Pixel Scroll 5/8/16 The Pixelshop of Isher

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(1) CHINESE NEBULA AWARDS. Regina Kanyu Wang, linking to the Chinese-language announcement, informed Facebook readers about three people who will be guests at the Chinese Nebula Awards this year: Worldcon 75 co-chair Crystal Huff, SFWA President Cat Rambo and Japanese sf writer Taiyo Fuji.

Crystal Huff responded:

I am so very honored and pleased to reveal what I’ve been quietly psyched about for a while now:… I am thrilled to go to China for my first ever visit, and meet new friends in Beijing and Shanghai! So thrilled!

Cat Rambo told File 770 she’s more than excited about the trip:

I am super!! stoked!! about it and have been spending the last month and half trying to pick up a little conversational Mandarin. Post Beijing, another Chinese SF organization is taking me to Chengdu for a similar ceremony involving SFF film awards. This trip is – next to being able to tell Carolyn Cherryh she was a SFWA grandmaster — one of the biggest thrills of being SFWA president I’ve experienced so far, and I’m looking forward to getting to know the Chinese publishing scene a bit better in a way that benefits SFWA and its members.

(2) ANIME EXPO HARASSMENT POLICY. Sean O’Hara reported in a comment, “Anime Expo just went hardcore with a new Youth Protection program that requires all employees, volunteers, vendors and panelists to submit to a criminal background check and take an online courses.”

Read the policy here [PDF file].

SPJA Youth Protection Policy

  1. Purpose and Goals

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) recognizes the importance of protecting youth participants in SPJA events and activities, including online activities. SPJA has adopted a zero tolerance policy with regard to actions or behaviors that threaten the safety of young people, including violence, bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other inappropriate or potentially harmful actions or behaviors. SPJA views the safety and security of all participants—especially young people— as a top priority.

All participants at SPJA events and activities (including online activities) are encouraged to report any unsafe or inappropriate behaviors, conditions, or circumstances, including any violation of this Youth Protection Policy or violation of any other policy or rule intended to promote a safe environment….

(3) LIVING HISTORY. Ted White, the Hugo-winning fanwriter, pro, and former editor of Amazing, was interviewed for his local paper, the Falls Church News-Press, on May 6 – “F.C.’s Ted White Reflects on Comics, Sci-Fi and the Little City”. The reporter asked about his interests in sf, jazz, writing, and comics.

N-P: How were you introduced to comic books?

White: They were there. I found them. I mean, I can’t remember what the first comic book I ever saw was but it was probably one that one of the neighborhood kids had and it very likely didn’t even have a cover….We’re talking the war years, the ‘40s, early on [and] comic books just sort of passed from hand-to-hand. It was a long time before I bought my first comic book.

There’s an interesting story involved in all of this….One day, I think it was between the first and second grade, the summer, and…Madison had a swimming program for the summer.

And I would walk over to the school, which was a mile away but it didn’t matter because I used to walk everywhere, at a certain time in the morning and join up with a motley crew of other kids and be taken into Washington, D.C. to 14th and K Streets where there was the Statler Hotel….At the end of that we were brought back to Madison and it was time for me to walk home.

But I didn’t walk directly home. For some strange reason I followed N. Washington Street north…I’m not sure where I was headed to but north of Columbia Street there is a bank that used to be a Safeway, a tiny Safeway…and I’m walking in that direction and I’m almost opposite that Safeway when I meet a friend of mine who is pushing his bicycle up the sidewalk…and in the basket of his bicycle he has several comic books.

And we stopped and we talked and he showed me the comic books and I don’t know how I did it, but I talked him out of them and he gave them to me and one of them was an issue of Wonder Woman.

Now I had never seen Wonder Woman before – this was a brand new comic book to me. And it was strange. The art was strange…it was almost Rococo and the writing was even stranger….I started reading this comic book as I was coming along Columbia Street to Tuckahoe and I’m just sort of very slowly walking, reading intensely. It would be the equivalent of someone obliviously reading their cell phone while walking down a sidewalk….I was about halfway home when I look up and I see my mother rapidly approaching and she does not have a happy look on her face.

I am hours late because I’ve been spending all my time dawdling, reading comic books. And my mother took the comic books out of my hand and took the ratty dozen or so that I already had, most of them coverless, and took them out to our incinerator and burned them all.

This profoundly upset me but it also changed me. I was six or seven then, and I decided two things which I was happy to share with my mother. One of them was that she was never ever going to destroy anything of mine again and she never did….and the other thing it did was make me into a collector…from that point on I became a comic book collector…and by time I was in high school…I was written up in a newspaper called the Washington News as the boy with 10,000 comic books.

(4) SF DRAMEDY. Seth MacFarlane will do an sf comedy/drama series reports Collider.

Between Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, prolific writer/producer/voice actor Seth MacFarlane has voiced a lot of characters on television and created even more, but now he’s heading into the live-action realm for his next TV series.

Fox announced today that MacFarlane is developing a new, though still untitled comedic drama for the network for which he’ll executive produce and star based off a script he wrote. Here’s what we know: the series will consist of 13 hourlong episodes and takes place 300 years in the future where the crew of the Orville, “a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar Fleet,” deal with cosmic challenges on their adventures.

(5) MARKET OPENS. Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-speculation edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Wieland, which was funded by a Kickstarter appeal, now is open for submissions.

Submissions for fiction and poetry are open until June 4th. Submissions for line art and coloring pages are open until June 30th.

We want this anthology to reach outside Western and Anglophone traditions of speculative fiction, showcasing the way environment and environmental issues are talked about and perceived in all parts of the world. We encourage and welcome submissions from diverse voices and under-represented populations, including, but not limited to, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities, and the elderly. Authors of all walks of life should feel encouraged to send us stories and poems celebrating these diverse characters and settings all around us.

(6) NO SH!T. Here’s some more good news — the No Sh!t, There I Was – An Anthology of Improbable Tales Kickstarter has funded, reaching its $8,500 goal. The anthology is edited by Rachael Acks.

(7) TODAY IN HISTORY

(8) SELECTIVE QUOTE. A responsible blogger would have chosen a tweet about the writer’s Amazon sales, his con appearances, or his charitable causes. But noooo…!

(8) YOUR BARTENDER. Marko Kloos shares his recipe for “frontlines: the cocktail”.

Just in time for the upcoming Manticon (where I will be Guest of Honor), I present to you the first Frontlines-themed cocktail: the Shockfrost.

Those of you who have read ANGLES OF ATTACK will know that the Shockfrost is featured in the novel as the specialty of the bars on the ice moon New Svalbard, and that it’s supposed to pack quite a punch. Andrew mentions the look (blue) and the flavors of the drink when he tries one for the first time (notes of licorice, mint, and God-knows-what-else). So I made a trip to the liquor store for ingredients and experimented with the flavors a bit to create a real-world replica….

(9) A SMASHING TIME. The Traveler at Galactic Journey reviews a monster movie: “[May 8, 1961] Imitation is… (Gorgo)”.

…Is it art for the ages?  Absolutely not.  Though there is some morality tacked on, mostly of the “humanity mustn’t think itself the master of nature” sort of thing, it’s an afterthought.  Characterization is similarly abandoned around the halfway mark.  This is no Godzilla — it is knocking over of toy cities for the fun of it.

At that, it succeeds quite well.  Gorgo makes liberal and reasonably facile use of stock footage (though the planes all inexplicably bear United States markings!) The cinematography is well composed, the color bright, the screen wide.  The acting is serviceable, and for anyone who wants to see what London looks like in this modern year of 1961, there are lots of great shots, both pre and post-destruction…

(10) INTERPRETING AN ICON. In “Captain America and Progressive Infantilization” Jeb Kinnison replies to Amanda Marcotte’s widely-read post about Cap.

…In her piece, “Captain America’s a douchey libertarian now: Why did Marvel have to ruin Steve Rogers?”, Marcotte is upset because the Cap didn’t knuckle under to “reasonable, common-sense” restrictions on his freedom to act for good. It’s not worth a detailed fisking — generating clickbait articles for a living doesn’t allow much time for careful writing — but she does reveal the mindset of those who believe every decision should be made by a committee of the select. The “unregulated” and “uncontrolled” are too dangerous to tolerate. Some key bits:

Steve Rogers is an icon of liberal patriotism, and his newest movie turns him into an Ayn Rand acolyte…

Most corporate blockbuster movies would cave into the temptation to make the character some kind of generic, apolitical “patriot,” abandoning the comic tradition that has painted him as a New Deal Democrat standing up consistently for liberal values. Instead, in both the first movie and in “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” we get Steve the liberal: Anti-racist, anti-sexist, valuing transparency in government and his belief that we the people should hold power instead of some unaccountable tyrants who believe might makes right.

Steve is All-American, so he is classically liberal: believing in the rule of law, equality of opportunity, and freedom to do anything that doesn’t step on someone else’s rights and freedoms. Amanda does not believe in individual freedom — she believes in “freedom,” approved by committee, with individual achievement subordinated to identity politics aiming at equality of outcome. No one should be free to judge the morality of a situation and act without lobbying others to achieve a majority and gaining approval of people like her….

(11) AN ORIGINAL MAD MAN. Ben Yakas, an interviewer for Gothamist, spent some time “Hanging With Al Jaffee, MAD Magazine’s 95-Year-Old Journeyman Cartoonist”.

His career took off in earnest in the early 1940s, initially while he was still in the Army. He taught wounded airmen how to do figure drawing at a hospital in Coral Gables, Florida, then was recruited by the Pentagon to create posters, illustrated pamphlets, and exercise pieces for soldiers in hospitals around the country. Once he was discharged, he worked at Timely Comics and Atlas Comics (precursors of Marvel Comics) with his first boss, Stan Lee. “He had been discharged from the military and took over from a substitute editor,” Jaffee said. “He said, ‘Oh, come ahead.’ He even wrote a letter to tell them that I had a job to go to so they favored my release. That’s how my career really got going.”

Jaffee explained his unusual working relationship with Lee, whom he first met when he was just 20 years old: “Usually in the comic book business, someone writes a script, an artist is called in, the artist shows pencils, and if the pencils are approved, the artist is told to finish with ink,” he said. “Each step is edited by the editor who approves of each stage. I didn’t have that with Stan Lee. He and I apparently hit it off so well that he just told me, ‘Go ahead and write it, pencil it, and ink it and bring it in.’ It was never rejected. I was very fortunate because it was so smooth working and we enjoyed each other’s company and he was a very, very bubbling with ideas kind of guy.”

That loose set-up turned out to be the norm for Jaffee throughout his career, even as he left Lee and ventured out into the uncertain world of freelancing: “We were responsible for our own income and upkeep. What you do is you wake up every Monday morning and you say, ‘What am I going to produce now to make a buck?'”

(12) AUDIO TINGLES. Starburst’s The BookWorm Podcast hosted by Ed Fortune enters the Hugos debate. Mostly by laughing: “Enter the Voxman”.

Ed reviews Star Wars Bloodline by Claudia Gray and Ninfa returns to review Victoria Avayard’s The Glass Sword. Extended chatter about the awards season and the usual silliness.

(13) SHORT SF VIDEO. Hampus Eckerman says, “This nice little gem became available on Youtube just a few days ago:”

The Nostalgist A Sci-fi Short Based on a Story From the Author of Robopocalypse

In the futuristic city of Vanille, with properly tuned ImmerSyst Eyes & Ears the world can look and sound like a paradise. But the life of a father and his young son threatens to disintegrate when the father’s device begins to fail. Desperate to avoid facing his traumatic reality, the man must venture outside to find a replacement, into a city where violence and danger lurk beneath a beautiful but fragile veneer…

 

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, Sean O’Hara, Paul Weimer, Michael J. Walsh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Doctor Science.]

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160 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/8/16 The Pixelshop of Isher”

  6. Fifth + 1.
    On the varying interpretations of Captain America. I wonder how many different writers’ interpretations either Jeb or Amanda have read? Hint: author interpretation varies a lot.

  9. Inviting the SFWA president and current Worldcon chair (and Taiyo Fujii!!) was the perfect step towards a future China bid. They’re quite serious about doing it right. Good for them.

  10. (11) And speaking of MAD Magazine, here is something of possible interest to anyone who may be in or around Eugene, Oregon in the next couple of months:

    http://jsma.uoregon.edu/EC

    Aliens, Monsters, and Madmen: The Art of EC Comics, at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, May 14-July 10, 2016

  11. (2) Now that’s taking it seriously. Good for them. Hope they also apply it to adults of all genders. But so, so good that they’re protecting the kids.

    (3) Very nice interview. I’ve heard Ted tell the incinerator story at cons and it always gets a gasp of horror.

    (4) Enh. It will probably suck.

    (8) The struggle is REAL! Happens to me, too! Be strong, John.

    (9) Uh… wow. Yikes. Think I’ll pass, particularly the incendiary part. And gin, pleh.

    (10) They’re both wrong. (But so was Cap.) Jeb! is just more wrong.

    (11) Another good interview. MAD was so important to me as a kid.

    ReTweets from Scalzi and Diane Duane:

    https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/729320420105539586

  12. (2) Seriously? A background check on everyone who offers to put on a gopher ribbon? What’s next? A background check before you’re issued a member badge?

  13. 10) I think I agree with some of the underlying points. Cap seemed to talk be about bureaucratic absolution and control being bad. I found that inherent humanity, accountability, and justice is the core of his concerns. Va snpg, ur jnf ernql gb fvta (haqre qherff) hagvy ur yrnearq gung gur fpneyrg jvgpu jnf nyernql orvat uryq haqre ubhfr neerfg jvgubhg nal erpbhefr bs qrsrafr. The accords and Iron man are reducing supers as nothing more than weapons. V fnj n qvfphffvba gung Ohpx ercerfragrq jung gur niratref jbhyq orpbzr haqre gur nppbeqf. N guvat gung jbhyq or hfrq gb xvyy hcba pbzznaq.

    However, that article was written in such a way to make me WANT to disagree with it.

  14. (10) INTERPRETING AN ICON. First off, the Sokovia Accords are very nearly window dressing. CA:CW is a story about a friendship breaking. Second off, to the extent the Accords matter, Tony and Cap aren’t just on opposite sides, they’re on opposite sides of where their own characters would have been a couple of movies ago. Because those movies happened. Each is reacting to the failures they observed or caused since the end of Iron Man 2 and the beginning of Winter Soldier.

  15. [ticky]

    I just finished Sleeping Giants, the debut novel by Sylvain Neuvel. (Full review here, with minor spoilers.) Short version: don’t let the transcribed-interview format put you off. This is a nicely done science fiction thriller and a fast, gripping read, with plenty to think about after the last page is turned.

  17. Something’s glitchy somewhere: I just received an e-mail notifying me that Hugo Nominations are Open, and here’s your Membership Number and PIN.

  18. JJ: (Must check if I pushed the wrong button on the File 770 time machine again…)

  19. Mike Glyer: (Must check if I pushed the wrong button on the File 770 time machine again…)

    Does that thing have an “Edit’ button? It sure would be nice to edit the Dead Yolks out of the Hugo process, and end up with a genuine ballot instead of the one we got. 😐

  21. (11) I had no idea that Jaffee was responsible for all those fold-ins. (Or that he was still alive and working. Long may he live!)

  22. @Iphinome, yeah, that was my reaction, too. It doesn’t sound very practical.

    Also, zero tolerance is a great way to avoid having to exercise judgment. It sounds good, but leads to expelling kindergarteners with gun charms on their charm bracelets (it’s happened). Or, alternatively, deciding the bad thing didn’t happen because the called-for response was too severe. People need to be able to apply appropriate penalties, and you can’t codify all of them in advance. Lydy Nickerson had a great blog post about that a while back.

  23. 2) ANIME EXPO HARASSMENT POLICY
    This policy is aimed at stranger danger. The least likely way kids suffer sexual abuse. I think it’s going to be as effective as The Patriot Act is in preventing terrorism in our country.

    When creating a policy one needs to keep in mind what the policy is for. Why have it. Who it’s to protect. What reasonable problems may arise based on past experience of the convention and similar conventions.

    How many children are sexually harassed or abducted by strangers from anime conventions yearly versus non-custodial parent/ex? Will these policies protect children or just make the ConCom and parents feel good? Will the decrease in morale of workers lead to more problems than making sure none of them have criminal backgrounds? How much time and money is going to be spent on this? Are there better ways to spend the money and make the kids just as safe/safer?

  24. JJ: The only thing that’s been proven so far is that the File 770 time machine tries to keep us from celebrating the Cinco de Cinco….

  25. Tasha Turner: This policy is aimed at stranger danger. The least likely way kids suffer sexual abuse. I think it’s going to be as effective as The Patriot Act is in preventing terrorism in our country.

    But it’s not aimed at stranger danger. It’s aimed at pedophiles who volunteer for / get hired for jobs in a position of trust which gives them access to children. That’s very different than a child getting snatched at random off the street — and I think that it’s a very real concern.

  26. Mike Glyer: The only thing that’s been proven so far is that the File 770 time machine tries to keep us from celebrating the Cinco de Cinco….

    That’s because I pushed the “send all May 5s to JJ” button, so that I could have ALL THE MARGARITAS.

  28. @ JJ

    I got a notice, too. “Nominations are now open and close on March 31!!!!!”

    I think they’re still having some email problems. :-/

  29. @Bonnie McDaniel

    I’ve been on the fence about picking up Sleeping Giants, so thanks for the persuasive review!

  30. Granted, SPJA isn’t quite the same thing, but we require all of our volunteers to pass a background check, and it’s common for many organizations that serve children. I didn’t bat an eye at the requirement as it’s standard operating procedure. I’m curious as to how the background checks are being funded or if volunteers are responsible for the costs, though. That could get expensive.

  31. Bonnie McDaniel: I just finished Sleeping Giants, the debut novel by Sylvain Neuvel. Short version: don’t let the transcribed-interview format put you off. This is a nicely done science fiction thriller and a fast, gripping read, with plenty to think about after the last page is turned.

    * shakes fist at redheadedtsundoku *

  33. A note for the 2016 Graphic Novel consideration – This Damned Band – Written by Paul Cornell with pencils by Tony Parker from Dark Horse comics. It was briefly discussed last year, but the final issue and trade came out this year (with the trade hitting shops this past week). Definitely a fun take on the occult and 1970’s Rock and Roll. The writing and idea is first rate and Tony Parker really knocks it out of the park with the 1970’s look and different perspectives. It is part documentary and part artist’s representation of what happened. It got a fair amount of publicity, but they didn’t go for multiple variant covers (although some variations are included in the extra stuff in the trade).

  34. MidAmeriCon II has received our payment for the Mini-Parks and Benches.

    Please go to the Sponsor a Bench at MidAmeriCon II thread and post your suggestions for the verbiage for the plaques and signs.

    If you have any questions regarding implementation of the mini-parks, please post them there, and I will ask MAC II for answers once they’ve got the details sorted.

  36. agree with JJ – the point of such a policy is to prevent paedophiles from getting into a position of authority over children. It isn’t ‘stranger danger’, it isn’t being approached on the street. Con employees and volunteers can only do their jobs because they have some authority and trust from con-goers, and these are things that can be abused.

    (I’m an athletics coach. All coaches have to have background checks done, and attend courses on child protection. Yes, it is a pain in the arse. But there are good reasons to take these precautions)

  37. Background checks are certainly reasonable for some roles. The people that everyone is told to contact in a crisis especially.
    It would be a bit of a pain if everyone turning up at the registration desk saying “can I help?” had to be turned away.
    Background checks aren’t a panacea though. Someone I vaguely knew (taught his initial scuba diving qualification) was recently jailed after sexually assaulting cub scouts. He’d been checked and checked again, scoutmasters need to be. All it proves is that you’ve not yet been caught.

  38. It’s the 9th of May! Have a great Liberation Day, even if you’re not a Channel Islander…

  39. The Pixelshop of Isher? The right to pixel is the right to be free!

  40. @Jim
    That’s a good point about Cap vs Iron Man. The Iron Man at the end of Iron Man 1 and the Captain America at the end of Captain America ! would probably have the diametrically opposite opinions those characters have at the time of Civil War, and its all what has happened since.

  41. Aren’t most of the harassment incidents that come out of cons “stranger danger,” or, at most, “acquaintance danger”? It’s almost always, “Creepy dude kept following me around,” “Some guy was taking upskirt photos of cosplayers,” or “I met Famous Author in the elevator and he groped me.”

    How many children are sexually harassed or abducted by strangers from anime conventions yearly versus non-custodial parent/ex?

    While the policy has provisions aimed specifically at preteens, it covers all minors. Most of the minors at an anime convention are going to be high school aged. You don’t think there are going to be skeevy pervs there to hit on them, try to get them drunk at late night parties, etc?

  42. (2) With a substantial minor attendance at anime cons, this is likely to be necessary to comply with child protection laws at a local, State, or Federal level. It makes sense from a liability standpoint to comply with the strongest rules – and to go a lot further, too.

  43. At the end of a glorious weekend in London, I left a GoPro on my roof terrace to catch the last of the sunset. So here’s a gratuitous 2m30s timelapse, from the last of the sun to the blip blip blip trail of the planes leaving LHR.

    Enjoy!

    https://youtu.be/e0YN43GZEzk

  44. @simon thanks for sharing that! Beautiful sunset.

  45. Background checks aren’t a panacea though.

    Yeah, so the child protection courses emphasise that there always has to be two adults present with kids (and mixed male/female kids means at least one male and female adult) if you’re in any sort of closed space. That doesn’t mean volunteers have to go everywhere in twos, but if you have an arts and crafts room for kids, for example, you have at least two people in the room at all times.

  46. (10) INTERPRETING AN ICON.

    I think both are kind of missing the point. The point is this:

    If you are going to be involved in law enforcement, you shouldn’t do it as a an ordinary civilian. Security guards are expected to have an education in risk management, how to handle civilans, what kind of behaviour that is seen as provocative and so on. If you don’t have that kind of education, you are very much limited in what authority you may use and where you might use it.

    So if you want to do that kind of work in public where other peoples lives are at risk, you should be forced to take the education and you should be able to prove that you have it. That is both logical and liberal. It is like demanding people have a drivers license before they drive because otherwise they will put people at risk.

  49. My daughter’s fiancée is Director of Music at England’s second oldest Cathedral; he teaches young boys to sing, and is scrupulous about chaperoning them.

    He and every other person working with children are required to establish their bona fides, and he would not want it any other way. We know perfectly well that it is impossible to have a perfect system, but that isn’t a reason not to try; you do the best you possibly can.

    I’m somewhat startled by people who believe that this is unnecessary…

  50. “Hence the troll is thought to be weak, and one who sits in pyjamas” is very funny.

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