Super-powered crooks have taken hostages in Staten Island? A dimensional rift tears open in Chinatown? Monsters running amok at the Met? Call in the THUNDER!
New York City will have its own authorized team of super heroes when Thunderbolts #1 is released on May 25. Rising out of the destruction of Devil’s Reign, this all-new lineup of Thunderbolts will star in a limited series by writer Jim Zub and artist Sean Izaakse. Zub penned a previous run of the series in 2016 and now returns to tell the adventures of a new Hawkeye-led Thunderbolts that includes favorites like Spectrum, America Chavez, Power Man, and Persuasion plus the exciting debut of Gutsen Glory, an experienced cyber-soldier seeking new glory.
In the aftermath of Devil’s Reign, the Big Apple has big problems, and it’s up to a new group of Thunderbolts to turn things around. But when Clint Barton gets tasked with heading up this team and proving they can go toe-to-toe with anything the Marvel Universe can throw at them, the first opponent he’s going to have to face is himself.
Check out three covers of the debut issue following the jump.
(1) #METOO. On February 12, attorney and former Weller colleague Cara Dehnert published an essay detailing her previous relationship with Bradbury biographer Sam Weller. The piece alleges mental, emotional, and sexual abuse from Weller, including rape. “What Happened To Me. By: Cara Dehnert” at Medium.
… “A difficult or unpleasant experience that changes a person in a lasting way” is a descriptor that applies to most stories. In spite of the promises of a recent literary movement that strives to elide unpleasantness in storytelling, it’s difficult to make a narrative compelling when characters aren’t changed as a result of struggle. Further, a story in which characters endure traumatic experiences without changing in response to them is a story that can cause immense harm.
Narratives help us to understand ourselves and the world around us, and stories that depict trauma as a temporary inconvenience reinforce the idea that ongoing trauma-responses are unusual, or even a sign of weakness. This real-world impact bears out in the way many people process—or are unable to process—their own real-life traumas. Many trauma survivors find themselves questioning why they’re unable to move on from traumatic events. They’ve consumed narratives in which scary things happen, but when the scary things are over . . . everyone stops being scared. So why shouldn’t the same be true in real life?
Treating a character’s trauma as though it can be resolved along with the plot is disingenuous. Treating a character’s trauma as though it must be resolved along with the plot is dangerous. Both are profoundly disrespectful to the story being told….
In a rebuke to Maryland state legislators, a federal judge has granted the Association of American Publishers’ motion for a preliminary injunction, blocking Maryland officials from enforcing the state’s new library e-book law.
“It is clear the Maryland Act likely stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the purposes and objectives of the Copyright Act,” concluded federal judge Deborah L. Boardman, in a 28-page opinion. Although the judge noted that the Maryland Act only requires an ‘offer’ to license and does not ‘explicitly require’ publishers to grant licenses to libraries, “this is a distinction without a difference,” Boardman concluded (lifting directly from the AAP’s brief), holding that the threat of civil and criminal penalties for non-compliance amounts to “a forced transaction” that “effectively strips publishers of their exclusive right to distribute.”
In enjoining the law, Boardman found that the AAP cleared all four factors necessary to grant a preliminary injunction—a likelihood of success on the merits; irreparable harm; winning the balance of equities, and that the injunction was in the public interest. But while the court entertained—and largely accepted the AAP’s arguments on each factor—the court’s decision ultimately came down to one simple finding (which the AAP also argued): the Maryland law is fatally flawed because it is preempted by federal copyright law….
(4) POKEMON. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times behind a paywall, Tom Faber reviews Pokemon Legends; Arceus.
The game “comes as something of a shock. There is rarely a surprise in a mainline Pokemon game–if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. While The Pokemon Company has spun its IP into the highest-grossing media franchise of all time, encompassing movies, merchandise and trading cards, there has always been an uncomfortable tension in the video games: that they are supposedly about the joy of adventure, yet have been proven remarkably unwilling to tread new ground for 25 years…
…Like Harry Potter and all the most successful franchises for younger children, Pokemon sells a dream, a world that children desperately want to be real. As a kid I yearned to make life-long friends with magical creatures. Arceus is not the Poikemon game I dreamt of, but it gets close. Game Freak has swapped the series’ aging skeleton for a promising new set of bones, creating a Pokemon game that feels fresh for the first time in over a decade. It achieved this by finally taking a leaf out of its own book–to make like a Pokemon and evolve.”
(5) IT MIGHT BE SFF. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Legendary Director Francis Ford Coppola has announced he will be dipping deep into his own pocket to fund a passion project: Megalopolis. Coppola wrote the script around 40 years ago (though one guesses there may have been revisions since). IMDb gives this succinct description,“An architect wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster.” GQ described it as, “A love story that is also a philosophical investigation of the nature of man.” Variety interviewed him about it: “Francis Ford Coppola to Spend His Own $120 Million on New Film: I Don’t Care ‘About the Financial Impact’”.
… Speaking to GQ magazine, Coppola said that major Hollywood executives reacted to his “Megalopolis” pitch the “same way they did when I had won five Oscars and was the hottest film director in town and walked in with ‘Apocalypse Now’ and said, ‘I’d like to make this next.’ I own ‘Apocalypse Now.’ Do you know why I own ‘Apocalypse Now?’ Because no one else wanted it.”
Coppola added, “So imagine, if that was the case when I was 33 or whatever the age and I had won every award and had broken every record and still absolutely no one wanted to join me, [then how do you think they’re reacting now?] I know that ‘Megalopolis,’ the more personal I make it, and the more like a dream in me that I do it, the harder it will be to finance.”
…When GQ asked if self-funding “Megalopolis” could mirror his experience on “One From the Heart,” a massive flop that Coppola spent years paying back the bank for, the director responded, “I couldn’t care less about the financial impact whatsoever. It means nothing to me.”
(6) BRENNER OBIT. Film editor David Brenner died February 18 at the age of 59 reports Variety. In 1990, Brenner won the Academy Award for film editing with director Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, sharing the award with editor John Hutshing. His genre film credits include Independence Day (1996), What Dreams May Come (1998), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2012 (2009), Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Man of Steel (2013), Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017), and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021).
(7) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
2005 — [Item by Cat Eldridge] On this day in 2005, Constantine was released in the U.S. Based off DC’s Hellblazer series, it starred dark haired Keanu Reeves as the much blonder-haired John Constantine, a decision that of course drew much criticism. It was, to put it mildly, produced by committee. The screenplay by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello off a story by Kevin Brodbin.
Its impressive cast included Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale, and Peter Stormare. I really Tilda Swinton‘s role.
Reception among critics was mostly negative with Roger Ebert saying Reeves that he “has a deliberately morose energy level in the movie, as befits one who has seen Hell, walks among half-demons, and is dying. He keeps on smoking.” The film made his most hated list.
Box office wise, it made nearly a 25 million dollars off a budget that was maybe a hundred million dollars. The studio has declined to admit how much the production costs were.
Over the years, its rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes has steadily climbed now standing at an excellent seventy-two percent. Huh.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born February 18, 1908 — Angelo Rossitto. A dwarf actor and voice artist, with his first genre role being in 1929’s The Mysterious Island as an uncredited Underwater Creature. His last major role was as The Master in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. He showed up in Galaxina, The Incredible Hulk, Jason of Star Command, Bakshi’s Lord of The Rings, Adult Fairytales, Clones, Dracula v. Frankenstein and a lot more. (Died 1991.)
Born February 18, 1919 — Jack Palance. His first SF film is H. G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come which bears little resemblance to that novel. (He plays Omus.) Next up he’s Voltan in Hawk the Slayer followed by being Xenos in two Gor films. (Oh the horror!) He played Carl Grissom in Burton’s Batman, and Travis in Solar Crisis along with being Mercy in Cyborg 2. ABC in the Sixties did The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which he played the lead dual roles, and he had a nice turn as Louis Strago in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which is worth seeing. (Died 2006.)
Born February 18, 1929 — Len Deighton, 93. Author of possibly the most brilliant alternative novel in which Germany won the Second World War, SS-GB. It deals with the occupation of Britain. A BBC One series based off the novel was broadcast several years back.
Born February 18, 1968 — Molly Ringwald, 54. One of her was first acting roles was Nikki in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. She’ll later have the lead role of Frannie Goldsmith in Stephen King’ The Stand series. And does the Riverdale series count at least as genre adjacent? If so, she’s got the recurring role of Mary Andrews there.
(10) WILD CARDS COMICS. Paul Cornell and Mike Hawthorne retell the foundational Wild Cards stories in new comic series, Wild Cards: The Drawing Of Cards #1 coming June 1.
Based on stories by Harold Waldrop, Roger Zelazny and series master-mind and editor, George R.R. Martin, Wild Cards is a fascinating saga set in a whole new world reshaped by the emergence of superpowers. The limited series, titled The Drawing Of Cards, will be written by a team of comic superstars, writer Paul Cornell and artist Mike Hawthorne, and serve as a perfect entry point for Wild Cards newcomers and a must-have new reimagining for Wild Cards aficionados!
Spanning more than 25 novels, 20 short stories, and written by more than 40 authors over three decades, the Wild Cards series tells the story of an alternate history where Earth is home to super-powered individuals. When a human is infected with the alien “Wild Card” virus, the odds are that they will be killed… which is referred to as “drawing the black queen”. Of those that survive, the bulk of them become “jokers”, left with some strange mutated form. A lucky few are called “aces”, those gifted with super powers they can put to use towards heroic goals… or villainous ones….
“As my fans may already know, the Wild Cards World holds a special place in my heart, so to have the privilege of announcing that an industry titan like MARVEL is going to produce the narrative from the beginning as a comic book brings me no end of joy,” [George R.R. Martin] added.
(11) ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY WALK INTO MORDLE. [Item by Jennifer Hawthorne.] You know that word game, Wordle, that’s burning up Twitter?
Well, variants are popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm, and someone came up with “Lordle of the Rings.” It’s Wordle, but you can only use five letter words found in “The Lord of the Rings.” (Mind you, given how long the books are, that covers a lot of ground.) Find it here: “Lordle of the Rings”.
… In the Industrial Revolution, a lot of the technologies that allow you to think about space flight come online, the most obvious one being pressure vessels, the other relevant ones being, essentially, large armaments. It’s not a coincidence that when Jules Verne talks about the technology for traveling to the Moon in his very well-known book “From the Earth to the Moon,” he essentially has the protagonists being underemployed armaments makers in the United States after the Civil War, who had incredible capabilities for developing large cannons, and they thought they might put them to a different use, a type of swords-into-plowshares initiative in the United States in the 19th century.
This results in a real explosion of stories about traveling into space. Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon” is written in the 1860s, but also written in the 1860s is the story “The Brick Moon” by Massachusetts pastor and writer Edward Everett Hale. He writes the first story about living on a space station. He and his brother, while they’re students at Harvard, basically come up with a concept for what today we would call a GPS system. All of these things are in the culture and in the literature.
Perhaps the most striking combination of these two themes of science fiction and astronomy is the story of Percival Lowell. Percival Lowell builds a little observatory, at which, later in the 20th century, the planet Pluto is discovered. I should say the dwarf planet Pluto. He is motivated by this idea of canals on Mars, which had been essentially emerging as a culture topic because of a mistranslation of Giovanni Schiaparelli’s Italian word canale, by which he meant channels, and which gets translated into English as canals. But Lowell sees these things, and he writes these books like “Mars as the Abode of Life.” And all of these popular culture works that expound the idea of a purported hypothetical Martian civilization, which, of course, gives further energy to the space flight movement overall.
That intertwining of astronomy and space flight ambition really is there in the 19th century, and of course, it continues up to the present day. The James Webb Space Telescope, of course, is one of the most exciting projects of our time. I was fortunate enough to take off some time from work and actually go down to French Guiana to watch the launch, and it was an amazing moment….
(14) HUMAN RESOURCES. This Netflix series isn’t about an HR department, but about aliens assigned to deal with humans. Airs March 18.
Life on Earth is pretty complicated. That’s why people need them. Welcome to Human Resources.
(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Apple, Inc. has turned their Signal Boost dial to 11 to promote a new Korean short film shot entirely on an Apple iPhone 13 Pro. Editing was done on Apple Macintosh computers. Director Park Chan-wook’s 21-minute fantasy Life is But a Dream—plus a short “making of” doc—are both available on YouTube. The soundtrack is available on Apple Music. 9to5mac has the story: “Apple shares film shot on iPhone 13 Pro by Park Chan-wook”.
An undertaker who needs woods to build a coffin for the savior of his village digs up an abandoned grave. But while doing so, he accidentally awakens the ghost of an ancient swordsman. Now the ghost tries to take back his coffin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzKqxtnWDY
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Jennifer Hawthorne,.John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, and Michael Toman for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Ingvar.]
The judging panel’s nominees for the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards 2022 have been announced. The finalists will be revealed in July, and the winners announced in September.
FANTASY
Lucy Holland, Sistersong
Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, The House of Rust
Tasha Suri, The Jasmine Throne
C.L. Clark, The Unbroken
Zoraida Córdova, The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun
A.C. Wise, Wendy, Darling
Laure Eve, Blackheart Knights
P. Djèlí Clark, A Master of Djinn
SCIENCE FICTION
Tade Thompson, Far from the Light of Heaven
Calvin Kalsuke, Several People are Typing
Nicole Kornher-Stace, Firebreak
Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age
Catriona Silvey, Meet Me in Another Life
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shards of Earth
Brent A. Harris, Alyx: An AI’s Guide to Love and Murder
Benjamin Rosenbaum, The Unravelling
Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace
BLURRED BOUNDARIES
Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars
K. Eason, Nightwatch on the Hinterlands
Un-Su Kim, The Cabinet
Monica Byrne, The Actual Star
T.L. Huchu, The Library of the Dead
E. Lily Yu, On Fragile Waves
Rena Rossner, The Light of the Midnight Stars
Rivers Solomon, Sorrowlands
Marshall Ryan Maresca, The Velocity of Revolution
DEBUT
Lorraine Wilson, This is Our Undoing
Ava Reid, The Wolf and the Woodsman
Elly Bangs, Unity
Louise Carey, Inscape
Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow
Genevieve Gornichec, The Witch’s Heart
E.J. Beaton, The Councillor
YOUNG ADULT
Anna-Marie McLemore, The Mirror Season
Namina Forna, The Gilded Ones
Lilliam Rivera, We Light Up the Sky
Krystal Sutherland, House of Hollow
SHORT STORY
Ellen Kushner, Immortal Coil
Malka Older, The Badger’s Digestion, or The First First-Hand Description of Deneskan Beastcraft by an Aouwan Researcher
A.C. Wise, The Amazing Exploding Women of the 20th Century
Isabel J. Kim, Homecoming Is Just Another Word For The Sublimation Of The Self
NOVELLA
Shingai Njeri Kagunda, & This Is How We Stay Alive
Yaroslav Barsukov, Tower of Mud and Straw
Aliette de Bodard, Fireheart Tiger
Chris Willrich, A Manslaughter of Crows
Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Well-Built
Premee Mohamed, These Lifeless Things
Adrian Tchaikovsky, One Day All This Will Be Yours
Alix E. Harrow, A Spindle Splintered
Catherynne M. Valente, The Past is Red
Premee Mohamed, The Annual Migration of Clouds
Dilman Dila, The Future God of Love
Aimee Ogden, Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Molly Knox-Ostertag, The Girl from the Sea
Hiromi Goto & Ann Xu, Shadow Life
Rachel Smythe, Lore Olympus
Wendy Xu, Tidesong
SERIES
Natasha Ngan, Girls of Paper and Fire
C.L. Polk, The Kingston Cycle
T. Frohock, Los Nefilim
Malorie Blackman, Noughts and Crosses
James SA Corey, The Expanse
The book critics responsible for this set of honors are –
The top choices for Asimov’s 36th Annual Readers’ Awards Poll are online. There are links that will allow you to read all the finalists. The winners chosen by readers will be revealed at a later date.
Analog Magazine has posted the 2021 AnLab Readers’ Award Finalists, the works from last year that finished in the top slots in each category of the Analog Analytical Laboratory. The winners will be revealed in Analog’s July/August issue.
There are links to PDF files (where provided) that will allow you to read the finalists.
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) today announced the winners of the 2021 IFMCA Awards for excellence in musical scoring.
The award for Score of the Year goes to composer Maurizio Malagnini, for his score for the unique fantasy-science fiction-ballet film Coppelia. The film stars members of the Dutch National Ballet and is an updated version of the original stage work by Léo Delibes, in which a pair of young lovers from a small European town must save their home from an evil interloper intending to use the townspeople’s ‘essence’ to give life to a robotic creation. The score was also named Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror Film.
James Newton Howard was named Composer of the Year, having written acclaimed music for two films in 2021, Jungle Cruise and Raya and the Last Dragon. Jungle Cruise was also named Best Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller film, while Raya and the Last Dragon was named Best Score for an Animated film.
Several more scores of genre works are among the winners listed below:
FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR
COPPELIA, music by Maurizio Malagnini
FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD
BREAKTHROUGH COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
OSCAR MARTÍN LEANIZBARRUTIA
FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR
“Arachnoverture” from SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, music by Michael Giacchino
ROBERTO ASCHIERI SPECIAL AWARD
NICK REDMAN
KYLE RENICK SPECIAL AWARD
WEST SIDE STORY
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM
THE CURSE OF TURANDOT, music by Simon Franglen
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM
CRUELLA, music by Nicholas Britell
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER FILM
JUNGLE CRUISE, music by James Newton Howard
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR FILM
COPPELIA, music by Maurizio Malagnini
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FEATURE
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, music by James Newton Howard
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY
TALE OF THE SLEEPING GIANTS [TUNTURIN TARINA], music by Panu Aaltio
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION, music by Bear McCreary
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A VIDEO GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA
RATCHET & CLANK: RIFT APART, music by Mark Mothersbaugh and Wataru Hokoyama
BEST NEW ARCHIVAL RELEASE – RE-RELEASE OR RE-RECORDING
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, music by Alfred Newman; album produced by Nick Redman, Mike Matessino, and Neil S. Bulk; liner notes by Julie Kirgo; album art direction by Jim Titus (La-La Land)
BEST NEW ARCHIVAL RELEASE – COMPILATION
THE FILM SCORES OF BERNARD HERRMANN, music by Bernard Herrmann; album produced by Tony d’Amato, Gavin Barratt, Raymond Few, and Tim McDonald; liner notes by Tom Schneller; album art direction by Matt Read (Decca)
… In 2020, a Sea Lion Press story won a Sidewise Award for the first time. Most Sidewise winners are paper novels by major book publishers which sell in the thousands so it was exciting to us that an ebook by a minor publisher with more modest sales could win it. You’re obviously not the only judge but do you consider popularity or legitimacy at all or would you be happy to vote for a self published ebook with barely any sales if you felt the work was good enough?
I try to read each story or novel for the Sidewise Award pretending I know nothing of its provenance. I try to ignore who the author is, who published it, or the way it got to press. To me, it is about the story being told and the way it is told. I try to judge each book on two levels. Is it a good/interesting alternate history and is it a well written book. I’ve voted down books I like because they were strong in one of those two categories, but weak in the other. If the writing isn’t good, the concept doesn’t matter and if the writing is good but the alternate history is weak, it is hard to consider it a contender….
(3) WHO CAN RESIST CETACEANS? [Item by Ben Bird Person.] Artist JohannesVIII (@ViiiJohannes) did this piece of two humpback whales assimilated as Borg from Star Trek.
(4) FANHISTORY ZOOM. Fanac.org’s next Fan History Project Zoom Series presentation is happening on February 26. To RSVP, or find out more about the series, please send a note to fanac@fanac.org.
Death Does Not Release You – LASFS Through the Years with Craig Miller (M), Tim Kirk, Ken Rudolph and Bobbi Armbruster
Date: February 26, 2022 Time: 4pm EST, 1pm PST, 9PM London, 8AM Sunday AEDT (Melbourne)
LASFS is unique – in its history and impact on fandom. LASFS has a clubhouse, a long list of professional writers that have been members, and has had an incredibly active fan group over the decades. Los Angeles area fandom has produced innumerable fanzines, six Los Angeles Worldcons (and many other conventions). Join us for a session with our real world AND fannishly accomplished participants – convention runners (including a Worldcon chair), a noted fan and professional artist, and a fanzine editor, all past or present LASFS members – in conversation about Los Angeles fandom from the inside.
Upcoming Fanac.org fanhistory Zooms are:
March 19 —Traveling Ghiants, Fan Funds from the Days of Mimeo to the Days of Zoom
Geri Sullivan (m), Lesleigh Luttrell (DUFF), Justin Ackroyd (GUFF) and Suzle Tompkins (TAFF)
(5) OMICRON AT ANIME NYC. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] The CDC has published a study of what ABC News identifies as the 2021 Anime NYC COVID-19/Omicron outbreak. The function isn’t named in the study, but details that are given match that convention. “Omicron spread quickly at convention in New York City — but boosters helped“ at ABC News.
…According to convention rules, attendees were required to have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and wear masks indoors.
The first case was reported to the CDC by the Minnesota Department of Health on Dec. 2 in a man — called Patient A — who had flown to New York City for the convention, the report said.
For the report, the CDC teamed up with the MDH and state and local departments across the country interviewing Patient A, and 23 of his 29 close contacts from 13 states who also attended the convention.
Patient A had traveled to New York City on November 18. He was fully vaccinated and received a booster shot earlier in November, according to the authors.
However, he developed symptoms on Nov. 22 and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, after which he notified all his close contacts, the report said.
Of the 23 attendees contacted, 16 tested positive for the virus, equating to an attack rate of 70%.
All the contacts were fully vaccinated, but only 11 had received a booster dose before going to the convention, according to the report. The authors indicate that having a booster dose lowered the odds of testing positive for COVID-19.
Ten of the 12 people, or 83%, who didn’t receive a booster tested positive for the virus while six of the 11 people, 55%, who tested positive were boosted, meaning there were 1.5 times fewer infections in boosted individuals….
(6) TEXMOOT CALL FOR PAPERS. Signum University is hosting a hybrid event, TexMoot 2022, whose theme is “Starships, Stewards, and Storytellers: How Imaginary Worlds Teach Us to Care for This One”. It takes place in Austin, TX on March 26. Registration costs $50 for on-site participants, $25 for online attendees, and $15 for students in either mode. To register, click here. The complete call for papers is here.
In 2022, Signum University’s Annual Texas Language and Literature Symposium (TexMoot) invites you to join us as we consider the ethical turn in speculative fiction: How do imaginary worlds teach us to care for this one?
From ecological concerns to social commentary, science fiction and fantasy offer readers a mirror through which to view our own world. For example, the struggles of a terraforming planet may remind us how precious and fragile is the one we live on. The real-world conflict between nature and technology comes to life on the page when trees march to war. We may find insights into how to interact with people around us by spending time with characters in a fellowship—or on a starship.
At TexMoot 2022, you will explore questions like: How do we relate to the Other—the “monsters” and “aliens” beyond the bulkhead door? What roles can technology play in preserving nature or reinforcing what makes us human? Do humans change the nonhuman environment, or are they inevitably changed by it? Is there really a clear line between the human and the nonhuman, anyway? And whose responsibility is it to preserve “civilization” and transmit its legacy to future generations?
TexMoot 2022 will also investigate the ways authors convey these commentaries. What literary techniques best serve the message; at what point does a work cross the line into propaganda? When does the message serve the story, and when does the story serve the message?
The TexMoot Team is looking for both traditional academic papers (of about 15 minutes) and shorter discussion prompts in which the presenter talks for 5 minutes and ends with a provocative question to start a roundtable discussion. Presentations and discussion topics can be more academic or popular, according to your preference and experience.
Stranger Things, a signature show for Netflix since its premiere in 2016, has been renewed for a fifth and final season.
In addition to the climactic renewal, the company said the long-awaited Season 4 of the show will premiere in two “volumes,” the first on May 27 and the second on July 1. In an open letter to fans (read it in full below), co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer said the split season resulted from the season’s nine episodes having a total running time twice as long as that of any previous season.
The Duffer Bros noted that the full arc was expected to be “four or five” seasons when they first envisioned the show, so the end is not a surprise. Plus, it won’t be the end of the franchise, they promised.
“There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things: new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes,” they wrote. “But first we hope you stay with us as we finish this tale.”
(8) IT HAPPENED TO JANE. You may not be able to watch Natalie Portman gear up as Thor just yet, but you can pre-order an action figure of her. Gizmodo offers “Thor Love and Thunder Natalie Portman as Thor First Look”, but it comes with a spoiler warning.
While movie studios like Marvel like to keep all details about their films under complete wraps, there’s one truth they simply cannot get around: It takes a long time to make merchandise, especially action figures. That’s why they’re often the first looks at movie outfits and characters, and it’s why we’re getting this first look at Natalie Portman as Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. In related news, she’s awesome—as regular Thor’s new movie outfit, which you can also see here!…
(9) RIDE WITH THE SPACE COWBOY. Simultaneous Times science fiction podcast episode 48 is live, featuring short stories by F.J. Bergmann and Toshiya Kamei with original soundtracks by Phog Masheen and RedBlueBlackSilver. “Simultaneous Times Ep.48 – F.J. Bergmann & Toshiya Kamei”. Simultaneous Times is a monthly science fiction podcast produced by Space Cowboy Books in Joshua Tree, CA.
(10) FAREN MILLER (1950-2022). Faren Miller, a Locus staffer and contributor for 37 years, died February 15 at the age of 71 reports Locus Online. Miller was hired by Locus in 1981, and her last review column for the magazine was in 2018. Her only published novel, The Illusionists (1991), was a finalist for the William Crawford – IAFA Fantasy Award for first fantasy book.
(11) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
1989 — [Item by Cat Eldridge] Thirty-three years ago, the first film of what would become the Bill & Ted franchise, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, premiered on this day. It was directed by Stephen Herek as written by Chris Matheson, son of author Richard Matheson, and Ed Solomon, writer of the first Men in Black film, who would write all three of these films.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, of course, stars Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and George Carlin. (I met the latter many years ago. A rather nice gentleman he was.) Two out of the three had successful careers after this, one really didn’t.
It was a box office triumph earning back forty million against a modest budget of just ten million.
Critics generally hated it. The New York Times in reviewing it flatly stated that it was a “painfully inept comedy”. And the Los Angeles Times said that it was an “unabashed glorification of dumbness for dumbness’ sake”. Dissenting from this unrelenting hostility, the Radio Times cheerfully said ir was a “flawless, purpose-built junk movie”.
So how do audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes view it now? Well, they give it a most bodacious seventy-five percent rating.
(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born February 17, 1912 — Andre Norton. She penned well over a dozen series, but her major series was Witch World which began rather appropriately with Witch World in 1963. The first six novels in that series were Ace Books paperback originals published in the Sixties. I remember them with fondness quite some decades after reading them. (Died 2005.)
Born February 17, 1913 — David Duncan. A screenwriter and novelist who was nominated twice for Hugos, first for being writing the screenplay for The Time Machine at Seacon, and for the same work on Fantastic Voyage at NyCon 3. He also wrote Time Machine: The Journey Back sequel to The Time Machine. And he wrote The Outer Limits’ “The Human Factor” episode. (Died 1999.)
Born February 17, 1939 — Kathy Keeton. Founder and publisher of the now defunct Omni. It was founded by her and her partner and future husband Bob Guccione, the publisher of the also defunct Penthouse. It would publish a number of stories that have become genre classics, such as Card’s “Unaccompanied Sonata”, Gibson’s “Burning Chrome” and “Johnny Mnemonic” and George R. R. Martin’s “Sandkings” to name a few of the stories that appeared there. (Died 1997.)
Born February 17, 1954 — Don Coscarelli, 68. A film director, producer, and screenwriter best known for horror films. His credits include the Phantasm series, The Beastmaster, and Bubba Ho-Tep, the latter based a novella by Joe R. Lansdale whom I’ve met and who is a really nice person.
Born February 17, 1971 — Denise Richards, 51. Her first genre role was as Tammy in Tammy and the T-Rex (really don’t ask). Her next role was the one she’s known for as Carmen Ibañez in Starship Troopers. A few years later she’ll be Dr. Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough, the eighteenth Bond film. She played Victoria Dare in Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate’s Cove.
Born February 17, 1975 — Jerry O’Connell, 47. Quinn Mallory on Sliders, a series whose behind-the-broadcast politics is too tangled to detail here. His first SF role was on Mission to Mars as Phil Ohlmyer with the SF dark comedy Space Space Station 76 with him as Steve being his next role. He’s done a lot of of DCU voice work, Captain Marvel in Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam, Clark Kent / Superman in Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Justice League Dark, The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen where he also plays Cyborg Superman to great, chilling effect. The latter film is kickass excellent.
This week Amazon, launched a new app for its digital comics platform, Comixology, and a new Amazon-native online storefront that will eventually replace Comixology’s browser-based store and reader. But the new changes have alarmed both users and creators.
Long-time Comixology users have taken to social media to list all the ways the new web and app user experience represents a step backward from what they’re used to. Chief among the many complaints is a new web reader that doesn’t display double page spreads correctly, has removed creator credits from book listings on the storefront, and lacks both panel-by-panel and zoom functions, rendering most comics in illegibly small images….
Dear God. This is a disaster. Comixology's reader is going away, so as of next week here are my options to read comics on desktop. There is no two-page view. There is no zoom. I have not altered these pictures aside from markup.
(14) MISSING A PART OF THE FUTURE. Voice acting veterans Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Kari Wahlgren, and Charlie Adler call out Hulu, which is reviving Futurama but hasn’t been willing to meet the terms of Bender’s voice John DiMaggio: “Futurama Hulu revival: Actors supporting John DiMaggio” at SYFY Wire.
A number of established Hollywood veterans have come to the side of John DiMaggio as the actor continues to clash with Hulu and 20th Century Studios over proper compensation for the streamer’s upcoming revival of Futurama.
The official announcement of the beloved series’ return from co-creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen was slightly marred by the fact that DiMaggio (who voices foul-mouthed robot Bender and a plethora of supporting characters) was the only member of the original cast who had not signed on for the revival. It was soon reported that the show would recast Bender in the wake of contract negotiations stalling out. If talks have ended for good between both parties, some fans say they won’t be tuning in if DiMaggio isn’t brought back for the 20 additional episodes slated to premiere sometime next year (production kicks off this month)….
Disney has launched a new business for fans who can’t bear to leave the pristine, family-friendly world the corporation has nurtured through its theme parks and media ventures.
“Storyliving by Disney” will operate as part of the company’s theme parks division, developing a series of master-planned communities for residential living, designed by Disney’s creative staff and offering the same pampered tranquility found in its resorts.
“Picture an energetic community with the warmth and charm of a small town and the beauty of a resort,” said Disney Parks, Experiences and Products exec Helen Pak in a promotional video.
Only one location has been announced so far: a community of 1,900 housing units named Cotino that will be built in the city of Rancho Mirage in California’s Coachella Valley (a location where Walt Disney himself once lived)….
(16) SPLISH SPLASH, YOU’LL BE TAKIN’ A BATH. [Item by Michael Toman.] I can’t be the only Filer who would be interested in reading this Kim Stanley Robinson nightmare scenario, with or without fires and earthquakes. What will California’s coast look like in 100 years? “We’re Kind of Built on This Knife’s Edge” at Alta.
Eighteen thousand years ago, give or take, the continental shelf 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco was exposed as a wide, flat coastal plain with an extensive system of dunes and river valleys connecting the Farallon Islands to the continental United States, which didn’t go by that name. Farther north, salt waters from the Pacific Ocean stretched all the way inland to present-day Sacramento.
Rising sea levels have continued to erode the shoreline ever since, as human beings established a society they would eventually call California. Some of our biggest cities were built in this 10 miles of dynamic coastline.
“We often think of the California coast as this high-relief terrain with active tectonics, which it is, but we’ve put millions of people in the lowest parts of the entire state, like the San Diego Bay, the San Francisco Bay, and the Los Angeles Basin,” says Patrick Barnard, the research director of the climate impacts and coastal processes team at USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz….
Chinese engineers are developing a large, four-legged robotic “yak,” supposedly capable of hauling as much cargo as two real yaks. The unnamed robot—which seems destined for military use—is similar to the robo-dog concept that Waltham, Massachusetts-based Boston Dynamics has popularized over the last decade. But a careful reading of the video shows that it may just be a bunch of Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
Supported by its four spindly legs and barrel-shaped body, the robot is topped off with a cargo-carrying metal rack. Global Times, a Chinese tabloid with links to the Chinese government, claims it can carry up to 160 kilograms (352 pounds) and travel at up to 6.21 miles per hour. It cites the Chinese Communist Party news site People’s Daily as saying the robot was “the world’s largest, heaviest and most off-road-capable of its kind.”…
…. Robo-yak isn’t going anywhere anytime soon for the same reasons the Marines never pursued LS3: robots run on batteries and once the batteries run down, it takes hours—at a place with abundant power to spare, which is not exactly the desert—to recharge them.
Set within the same universe as its parent series, The Boys: Diabolical acts as an eight-part collection of animated short films exploring a range of stories related to the corrupt superhero world that fans of The Boys have come to know and love. Each episode will run between 12 and 14 minutes and feature a unique animation style.
(19) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In “Honest Game Trailers: It Takes Two,” Fandom Games says the gimmick of this game is that you’re supposed to play it with your partner and preserve your marriage. But the narrator says a better test is to “Play Cuphead with your wife, because if your marriage can survive that, it can survive anything!”
[Thanks to Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Steven H Silver, Chris Barkley, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Randall M.]
Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour has announced M H Ayinde is the winner of the 2021 prize, for her novel A Shadow in Chains.
The runner up is Salma Ibrahim, with her novel Frankincense.
The winner and runner-up were chosen from a shortlist of eight by judges Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Lloyd Bradley, Valerie Brandes, Shobna Gulati, Zahra Hankir and Tasha Suri.
Ayinde wins £4,000. Her novel is set in a place called the Nine Lands, where only those of noble blood can summon their ancestors to fight in battle. But when a commoner from the slums accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she finds it could hold the key to ending a centuries-long war.
The judges said of A Shadow in Chains: “A Shadow in Chains is a cool and confident novel, excellently written, that feels very now. We wanted to be in the world of the novel as we read it, and felt this was a book doing something very exciting in the SFF space.”
Ibrahim wins £2,000. Frankincense follows a character called Sidra Ali, who on her way to work on a London bus finds herself arriving in a parallel universe in modern day Mogadishu, Somalia. There she discovers what life would be like if her family hadn’t left Somalia during the civil war.
The judges said of Frankincense: “This is an evocative and layered novel with great potential. It feels original yet recognisable, and we loved that it centred working class experiences.”
The six runners-up of the prize will each receive £800. They are (in alphabetical order by author surname):
The Sawling by Jordan Collins
In the City of Villages by Franchesca Liauw
Margot, Who Is Beautiful Now by Bea Pantoja
The Warden by Madeehah Reza
Contracts Made in Gold by Aqeelah Seedat
A Box Full of Stories by Fatima Taqvi.
The winner and runner-up were announced at an event held at The London Library on Wednesday, February 16.
Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour aims to find new talent based in the UK writing in the SFF space, from magical realism and space operas to dystopia and more.
All shortlisted writers, the runner-up and the winner will also receive mentoring from one of the prize’s publishing partners: HarperCollins’ SFF imprint HarperVoyager, Penguin Random House UK’s Del Rey UK, Gollancz, Hachette’s SFF imprints including Orbit, and Pan Macmillan’s Tor.
Future Worlds Prize, first run in 2020 and founded by bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch, was previously called the Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award. As part of the prize’s long-term aim of opening science fiction and fantasy publishing to more people, it has been rebranded for its second year. The prize is sponsored by Aaronovitch, with additional financial support from Bridgerton actor Adjoa Andoh. It is administered by Cityread, a registered literature charity.
The 2020 prize was won by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson for The Principle of Moments, a space-based adventure story. Jikiemi-Pearson has since secured a publishing deal with Gollancz, and her debut novel will be released this year.
The Yoto Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. The winner of each receives £500 worth of books to donate to their local library, a specially commissioned golden medal and a £5,000 Colin Mears Award cash prize.
A total of 148 books were nominated for the 2022 Medals; 76 books for the Carnegie Medal and 72 for the Kate Greenaway Medal. This includes two titles that have received nominations in both Medal categories. The longlists were chosen by the judging panel, which includes 14 children’s and youth librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group.
There are 33 longlisted books – 18 for the Yoto Carnegie Medal and 15 for the Yoto Kate Greenaway Medal – with themes of community and connection, shared humanity and friendship all explored in the titles.
The shortlists will be announced on March 16, and the winners on June 16. The two books of genre interest have their covers displayed.
THE 2022 YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL LONGLIST
October, October by Katya Balen, illustrated by Angela Harding (Bloomsbury)
Musical Truth by Jeffrey Boakye, illustrated by Ngadi Smart (Faber)
We Were Wolves by Jason Cockcroft (Andersen Press) *
Guard Your Heart by Sue Divin (Macmillan Children’s Books)
When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle (Andersen Press)
When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten (Pushkin Children’s Books)
The Climbers by Keith Gray (Barrington Stoke)
Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Faber)
The Wolf Road by Richard Lambert (Everything With Words)
Rat by Patrice Lawrence (Oxford University Press)
The Crossing by Manjeet Mann (Penguin Children’s Books)
Grow by Luke Palmer (Firefly Press)
The Valley of Lost Secrets by Lesley Parr (Bloomsbury)
Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada (Guppy Books) *
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)
Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle (Andersen Press)
In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner (Andersen Press)
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
THE 2022 YOTO KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL LONGLIST
While You’re Sleeping illustrated by John Broadley, written by Mick Jackson (Pavilion Books)
Drawn Across Borders illustrated and written by George Butler (Walker Books)
The Midnight Fair illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio, written by Gideon Sterer (Walker Books)
Wild Child illustrated by Barry Falls, written by Dara McAnulty (Macmillan Children’s Books)
A Cat Called Waverley illustrated and written by Debi Gliori (Otter-Barry Books)
Too Much Stuff illustrated and written by Emily Gravett (Two Hoots)
Diamonds illustrated and written by Armin Greder (Allen & Unwin Children’s Books)
Over the Shop illustrated by Qin Leng, written by JonArno Lawson (Walker Books)
Long Way Down illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, written by Jason Reynolds (Faber)
The Invisible illustrated and written by Tom Percival (Simon & Schuster)
Milo Imagines the World illustrated by Christian Robinson, written by Matt de la Pena (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Shu Lin’s Grandpa illustrated by Yu Rong, written by Matt Goodfellow (Otter-Barry Books)
I Talk Like a River illustrated by Sydney Smith, written by Jordan Scott (Walker Books)
The House by the Lake illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, written by Thomas Harding (Walker Books)
The Wanderer illustrated and written by Peter Van den Ende (Pushkin Children’s Books)
By James Bacon: It’s been a challenging time, but fans have risen to the challenge in ingenious, interesting and beautiful ways, creating, making, painting and arting.
It’s been a productive time, and with issue 62 of Journey Planet we look at some of the incredible work and fun times fans have had.
We celebrate some of the wonderful things people have been up to which include:
fitting out a camper van
building a Lego steam train
making galifraen tiles
crochet octopus helmet cover
pens and inks
Knitting
Peeps theatre
wooden mushrooms
a TARDIS door
We also have a wonderful look at the art of Meg Frank, Sara Felix and Iain Clark who share their work, Tiaras, Block Printing and painting.
With contributions from Vanessa Applegate, Constanze Hoffman, Emma King, Alissa McKersie, Edie Stern, Christy Kearny, Liz Loikkanen, and James Shields, we also touch upon what and how fandom has managed, with a consideration of the Virtual year of cons from Marcin Klack and how inertia will be overcome as fandom strives to regather in our enditorial.
A feast for the eyes, the “Crafting in Covid” issue is co-edited by Sara Felix, Christopher J. Garcia and James Bacon. We hope you enjoy it.
Future issues being worked on range from SF, Comics and the American War in Vietnam, Warrior Comic a 40th celebration, and V for Vendetta amongst a number of subjects.
Contributions, comments, feedback and letters of comment always welcome to journeyplanet@gmail.com
