Blog Archives
sSUPERVERSIVE: The Perils of Backstoryitis
Tuesday , 7, November 2017 Superversive, Uncategorized 8 CommentsSo as I spent a couple of weeks looking at “Justified”, I find myself going back to the Death Note well recently. Partially it’s because I’m impressed at how incredibly well executed and intelligent it is, and partially it’s how even its failures – and it isn’t perfect – are quite instructive. Plus, there are […]
Forgotten Sword and Sorcery Artists: The Worst for Last
Sunday , 5, November 2017 Uncategorized 15 CommentsInvariably in any artistic field, there is some awesomely bad art or music that has you scratching your head and thinking “What the …?” The last entry in the Forgotten Sword and Sorcery Artists series is Patrick Woodroffe (1940-2014). There is a website for him with this biographical information: “Born in Halifax, Yorkshire, U.K. 1940. […]
Double Trouble by Carl Jacobi appeared in the Spring 1945 Issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org. “When Annabella C. Flowers, that renowned writer of science fiction, visiphoned me at Crater City, Mars, to meet her here[on Callisto], I had thought she was crazy. But Miss Flowers, known to her friends […]
[Thunder Jim Wade] called himself a trouble-shooter. But he had a habit of seeking trouble, and smashing it with a cold, ruthless fury that had given him both name and reputation. His past was shrouded in mystery. Years before he had flashed on the scene like a comet—a comet whose mission was to destroy such […]
A peregrine sailor returns to his home port of Venice in search of a famed emerald. On an Earth permanently hidden from ours by the sun, a young agent travels to the fabled city of Samaris in search for his missing colleagues. A Swedish mercenary must smuggle a holy relic out of Constantinople before the Fourth […]
Forgotten Sword and Sorcery Artists: Flotsam and Jetsam
Sunday , 29, October 2017 Uncategorized 7 CommentsSword and sorcery paperback art had some minor players, some memorable, some not. One artist who produced some covers including one stone cold classic was George Barr (b. 1937). Barr got his start with the second incarnation of Amra starting in the late 1950s. He did a few covers for the Celia Goldsmith era Fantastic […]
Short Reviews – The Silver Plague, by Albert de Pina
Friday , 27, October 2017 Uncategorized 2 CommentsThe Silver Plague by Albert de Pina was the featured cover story of the Spring 1945 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org. I’ve got to admit that I’m a little bit disappointed with The Silver Plague. Sharing the cover with Brackett as well as glowing accolades in subsequent issues’ letters […]
October 2017 Science Fiction New Release Roundup
Thursday , 26, October 2017 Uncategorized Leave a commentAn elite Legion Dark Ops team must brave the chaos of an interplanetary firefight to deprive the attacking Black Fleet of its prize. Far from the reach of their god, a fleet of space explorers prepares their last stand against an armada of their devils. An undercover spy rescues a scientist from the wreckage of […]
Forgotten Sword and Sorcery Artists: Three from the Pulps
Sunday , 22, October 2017 Uncategorized 6 CommentsThere are three artists whose careers started in the pulp magazines, continued with digest magazines, comic books, trading cards, and a few paperback covers: Norman Saunders, Frank Kelly Freas, and Wallace Wood. Norman Saunders (1907-1989) started in the middle 1930s painting innumerable covers for pulp magazines. He did work for comic books. I thought his […]
Short Reviews – The Happy Castaway, by Robert E. McDowell
Friday , 20, October 2017 Uncategorized Leave a commentThe Happy Castaway by Robert E. McDowell* appeared in the Spring 1945 issue of Planet Stories. It can be read here at Archive.org. Jonathan Fawkes wakes to a beautiful woman standing over him. He’s crashed on an asteroid while hauling seeds from Mars to Jupiter. Turns out he’s crashed on the same rock where over […]
Classic Traveller: Session Report 4
Thursday , 19, October 2017 Tabletop Games, Traveller, Uncategorized 1 CommentSession characters: Sir Percival Jones, 54577B, Age 30, Scout (3 terms, mustered out), Pilot 1, JOT 1, ATV 1, Vacc Suit 1 Elect 3. He’s cash poor, but, a lucky chap who’s survived 12 years as a scout and the service appreciates it by loaning him a ship. He’s playing Galahad on for a mother […]
SUPERVERSIVE: What was the Appeal of Harry Potter?
Tuesday , 17, October 2017 Uncategorized 16 CommentsWith Harry Potter having so saturated popular culture, to the point where it has become the main cultural touchstone among millennials, I’ve heard some people wonder this. They’re good books with some great moments, but heavily flawed. So why them? What did Harry Potter tap into? How did it turn into the juggernaut that it […]