said Monday.

"This really wasn't what our customers were looking for," said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien.

But later in the same article:

Wal-Mart sold out the in-store gPC inventory but decided not to restock, O'Brien said. The company does not reveal sales figures for individual items.

So is Bill Gates a Wal-Mart shareholder or what?

The only good news gleamed from this article is that Walmart.com carries the newer version of the low-price PC. Though currently Walmart.com claims this computer is NOT FOR SALE ONLINE!

The New World Entropy

The New World Entropy - a conference on Michael Moorcock
Liverpool John Moores University, UK - 5-6 July 2008

This conference hopes to explore the rich and varied writings of Michael Moorcock's fictions whilst providing a rounded picture of the writerly environments Moorcock has developed in by contextualising his work alongside his many other social involvements and his interactions with other writers. As such this conference is focused upon developing a critical appreciation of Moorcock's best known and most loved writings in combination with an appreciation of his historical development as a writer. To this end we welcome papers which tread across the boundaries of genre which Moorcock himself trod and also welcome papers which relate Moorcock to the circles of friends and associates whose writings and work connect to his own. We hope that this will provide a lively and multiplicitous series of discursive responses to Moorcock’s remarkable body of works.

Abstracts of 200-300 words should be submitted electronically by 31st March 2008 (new extended deadline) to (mark.williams _at_uea.ac.uk) and (Martyn.Colebrook_at_ english.hull.ac.uk). All correspondence should have the phrase MOORCOCK CONFERENCE in the subject line.

Topics for discussion include but are not limited to: The Multiverse, Pluralism, Metropolitan life, Moorcock's relationship with Modernism, Music and fiction, Jerry Cornelius, Order and Entropy, Moorcock's support of lesser known writers, The Holy Grail, Elric of Melniboné, Anti-Racism, Moorcock as Victorian Novelist, New Worlds, Feminism, Moorcock the editor, Anarchism, Myth-making, "Fiction" and "Autobiography", Psychogeography/ The London of the Mind, Moorcock’s trans-Atlantic, Political Activism, The avant-garde, Early Moorcock versus Late Moorcock, Friends on the Fringes, The 'Between the Wars' Quartet, Counter culture/ Counter literatures, Liberty and Freedom of Speech, Moorcock as Mentor, Moorcock as Student, The Reforgotten Writers, Character and Caricature in Moorcock.

Non-presenting delegates will be welcome.

Conference Fees: £20: Student/Unwaged; £30: Delegate.

WOW! What a potentially fascinating conference. I cannot think of a more deserving writer. Wonder how I can scrape together the pennies for the flight?
(Thanks to Chris Nakashima-Brown.)

.......the Multiverse isn't a globe. Time isn't cyclic. There is no real linearity. The Multiverse is a tree root and branch, a living organism. A creature. Like me. Forever adapting and changing. Like us, made up of spheres, but it's not itself spherical. We've evolved beyond the merely spheroid, I hope......
— Jack Karaquazian, Michael Moorcock's Multiverse ("Moonbeams and Roses") #10, p.2, Aug. 98

A little bonus:

Moorcock reading at the recent Austin Books signing.

BATMAN UNAUTHORIZED escapes to a store near you.

Although I've already seen copies on the shelves at a couple of local Barnes & Noble stores, today is the official on-sale date for BATMAN UNAUTHORIZED: Vigilantes, Jokers, and Heroes in Gotham City which contains my essay on The Dubious Origins of Batman: Who Did What, and Does It Matter?.



I'll be celebrating by hopefully signing a few copies at STAPLE! today where I'll be manning the Austin Comics Creators Group table.