Monthly Archives: August 2012

How Harryhausen Did It

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Harryhausen’s Cyclops from Seventh Voyage of Sinbad in armature form.

Ray Harryhausen – Master of the Majicks: Volume 1 – Beginnings and Endings by Mike Hankin is available for pre-order from Archive Editions.

The bio includes first-hand accounts by Forrest J Ackerman, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, Darlyne O’Brien, Bessie Love, Fay Wray, Beveley Cross, Kenneth Kolb, Jim Danforth, John Landis, Arnold Kunert, Randall William Cook, and many others. The 125,000-word text is accompanied by 2,000 photos, images, diagrams and posters.

Its “How To Make a Monster” supplement takes readers step-by-step through the process of constructing a stop motion model from blueprint to armature to clay sculpture to plaster mold to final foam rubber animation model, illustrated with photos from stop motion films like Caveman, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Willis O’Brien’s films, and more.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

An Unexpected Shortage

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Running out of number 2? In an election year? Is that possible? Oh, wait – it’s number 2 on the periodic table they’re talking about. And yes, we’re in the middle of a helium shortage. Time explains:

Helium is a common inert gas, but for commercial purposes it’s usually generated as a byproduct from natural gas mining. But because the recession has caused a slowdown in natural-gas production, helium markets are facing a shortage; more plants will coming online by the end of 2012 in Qatar, Russia and Wyoming, but not in time to ease the current crisis.

Hertz: TAFF & DUFF Auction at Worldcon

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By John Hertz: The Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and the Down Under Fan Fund will hold a combined auction at Chicon VII on Friday, August 31, at 6:30 p.m. in the Fanzine Lounge.

Murray Moore is co-ordinating the auction.  Chris Garcia the 2008 TAFF delegate, host of the Fanzine Lounge, will be an auctioneer, which will surely be awesome.  John Coxon the 2010 TAFF delegate will be another.

This annual auction is a big fund-raiser for each fund, and fun (as Vladimir Nabokov used to say, the difference between a thing’s cosmic element, and its comic element, consists of a single sibilant).

TAFF sends a delegate across the Atlantic, DUFF across the Pacific, in alternating directions, each year (more or less).  Delegates attend the Worldcon if it is at their destination, otherwise the national convention.

Have you something suitable to donate for auctioning? If you’re attending, can you bring it along? If you’re not attending, can you send it?

Rowena Morrill To Miss Worldcon

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Chicon 7’s Artist Guest of Honor Rowena Morrill will be unable to attend the convention.

She has recently been hospitalized but is now recovering from her health problems, according to information posted on the Worldcon website.

While over the long history of the Worldcon guests have rarely  missed the convention, it has been happening with increasing frequency in recent years. Death deprived the Worldcon of appearances by Charles N. Brown (a 2011 GoH), Frankie Thomas and Howard DeVore (guests in 2006), George Turner (a 1999 GoH) and Else Wollheim (a 1996 guest), while bad health forced the withdrawal or nonattendance of Ralph Bakshi (announced as a 2009 GoH), Robert Sheckley (a 2005 GoH), Kelly Freas (a 2003 GoH) , J. Michael Straczynski (a 1998 guest)  and Alfred Bester (a 1987 GoH). (Aussiecon fan GoH Donald Tuck didn’t attend in 1975, but I’m not clear whether that was unexpected.)

Follow 2012 Hugos Online

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Chicon 7 reports that members cast 1,922 valid final ballots for the 2012 Hugo Awards, second only to Renovation’s record-setting tally of 2,100 last year.

The Hugo winners will be announced Sunday evening, September 2, at the Worldcon. The ceremony begins at 8 p.m. (Central) and will be broadcast live via Ustream (www.ustream.tv/channel/worldcon1.)

The official Hugo Awards site will deliver live text coverage via CoverItLive. Past Worldcon co-chair Kevin Standlee and Campbell Award Nominee Mur Lafferty will host that broadcast.

Chicon 7 will take a step forward by having Hugo base designer Deb. Kosiba reveal and discuss her work during the Chicon 7 Opening Ceremony, rather than delaying until the night of the Hugo ceremony was done for many years.

The full press release follows the jump.

Continue reading →

Chicon 7 Program App Available

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Chicon 7 is offering app that lets users access convention information via handheld devices. Developed in partnership with Viafo, it is an enhanced version of the software used at last year’s Worldcon.

The version usable on Android phones, and tablets through Google Play, is already available. The one for iPhone and iPad will be offered soon via the iTunes App Store. Visit the Chicon 7 website to get instructions for downloading the app.

The app includes a full program schedule with item descriptions, times, and locations; a linked program participant list; social media integration; and hotel maps.

An upgrade last year is an integrated version of the program database, so information can be used offline. Members can resynchronize with the updated schedule at any time.

The full press release follows the jump.

Continue reading →

Expensive Autographed Books

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Almost one-third of the most expensive signed books ever sold by AbeBooks have been works of fantasy and science fiction.

But not the one with the highest pricetag, and the most surprising volume on the list — Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Why surprising? Because it’s not signed by the author. The copy wasn’t even published in his lifetime. The 1979 Arion Press edition’s worth — $28,900 — is attributable to its fine production values, rarity (only 250 copies sold), and the autograph of Barry Moser, creator of its 200 engravings and 10 drawings.

The top-ranked genre book sales are:

#2 – Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. $25,000. Signed first edition (1963).

#6 – Set of 6 Harry Potter novels all signed by J. K. Rowling. $16,219.

#7 – The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. $15,000. The original manuscript for Barker’s novella that inspired the Hellraiser films. Signed by Barker.

#10 – The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. $14,500. First impression of the first British edition published in 1951.

#12 – The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $14,000. First edition copies of all seven volumes of the series, signed and numbered.

#14 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. $12,874. First edition signed by Rowling and cover artist Cliff Wright.

#15 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick. $12,500. First edition signed by Dick. (1968)

#19 – Set of Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. $11,791. Complete set of deluxe edition Harry Potter novels, signed by Rowling.

#26 – The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. $14,450. Numbered copy signed by the author.

#28 – The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. $9,730. Signed by both Robert and Virginia Heinlein.

[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh for the story.]

For Ray on His 92nd Birthday

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A look back at Bradbury Landing.

Ray Bradbury would have been 92 today, August 22, and NASA has not forgotten. The space agency celebrated by announcing it has given his name to the site on Mars where its rover Curosity first came to rest — Bradbury Landing.

“This was not a difficult choice for the science team,” said Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity. “Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars.”

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

In Training for the Worldcon

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Kevin Standlee is happily looking forward to this weekend when he takes the California Zephyr to Chicon 7 in the the company of a group of fans including Chris Garcia, Lisa Deutsch Harrigan, and España Sheriff.

Standlee says so many of the fans going on the trip are members of the Bay Area Science Fiction Association that they’ll convene a club meeting on board the train Monday evening. BASFA Vice-President Chris Garcia will preside.

Seems to me there could be the makings of an anime in this story —

BASFA goes to the Worldcon.

NYRSF Readings for 9/11

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The 22nd season of New York Review of Science Fiction Readings begins September 11 with appearances by Carlos Hernandez and Richard Bowes.

Carlos Hernandez has written for Bewere the Night, You Don’t Have a Clue, Interfictions II, Interzone, Futurismic, and Fiction International. The CUNY professor of English is also lead writer for Meriwether, a computer role-playing game chronicling the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Richard Bowes has published five novels, two collections and 60 stories. His mosaic novel Dust Devil on a Quiet Street will be published in 2013 by Lethe Press. Lethe will also reprint his Lambda winning novel Minions of the Moon in late 2012. He has sold to F&SF, Icarus, Apex, Lightspeed and the anthologies Million Writers Award, After, Wilde Stories 2012, Bloody Fabulous, Ghosts: Recent Hauntings, Handsome Devil, and Hauntings.

The full press release follows the jump. Continue reading →