(1) WHAT’S A FEW MILLION BETWEEN GEEKS? Wizard World will be scaling back conventions after posting a $4.25M loss in 2015.
The comic convention franchise Wizard World is scaling back the number of conventions after filing a $4.25 million loss in 2015, according to ICv2. The company, which takes its name from the defunct magazine Wizard, held 25 events in 2015 for a combined revenue of $22.9m, which was less than 2014’s convention revenue of $23.1m despite only hosting 17 shows that year. Looking closer, Wizard World’s 2015 conventions earned on average $916,000 per show, as opposed to $1.36m in the year prior.
Additionally, Wizard World has sold all but 10% ownership of the fledging ConTV to Cinedigm. That venture was a $1.3m loss for WizardWorld in 2015.
WizardWorld has 19 conventions planned in 2016, with one being the new ‘con cruise’ venture.
(2) WISTFUL WATNEY. From The Martian Extended Edition, now on Digital HD, DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD.
Mark Watney marvels at Earth and contemplates on the reasons for his rescue from Hermes.
(3) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER. Mark Gunnells wrote “A Love Letter to Joe R. Lansdale”.
Some of you may be saying, Who’s that? And if you are, that makes me sad. The man’s talents are so immense that he really should be a household name in my opinion. His books never fail to impress and thrill me, and I’ll give a few reasons why I am such a fan.
One, simplicity. The man’s language can be so lean and yet convey so much. He doesn’t have to do a lot of literary acrobatics to get his point across, but can say so much with such economy of words. It is something I aspire to.
Two, dialogue. I’m a sticker for good dialogue, and Lansdale knows how to do it. His characters talk in a way that is witty and fun but also believable and authentic.
Three, darkness of character. But not just of the villains. He isn’t afraid to infuse his protagonists with darkness too. They aren’t all saintly and virtuous, but a mixture of good and bad, just like real people.
Four, diversity. The man does westerns, mystery, horror, and a great deal of fiction that defies category. I think that hurts him in some ways, since the industry (and many readers) like writers who are predictable, where they know what they’re getting going in. That isn’t Lansdale, and I love him for it. He is also equally adept at short stories, as well as novels and novellas.
(4) ROAD WARRIOR. “Letter From Terry Brooks: The Importance of Touring” at Suvudu.
…Chained to my computer and locked away for 8 to 10 months while writing, you tend to forget what it is you are writing for. You tend to forget how wonderful it feels to hear that your books mean so much to the readers. You forget that it gives you energy and inspiration for your work. But the book events remind you of all this, and they give you an unmistakable desire to go back and do more and to never, ever disappoint your readers by doing something that is less than your best work.
Love the families that come out. Sometimes four or five, all reading the books at once. Love the stories of how people came to read the books in the first place – frequently through another member of the family recommending them. Love the way the stories and characters have impacted people at times in their lives when things seemed a bit bleak. I am reminded of how we all escape into books to flee our own lives now and then, and when we do we inevitably return better able to get on with things. Love all the strange, wild tales of where people were and what they were doing when they read a particular book…..
(5) TWEETAGE OF THE LAMBS. Here’s a little-known fact about Amazon rankings.
This is exactly how it works. Says so right there in the manual. Of course, when you drop below me I eat your liver. https://t.co/MrCzFwrkot
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) June 9, 2016
(6) TODAY IN HISTORY
- June 9, 2006 — The animated feature film Cars, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, roars into theaters across the United States.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY DUCK
- Born June 9, 1934 — Donald Duck made his first screen appearance in “The Wise Little Hen.”
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS AND GIRLS
A time traveler, a pirate and a princess…
- Born June 9, 1961 — Michael J. Fox
- Born June 9, 1963 — Johnny Depp
- Born June 9, 1981 — Natalie Portman
(9) WHITE HOUSE LOOT CRATE IN HEADLINES. The Toronto Globe and Mail reports “Obama gave Trudeau a signed copy of Star Wars script”.
According to ethics disclosures, Justin Trudeau was given a copy of “The Force Awakens” script – the seventh Star Wars movie, released last year – signed by writer/director J.J. Abrams. U.S. President Barack Obama gave Mr. Trudeau (a big fan of the sci-fi franchise) the gift, along with a sculpture, a photograph and toys for the children, during the state visit to Washington in March.
Mr. Trudeau and his family gave the Obamas a sculpture and indigenous clothing.
The personal touch of this particular gift is no doubt a sign of how close the two world leaders are. Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Obama will see each other again at the end of the month, when the President comes to town for the North American Leaders’ Summit in Ottawa on June 29. Mr. Obama is expected to address parliamentarians while he’s in town.
(10) BROOKS FANZINES. The University of Georgia (as reported last month) is displaying Ned Brooks’ fanzines in the Rotunda of the Russell Special Collections Libraries through July. Now there is also a companion online exhibit anchored by George Beahm’s tribute, “To Infinity and Beyond! The Fanzine Collection of Ned Brooks”.
(11) WILLIAMS SCORES AFI AWARD. Tonight John Williams picks up the 44th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. The ceremony will air on TNT on June 15.
John Williams’ storied career as the composer behind many of the greatest American films and television series of all time boasts over 150 credits across seven decades. Perhaps best known for his enduring collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, his scores are among the most iconic and recognizable in film history, from the edge-of-your-seat JAWS (1975) motif to the emotional swell of E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) and the haunting elegies of SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993). Always epic in scale, his music has helped define over half a century of the motion picture medium. Three of Williams’ scores landed on AFI’s 100 Years of Film Scores — a list of the 25 greatest American film scores of all time — including the unforgettable STAR WARS (1977) soundtrack, at number one. With five Academy Award® wins and 49 nominations in total, Williams holds the record for the most Oscar® nominations of any living person.
(12) VAPORTECTURE. “Is a Comic-Con museum headed to Balboa Park?” asks the San Diego Union-Tribune. The answer is: not necessarily.
So far it’s undecided whether such an attraction would simply share space with the Hall of Champions or occupy nearly all of the 68,000-square-foot, memorabilia-filled venue next to the Starlight Bowl.
“I heard they might be interested in doing something, so I made contact and began a conversation, and it’s been going on for awhile,” said Hall of Champions board member Dan Shea. “We have a space that could be considered under-utilized for what we have. Comic-Con is an iconic community group, and we would love to see them stay here, so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a museum for them in our hometown. And that’s what we talk about when we get together now and then.”
But no deal has been reached, and it could be some time before a museum even materializes, Shea acknowledged.
“There’s no hurry to move it along,” he said.
Comic-Con International spokesman David Glanzer was equally vague about the prospects for a Balboa Park museum devoted to the popular arts icon, a San Diego presence since 1970. The four-day convention, which now draws more than 130,000 attendees, is contracted to stay in San Diego through 2018.
Asked about what the museum might showcase and how much space it might occupy, Glanzer responded, “We’re still in discussions. I’m sorry but we haven’t gotten that far yet.”
Shea said an announcement about the possibility of a museum was made, in part, to put to rest “silly things we were hearing about what people thought they knew about this.”
(13) SEVENEVES MOVIE MAYBE. “Skydance Reunites ‘Apollo 13’ Team For Neal Stephenson Sci-Fi Novel ‘Seveneves’” – Deadline has the story.
EXCLUSIVE: Skydance has set the Apollo 13 team of writer Bill Broyles, director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer for an adaptation of bestselling author Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel Seveneves. Grazer and Howard’s Imagine Entertainment is producing the ambitious adaptation.
(14) KRAKEN, NOT STIRRED. Nerdist “Meet the GAME OF THRONES Brittle Star: Ophiohamus Georgemartini”.
The trend of naming new species after pop culture icons is on the rise, and we’re giving the latest addition to the list of nerdy namesakes our stamp of approval. A brittle star, found deep in the South Pacific, has been officially dubbed Ophiohamus georgemartini because of its likeness to the thorny crown found on the cover of book two in the Game of Thrones series, A Clash of Kings….
The George R.R. Martin-friendly specimen was found off the coast of New Caledonia, at a depth of 275 meters (902 ft), but you can find brittle stars in shallow waters as well, and even in rocky tide pools. “Brittle stars live everywhere,” explains the Echinoblog’s Dr. Christopher Mah. “Under rocks, in the mud, on corals, under corals … even on jellyfish. Many of them are tiny, tiny little critters that fit easily into cracks, crevices and nooks in rocks.”
[Thanks to Stephen Burridge, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bruce Baugh.]
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::ticky::
wow fifth three places early.
gotta recalibrate the flux capacitor
Ah, Ned. A great friend to have when we only had one friend in town. Without previous acquaintance outside apas and such, he made himself totally available and helpful in our earliest days in Newport News (where he had earlier saved the sanity of Steve Stiles).
Just started Seveneves yesterday. I’m a tiny bit way through it, and I remember both what I love and hate about Stephenson. Last year I didn’t vote for Best Editor Long Form, and am not planning to this year, but if there was a year where Stephenson put out a novel that was as readable as his early material, I would vote for his editor above all others.
Present and accounted for.
ETA: FIFTH woo hoo
Based on Seveneves, I feel no need to read anything by Stephenson again. I liked the premise a lot, but felt no connection to any of the characters. And the last part was so ridiculous, I did not bother finishing it.
I’m one fourth into Aliette de Bodard’s House of Shattered Wings and so far finding it “meh”. Anyone else read it?
I just finished Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel and liked it quite a bit. It ends with a mystery, but not a cliff-hanger. I’m really looking forward to the next book.
I read the first chapter, I think, of Shattered Wings, and then moved on. I thought it was interesting, but given what I’d heard about it, and how it started, I decided to try something else. Someday I’ll try it again.
I’m currently a little annoyed about having to do homework-type reading for Hugo voting. I really want to start Riddle Master, but I’ve got to finish up Seveneves and check out the Campbell finalists I haven’t read yet.
Thanks to Bruce Baugh for the Yes reference.
A couple years ago, after playing “I’ve Seen All Good People” in concert, Jon Anderson said something like “All over the world, when I play that, people sing along. They all know all the words. I was watching a Japanese audience, and thinking ‘they’re singing and they have no idea what the words mean’….Actually, I don’t know what the words mean, either.”
I’ve always been most amazed that we Yesfans can sing along to such nonsense as
Bluetail, tailfly
Luther, in time
Sun tower, asking
Cover, lover
June cast, moon fast
As one, changes
….
Extended cut of The Martian?
Well, there’s $20 spent. I hope the Digital HD code enclosed with it is for the extended version, too…
I just wished they had mentioned that there would be an Extended Version coming before I bought the Blu-Ray on release day. 🙁
@Ray:
It’s a double-dip for me, too. I can’t tell for sure (thanks for the incomplete extras list, Fox!), but it looks like some extras on the original release weren’t carried over. Plus, there’s the 3D disc in the original that’s not in the extended package, so it’s not a total loss.
Ita: I’m one fourth into Aliette de Bodard’s House of Shattered Wings and so far finding it “meh”. Anyone else read it?
I enjoyed it but was not gaga over it. It’s very, very brutal — so those of you who prefer to avoid such content, be warned.
Sleeping Giants is up soon on my list. I hope that it’s as good as it sounds.
She’ll always be a junior assassin-in-training to me.
Ita:
I liked it at the start, but found it increasingly eight deadly words as it went on.
As I think about it, I find AdB’s settings interesting, her characters tend to be driven by the setting rather than their driving the story.
Third fifth!
My reading currently is SPEAR OF LIGHT, sequel to THE EDGE OF DARK by Brenda Cooper. Transhumanism, prejudice, cultures clashing in her “Creative Fire” universe. Enjoying it highly.
I love De Bodard’s other work, but House of Shattered Wings just didn’t work for me, although I persevered and finished it. The best way I have of explaining it is that I felt as if I were reading the second book of a series.
A lot of the story depended on worldbuilding and characterisation too complex to leave offscreen. I didn’t care about any of the characters and could barely tell them apart — I could see that the author had created rich and complicated backstories for them, but they just… weren’t there on the page. Similarly, the world setting felt like it had too many moving parts which didn’t mesh in a satisfactory way without more setup and introduction.
I really wanted to like it, and I’m still contemplating getting the second book in the series when it comes out — I wonder if some of these issues will fall away given enough established story.
I would love to see some prequel short stories that fill in the missing pieces — the way Galactic North does for Revelation Space (which I had a similar reaction to).
Reading: just finished The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. Really rather enjoyed that and will be reading the sequels even with its liberal use of quantum mechanical terminology which I could see as putting some people off.
Not sure what to go for next, I’ve got a stack in the TBR pile but actually quite fancy reading Negata’s The Red which I don’t have yet.
I’ve read it and whilst I admired the setting I didn’t find the characters particularly engaging. It’s one of those books that authors and the blogosphere seem to love but I didn’t get it myself.
Agree with what seems to be the general consensus on House of Shattered Wings — interesting ideas, but ultimately didn’t care much about the characters.
Today’s Read — Beastkeeper, by Cat Hellisen
Hellison is an author I’ve always found good enough to pick up the next book she writes, but never quite good enough to rave about. Her best book is still probably “When The Sea is Rising Red”, which I quite like.
“Beastkeeper” is about a young girl who discovers her family is beset by curses stemming from a rivalry two generations ago. It’s got some beautiful, evocative writing, and takes a sharp look at the easy answers of fairytale endings. I think it would appeal to fans of modern fairytale stories by authors such as Sarah Beth Durst or RedWombat. However, while I liked it all right, it didn’t knock my socks off or anything.
Incidentally, this may be my last post here for a couple of weeks — I’m heading abroad for a little while.
I just finished rereading “The Stars My Destination” and “The Demolished Man” — they were in an ebook sale or bundle some time in the last few months. I’m not sure how long it has been since the last reread: possibly 20 or 30 years.
This time around, I was struck by how decadent the upper classes were in both books. Somehow I feel Trump would fit in well in those worlds political and business environments. But he isn’t nearly stylish enough to keep up.
I was impressed at how racially diverse the characters were, though the terminology was dated. The ‘Negro’ characters are characters who happen to be not white, which is nice, and there are important ones in each book.There’s a whole cluster of stereotypical ideas and images of Chinese history that are deliberately invoked in the Yang-Yeoville character in “The Stars…” but they are being used in some complicated layered games.
And the books depict worlds where womens’ opportunities are limited in various ways AND make it clear that this is problematic.
On the whole, I was impressed by how few allowances were needed for modern sensibilities while enjoying the prose. And how much is stuffed into two books that are quite short by current standards.
@emgarsso I recently re-read/listened to The Demolished Man and was struck at just how good it holds up. I owe myself a re-read of Stars at some point.
Ben Reich as a more stylish Trump. I can definitely buy that
[click it good]
Like a lot of male nerds my age, I spent inordinate time trying to decipher what Yes lyrics meant. Then punk happened AND I learned that Yes lyrics meant nothing, and I felt betrayed. There the matter lay for many years. Then I came to appreciate nonsense verse and ((a little bit L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, and found that, accepted as nonsense verse, Anderson’s lyrics were superb.
And Gates of Delirium is a superb anti war piece, and the joke of basing the “Soon” section on the melody of “The Way We Were” is hilarious and pointful.
@Jim Henley
You mean I can stop trying to decipher Yes lyrics? 🙂
I bought SEVENESE (whatever) to read and after about 130 pages in, I set it aside and didn’t check back. SNOW CRASH was very good, and I could tell one character from another. Don’t know what changed with the writing.
The other novels of Bester’s are quite good, WHO HE? being fine, OOP because…? And TENDER LOVING RAGE was a limited edition. They aren’t SF, but they are remarkable.
I enjoyed Seveneves quite a bit. While there was a lot of engineering/physics aspects to the story that were great, there were some that missed the mark by enough to take me out of the book.
It’s left me really very conflicted.
—
Regards,
Dann
Totally earwormed from today’s title.
Beth, glad it’s not just me.
…so satisfied I’m…..
ARGH! Maybe I’ll put on the Hamilton soundtrack. Although that’s trading one earworm for another.
After years of having no use for more of Stephenson’s work, I really liked Seveneves, much to my surprise.
Scrolls for Aging Pixels
Pixel Control to Major Scroll
(1) – Wizard World is a weird beast to me. They came up to Toronto a few years ago and seemed to adopt an attitude of “Well we are so successful in the states, all you vendors and artists should be thanking us for giving you the opportunity to buy a table at one of our shows!” and the prices of all table types were really high for what turned out to be a teeny-tiny con. It was so small, they didn’t even fill the smallest room in the fancy building they booked it at, they had a partition up to keep it contained and there were still empty tables in the vendors area AND artist alley. They tried a few days before the con to sell me an extra table, but all they did was offer it to me at the same rate they had been offering it the whole time! LOL No discount at all. I said “pass” and I’m sure glad I did, because the con was a total dud.
Traffic and sales were slow even at the best of times, part of that was because they had in the back half of the room a table-top gaming area that had a separate entrance AND it was free, unlike the rest of the con which had an entry fee, so where do you think most of the young and/or lower income people (mostly male) went?
Other things about the show were bafflingly misorganized for a company that supposedly had so many shows under it’s belt. It was on the same weekend as another unrelated event ALSO called Wizard World (this was a kid’s carnival for March Break apparently, what are the odds??) on the same property so there was considerable confusion which one was the right one to go to. Despite it being only March, they either had the AC on or they had the heat turned off, so I spent a good amount of time freezing, wearing my toque and coat indoors. During the convention they played some sort of mixtape music REALLY LOUDLY on the overhead, to the point where we had to shout to be heard. Repeated attempts to request the music be turned down were rebuffed by staff quite rudely, to the point that another vendor/artist started a petition out of frustration. The hours of the convention kept shifting day to day, ending in weird times like 9:45 and each piece of paper we got with the hours said something different.
And the celebrities weren’t spared the confusion, I don’t know a lot of the details but the fact that I managed to almost collide with Mercedes McNab (from Buffy) when we were both coming/going from the ladie’s washroom, I am pretty sure that’s not normal and that guests are given access to more private washrooms and such? It was a funny moment in that we were both moving so quick we literally stopped nose to nose, said in almost unison a startled “Sorry!” and moved out of each other’s way lol The celeb list was mostly wrestling celebs rather than more geeky ones, which was also weird but apparently WW’s thing in the US?
Anyway, they gave the impression of seeing conventions as a cash cow and everything they did was meant to milk that cow as much as possible, often without any real concern for manners or keeping good relations with vendors or anyone else. Never did that show again and don’t miss it.
[ticky]
Well, at least if a Seveneves movie gets made, all the exposition will be stripped out…
Seriously, I don’t know how a film of any usual running length would do anything but gut the story. (Unless, of course, they tossed out the complete third section, which I wouldn’t mind at all.) A lot happens in that book; if they filmed the whole thing, the movie would run five or six hours.
And, of course, this being [white-male-dominated] Hollywood, one wonders if they would undercut the story by changing some of the “eves” to guys.
The kind of media video release needed for SEVENEVES is a mini series.
IN RE Seveneves:
I think (who else does) that by this era, visual media that is well produced/written/etc (regardless of length and presentation format) has proven that good story/art will find its audience.
It took RHPS several years and rolling out as a midnight thing – but it found its audience (look where it is now…)
If visual media producers really wanted to make dollars over the long haul, they’d not be worrying about fitting stuff into pre-determined lengths, they’d be worried about quality. And when they invested in a project, it would be on the basis of earnings over time (long tail), rather than “biggest opening weekend since last week”.
But short term thinking goes hand-in-hand with short term profits, so that will probably never happen.
On ebay there’s a screenplay for THE DEMOLISHED MAN . Oliver Stone’s name is connected to it. Another version has Brian dePalma. Interesting.
(13) This is one case where I expect that the inevitable butchering of the source material can only improve it.
Quality and good writing didn’t hurt the productions of Pratchett’s GOING POSTAL or THE COLOUR OF MAGIC, but these two (and others) aren’t well known stateside. I prefer a lot of BBC mini series over some movies. THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1980s) is pretty damn good.
I think there are several portions of Seveneves in the range of ten to twenty thousand words from which could be made good movies.
Robert Whitaker Sirignano on June 10, 2016 at 5:38 am said:
I’m afraid the Suck Fairy has moved in with furniture there.
(I read that in my late teens as an annual summer thing; eventually the physical [hard cover!] copy disappeared. A friend had the paperback [The Rat Race], which I borrowed, expecting an old friend. Uh-uh. Homophobia and racism. Some sexism [although that was where I first encountered the term “male chauvenist pig”]. Ick.)
The puns are probably still good, though.
I very much enjoyed HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS, as well as much of the short fiction in the same setting. It’s darker than I usually read, but not so much as to put me off. None of the characters are particularly likable, but they all feel very individual and well-motivated. And I enjoyed how very unlike anything else the setting and premise is. A great sense of place and depth of worldbuilding (as long as you don’t think too much about worldwide demographics). As with the couple of de Bodard’s Xuya stories that I’ve read, I really enjoy being teased and hinted at and forced to construct my own understanding of what’s going on, rather than having things explained in so many words.
If you’re missing Hayley Atwell since AGENT CARTER ended and don’t want to wait for her new series CONVICTION later this year, she’s starring in a BBC radio drama tomorrow, playing twin sisters; one getting married, the other determined to stop the wedding by any means.
“Cassandra At The Wedding”, BBC Radio 4, Saturday, June 11th, 2:30 PM (GMT). As usual, the show can be listened to online “shortly after broadcast” for a limited time (usually 30 days).
OK, if I really wanted to make a Seveneves drama I’d be thinking TV rather than film. And if I were going to do the whole thing then I’d cut the structure up dramatically, and model it on something like Arrow.
We start in the Cradle, and largely have the ring society as a framing sequence to telling the main story which is set in the 21st century. I can’t see that making 2-3 seasons in the near future and then something going full Star trek could work.
@Kip W: “Through the Pixel Scrolls of wonder…”
@steve davidson: AFAICT, visual media producers are frequently not working with their own money. This means that long tail only works when you find investors willing to take the chance that they won’t even be able to write off a bad investment (a common result) for several years, let alone make money on it. There has been some very good work done by deliberately working the long tail (Mirrormask was originally supposed to have a trivial theater presence, then follow the long-term home video success of Labyrinth), but that seems to involve working with an order of magnitude less money — see Gaiman’s discussion of (IIRC) replacing a school class of girls with more of McKean’s small-scale effect work because the latter was cheaper.
The Scroll of the Marquis de Sade
New Panda at Space Academy!
Seagull regrets that post pub curry.
Well made me smile…