Amazing News, Saturday, March 2, 2013
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 […]
The Impossibility of Escaping the Palm of Buddha’s Hand
“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.
Amazing Stories Featured in Concord Monitor’s A&E Section
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 […]
Living in a Glass House
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 […]
Claire Winger Harris: Breaking Amazing’s ‘Cosmic Ceiling’
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 […]
No.8 Isaac Asimov, Psychohistory, Robot Crimes, and Positronic Brains.
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 […]
Jirel of Joiry: Sword & Sorcery’s First Lady
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 […]
Mouldy Old History
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 […]
No. 7 Andre Norton, Telepaths, Telempathic Animals, and The Entrepreneurial Spacer.
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 […]
The Fed Puts Stamps of Approval on Science Fiction Authorship
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 […]
The Clubhouse: ConFusion at 40, Part 3
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 […]
Burn Your Books
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 […]
Amazing Stories to Publish David Gerrold Comic Script: Star Trek & Dr. Who Fans Might Collide with a Bang! Theoretically of Course
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 […]
No. 6 – Theodore Sturgeon, The Next Question, Well-Meaning Scientists and The Evil They Can Cause.
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 […]
Christopher Nolan’s Inception as Shamanic Psychodrama
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 […]
Dark History: Bran Mak Morn
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 […]
The Clubhouse: ConFusion at 40, Part 2
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 Galapagos Frontier Thesis
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 History of Fantasy, Part II: Barbarians and Elves and Jesus Figures and D20s
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 […]
In the Hall of the Mountain King
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 […]
No. 5 – John W. Campbell, Who Goes There?, The Ultimate Weapon, and Hostile Aliens.
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. […]
Who Let the Dog Out?
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 […]
E-Zines vs. Dead Tree Zines: the more things change…
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”) […]
The Clubhouse: ConFusion at 40 (more or less)
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 […]
The Importance of Actually, You Know, Doing Stuff
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 […]
No. 4 – H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, and the Social Impacts of Science
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 […]
The Clubhouse: Five words every fan should know
“I have a Cosmic Mind — now what do I do?” Fanspeak is what we call the jargon of fandom that grew up in fanzines and is still in use in the internet age. It’s […]
Steve Stiles A Retrospective
Steve Stiles is a living double entendre: not only does he draw icons of the field, he is an icon of the field. If brushing twilltone off your lap after reading is a familiar experience, […]
PULPED! A Blog About Pulp And All The Places To Find It
Although I’m sure that there’s certain decorum for writing blog posts that prohibit fanboy type moments, I am choosing at this point-if such rules do exist- to completely ignore them. I do not have nearly […]
What Is All This Then?
EXTREMELY SHORT SUMMARY Lots of fans sign up for free memberships to read cool, fannish, free stuff: Advertisers pay to advertise: Ad revenue is used to fund a magazine: The magazine purchases content from authors […]
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