MOVIE REVIEW: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
How does Stiller’s The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty stack up against Danny Kaye’s original version, and with James Thurber’s original story?
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ROBERT A. HEINLEIN’S JUVENILES: Are they still good? (Part Two of Three)
Steve posits some similarities between Robert A. Heinlein and Captain America in this continuation of his examination of the RAH “juveniles”.
MOVIE REVIEW: Dean Koontz’s ODD THOMAS
Dean Koontz has had more of his novels filmified than Demon Seed. Bet you didn’t know that.
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN’S JUVENILES: Are they still good? (Part One)
I seem to be unable to do single columns about stuff I’m passionate about. Heinlein is no exception. Robert A. Heinlein, who was characterized as the “Dean of Science Fiction,” though he was not necessarily […]
SOME OF THE BEST YA SF EVER: The “Winston YAs” Part II
The Winston SF series – part two – in all it’s juvenile glory. Steve has some good info on how to obtain copies, reprints and replacement dust jackets.
MOVIE REVIEW: The Hunger Games Part Two: Catching Fire
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we’re approaching the kind of TV pictured in Robocop or Kornbluth’s The Marching Morons. Whether it’s “I’d buy that for a dollar” or “Would you buy that for a quarter?” there’s a level of “entertainment” in movies and television which I and a bunch of others—I hope you’re one of them, too—don’t find particularly entertaining.
SOME OF THE BEST YA SF EVER: The “Winston Juveniles”—Part One
Back in the Good Old (or Bad, depends on your point of view) Days, fiction—especially SF—that was written for a teen audience was called “Juvenile” fiction; I don’t believe any disparagement was meant, or at […]
ACE Doubles and Some Amazing Illustrators Part Two
This week’s piece covers the remainder of the main ACE Doubles cover artists and illustrators.
ACE Doubles and Some Amazing Illustrators Part One
The art work gracing the covers of (most) Ace doubles was credited, another debt we owe Donald A. Wollheim.
ROBERT E. HOWARD and the Many Faces of CONAN
Conan, from Weird Tales to remakes – with a dash or two of Frazetta thrown in for verisimilitude.
PAPERBACKS: ACE Doubles, “D-Series,” the “Good Old Stuff”
Ahh nostalgia. For a book series? Certainly, so long as its the tete-beche wonder of the Ace Double. Two books in one! Steve waxes eloquent on a reading experience that is sadly largely forgotten.
Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s….
Steve discusses both super and non-super flying heroes – Commando Cody, Captain Marvel and Superman. Who didn’t want a rocket pack when they were growing up? Towels worn as capes just don’t seem to be able to get the job done!
The Other Victoria: Steampunk’s Queen
Was it Colonel Mustard in the arboretum with the steam shovel? Steve participates in a steampunk murder mystery evening.
Concise Convention Report and Some Other Thoughts
A con report from deep in the heart of Rustycon 31
The Movie Serials: All in Black and White for a Dime!
What do Captain America, Buck Rogers, Batman, Flash Gordon, the Green Hornet and Gene Autrey have in common? They’ve all appeared in serials!
The Eagle and Dan Dare: My First Exposure to SF
Steve takes us through the pages of the historic British comic mag, The Eagle.
More Fannish Nostalgia: My First Convention; My First Fanzine
Steve recounts the details of his fannish deflowering
SPACEMEN, Precursor to Starlog?
Steve takes us through the pages of Spacemen, Warren Publications second film-centered magazine helmed by the late, great, missed and lamented Forrest J. Ackerman.
Sixties, Science Fiction and Secret Agents
Secret agent tales have always carried a hint of science fiction with them – futuristic gadgets, threatened world-wide annihilation. Steve examines Bond’s 60s rival – Flint – and reminds us that James Coburn was COOL.
A Fan’s Anniversary of Sorts
Some personal fannish history, a couple of takes on Amazing Stories from 1938, a recap of Modesty Blaise, a pic of John Travolta and a review of John M. Whalen’s Vampire Siege at Rio Muerto. What’s not to like?
Review — One Good SF/Horror “B”-Movie to Watch
Grabbers must be a really good flick – this is our third independent review of this film!
Tag — You’re it! One Fan’s History Through Nametags
Egoboo can be found in all kinds of strange places – including science fiction conventions!
Fandom May Be A Way of Life, But is it THE Way of Life?
Receiving zines in the mail used to be almost an everyday thing for me back in “The Day,” but sadly, it’s an unusual occurrence these days.
NaNoWriMoVember — What the Heck Is It?
Anyway, I thought maybe some of you might be interested in the process of writing a 50,000 word novel in the span of 30 days
One Fan’s History — Badges? We Don’ Need No Steenkin’…(Part One)
Every con has a name badge, and most of them are well designed, like a little piece of art. Badge collecting is a great way to save convention memories
Movie Review — Is That What Scientology Does to Them?
After Earth – a sci fi film masquerading as a science fiction film
Book Review — A Spooky Tale in Time for Halloween!
Christopher Rice is the son of best-selling fantasy writer Ann Rice, whose tales of vampires in the Deep South sparked a renewed interest in the genre. His new book (from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster) arrived on October 15, and I have to say that, despite a few weaknesses, I enjoyed it more than some of his mother’s works.
An Anniversary and a Convention Cold…
I found out just yesterday from the Internet Speculative Fiction Database that November 1979 marks the first fan column I ever published in Amazing magazine, the print version. My column was titled “Fans, Prose and Cons”—a somewhat obvious three-way pun. That means it’s been 34 years since I started writing for this magazine.
About Author
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association (PESFA) and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with chairing or helping run Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. As a fan, he’s published a Hugo-nominated (one nomination) fanzine, New Venture, and he’s founded two writing groups (Writers’ Bloc and Writers of the Lost, Ink). He’s emceed and auctioned art at many West Coast and Northwest conventions including one Westercon. As a writer, he’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories (including one in Compostella [Tesseracts 20], and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Rhea Rose’s Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
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