Monthly Archives: February 2012

Nazis In Space

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A whole lot of sci-fi tv series have found an excuse to work Nazis into an episode, notes a LA Times blog, surprised it took so long for a filmmaker to realize they could go straight for the gold, never needing the crutch of series characters and framing.

Now a Finnish production company is about to give us Iron Sky, a Nazis-on-the-Moon political parody with lots of special effects and a touch of Mel Brooks style madness.

In 1945 Nazis went to the moon
In 2018 they are coming back

The Times blog sums up:

In 2018, the U.S. president, who looks suspiciously like Sarah Palin (in an Oval Office filled with taxidermied polar bears), and her sultry, ambitious campaign manager decide a moon mission is just the ticket for re-election publicity.  Astronaut/Male Model James Washington stumbles upon the secret base and becomes a prisoner and experimental subject for the moon Nazis, including the optimistic teacher Renate Richter, who later becomes his love interest.  

Together with ruthless officer Klaus Adler, they return to the Earth in advance of a major invasion.  Along the way, Renate’s idealism and Klaus’ blood lust become translated into American political campaign rhetoric. Add in a few CGI galactic battles, fanboy humor, world leaders in fisticuffs over energy supplies, and a space vixen or two, and you’ve got yourself a film.

The makers worked within a rock-bottom budget, some of it crowdsourced. The website is pleasingly silly. There are two trailers – surprisingly the teaser is the more satisfying. The full trailer is at the official site.

Maberry, Valente at NYRSF Readings for 3/6

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Jonathan Maberry and Catherynne M. Valente will be at the NYRSF Readings on March 6 to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s first novel, A Princess of Mars: 

Honoring that, we will take an excursion to Barsoom (Mars, in the native lingo) with our fearless guide, John Joseph Adams; who fell asleep in a cave and woke up if not on Barsoom, at least California. Making a brief return to NYC, he will bring along two of Barsoom’s great inhabitants to read: a princess of Mars, Catherynne M. Valente, and a mighty Jeddak, Jonathan Maberry. 

The full press release follows the jump. 

P.S. I don’t know which of the two spellings of “jeddak” in the press release is authoritative, a regrettable gap in my literary education. The internet seems happy with both of them, which doesn’t help any. 

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Tarpinian: Father Electrico

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By John King Tarpinian: On January 29 there was the unveiling of an 8’ bronze statue dedicated to Ray Bradbury and his stories.  Ray had dubbed the statue, Father Electrico.  The patrons who have purchased the statue for their front yard call him, The Illustrated Man.

The statue is of a man carrying a boy.  The man represents Ray’s father with the boy being Ray.  When Ray was ten his father carried the exhausted Ray home from the circus. 

On the back of the statue are 3-D reliefs inspired by Ray’s stories. You can see depictions of spacemen destined for Mars, firemen getting ready to burn books, The April witch, Lions from The Veldt and much more.  The vines represent how Ray weaved together short stories into the “novels” The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.

The evening was attended by many of Ray’s fans and close friends. A gaggle of Ray’s theatrical actors were in attendance.  Even Captain Beatty made an appearance in the guise of character and voice actor Michael Prichard.  Prichard played Captain Beatty in Ray’s last two theatrical productions of Fahrenheit 451.  Of course, the majority of the attendees were true patrons of the arts.

We were treated to a demonstration of the bronzing process.  I cannot do justice in describing the process but suffice it to say it was very impressive.

If you are interested in the artist, Christopher Slatoff, here is a link to his website and better images of the statue.  If anybody is interested, miniatures of the statue are going for only $20,000.00.

Hertz: What Do You Mean, Plergb?

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By John Hertz: Your readers might want to know what “Plergb” means.  If so they would not be alone.

It was introduced by Tom Digby during his days in APA-L (Am. Publ. Ass’n – LASFS; LASFS the L.A. S-F Soc. having been the host of L, though not the sponsor, more than forty years now).  He was Fan Guest of Honor at ConFrancisco, the 1993 World Science Fiction Convention; his GoH book Along Fantasy Way was edited by Lee Gold and can still be obtained from her, lee.gold (at) ca (dot) rr (dot) com.

The alien in Niven’s “What Can You Say About Chocolate-Covered Manhole Covers?” (1971) is Digby’s analogue.

Digby taught us of the Plergb Commission (not its real name).  That “not its real name” is another APA-L running gag.  In this case it is because the real name is P.L.E.R.G.B.C.O.M.M.I.S.S.I.O.N. = Plergb Language Entropy Regulatory Governing Bureaucratic Commission Overseeing Multiple Managerial Issues Surrounding Singular Instances of Nomenclature.

The by-laws provide, “The word Plergb may be used in many ways, some of which have not been discovered yet.”  Thus explaining is customary, e.g. “Plergb, defined as having corrected all the typographical errors in this comment”, or  “Plergb, defined as a pair of robot musicians”.

Also “‘Plergb’ is always capitalized because it is the name of the word Plergb.”

Also we have been informed of the medieval spelling, Plyrrhghb.  Also the eternal question, and its answer, namely Glorb g’dorpt-borpt?  Plergb.

I’m told Digby has a Website – http://www.well.com/user/bubbles

Value Added

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Chris Sims’ “How Jack Kirby’s Art Helped the CIA Rescue Diplomats in 1979” is an exemplary case of the “value added” principal of blogging.

During the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, when many other U.S. embassy personnel were taken captive, six U.S. diplomats in Teheran were hidden by Canadians til intelligence agencies got them out. Instead of a stealthy escape by night, the plan chosen involved a fake movie production company, brazen publicity, Jack Kirby art and a story by Roger Zelazny.

The CIA’s own lengthy account of the adventure, first published in 2000, has been available online since 2007. The trouble is, the specifics about the comics and science fiction connections were glossed over in a single anonymous paragraph:

This script fit our purpose beautifully, particularly because no uninitiated person could decipher its complicated story line. The script was based on an award-winning sci-fi novel. The producers had also envisioned building a huge set that would later become a major theme park. They had hired a famous comic-strip artist to prepare concepts for the sets. This gave us some good “eyewash” to add to a production portfolio.

Chris Sims has taken the CIA story and — for the edification of his fellow fans – traced the backstory of the stfnal props in that portfolio. The never-made movie based on Roger Zelazny’s Hugo-winning Lord of Light. Jack Kirby’s production designs for the never-built SF theme park. Great stuff.

[Thanks to Joel Zakem for the story.]

Not Hunting for Votes Anymore

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Tim Burton’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter opens June 22. If the just-released trailer shows the 16th president as an ax-wielding animated superhero, the imagery is so compelling I’m convinced this movie will be more than a mashup of Axe Cop and Van Helsing. 

(“Animated” because the trailer seems mainly composed of computer-generated action and effects although this is a live-action movie.)

In the unlikely event any of you don’t know the work:

Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote the screenplay based on his book of the same name, chronicles Lincoln’s humble upbringing through his rise to the presidency, the Civil War, and the emancipation of slaves. All this is set against the backdrop of Honest Abe slaying evil spirits and seeking revenge upon the vampires who killed his mother when he was a young child.

Franchises in Collision

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The comic book cover features Doctor Who and Captain Picard, the Tardis and the Enterprise. Need more be said?  

Come this May, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 will unite the Borg and Cybermen in an unholy alliance opposed by the crew of the Enterprise plus the Doctor and his companions. As ever, the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance.

The eight-issue series will be written by Scott and David Tipton, whose credits include Star Trek: Infestation, with an assist from veteran Doctor Who writer Tony Lee and with fully painted artwork by J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel).

[Thanks to David Klaus for the story.]

Chicon 7 Adds Liebergot

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Former NASA Flight Controller Sy Liebergot has been added as a Special Guest at Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon.

Liebergot was a NASA flightcontroller during the Apollo years. His 2008 book, Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime, according to Susan Raizer’s review, is a compelling read:

The job of EECOM was an awesome responsibility for all of the missions, each with their own quirks and anomalies, but none more so than for Apollo 13. The book details how on that fateful day when an explosion ripped away most of the crew’s oxygen, Liebergot worked with his back room support to come up with alternatives to mitigate against this catastrophic loss. The author describes the scene in Mission Control so well that the reader can feel the tension as everyone worked together to save the crew’s lives.

Sy Liebergot’s presence alongside Guest of Honor Story Musgrave adds further depth to Chicon 7’s tribute to the achievements of manned spaceflight.

The full press release follows the jump.

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James Bacon: Vote for Irish SF Series

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By James Bacon: An Irish Science Fiction series, funded by our national broadcaster [RTÉ], is and was unthinkable but some serious people with aspirations, some of whom come from a fannish background, are attempting it.

But we need to vote for it to continue.

I was stunned by the first webisode…

RTÉ Storyland

The Earth has been conquered by the Oortesian Alliance. The Ministry of Reason, a Vichy-style government, now runs Ireland. Can one man make a difference?

I didn’t expect it to look as good as that, and am impressed. And of course am voting, but see what you think.

And please consider passing this one onwards