Pixel Scroll 6/29/21 It Takes A Heap Of Pixels To Make A File A Scroll

(1) DAYTIME EMMYS. The Daytime Emmy winners announced June 25 included this item of genre interest:

Outstanding Daytime Promotional Announcement
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous / Launch Campaign (Netflix)

Subsequently, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has revealed the nominations in its Children’s, Animation, Lifestyle Categories. Fansided reports that Star Wars: The Clone Wars picked up three nominations:

The final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released to widespread critical acclaim, and now the animated series will look to pick up some new accolades. It was announced this week that the seventh season of The Clone Wars has received three nominations at the upcoming Daytime Emmy Awards.

The show will look to take home the trophies for Outstanding Writing Team for a Daytime Animated Program, Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Preschool, Children’s or Animated Program, and Outstanding Sound Mixing and Sound Editing for a Daytime Animated Program.

The winners in the Children’s Programming and Animation category will be announced in a stand-alone show streaming at 8 p.m. ET July 17 on the Emmy OTT platform.

(2) THE LEVAR BURTON READS WRITING CONTEST. FIYAH Literary Magazine today announced the LeVar Burton Reads Origins & Encounters Writing Contest sponsored by FIYAH.

FIYAH is partnering with the LeVar Burton Reads podcast for their first-ever writing contest! Do you write speculative fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, horror)? Do you love the podcast? Have you dreamed of getting your work in front of THE LeVar Burton ever since the days of Reading Rainbow? Well, here’s your shot. We are looking for one special story to be featured in Season 10 of the podcast

The first place winner will receive $500 and the story will be read by LeVar Burton on an upcoming episode of the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. The second place winner gets $250, and the third place winner, $100.

Editors for this contest include Diana M. Pho and L. D. Lewis, with the final selection being made by LeVar himself. View full submission guidelines and contest rules here.

(3) WHEN NEW WORLDS WAS REALLY NEW. At Galactic Journey, Mark Yon reviewed the July 1966 issues of Impulse and New Worlds. To everybody’s surprise and delight, New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock himself dropped by to leave a comment: “[June 28, 1966] Scapegoats, Revolution and Summer Impulse and New Worlds, July 1966”. (Yon’s review of New Worlds covers an early story by Jon De Cles, who comments here.)

(4) WORDS BY ROY THOMAS. The Cromcast has published another recording from the 2021 Robert E. Howard Days:  “The Roy Thomas Interview!” Thomas was this year’s guest of honor.

(5) VERTLIEB ON THE ZONE. Paradelphia Radio featured Steve Vertlieb on January’s podcast about The Twilight Zone.

After over 50 years of rubbing shoulders with the giants of the entertainment industry, Steve Vertlieb’s resume reads like a cinephile’s dream. This week I speak with the award winning journalist and film historian about the cultural impact of Rod Serling and his seminal science fiction anthology series “The Twilight Zone”.

The late 1950s/early 1960s were a time of staunch conservatism in America. This ideology was prevalent in the mainstream entertainment Americans watched on their television sets and at the local cinema. Rod Serling was a man with a message but it wasn’t a message many at this time wanted to hear. A talented writer, Serling was also a student of history and he knew that to get a message through a fortress wall, sometimes you needed to give the gift of a Trojan horse. “The Twilight Zone” was that gift and in the guise of science fiction, black comedy and horror Rod Serling’s voice reached out to open the eyes, ears and hearts of a fascinated public. This week we welcome award winning journalist, film historian and archivist Steve Vertlieb to the show as we discuss the cultural impact of “The Twilight Zone” and how Rod Serling’s message is still relevant over 60 years after the show’s debut.

(6) CASTAWAYS. James Davis Nicoll chronicles these (unwanted) homes away from home in “Five SFF Tales of Survival in a Strange Place (or Time)” at Tor.com.

… I’m sure you could find many SFF novels about such fuddy-duddy tourism turning strange. There are also novels that up the stakes by marooning the protagonist far from home. This will certainly give the protagonist a way to display do-or-die determination by denying them any choice in the matter…

Consider these five works about castaways.

The Luck of Brin’s Five by Cherry Wilder (1977)

Travel on Torin is a simple matter of hopping into a convenient space-plane and jetting to some other location on the Earth-like world that orbits 70 Ophuichi. Or it would be, if Scott Gale had not just crashed his expedition’s only space-plane on the far side of Torin, near the Terran expeditionary base’s antipodes. Oops.

Torin’s native population is unaware that they have off-world visitors until Scott’s space-plane falls from the sky. To the family of weavers known as Brin’s Five, Scott could become their new Luck (an integral member of each Moruian family’s five-member structure). His arrival may save the weavers from misfortune and starvation.

To Great Elder Tiath Avran Pentroy, also known as Tiath Gargan (or Strangler), technologically superior aliens are an unwanted disruptive element. Best to quietly dispatch Scott before Strangler has to deal with the ramifications of alien contact. And if Brin’s Five are not public-minded enough to surrender their Luck? Why, they can be dispatched as well.

(7) WEISSKOPF WILL KEYNOTE WRITERS OF THE FUTURE CEREMONY. Authors Services President John Goodwin announced today Toni Weisskopf will speak at this year’s WOTF Awards Ceremony. Goodwin indicated they are looking at October 22 as the date of the event.

I am very happy to announce Toni Weisskopf, Publisher of Baen Books, as this year’s keynote speaker for the combined Writers and Illustrators of the Future 36/37 Awards Ceremony. Many of our past winners and current judges are published by Baen Books. Writers of the Future and Toni first connected up in 1989, when as a volunteer, she helped out at the Writers of the Future Awards Event in New York City. We are happy she will be back again!

(8) TIME ENOUGH FOR CATS. Did we mention there is a Japanese adaptation of Heinlein’s The Door Into Summer? Let’s make sure it hasn’t been overlooked by the Scroll:

(9) MEMORY LANE.

1999 — Twenty-two years ago, Charles Vess wins a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature for the illustrated version of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust which was published by Vertigo the previous year. Gaiman of course shared in that Award. It would also win a World Fantasy Award as well. 

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born June 29, 1919 — Slim Pickens. Surely you remember his memorable scene as Major T. J. “King” Kong in Dr. Strangelove? I certainly do. And of course he shows up in Blazing Saddles as Taggart. He’s the uncredited voice of B.O.B in The Black Hole and he’s Sam Newfield in The Howling. He’s got some series genre work including several appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, plus work on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Night Gallery. (Died 1983.)
  • Born June 29, 1920 — Ray Harryhausen. All-around film genius who created stop-motion model Dynamation animation. His work can be seen in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (his first color film) which was nominated for a Hugo at Detention, Jason and the Argonauts,  Mighty Joe Young and Clash of the Titans. (Died 2013.)
  • Born June 29, 1943 — Maureen O’Brien, 78. Vicki, companion of the First Doctor. Some 40 years later, she reprised the role for several Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio works. She had a recurring role as Morgan in The Legend of King Arthur, a late Seventies BBC series. Her Detective Inspector John Bright series has been well received.
  • Born June 29, 1947 — Michael Carter, 74. Best remembered  for being Gerald Bringsley in An American Werewolf in London, Von Thurnburg in The Illusionist and Bib Fortuna in the Return of the Jedi. He plays two roles as a prisoner and as UNIT soldier in the Third Doctor story, “The Mind of Evil”. 
  • Born June 29, 1950 — Michael Whelan, 71. I’m reasonably sure that most of the Del Rey editions of McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series was where I first noticed his artwork but I’ve certainly seen it elsewhere since. He did Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls cover which I love and many more I can’t recall right now. And there’s a wonderful collection of work available, Beyond Science Fiction: The Alternative Realism of Michael Whelan.
  • Born June 29, 1956 — David Burroughs Mattingly, 65. He’s an American illustrator and painter, best known for his numerous book covers of genre literature. Earlier in his career, he worked at Disney Studio on the production of The Black HoleTronDick Tracy and Stephen King’s The Stand. His main cover work was at Ballantine Books where he did such work as the 1982 cover of Herbert’s Under Pressure (superb novel), the 2006 Anderson’s Time Patrol and the 1983 Berkley Books publication of E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith Triplanetary.
  • Born June 29, 1968 — Judith Hoag, 53. Her first genre role was in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as April O’Neil followed by being in Armageddon playing Denise Chappel and then a Doctor in A Nightmare On Elm Street. She filmed a cameo for another Turtle film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, but it was deleted. She’s got one one-offs in Quantum LeapThe Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.,  Strange WorldThe Burning ZoneX-FilesCarnivàle and Grimm. Her latest genre role was in The Magicians as Stephanie Quinn.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) TOP DOGS AND OTHERS. Gizmodo has an opinion – do you? “DC Super-Pets Ranked: Krypto, Ace the Bat-Hound, Streaky, and More” Daniel Dern sent the link, adding “For those who are wondering ‘Hey, where’s Proty?’ I’ll let Tom Galloway or Kurt Busiek field that one.” (Warning – it’s a click-through slideshow.)

It is a good time to be a superheroic animal. DC’s League of Super-Pets animated movie is on the way and has somehow nabbed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the voice of Krypto the Superdog, along with Kevin Hart as Ace the Bat-Hound, plus Keanu Reeves, Kate McKinnon, Diego Luna, and more. But these critters—and maybe others—have long had superhero careers in the pages of DC Comics. It’s time to look at every member of the Legion of Super-Pets— and see how they compare….

(13) SALE OF THE MID-CENTURY. See a bit of sf history in a photo here on Facebook – at the 1968 Worldcon in Oakland/Berkeley, Harlan Ellison auctions off the services of David Gerrold (standing).

(14) BRING THE ANSWERS. For those who’ll be in Wellington, NZ on August 3 and 4, SFFANZ points out the availability of “A quiz from galaxies far away” at the Foxglove Bar & Kitchen. Ticket includes: canapés, two drinks and quiz.

Battle of the Galaxies

It’s time for a showdown of galactic proportions…
In which universe does your loyalty lie, are you Team Spock or is Darth your daddy? Foxglove and Gee Quiz are proud to strike back in 2021 bringing you a quiz from galaxies far away, a showdown between Star Wars and Star Trek superfans.

Whet your whistle in Mos Eisely Cantina while the food replicator whips you up dishes from culinary worlds like Endor, Naboo, Vulcan and Remus. Have you ever tried Petrokian Sausage? All teams answer questions from both universes, including specialty bonus food and beverage rounds to test your knowledge of culinary delights that are out of this world. Every ticket includes 2 drinks, canape and shared table banquet dishes from all corners of the universe!

Book your six person team ($450) or book a single ticket ($75) and declare your loyalty and we’ll match you up with like-minded quizzers.

(15) YOUR NEXT $500 TOY. Er, I’m sorry, only $499.99. “Massive Playmobil Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 Playset Gets Official Images”Comicbook.com has photos.

Playmobil appears to be taking on LEGO and some of the massive Star Wars sets in their Ultimate Collector’s Series lineup with the 70548 Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 Playset. It’s being touted as “the biggest and most deluxe Playmobil playset created up to this point”. UPDATE: Official images added. Additional images are available here at Entertainment Earth, where the set can be pre-ordered for $499.99.

ORIGINAL: How big? When complete the starship will measure 42-inches long and 18-inches wide. Features will include electronic lights and sounds that can be controlled via an app, and you can open up the saucer section of the Enterprise to see a full 1966-style bridge. The body of the ship will also open to display the engineering room.

(16) A DISTURBANCE IN THE FORCE. “Astrophysicists Detect Black Holes and Neutron Stars Merging, This Time for Certain” – let Gizmodo fill you in.

A large collaboration of astrophysicists report they have made the first-ever confirmed detections of shockwaves produced by mergers between neutron stars and black holes. The detections, 10 days apart, represent two of these enormous cosmic unions.

In January 2020, Earth quivered ever so slightly as shockwaves imperceptible to human senses passed through it. Those ripples were gravitational waves, perturbations in spacetime generated by all massive objects but only detectable from extremely huge events, like two black holes colliding. The waves were strong enough to be picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Louisiana (the Washington branch of the instrument was offline at the time) and the similar Virgo experiment in Pisa, Italy. These experiments detect gravitational waves using a sensitive arrangement of mirrors and laser beams.

Black holes are points in space with such intense gravitational fields that not even light can escape. They form when a star dies and collapses in on itself. Neutron stars form similarly; they are the extremely dense collapsed remains of dead stars and are mostly composed of packed-in neutrons.

(17) AROUND THE BLOCK. The New York Times reports “Venus Lacks Plate Tectonics. But It Has Something Much More Quirky.”

… Venus doesn’t have plate tectonics. But according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it may possess a quirky variation of that process: Parts of its surface seem to be made up of blocks that have shifted and twisted about, contorting their surroundings as they went.

These boogying blocks, thin and flat slices of rock referred to as campi (Latin for “fields”), can be as small as Ireland or as expansive as Alaska. They were found using data from NASA’s Magellan orbiter mission, the agency’s last foray to Venus. In the early 1990s, it used radar to peer through the planet’s obfuscating atmosphere and map the entire surface. Taking another look at these maps, scientists found 58 campi scattered throughout the planet’s lava-covered lowlands….

(18) SHOW BIZ WANTS YOU. Universal Studios Hollywood put out a call for contestants to be on “the first ever Harry Potter quiz show.” The application is here.

(19) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In “Honest Game Trailers: Ratchet and Crank:  Rift Apart,” Fandom Games says the latest line extension of the Ratchet and Crank franchise is so familiar that “if it seems like a new coat of paint on an old favorite, that’s what it is” and shows the rule of the gaming industry, that, “If it ain’t broke, just slap newer-looking graphics on it and charge full price.”

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Cora Buhlert, James Davis Nicoll, Daniel Dern, Andrew Porter, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, and Michael Toman  for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

40 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 6/29/21 It Takes A Heap Of Pixels To Make A File A Scroll

  1. 1st ! !

    I attended Magicon in Orlando in 1992, at the close of the convention I was to meet my ride back to Baltimore at the Art Show after the show closed and to help out with the tear-down. This nice artist came up to me and asked if I could give him a hand, he was having trouble getting a crate to close so that he could screw the top down and he asked me to stand on top of the crate while he screwed it down, which I gladly did. Only later did I find out that I had been standing on several thousand dollars worth of art by… Michael Whelan!

  2. (9) Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust (and the names are part of the title) was the original. The unillustrated novel came after.

    (10) The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. I was convinced this was what would finally kill Apple. After all the mobile/cell phone industry was cutthroat at the time and Apple was just getting by with maybe 8-10% of the desktop market.

    Next, I’ll tell you the story of how I confessed to a friend that the WWW was cute, but I didn’t see any practical applications for it.

  3. As far as Super Pets go, one detail I hope they omit is the time (and yes, this is/was canon) that Supergirl made out with Krypto the Super Horse!

    This could be worse, as Krypto, who was, canonically, a former centaur, was in human shape at the time, thanks to…weird magic. Nevertheless, there were plenty of creep factors involved. The link above is to some humorous analysis of the storyline by Sasha of Casually Comics, who I discovered after one of her videos was featured in a Pixel Scroll.

    I have genuinely never been able to see Krypto the same after watching this particular video. Sasha has another about the time Krypto dated Lois Lane, but I think I may have caused enough damage already. 😀

  4. Birthdays: When I was young, Michael Whelan was the cover artist, as far as I was concerned. Frazetta was good, but there was always something that felt awkward to me about his work (ditto Boris Vallejo), and I loved Frank Kelly Freas, but Whelan just seemed to be in a league of his own.

    Fifth?

  5. 10) …one hundred dollars in pixels, one hundred dollars in scrolls – shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend at Worldcon with this.

  6. @Soon Lee – I’m so excited! So happy to hear that Tennant and Sheen will reprise their roles.

  7. @ Schnookums Von Fancypants:

    I was going to say (substantially= the same. Wasn’t Krypto the Super-Dog? And I say that as soeone who mostly followed the Superman comics in translation.

  8. Jack Lint says (10) The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. I was convinced this was what would finally kill Apple. After all the mobile/cell phone industry was cutthroat at the time and Apple was just getting by with maybe 8-10% of the desktop market.

    Next, I’ll tell you the story of how I confessed to a friend that the WWW was cute, but I didn’t see any practical applications for it.

    What in the name of the Queen of Air and Darkness does that have do with the Birthday listings?I?

  9. NASA has completed its on-line tournament for selecting a name for a lunar test mannequin. See their announcement of “Commander Moonikin Campos”, named after an electrical engineer who was a key player in handling the Apollo 13 incident.

  10. @2
    Always good for me to see LeVar Burton. This is a.cool idea. The money’s nice, but then the exposure. Can’t buy that.

    @10
    When I was a gonzo 20-something, I wanted to write a novel from the POV of Slim Pickens, involving Sasquatch. Then I read Waldrop’s Night of the Cooters and decided that was close enough. I still want to do something with Sasquatch…

    @16
    Inspired by Carl Sagan and Voyager and the VLA, I wanted to be an astrophysicist when I was a wee robin. I didn’t have the mojo. It makes me so happy every time a new bit of data comes traipsing across our sensors. Forty years ago, we were blind and deaf to all these things, left to guess. It’s a magical time to be alive.

  11. (8) Yes, it has been trailed on the tv here. Looking forward to seeing what they make of it (if they got the right people it should be better than the book, but who knows).

    The cat looks especially good, but trailers can be deceptive!

  12. Jack Lint says Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust (and the names are part of the title) was the original. The unillustrated novel came after.

    Jack, I’ve searched every database that relates to books and nowhere is there any assertion that the names are part of the title. Titan who published it first doesn’t list it that way, nor does Vertigo who reprinted it in the USA. ISFDB simply has the title as Stardust. You can buy the Titan edition for under ten dollars currently.

  13. (10) As a guy whose Golden Age was in the early ’80s, Whelan was my template for what cover art “should” look like. Those Dragonriders of Pern covers were probably also my introduction to his art and nobody else’s art looks right for that series. Happy Birthday, and many many more!

  14. 9) The US Library of Congress has an entry for 4 comic book issues as:

    Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust.
    New York, NY : DC Comics
    Comic Book 06577 Vault
    Request in Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room (Madison LM133)

    And they note: “title from indicia”;
    “Monthly, December 1997-February 1998”.
    This probably precedes the 1998 Titan Books hardcover.

  15. Yes, Stardust originally came out as four perfect-bound issues from DC (although in format I’d describe them more as heavily-illustrated text rather than comic book) before being collected into the single, oversized hardcover, which itself predated the text-only paperback (in which I believe the text was slightly revised by Gaiman).

    And I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the intervening decades it’s had an actual comic book adaptation of the original prose work.

  16. 9) Definitely prefer the original co-created Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust over the later text only version!

    @Cat
    Miles Carter is explaining that Jack Lint’s comment was about the iPhone’s birthday.

    Meanwhile, I’m wondering what this comment has to do with the birthdays:

    Patrick Morris Miller on June 29, 2021 at 10:37 pm said:
    10) …one hundred dollars in pixels, one hundred dollars in scrolls – shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend at Worldcon with this.

    Was it suppose to refer to 13?

  17. Laura says Definitely prefer the original co-created Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust over the later text only version!

    I’ve never read the text only version as I simply love the original version but I also adore the Gaiman narrated version as well.

  18. Joe H. says And I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the intervening decades it’s had an actual comic book adaptation of the original prose work.

    ISFDB says there hasn’t been. Not sure why there would be given the definitive work that Vess and Gaiman did originally.

  19. Meredith moment: A. A. Milne’s The Red House Mystery is available from the usual suspects for just ninety nine cents. It’s a rather splendid British country house mystery quite suitable for these hot summer days.

  20. Oh, I will have to get the audio so I can follow along looking at Vess’ art while letting Gaiman read me the text! Complete immersive experience! 🙂

  21. @Laura: Patrick’s comment paraphrases a Slim Pickens line from Strangelove

  22. @Jack Lint You did understand that that 10 percent was ALL Apple’s, while the other 90 percent was being carved up among maybe 100 companies?

  23. Meredith moment: Rebecca Roanhorse’s excellent novel Black Sun is available for $1.99 from the usual suspects.

  24. Oh gosh, of course I meant Comet. And I even had the video open in a separate tab when I posted that, so I really have no excuse whatsoever. The brain is a wonderful and terrible thing! 🙂

    Seconding those who say that the Gaiman/Vess version of Stardust is the best! An absolute delight!

  25. Xtifr says Seconding those who say that the Gaiman/Vess version of Stardust is the best! An absolute delight!

    It is but Gaiman narrating his work is not to missed either. The man takes a great deal of delight in telling his story snd bring each of his characters fully to life.

    Now listening to Protector which the Suck Fairy hasn’t visited at all.

  26. The comic book versions (first four individual issues, then various collected editions) of Stardust were titled Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ Stardust. Not just on the front covers, but (at least for all of the ones I was able to check) on the copyright pages/indicia as well.

  27. I recall attending a talk by Neil — memory says it was at the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal, but elsewhere is possible — in which he said, that he and Charles Vess wanted to make it a condition of doing the work that they be credited in all promotion and advertising. DC balked at this for reasons that boiled down to, “We might forget”. So they put their names in the title, to make that impossible.

  28. @David Goldfarb
    Good for them! I also like the subtitle from the comic/graphic novel version, “Being a Romance within the Realms of Faerie”, which I haven’t ever seen on the text only editions.

  29. Laura says Good for them! I also like the subtitle from the comic/graphic novel version, “Being a Romance within the Realms of Faerie”, which I haven’t ever seen on the text only editions.

    I’m remembering now that I did read the plain vanilla version of Stardust once. It lacks the considerable charm of the Vess illustrated version or listening to Neil enthusiastically reading it.

  30. I read the text version before I discovered the illustrated one existed. Sometime before Vertigo reprinted the graphic novel when the original had become really rare.

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