Over the past several years I’ve been watching a number of trends within the science fiction field. Some fill me with hope and anticipation, such as the strong movements pushing for greater equality in a […]
Previously, in parts 1 and 2, I talked about collectors whose ambition, in collecting, was to have every one in set (“completists”) and those who had to have every one they wanted, however much it […]
In light of John Whalen’s review of Michael Seller’s John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood, I thought it might be instructive to take a look at the different artistic depictions of the world’s first […]
Wherefore fandom? Fandom does not equal “the science fiction market.” To be a fan it’s not enough just to be a consumer of science fiction. To be part of fandom you have to participate in […]
Richard E. Geis, the “Alien Critic” died February 4th. Richard Geis’s fanzines – Science Fiction Review and The Alien Critic were among the first fanzines I subscribed to and avidly sought back issues to. In […]
“Mortal, you have angered Shaka-sama and now Pigsy will eat your face.” This is one of the improbable lines that is never spoken in the foundational saga of Buddhist fiction. Many other improbable lines are. Further out on the improbability spectrum: Shingo Katori costumes up as a monkey.
On Tuesday Steve Davidson, the publisher of Amazing Stories, was interviewed by Sarah Earle for a feature in the Concord Monitor, one of New Hampshire’s leading daily newspapers. Davidson and others involved with the project […]
Welcome internet traveler. I will be stockpiling neatly organized bits into a collective known as a blog along this portion of your journey. Do not fear for your personal safety, as I will take great […]
Brian Aldiss identified Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as the first science fiction novel in his seminal history The Billion Year Spree. Although the genre often looks back on this work as its starting point, it was […]
2013Feb24 Isaac Asimov, Psychohistory, Robot Crimes, and Positronic Brains. Isaac Asimov, aka: Isaak Yudovich Ozimov, aka: Исаак Юдович Озимов, is another member of the Big Four of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Isaac Asimov […]
Circumstance plays a part in history. It was inevitable that a woman would eventually try her hand at Sword & Sorcery. It’s our good fortune that C. L. Moore was writing for Weird Tales in […]
For a number of years I wrote The Crotchety Old Fan blog. One of my favorite posts to write was finding new and interesting ways to bring the older works to the attention of new […]
2013Feb17 – Time spent in front of a computer will suck you into a rift in the space-time continuum. You doubt this? Leave a clock near your computer and voila … tempus fugit. (If you […]
Sometime after John W. Campbell died in 1971, a few science fiction fans launched a campaign requesting that the U.S. Postal Service issue a postage stamp commemorating the legendary editor of Astounding Science Fiction and […]
Immortal ConFusion was rather a bittersweet experience. I hadn’t been to the convention in years, although I attended annually from A² Relax Icon in 1974, up through my college years in Ann Arbor, when I […]
Welcome internet traveler. I will be stockpiling neatly organized bits into a collective known as a blog along this portion of your journey. Do not fear for your personal safety, as I will take great […]
Ok, I’ll say it, if only to keep up with the current trend on the site: The Experimenter Publishing Company is pleased to bring you an Amazing First! Our first piece of new fiction, and […]
2013 Feb 10 – Theodore Sturgeon, aka/Edward Hamilton Waldo, is best remembered for asking “What’s the next question?” In some portraits, you’ll see Sturgeon wearing a “Q,” with an arrow pointing forward, suspended from a […]
A few weeks ago, a friend and I were discussing which films should be considered science fiction and which shouldn’t. He claimed comic book/superhero movies should not be called SF. I claimed that Inception isn’t […]
Robert E. Howard, more than anything, wanted to sell to Adventure Magazine. This publication of the Buttrick Co. was considered by many the best Pulp of all the hundreds of cheap magazines published between the […]
I went to all the early ConFusions. The name change came about, I’m told, because Ro (who informs me her name was then still Nagey, the change to Lutz-Nagey not occurring till a few years […]
The formative American experience was the conquest of the western frontier. Would science fiction and fantasy exist without the frontier model? What does Japan’s parallel conquest of Hokkaido tell us about the legacy of colonial expansion?
The nineteenth century closes with two books that will be imitated constantly for the next hundred years or so: Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. To a […]
I was asked by Sol Cohen in April 1968 to succeed Harry Harrison as Editor of Amazing Stories. One hundred dollars a month, a limitless supply of letterhead stationary and full reimbursement of postage. “We’ll […]
John W. Campbell, aka – Don A Stuart, wrote for Astounding Science-Fiction. His work Who Goes There? was voted the best science fiction novella EVER. Okay, slip of the tongue. ONE of the best. Sorry. […]
Author J. M. Barrie is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, but I’m extremely fond of his comic play The Admirable Crichton – especially when he has Ernest Woolley whine, “I’m not young enough to […]
I have been producing fanzines off and on since 1976, shortly after encountering science fiction fandom and this particular aspect of that hobby interest. As anybody who has ever pubbed (that is fanspeak for “published”) […]
This year was the 40th ConFusion. Or perhaps it will be next year. The numerology of this Michigan convention has always been somewhat doubtful, since its numbering started with 13, unless you count the initial […]
When I first heard the announcement that Steve Davidson had secured the trademark for the name “Amazing Stories,” I had a variety of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was delighted to know that […]
I suspect what most people remember most about H. G. Wells gets confused with Orson Welles, the actor. You know, that infamous radio announcement? When the radio started blaring out reports on Halloween, 1938, that […]
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