Tag Archives: Hollywood Walk of Fame

Pixel Scroll 9/17/24 The Scroll On The Edge of Pixelever

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(1) UK MEDIA FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGES NEIL GAIMAN STORY. [Item by Nickpheas.] This isn’t news to us, but it’s still a sign of something significant. The UK media was happily ignoring the Gaiman abuse allegations, but it looks like the logjam has finally been broken.  

File 770 covered the stepping back from Good Omens 3 a few days ago, and it seems that this has provided something news reporters can hang a story on, given the UK libel courts, where “a podcast you’ve never heard of said…” is pretty much an invitation to be sued. 

(2) A NAME TO CONJURE WITH. This installment of The Midnight Society breaks me up. (Laird Barron liked it too, though he gave one note.) Here’s how it begins:

(3) WATERMELON GRANT TAKING APPLICATIONS. The inaugural The Watermelon Grant for Palestinian Creators is accepting applications through December 6, 2024.

The Watermelon Grant offers $2000 USD in unrestricted funds to an emerging Palestinian creator in the field of speculative arts. Applications are judged on a criteria which considers artistic merit and potential impact.

The 2025 grant considers works of speculative fiction and poetry.

Due to the success of the Match Me campaign, we are now able to offer a prize in fiction and in poetry. Entries must be rooted in the speculative genres.

For more information, visit the website.

(4) ARMY WELCOMES SPECULATIVE FICTION. [Item by Francis Hamit.] The Army publishes science fiction.  No pay but an opportunity for aspiring writers of hard SF in the Jerry Pournelle mode.  (As a young man, Jerry led an artillery unit in the Korean War.  So I suggest that this opportunity is best suited for those that have “seen the elephant”.) Complete guidelines at the link: “Future Warfare Writing Program Submission Guidelines” at Army.mil.

General

The Army cannot know nor predict its next fight but it can imagine the future of warfare. Fiction is a tool of the imaginative process. Fiction allows us to imagine the details of reality-as-it-might happen in order to understand potential consequences of decisions that we need, or might need, to make. It helps us imagine how current trends might play out or how new innovations might have an impact. As a tool, fiction is cousin to war-gaming. It creates opportunities to play out potential scenarios and prepare for them.

The Army University Press publishes the Future Warfare Writing Program (FWWP). This venture seeks to answer the question: What might warfare look like in the latter half of the 21st Century? Works of fiction and nonfiction should address the addresses multiple dilemmas as outlined in the Army Operating Concept. Submissions are open to current and former members of the DoD (active, guard, and reserve) and their dependents. Others may submit on a case-by-case basis based on expertise and writing skill (please query).

Consider the following guiding examples of subject matter as you compose your original works:

– How might the Army respond to sudden increases in aggression of state actors and how might budget cuts affect this?

– What role will information operations take in shaping or manifesting the climate of warfare?

– How will the Army handle humanitarian campaigns such as virulent outbreaks, natural disasters, or displaced persons in the next 20-80 years?

– What changes to values, health, and knowledge can we expect in light of Army University, an increasingly technologically advanced population, and reactions to changing social norms?

– How will the focus and capability of Army medicine and Army acquisitions change in 15-90 years?

– What technologies will shape the battlefield and the warfighter in the foreseeable future?

FWWP welcomes works of valid and sound speculative fiction; well-written essays; and any combination between the two addressing the questions above or related concerns. The intent behind this program is to give creative thinkers at all levels and positions—both within and outside the Army—the space to contribute to the conversation by generating ideas about the possible complexities of future warfare. The Army is at a critical time that requires reflection on its recent history, examination of its present reality, and exploration of its near and mid-future.

All submissions must include the publication agreement available for download. Submissions will be evaluated by the Army University Press and FWWP editorial board for relevance, writing quality, and ability to engage the reader. Review the links below for insights into what the board considers operationally and strategically relevant. The Army University Press and FWWP offers no compensation for publication. Works appear online in a blog format only, but FWWP retains the right to print or reprint published works. When possible, FWWP provides personalized feedback on all pieces….

(5) CIRCLE THAT THOUGHT. Phys.org reports on research suggesting that “Earth may have had a ring system 466 million years ago”.

In a discovery that challenges our understanding of Earth’s ancient history, researchers have found evidence suggesting that Earth may have had a ring system that formed around 466 million years ago, at the beginning of a period of unusually intense meteorite bombardment known as the Ordovician impact spike.

This surprising hypothesis, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, stems from plate tectonic reconstructions for the Ordovician period noting the positions of 21 asteroid impact craters. All these craters are located within 30 degrees of the equator, despite more than 70% of Earth’s continental crust being outside this region, an anomaly that conventional theories cannot explain….

… Normally, asteroids impact the Earth at random locations, so we see impact craters distributed evenly over the moon and Mars, for example. To investigate whether the distribution of Ordovician impact craters is non-random and closer to the equator, the researchers calculated the continental surface area capable of preserving craters from that time.

They focused on stable, undisturbed cratons with rocks older than the mid Ordovician period, excluding areas buried under sediments or ice, eroded regions, and those affected by tectonic activity. Using a GIS approach (Geographic Information System), they identified geologically suitable regions across different continents.

Regions like Western Australia, Africa, the North American Craton, and small parts of Europe were considered well-suited for preserving such craters. Only 30% of the suitable land area was determined to have been close to the equator, yet all the impact craters from this period were found in this region….

(6) THE FELLOWSHIP WORKED FOR PEANUTS? “Cate Blanchett Barely Got Paid for ‘Lord of the Rings,’ Cast Salaries Explained” at Business Insider. We linked to Cate’s comment in another article recently, so here’s an new excerpt:

Orlando Bloom got $175,000 for playing Legolas

While taking a retrospective look at his career on “The Howard Stern Show” in 2019, Orlando Bloom said working with iconic actors such as Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee was a “magical time,” but like Blanchett, he said didn’t get paid much for the trilogy. Bloom was 22 years old when the studio signed him.

Asked how much he was paid, laughing, the actor responded: “Nothing, nothing, nothing. I got nothing. $175 grand for three movies.”

He continued: “No listen, greatest gift of my life, are you kidding me? You’d do it again for half the money.”

(7) SERIAL DIER. “’Mickey 17′ Trailer: Robert Pattinson Toplines Bong Joon-ho Warner Bros Pic” at Deadline.

At long last, Warner Bros has unveiled the first trailer for Mickey 17, the Robert Pattinson sci-fi pic marking Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to his Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite, which is slated for release on January 31, 2025.

Based on the the novel Mickey 17 by Edward Ashton, the film follows unlikely hero Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), who is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous —even suicidal — the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it…

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

September 17, 1928 – Roddy McDowall.  (Died 1998.)

By Paul Weimer: Roddy McDowall’s genre work came into my awareness early.  He was the voice of V.I.N.CENT., the robot in the much maligned (but a favorite of mine) movie The Black Hole.  I might not have an ear for voices overmuch, but even I could hear his distinctive voice and connect it to the actor I then saw in episodes of Buck Rogers and Tales of the Gold Monkey. His voice popped up again in my ears as Sam in the Return of the King animated movie. 

And from there, he continued to become a very welcome actor, in and out of genre when I encountered him.  And it seemed like I kept running into him and his work everywhere I turned.  His portrayal of the TV show host in Fright Night might be my most favorite role. The original Planet of the Apes films. An episode of the Twilight Zone (where he winds up as an exhibit in an alien zoo). An episode of the 1960’s Batman TV series had him so very nearly kill Batman and Robin (who had to be saved by O’Hara and the police rather than themselves as normal). He even shows up in the 1963 Cleopatra as Octavian. 

One last thing I didn’t learn until some years ago, but delights me now (it would have made no impression until this century) is that he was an avid photographer, specializing in actor and actress portraits.  Truly, a multi-modal talent. 

Roddy McDowall as Joe Carraclough in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 1943 Lassie Come Home

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) COWL FOUL? Comicbook.com says “Batman to Get Hollywood Walk of Fame Star”. I always thought they only went to people – preferably living people, an impression not contradicted by the Frequently Asked Questions – Hollywood Walk of Fame. But what the hell do I know.

On Monday, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that Batman will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, September 26th, making the DC Comics character the first superhero to receive the honor. The 2,790th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame will be dedicated next to the stars of television’s Batman actor Adam West and the Dark Knight’s co-creator, Bob Kane.

Jim Lee, DC’s president, publisher, and chief creative officer, and Anne DePies, DC’s senior vice president and general manager, will attend the Batman Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony at 11:30 a.m. PT at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Hollywood Guinness World Records Museum. The Caped Crusader himself will also appear in costume to accept his star in the category of motion pictures, plus the Guinness World Records title for the first superhero with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a special presentation by official GWR adjudicator Michael Empric…. 

(11) GRANT GEISSMAN Q&A. “’I’ve made several little stamps on pop culture’ – Grant Geissman discusses his storied and varied career with Joseph Antoniello” in The Comics Journal.

… You mentioned in another interview that your mom had thrown away a bunch of your comics. But you said, “Okay, but don’t throw away my MAD magazines.” What was it about MAD that, over your [other] comics, you were like, no, this is the important one?

I had to draw the line somewhere, and MAD was more important than Superman and Batman. It just was. The other thing she threw away were two and a half sets of Mars Attacks cards. A buddy of mine showed me these things at school, and I went down to the five and ten where he found them, and they were gone. But then right after that, I found them in a little card vending machine at Shopwell Market. So, any time my mom would go to the market, I said, can we go to Shopwell? I would have a handful of nickels, and would keep buying cards until I got two and a half sets of Mars Attacks cards. Every now and then, she would go through my room and throw stuff away. I was like, “What are you doing? You know what? You are not to throw my MAD magazines away.” And I never put that on my daughter, I never made her throw away stuff. So she might have other issues with me, but that’s not one of them! [laughter]…

Do you think that EC fanzine culture played a significant role in the longevity of EC Comics, or do you think that it was just being kept in print by Ballantine that kept it alive?

EC really never went away. These fanzines kept the flame burning. In 1978, Cochran announced the first title in the Complete EC Library—and he announced his intention to create these box sets, complete EC titles. There was a fair amount of “He’s never going to be able to do this. This is an impossible task.” But little by little, each volume would come out, Cochran did it. It took him like 30 years, but it happened. And that really is what kept EC going. There were more comic shops, and what that meant is a producer could go in, buy the entire set of Weird Science or Tales from the Crypt and go, “Hey, there might be a TV or a movie project here.” That’s why the HBO Tales from the Crypt series happened…

What was it like working with Feldstein?

Well, I knew Al from before. I met him in 1992 at a convention in Los Angeles, and later spent some extra time with him through Jerry Weist, because Weist arranged this meeting between Al Feldstein and Ray Bradbury here in Santa Monica. He rented a hotel room and they shot video. It was the first time Feldstein and Bradbury had ever met in person. Jerry brought original EC art and books and reference stuff. I had been commissioning paintings from Feldstein for quite a while, one of them was an oil painting of the Weird Fantasy 20 cover, which is related to “I, Rocket,” a Ray Bradbury story. Jerry said, “Bring that cover painting down and we’ll show it. We’ll have Ray look at it and Al will be there, and he can show Ray what he’s been doing with these paintings.” And then we all went out to dinner, and we even went to see one of Bradbury’s plays. He would put on these little local kind of 99-seater plays based on his books….

(12) HOW RUDE! As Comicbook.com heard it, “Arrow’s Stephen Amell “Didn’t F-cking Appreciate” Peacemaker Jab”.

Arrow star Stephen Amell took aim at new DC Studios co-chief James Gunn in a new podcast interview, saying that he felt Arrow was routinely disrespected by the people behind DC’s movies and Gunn’s series Peacemaker. Amell, who played Oliver Queen/Green Arrow from 2012 until 2023 in Arrow and its various spinoffs, has apparently seen Peacemaker now and isn’t too pleased about a joke made at Green Arrow’s expense. In an episode of the series, Peacemaker says to Vigilante that Green Arrow “goes to Brony conventions dressed as the back half of Twilight Sparkle,” with a hold drilled into the back of the costume. 

Peacemaker made a number of such off-color jokes about characters including Wonder Woman and Aquaman, who had brief cameos in the season finale. After initially saying he had not yet seen the episode, Amell now says that he has, and wasn’t a fan….

(13) DAWN DATA. The Verge tells readers “What the Polaris Dawn mission could reveal about human health in space”.

…The research in the Polaris program, planned to be three flights, is particularly focused on human health and the effects of spaceflight on the body. The current mission will be studied by Baylor College of Medicine, with the astronauts giving blood and going through extensive biomedical testing both before and after the flight.

But what sets the Polaris Dawn mission apart is its altitude, 870 miles above the Earth’s surface to be exact. That’s far higher than the typical altitude of the International Space Station, at around 250 miles, and makes Polaris Dawn the farthest humans have been from Earth since the Apollo missions. 

That altitude took the craft through Earth’s inner Van Allen belt, a region of charged particles that protect the planet from dangerous radiation. The crew members are fitted with sensors to measure their cumulative radiation exposure over the mission, and the spacecraft interior is fitted with a sensor to detect the different types of radiation in the environment.

“It’s an opportunity to see what kind of [radiation] exposure that we get as they get further and further away from the surface of the Earth,” explained Baylor’s Translational Research Institute for Space Health deputy director Jimmy Wu. “That’s something that we don’t have a whole lot of data on, because we’ve been limited to the number of humans that have been that far. So that’s critically important to understand.”…

(14) CLOG DANCING. CNN explains why “47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft just fired up thrusters it hasn’t used in decades”.

…Voyager 1 used the thrusters for a variety of purposes as it flew by planets such as Jupiter and Saturn in 1979 and 1980, respectively.

Now, the spacecraft is traveling on an unchanging path away from our solar system, so it just requires one set of thrusters to help keep its antenna pointed at Earth. To fuel the thrusters, liquid hydrazine is converted into gas and released in about 40 short puffs per day to keep Voyager 1 oriented correctly.

Over time, engineers discovered that a fuel tube inside the thrusters can become clogged with silicon dioxide, a byproduct of the fuel tank’s rubber diaphragm aging. As the thrusters become clogged, they generate less force.

In 2002, the team commanded Voyager 1 to switch to its second set of attitude propulsion thrusters when the first set showed signs of clogging. Engineers switched again to the trajectory correction thruster set in 2018 when the second set also appeared clogged.

But when the team recently checked on the status of Voyager’s trajectory correction thrusters, they were even more clogged than the previous two sets of thrusters.

When the team initially switched Voyager over to the trajectory correction thrusters six years ago, the tube opening was 0.01 inches (0.25 millimeters) across. But now, clogging has reduced it to 0.0015 inches (0.035 millimeters) — half the width of a human hair, according to NASA.

It was time to rotate back to another set of attitude propulsion thrusters….

(15) WHAT’S THAT SMELL? “Astronauts reveal what life is like on ISS – and how they deal with ‘space smell'” at the BBC.

…A lucky few are asked to do a spacewalk, leaving the ISS for the space vacuum outside. Mr Hadfield has done two. “Those 15 hours outside, with nothing between me and the universe but my plastic visor, was as stimulating and otherworldly as any other 15 hours of my life.”

But that spacewalk can introduce something novel to the space station – the metallic “space smell”.

“On Earth we have lots of different smells, like washing machine laundry or fresh air. But in space there’s just one smell, and we get used to it quickly,” explains Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, who spent eight days on the Soviet space station Mir in 1991.

Objects that go outside, like a suit or scientific kit, are affected by the strong radiation of space. “Radiation forms free radicals on the surface, and they react with oxygen inside the space station, creating a metallic smell,” she says.

When she returned to Earth, she valued sensory experiences much more. “There’s no weather in space – no rain on your face and or wind in your hair. I appreciate those so much more to this day now,” she says, 33 years later….

(16) MONSTER WHEELS. You might enjoy these “10 Killer Facts About Herman’s Munster Mobile Koach – The Munsters” at CarStarz.

The Munster Koach from the 1964 show “The Munsters” is a legendary automotive icon that perfectly encapsulates the series’ unique blend of horror and humor. Designed by George Barris, the Munster Koach is a stunningly macabre hot rod, fashioned from multiple Ford Model T chassises, complete with a body resembling a sleek black coffin. The vehicle is adorned with eerie spider-web detailing, a towering Dragula-shaped front end, and a crimson interior, adding to its distinctive and ghoulish charm. This one-of-a-kind creation served as both transportation and a source of endless comedy on the show. It has since become a beloved and instantly recognizable symbol of the Munster family’s quirky, endearing, and ever-memorable lifestyle, leaving an indelible imprint on the world of classic television.

(17) ROD SERLING STATUE. If you’d like to see the real thing, here’s a video of last weekend’s official unveiling: “September 15, 2024: Statue of Rod Serling Dedicated in Binghamton, NY”.

[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Paul Weimer, Francis Hamit, Nickpheas, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

Pixel Scroll 9/13/24 A Pixel For Ecclesiastes

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(1) A SCOOP ABOUT PINSKER. Maryland ice cream chain The Charmery has created a flavor in honor of Sarah Pinsker’s book Haunt Sweet Home. Pinsker gives this description:

The apple brandy is a smoked apple brandy, and the book features an orchard and an apple tree specifically and also a smoke machine. The toffee bits are for fun and because it’s fall and it turns out into a deconstructed caramel apple.

(2) NATIONAL BOOK AWARD. The 2024 longlists in the Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry categories have been released. (We covered the Translated Literature and Young Adult categories the other day.) The complete lists are at Publishers Weekly: “2024 National Book Award Longlists Announced”. These are the works of genre interest:

FICTION

  • Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda (Norton)
  • James by Percival Everett (Doubleday)

NONFICTION

  • Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle (Random House)
  • Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (Random House)
  • Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (Tiny Reparations Books)

(3) A TOURNAMENT IN CRIME. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Who says we’re not living in a cyberpunk dystopia? This is gruesome… and real. “The Dark Nexus Between Harm Groups and ‘The Com’” at Krebs on Security. Brian Krebs is one of, if not the, premier computer security journalist in the US. This introduction is followed by discussion of numerous criminal investigations.

A cyberattack that shut down two of the top casinos in Las Vegas last year quickly became one of the most riveting security stories of 2023. It was the first known case of native English-speaking hackers in the United States and Britain teaming up with ransomware gangs based in Russia. But that made-for-Hollywood narrative has eclipsed a far more hideous trend: Many of these young, Western cybercriminals are also members of fast-growing online groups that exist solely to bully, stalk, harass and extort vulnerable teens into physically harming themselves and others….

… Collectively, this archipelago of crime-focused chat communities is known as “The Com,” and it functions as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network that facilitates instant collaboration.

But mostly, The Com is a place where cybercriminals go to boast about their exploits and standing within the community, or to knock others down a peg or two. Top Com members are constantly sniping over who pulled off the most impressive heists, or who has accumulated the biggest pile of stolen virtual currencies.

And as often as they extort victim companies for financial gain, members of The Com are trying to wrest stolen money from their cybercriminal rivals — often in ways that spill over into physical violence in the real world….

(4) THE BOOK THAT PROVIDED THE SPARK. The Booker Prizes quizzed “The 2024 longlistees on the book that inspired them to become a writer”.

Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital

This is difficult. I’m going to say Waterland by Graham Swift. I think it’s the strength and quality of Swift’s world-building, his gorgeous, layered storytelling flair and the sheer conviction of that novel that made me itch to write. It made me think, not, ‘I could do that’ but ‘I wonder if I could ever do that?’

I haven’t reread it, I don’t dare. But I’ve since read other books by Swift and my admiration’s undented.  

(5) HAWAIIAN AI. [Item by Chris Barkley.] In today’s news: WIRED reports that a local newspaper in Hawaii is now broadcasting news on Insta using AI-generated presenters who can “riff with one another,” in hopes of drawing in new audiences — but audience members are creeped out. Remember the old TV show, Max Headroom? I didn’t have Max Headroom: Nightmare Dystopia Edition on my 2024 bingo card. But, here we are. “An AI Bot Named James Has Taken My Old Job” at WIRED.

It always seemed difficult for the newspaper where I used to work, The Garden Island on the rural Hawaiian island of Kauai, to hire reporters. If someone left, it could take months before we hired a replacement, if we ever did.

So, last Thursday, I was happy to see that the paper appeared to have hired two new journalists—even if they seemed a little off. In a spacious studio overlooking a tropical beach, James, a middle-aged Asian man who appears to be unable to blink, and Rose, a younger redhead who struggles to pronounce words like “Hanalei” and “TV,” presented their first news broadcast, over pulsing music that reminds me of the Challengers score. There is something deeply off-putting about their performance: James’ hands can’t stop vibrating. Rose’s mouth doesn’t always line up with the words she’s saying….

James and Rose are, you may have noticed, not human reporters. They are AI avatars crafted by an Israeli company named Caledo, which hopes to bring this tech to hundreds of local newspapers in the coming year.

“Just watching someone read an article is boring,” says Dina Shatner, who cofounded Caledo with her husband Moti in 2023. “But watching people talking about a subject—this is engaging.”

The Caledo platform can analyze several prewritten news articles and turn them into a “live broadcast” featuring conversation between AI hosts like James and Rose, Shatner says. While other companies, like Channel 1 in Los Angeles, have begun using AI avatars to read out prewritten articles, this claims to be the first platform that lets the hosts riff with one another. The idea is that the tech can give small local newsrooms the opportunity to create live broadcasts that they otherwise couldn’t. This can open up embedded advertising opportunities and draw in new customers, especially among younger people who are more likely to watch videos than read articles.

(6) IT STARTED AT LUNCH. The Astounding Analog Companion hosts a brief “Q&A With David Gerrold”.

Analog Editor: What is your history with Analog?
David Gerrold: I have a long personal history with Analog. My first year of high school was at Van Nuys High. The library was a good place to hang out at lunch time and they had a subscription to Astounding. I started working my way through every issue they had. Astounding represented (to me) the high point of science fiction magazines….

(7) EARLIER FLIES. The Guardian signal-boosts that an “Early version of Lord of the Flies with different beginning to go on display” at the University of Exeter this month.

 Lord of the Flies, the story of a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves, is considered to be one of the greatest works of literary history, taught to schoolchildren around the world.

But the novel by Sir William Golding didn’t always begin with the schoolboys crash-landing on the island. Instead, an original version of the manuscript, which was written in a school exercise book with the cover torn off, describes how they had been evacuated out, in the midst of a nuclear war, and their plane shot down in an aerial battle.

The alternative version of the dark societal tale will now go on display to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the book being published.

Golding’s manuscripts, notebooks and letters will also be shown in the exhibition at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, Old Library, University of Exeter later this month.

(8) INFORMING THE NEXT GENERATION. You know this. Not everybody does. Steven Heller interviews Mythmaker author John Hendrix in “C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien Together Again” at PRINT Magazine.

Most readers know their books and the genre they propagated, which has launched scores of films, podcasts, games and toys. But how many fans knew that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were good friends who spent much of their time together arguing the spiritual pursuits of humankind? John Hendrix, a graphic novelist who is an extraordinary biographer (a novel graphicist), has created a new form of graphic—comic—book, The Mythmakers, in which he uses “a dual biography as an avatar for telling a deeper story about the origins of fairy tales.” Below we talk about his relationship to Lewis, Tolkien and their shared religious beliefs….

You state that, “they longed to make stories like the ones they loved. But their quarry was much more elusive.” What was their quarry? Was it simply “joy”?
The thing that drew Lewis and Tolkien together initially was their love of Norse mythology. But underneath the love of those stories was a longing for something they could not put their finger on. They would say most of us feel it when we read a great story. C.S. Lewis called this longing for longing by the German word “sehnsucht.” Lewis said this: “Joy is distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.” And Tolkien described joy as a feeling that reaches “beyond the walls of our world.” Both of these authors came to believe that stories and fairy tales allow humanity to access truths that are unknowable in any other way….

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: Kolchak: The Night Stalker series (1974)

Fifty years ago this evening Kolchak: The Night Stalker first aired on ABC. It was preceded by The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler films, both written by Richard Matheson. 

It was based off a novel by Jeff Rice who Mike has some thoughts about here.

It was remade nineteen years ago as The Night Stalker with Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak. It lasted ten episodes. It was set in Los Angeles instead of Chicago. Need I say more? 

Let’s talk about Darren McGavin for a moment. He was perfect for this role. Though only fifty-two when the series was shot, he looked a decade older and quite beat up. That suit he wore could have been acquired second hand. Or fourth hand. And that hat — I wonder how many they had in props that were exactly identical. 

The actor himself had certainly had some interesting times with four divorces by then, and this was not his first time portraying a world-weary investigator. He was the title character in the short-lived Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer series in the Fifties. It lasted a year.

(Please don’t link to it as the copyright holder keeps deleting it off YouTube so it still in copyright. Copyrights are complicated things, aren’t they?) 

Now Kolchak: The Night Stalker did not break the pattern of having a beautiful woman around as it had Carol Ann Susi as the recurring character of semi-competent but likable intern Monique Marmelstein in a recurring role.

And I really liked the character of his boss, Tony Vincenzo as played by Simon Oakland, who was quite bellicose and had no clue of what Kolchak was doing. Good thing that was, too. 

Ahhh the monsters. Some were SF, sort of — a murderous android, an invisible ET, a prehistoric ape-man grown from thawed cell samples, and a lizard-creature protecting its eggs. Then there were the fantastic ones — Jack the Ripper, a headless motorcycle rider, vampires, werewolves, witches and zombies to name but a few he tangled with. 

It has become a favorite among viewers of fantasy which currently carries a most excellent eighty percent rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes — but it was a ratings failure complicated by Darren McGavin being unwilling to do more episodes and only lasted one season before being cancelled.  

Chris Carter who credits the series as the primary inspiration for The X-Files wanted McGavin to appear as Kolchak in one or more episodes of that series, but McGavin was unwilling to reprise the character for his show. He did appear on the series as retired FBI agent very obviously attired in Kolchak’s trademark seersucker jacket, black knit tie, and straw hat.

C.J. Henderson, who won a World Fantasy Award for his Sarob Press, wrote three Night Stalker novels — Kolchak and the Lost World, Kolchak: Necronomicon and What Every Coin Has. There have been other novels and shorts published. Three unfilmed scripts for the TV series have survived, “Eve of Terror”, written by Stephen Lord, “The Get of Belial”, written by Donn Mullally, and “The Executioners”, written by Max Hodge.

Let’s see if it’s streaming anywhere… It is available on Peacock, the streaming service owned by NBC of course. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) OBI-WAN ACTOR ON WALK OF FAME. Ewan McGregor’s star was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday. And his castmate Hayden Christensen paid tribute:

…Christensen noted that McGregor, who played Anakin’s mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, was just “the nicest person” during their initial conversation, telling him all about how excited he was to work with him and to begin their lightsaber training together. 

“He’s just beyond kind to me, and it was immediately apparent to me that I was meeting someone truly special. Not just as an actor, but as a person, and that I was meeting a friend,” Christensen said. He then teased, “A friend who would later go on to chop off both my legs and leave me for dead on the side of a volcano, but I guess I kind of had that coming.”

McGregor burst into laughter and turned toward the crowd after Christensen’s joke, which was a quick nod to Anakin’s fate after his heartbreaking battle against Obi-Wan at the end of 2005’s Revenge of the Sith….

(12) SCULPTOR’S TRIBUTE TO SERLING. WBUR says it will be unveiled this weekend: “Rod Serling, creator and narrator of iconic ‘Twilight Zone,’ honored with hometown statue”.

It’s been 65 years since Rod Serling’s iconic “The Twilight Zone” hit the TV airwaves in 1959. The show, known for its eerie music, aliens, lugubrious tone and 1950s-style special effects, aired for only 6 years. But its impact and life in re-runs created generations of fans who also find meaning in the themes it tackled: racism, corporate greed and man’s inhumanity.

Serling, who famously said, “Everybody has to have a hometown, and mine’s Binghamton,” has been honored annually at SerlingFest in Binghamton, New York. This year’s event, which begins Friday, will conclude with the unveiling of a six-foot-tall bronze statue of Serling at Recreation Park, a short walk from his childhood home…

A photo-illustrated article about creating the statue is here: “Rod Serling Statue Progress Report – Rod Serling Memorial Foundation”. This is an artist’s conception of how it will look.

(13) THE TELLTALE TEETH. “Cave discovery in France may explain why Neanderthals disappeared, scientists say” – Yahoo! has the story.

When archaeologist Ludovic Slimak unearthed five teeth in a rock shelter in France’s Rhône Valley in 2015, it was immediately obvious that they belonged to a Neanderthal, the first intact remains of the ancient species to be discovered in that country since 1979.

However, the once-in-a-lifetime find, nicknamed Thorin after a character in “The Hobbit,” remained a well-kept secret for almost a decade while Slimak and his colleagues untangled the significance of the find — a fraught undertaking that pitted experts in ancient DNA against archaeologists.

“We faced a major issue,” said Slimak, a researcher at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse. “The genetics was sure the Neanderthal we called Thorin was 105,000 years old. But we knew by (the specimen’s) archaeological context that it was somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 years old.”

“What the DNA was suggesting was not in accordance with what we saw,” he added.

It took the team almost 10 years to piece together the story of the puzzling Neanderthal, adding a new chapter in the long-standing mystery of why these humans disappeared around 40,000 years ago.

The research, published Wednesday in the journal Cell Genomics, found that Thorin belonged to a lineage or group of Neanderthals that had been isolated from other groups for some 50,000 years. This genetic isolation was the reason Thorin’s DNA seemed to come from an earlier time period than it actually did.

(14) AUTHENTIC? Archie McPhee is offering Possum Flavored Candy, prompting Andrew Porter to wonder, “What DOES possum taste like?!?” He’s a city boy, you know.

Not only does this candy have an adorable possum on the tin, but it also has the flavor of possum! Great for roadkill aficionados or people who are possum-curious. Just leave a tin in the lunchroom of your office and let the fun begin.

(15) ZACK SNYDER EPIC. Animation Magazine tells readers “Love Is a Battlefield in New ‘Twilight of the Gods’ Trailer”.

Netflix today debuted the official trailer and key art for Zack Snyder’s animated Norse mythology epic Twilight of the Gods. The new preview gives us a glimpse at the blood-soaked meet-cute between Sigrid and Leif, their disastrous wedding and Sigrid’s quest for revenge against the gods who took away her family.

The eight-episode series premieres September 19. The same day, creator/executive producer/director Zack Snyder will appear at the first-ever Geeked Week LIVE show in Atlanta. (Details here.)

(16) TUNES IN ORBIT. Polaris Dawn astronaut Sarah Gillis, a violinist, released a new music video from space this morning, accompanied by a round-the-world orchestra: Rey’s Theme by John Williams.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Michael J. Walsh, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]