Moorcock then began working on a succession of comic magazines for Fleetway including Sexton Blake Library, Kit Carson, Robin Hood, and Billy The Kid, first on the annuals and then on the actual weeklies. The annuals were hardbound Christmas versions of the weeklies and monthlies.
During this period, Moorcock also edited issues ofThriller Picture Library, Cowboy Picture Library, and others. By 1965 he had written or co-written issues ofKarl the Viking, Kit Carson, Buck Jones, Dogfight Dixon RFC (which he helped to create), The Life Of Alexander, Skid Solo, Zip Nolan, Highway Patrol, and Bible Story Weekly. Contrary to popular belief, Moorcock never wrote issues of Wrath of Gods, Deathworld, or The Trigon Empire. By the end of 1965 he had all but stopped writing comics.
This is not one of the better James Cawthorn's covers. Elric looks like a Catholic priest. If it wasn't for the black sword, I'd never have know it was Moorcock's famed anti-hero. (Science Fantasy, vol. 19, no. 55, October 1962 Image courtesy of the Pulp of the Day)
Compare it to this far superior Cawthorn cover to the first edition of Stormbringer (Herbert Jenkins, 1965)
Even the inferior 1962 Cawthorn was a massive step up after Brian Lewis horrible cover to Elric's first appearance (Science Fantasy, vol. 16, no. 47, June 1961)
Elric looks like some dandy from an Errol Flynn movie not the fierce stealer of souls, agent of chaos and destroy of worlds, that we all know and love.
When Jeff VanderMeer asked me to guest blog for him back in October, one of his requests was to continue his recently started series "Conversations with the Bookless," discussions with short story writers who had yet to have their own books. My first interview was with Scott A. Cupp. Not only did Scott fulfill the criteria but he was one of the more unique and creative talents that most people had never heard of. I wrote this about Scott:
A quintessential Texas short story writer, Scott A. Cupp produces unusual slipstream tales steeped in Texas culture and history. Perhaps best known for his heretical “Thirteen Days of Glory,” a re-imagining of the Battle of the Alamo as a struggle for transvestite rights, Cupp, a former Campbell award nominee, continues to experiment and press the outer boundaries of the absurd with tales such as “King of the Cows”, “The Singing Cowboy’s Apprentice” and “One Fang.”
Nothing has really changed except now Scott has a webpage with a complete bibliography and links to online stories. If you've never experienced the artistic joy that is Scott A. Cupp, now is your chance.
At last weekend's New York Comic Con, Venture Bros. writers Christopher McCulloch (better known as his pseudonym Jackson Publick) and Doc Hammer revealed some Season 3 footage and answered some fan questions. I wasn't there but thankfully Comic Book Resources reporter Jonathan Callan chronicled the event.
"We have a clip from the third season," McCulloch said. "Do you want to see it?" The room roared with applause. Dispensing with any further formalities, McCulloch started the preview as the room darkened. Scenes from the video included Brock with his Office of Secret Intelligence (OSI) mentor Hunter, last seen in season two's "Assassinanny 911," the return of The Pirate Guy from "Ghosts of the Sargasso," a disturbingly Freudian sequence involving Doctor Venture and his heroic father's large penis, and a gorey "GI Joe" satirizing OSI sequence.
One pair dressed as The Monarch and Doctor Girlfriend even asked Doc Hammer to marry them at their upcoming ceremony. "Give me the invitation. I'll commit to thinking about it. At the very least I'll give it a firm maybe," he said. Another pair, dressed as Trianna and Dean Venture, asked if Hank and Dean would ever hook up. "You could see that right now," joked Michael Sternikilis [voice of Dean Venture] as he raised his eyebrows at the girl. "No," said Doc Hammer answering seriously. "If you bring those two together too quick, it ruins the dramatic strain of it."
"You don't know though," Christopher McCulloch said. "Dean could get her knocked up this season for all you know."
"What is the most significant way the show has changed?" One fan asked. "It wasn't canceled after the first season," was McCulloch's simple answer. "Are Dr. Venture and the Monarch brothers?" Another asked, speculating on the plot. "Not yet," McCulloch answered.
One of the last questions was why Brock couldn't simply rip open Molatov Cocktail's[sic] chastity belt. "Because it's a symbol!" Doc Hammer answered. "What's stopping you from getting laid? It's a conversation, someone has to invite you. But she's not ready. Could he rip it open? Brock could rip that thing off with his teeth and he will! Rip that thing off and go back for seconds!"
Dude, I can't wait for Season 3! UPDATE:Season 3 Preview posted at Geekanerd.
Yesterday at the Ritz, the fancy new downtown home of the Alamo Drafthouse, Paul, Derek, and I all attended our first big screen showing of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes. Using a new 35mm print from the original negatives, the movie screening was flawless with bright colors and fantastic sound. The action and overblown dialog literally screamed delightfully off the the giant screen. Charlton Heston has never looked so dynamic or sounded so forceful. The 40+ year old makeup effects remain effective and vibrant. The viewing further reinforced my love for this very influential film.
Plant of the Apes spawned four sequels, a television series, an animated series, action figures, books, comic books, a subpar 2001 remake, and many Simpsons parodies. A dystopian reflection of American society in the 1960s, the film's real strength is the brilliant Michael Wilson and Rod Serling script, which was loosely based on Pierre Boulle’s Swiftian satire La Planete des Signes (Monkey Planet). The most original shock-ending of all time cements this movie’s place in film history.
The actual making of the Planet of the Apes is a fascinating story unto itself with several books and even a documentary on the subject. When producer Arthur P. Jacobs acquired the book rights, no one would take him seriously until Warner Brothers decided to take a chance with Blake Edwards (of Pink Panther fame) directing. Edwards first task was contacting the legendary Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling about writing the screenplay. For the next two years, Serling toiled with the screenplay while Jacobs secured funding for the feature. Michael Wilson was brought in to work on the screenplay as well. Although the two men never met, they crafted one of the finest film adaptations of all time.
While Serling and Wilson polished the script, Jacobs searched for a lead actor. He interviewed Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon, and Rock Hudson. They all turned him down. Charlton Heston, who was already famous for playing larger than life characters, did not. When Warner Brothers learned the proposed budget of the movie could top $7 million, they opted out of the film, taking Edwards with them. Richard Zanuck of Twentieth Century Fox stepped in but not without reservations. He was concerned about the believability of the intelligent apes. After viewing a five-minute test film of Edgar G. Robinson as Dr. Zaius, Zanuck decided to go ahead with the project. Ironically, it was during the test that Robinson determined he was reluctant to endure the long, rigorous transformations that the role required. He was replaced by Maurice Evans.
Planet of the Apes premiered in 1968 to rave reviews and was a huge box office success. John Chambers, Ben Nye, and Dan Striepeke won a special Oscar for the makeup. By the mid-seventies there were five Ape movies, a television show, an animated series, and a plethora of other merchandise available.
Planet of the Apes with its line of action figures, books, and comics was the template used to even greater success by George Lucas upon the release of Star Wars. That model has been used by nearly every major science fiction movie ever since.
The folks at Runaway Box really have captured the despairing, snarky culture of contemporary corporate America in a series of YouTube videos lasting a few minutes each. Think of these as a live-action Dilbert, or maybe Office Space for those with the attention span of a right-wing talk-show host.
Here's my favorite from The Elevator.
I'm curious to know what a Ford Focus turned inside-out would look like.
And here's one from their series Man in the Box. (No, it has nothing to do with the Alice in Chains song.)
I interviewed Terry about life after the very popular Strangers in Paradise (which ended last year), his new series Echo, and science fiction.
What new themes has the science fiction setting allowed you to explore that you were unable to tackle in your previous works? Do you approach the writing of an sf concept different than a super hero or slice of life story?
The imagination is liberated, yet spawned from the practical laws of physics and life. I think it's advanced stuff to try and pull off, because you have to be good at the other genres to incorporate them into your sci fi story in order to establish setting and sense of place.
You could specialize in slice-of-life and be lousy at everything else, but you can't write good sci fi without being good at other genres as well.
Peggy had the task of reviewing the first two issues of the new series.
A lot of this comic is vintage Moore: a female protagonist with some personal issues gets caught up in a much larger story and has to deal with the fallout. But it’s new, too.
Julie Martin isn’t Francine or Katchoo; she comes from a different background and has different issues to deal with. And while SiP could occasionally bust out into full on spy thriller mode, it was essentially the story of Francine and Katchoo: their day-to-day story was the heart of the piece, not the theatrics around them.
Echo is a science fiction comic, and while I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time with Julie and her daily life, I suspect that the bigger outside story will have more prominence.
The New York Times had a story on this book a while ago and I picked up a copy. Basically, it is a nicely designed but short collection of uniform patches collected from classified military projects. The author tries to interpret the patches to derive information about the nature of the projects. For example, a lot of them have six stars on them, which he suggests refers Area 51 (5+1, get it?) in Nevada. I don't buy all of his speculations but I do respect that there are a few of the patches on which he just admits he doesn't know what the hell they are for. A perfect little book to thumb through.
Publishing house Tachyon Publications and editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer have agreed to make their new fiction anthology, Steampunk, available for pre-order at a discounted price! This volume, priced at $14.95, is being offered at $12.00, including free shipping within the United States. Shipping outside the United States will be by Global Priority Mail: $9.50 to Canada and $11.00 to our friends in Europe.
In addition, books ordered through this offer will arrive signed by the editors. Signed and personalized…they will even draw little zeppelins!
And yet, even little zeppelins may not be enough to entice you. This is understandable. Therefore, I am quite pleased to announce that the first 10 people who order this anthology via this offer shall also receive a signed copy of author Jay Lake's Mainspring, heralded as "an instant steampunk classic" by Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing. In addition, the first three people will also get a copy of Lake's follow-up novel Escapement when it is released in June! More details...
On top of the fiction featuring air ships and metal men by Michael Chabon, Neal Stephenson, James P. Blaylock, Joe R. Lansdale, Mary Gentle, Ted Chiang, Michael Moorcock, Jay Lake, Molly Brown, Stepan Chapman, Ian R. MacLeod, Rachel Pollack, and Paul Di Filippo and original essays by Bill Baker (on steampunk in comics) and Jess Nevins (19th century origins of steampunk!), I contributed "The Steam-Driven Time Machine," a survey of steampunk in popular culture.
From the age of 17 to his death in 1994, at the age of 76, artist Jack Kirby devoted his life to creating an influential pop-culture iconography for the 20th century. His many accomplishments included creating or co-creating Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, and the romance comic. His concepts fuel the backgrounds for both the Marvel and DC comic-book universes. Kirby's works permeate nearly every fantastical creation of the last 40 years, from prose novels to the biggest Hollywood blockbuster.
My review of the I Am Legend DVD runs in the current issue of SF Site.
The DVD release offers a chance of redemption with an "alternate theatrical version with controversial ending," so screams the cover. While not necessarily controversial (an idea that is never addressed in any of the extras), the ending does result in a better film with a far more satisfying, albeit still too happy, finale. Without giving too much away, this version more fully examines and explains the motivations of the mutants.
My new column Nexus Graphica, co-written with Mark London Williams, premieres today at SF Site.
Nexus Graphica, the column about graphic novels and comics, grew out of our discussions. It just seemed natural to record our observations.
We will alternate columns for every issue of SF Site. Similar to my "Geeks with Books," the nature and subject of each piece will vary from month to month, but it will always have something to do with graphic novels or comic books.
The first entry, stereotypically titled "Secret Origins", relates the evolution of the column.
We met after a panel on lettering at the 1990 San Diego Comic Con. Not that either of us really gave a rat's ass about lettering. We both were there to talk with Lewis Shiner, who not only co-wrote (with fellow Texan ex-pat Bob Wayne) the Illuminati-infused mini-series The Time Masters, but also lettered the comic. We both came from the literary side of things, fans since Shiner's 1988 novel Deserted Cities of the Heart, which masterfully related the impending end of the world, according to Mayan prophesy in a real-world Mexico City.
Also included is a selection of recent books of interest.
