Tag Archives: Ringo Awards

Pixel Scroll 3/8/24 The Pixels Are All Tucked In Their Scrolls For The Night

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(1) THERE WILL BE NO 2023 HUGO LONGLIST ANTHOLOGY. David Steffen says, “With all of the complications of this year’s nomination list, Diabolical Plots has decided not to produce a new volume of the Long List Anthology this year.”

Instead, Hal Y. Zhang, with assistance from Chelle Parker and David Steffen, have produced a set of reading recommendations, “The 2023 Hugo Award Nomination List (With Links!)”.

We do still want to help boost readership for the amazing authors involved, however, so in lieu of the anthology, we have done our best to compile the most comprehensive list of links to the works from this year’s Short Story and Novelette categories that we could.

(2) MORE MURDERBOT ACTORS. “’Murderbot’ Casts Sabrina Wu, Tattiawna Jones, Akshay Khanna & Tamara Podemski” – Deadline has the story.

The Apple TV+ series Murderbot is rounding out its leading cast with Sabrina Wu (Joy Ride), Tattiawna Jones (Orphan Black: Echoes), Akshay Khanna (Polite Society) and Tamara Podemski (Outer Range). The quad will star opposite Alexander Skarsgård, who also executive produces.

Based on Martha Wells’ bestselling Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning book series The Murderbot Diaries, the 10-episode series Murderbot centers on a self-hacking security android who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable “clients.” Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe….

(3) SANDERSON SETS BACKERKIT RECORD. Publishers Weekly is there as “Brandon Sanderson Raises $16 Million, Breaking Records Again”.

Brandon Sanderson, the bestselling author known for his epic fantasy novels, has already raised more than $16 million on crowdfunding platform BackerKit since launching it earlier this week.

The campaign is to fund a leatherbound edition of Words of Radiance, the second book in Sanderson’s fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The leatherbound edition will feature premium materials and illustrations, as well as a new “secret project,” Sanderson has teased. Add-ons include an audiobook, which Sanderson says will also be available on Audible, suggesting he has come to an agreement with the audiobook giant . (Sanderson had been in negotiation with the company for better terms for authors).

Sanderson’s BackerKit campaign, which has 55,000 backers and runs through March 30, is the most successful fundraising effort on the platform thus far. This follows Sanderson’s previous record-breaking Kickstarter campaign in March 2022, which raised $41.7 million from 185,341 backers, setting a new record for the most funded Kickstarter in the platform’s history. That campaign supported the release of four books.

(4) CHANGE AT KGB. Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel have updated the readers for their March 13 event. Christopher Rowe has suffered a death in the family. Therefore, Richard Butner will take his place, joining Moses Ose Utomi.

(5) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to nosh pastrami with Glenn Hauman in Episode 220 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

When I realized Glenn Hauman, with whom I’ve been crossing paths for decades on the con circuit, was going to be a guest at Farpoint, I thought it was about time I captured some of his wit and wisdom for you. Here’s just a small taste of what Glenn’s been up to over the years —

Glenn Hauman.

He’s an electronic publishing pioneer who founded BiblioBytes in 1993, which resulted in him being dubbed a “young Turk of publishing” in The New York Observer. He was an editorial consultant to Simon & Schuster Interactive for many years, during which time he contributed to many Star Trek CD-ROMs, such as the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, plus additional projects for many other properties. He’s published fiction in the Star Trek, X-Men, and Farscape franchises.

The particular piece of fiction which has probably brought him the most fame is Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers: Creative Couplings, co-authored with Aaron Rosenberg, which featured the first Klingon/Jewish wedding ceremony, and ended up getting him mass media coverage from outlets such as NPR and the Jewish weekly newspaper The Forward. In 2011, Glen teamed up with Peter David, previous guest of the podcast Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, and Aaron Rosenberg to launch an electronic publishing endeavor called Crazy 8 Press. He’s also a columnist over at ComicMix.

We discussed how he shook things up during the earliest days of electronic publishing, the embarrassing high school newspaper writings of Ted Chiang, the way the assembly-line nature of comics keeps many creatives from seeing the big picture, why he’s nobody’s first choice for anything but everybody’s second choice for everything, his pre-teen encounters with another pre-teen fan who became a Marvel Comics Executive Editor, the philosophical question he asked actor Michael O’Hare just before Babylon 5 began to air, the lunch that led to his first published short story being about the X-Men, what visiting Don Heck’s house at age 12 taught him about artists and taking an art class from John Buscema at age 13 taught him about himself, the plot of the Warren Worthington novel he never got a chance to write, the free speech lawsuit which had him going head to head with the Dr. Seuss estate, plus much more.

(6) GIBSON READING. Space Cowboy Books will host an “Online Reading and Interview with Adrian M. Gibson” on Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. Register for free with Eventbrite at the link.

BLADE RUNNER, TRUE DETECTIVE and HANNIBAL meld with the weird worlds of JEFF VANDERMEER in Adrian M. Gibson’s fungalpunk noir debut novel.

TWO YEARS AFTER a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its Fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, pushing the native populace toward the brink of civil unrest.

As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD Detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of Fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division and moral decay.

In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace Fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?

(7) THOMAS SADLER (1946-2023). Alexiad editor Joseph T. Major shared recently-learned news of the death last year of Thomas Sadler, longtime editor of the fanzine The Reluctant Famulus.

Thomas “Tom” David Sadler, age 76, of Owenton, KY, passed away on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, at his home. Tom was born on March 3, 1946, in Piedmont, AL, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Tanner) Sadler. On October 8, 1966, he married Ruth Underhill, and she survives. He had been employed with the City of Adrian before moving to Kentucky. Tom was a published author, and enjoyed reading, writing, and gardening.

Sadler is survived by his wife, Ruth, their children, and grandchildren.

(8) AKIRA TORIYAMA (1955-2024). Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama died March 1. The New York Times tribute says a statement by his manga and design production company, Bird Studio, and Capsule Corporation Tokyo, attributed his death to acute subdural hematoma, when blood collects between the skull and brain. It did not specify where he died.

The Dragon Ball comic series debuted in 1984. It follows a boy named Son Goku in his quest to collect magical dragon balls to defend Earth against alien humanoids called Saiyans.

 … Mr. Toriyama’s absurd concepts and sense of caricature “sparked a real joyful hysteria” in Japan, Matthieu Pinon and Laurent Lefebvre wrote in their 2023 book, “A History of Modern Manga.”

In 1982, Mr. Toriyama married a former manga artist who published under the pen name Nachi Mikami, Mainichi Shimbun reported. Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, according to the local news media.

When “Dragon Ball” was first published in 1984, it was an immediate hit, becoming one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The adventure story sold more than 260 million copies worldwide, according to the studio that produced the anime adaptation, Toei Animation.

The manga was serialized in the Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Jump until 1995. In the year after the series ended, the magazine lost about one million of its six million readers, according to “A History of Modern Manga.” The story lived on through anime, such as “Dragon Ball Z,” and video games, including the “Dragon Quest” series for which Mr. Toriyama designed the characters….

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born March 8, 1921 — Alan Hale Jr. (Died 1990.) Let’s talk about Alan Hale Jr. — son of Alan Hale Sr. who played Little John in the Robin Hood a century ago with Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery, reprised the role in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, then played him once more in The Rogues of Sherwood Forest. We agreed that Robin Hood is genre, didn’t we? 

Alan Hale Jr.

Now we come to Alan Hale Jr.’s Captain Jonas Grumby as he was referred to only in the Gilligan’s Island pilot, better known as The Skipper, which we’ve also agreed is genre. He’s owner and captain of the S.S. Minnow which ends up in the genre based lost island setting with its passengers and sole crew member.

Counting the pilot, it ran for ninety-nine episodes over three seasons sixty years ago. There would later be three television sequels in the late Seventies and early Eighties in color. I don’t remember any of them, do any of you remember them? 

There are two Filmation-produced animated sequel series which I’ve mercifully never seen. They were The New Adventures of Gilligan and Gilligan’s Planet, both short lived. Yes, he voiced his character.

Other genre appearances included Fantasy Island, My Favorite Martin, The Wild Wild West and ALF for television series, whereas films were The Giant Spider Invasion,  The Fifth Musketeer, and well, and I didn’t see anything else but if I missed anything I’m sure I’ll hear about it. 

(10) RINGO AWARDS 2024 NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN. The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards return for their sixth year on Saturday, September 21, 2024 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con. Access the Ringo Awards 2024 Nominations ballot at the link.

Unlike other professional industry awards, the Ringo Awards include fan participation in the nomination process along with an esteemed jury of comics professionals. 

More than 20 categories will be celebrated with top honors being given at the awards ceremony in September.

Fan and pro-jury voting are tallied independently, and the combined nomination ballot is compiled by the Ringo Awards Committee. The top two fan choices become nominees, and the jury’s selections fill the remaining three slots for five total nominees per category. Ties may result in more than five nominees in a single category. Nominees will be listed on the ballot alphabetically. Nomination ballot voting is open to the public (fans and pros) between March 8, 2024 and May 23, 2024.

New in 2024, we have changed two categories based on juror, publisher, and voter submissions: The “Best Inker” category has been combined with the “Best Artist or Penciller” category to form a combined “Best Artist or Penciller/Inker Team” category. This update reflects the changing way comics are being created, with more artists working digitally and going directly to inks. When a nominated Penciller/Inker Team wins the final ballot, both individuals will receive separate awards.

Final Ballot Voting

After processing by the Ringo Awards Committee and Jury, the Final Ballots are targeted to be available to comic creative professionals for voting on July 24, 2024 and will be due by August 21, 2024 for final tallying. Presentation of the winners will occur at the Baltimore Comic-Con on the evening of Saturday, September 21, 2024.

(11) STRANGER IN NEW YORK. “’Stranger Things’ Play: Broadway Opening Eyed With New York Casting” – Variety has the story.

“Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” the prequel play to the popular Netflix series, looks to be headed to the Great White Way after debuting in London.

Broadway World was the first to report that equity casting notices were posted on Thursday seeking New York City-based actors and stage managers for the show with a 2025 start date. There is no venue specified yet for the show. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stephen Daldry is listed as the director of the New York City production.

“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” was written by Kate Trefry, from an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Trefry. The play debuted at the Phoenix Theatre on the West End on Nov. 17, 2023 in previews, with an official opening date of Dec. 14, 2023. Daldry also directed the West End version….

(12) MOST-WATCHED OSCAR WINNING FILMS. JustWatch has published a new report covering the most popular Best Picture winners. JustWatch wanted to see if tastes have shifted to more modern titles, or if the classics have had a lasting impact on audiences. They ranked all of the Best Picture winners since the first Oscars ceremony in 1929. 

Key Insights: Modern titles like “Everything Everywhere all at Once” and “Parasite” ranked highest in our study. Meanwhile, classic titles like “Titanic” and “Forrest Gump” managed to break into the top 10. The genres of the top 10 varied between thrillers, dramas, and even one romance.  

We created this report by comparing the Best Picture Oscars winners from 1929-2023. JustWatch Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity, including: clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as ‘seen’. This data is collected from >40 million movie & TV show fans per month. It is updated daily for 140 countries and 4,500 streaming services.

(13) SUCCESSFUL NETFLIX SFF LAUNCHES? JustWatch has also assessed how well three of Netflix’ anime live action remakes did right out of the gate.

Netflix has seen a lot of success with this format, and as their latest production, Avatar: The Last Airbender, is probably their most anticipated release to date, we wanted to see how it stacked up against previous attempts. 

Developments relevant to this report include Netflix’s release of Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece’s second season announcement in September 2023.

Key Insights:

  • Death Note topped the charts in almost 3x more countries than One Piece, and 10x more than Avatar: The Last Airbender 
  • Avatar has an above average rating, but by far the least ‘successful’ launch
  • One Piece had a lower popularity score, but the highest rating out of all three titles

(14) FLOOD WARNING US. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] My reportage of the coastal flood risk to US homes yesterday was a bit dry as I jumped straight to the research paper. This is what comes of speed scanning the electronic version of the journal.  When I got home and saw the paper edition, I found its cover story was that very research and it came with a far more readable descriptor…

The cover shows homes under threat from rising sea levels in Summer Haven, Florida. In this week’s issue, Leonard Ohenhen and colleagues suggest that a considerable amount of land in 32 US coastal cities could be at risk of flooding by 2050. Combining models of changes in land elevation with projected rises in sea levels, the researchers estimated the flooding risk in the cites, including Boston, New Orleans and San Francisco. They note that a combination of coastal subsidence and rising sea levels could put an additional 1,006–1,389 km2 of land at risk of flooding by 2050, which could affect up to 171,000 properties. As a result, they call for improvements to flood defences and subsidence control to bolster current coastal protection.

The original research is here.

(15) TWO, COUNT ‘EM, TWO! [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] “TWO Earth-like planets found in the HABITABLE ZONE (just 6% bigger than Earth!)”. This news has been covered elsewhere, but Dr Becky (Smethurst)   — the Oxford U. based astrophysicist — is rather good. Her YouTube channel has just shy of three-quarter of a million subscribers and — thanks to YouTube income has just moved house…

The holy grail of exoplanets research is to find an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone around its star (where it’s not too hot and not too cold for life to exist) and then study its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to determine if life is present there. But to do that, we have to find these planets first. This is where the TESS mission comes in; this month a research paper was published claiming to have found TWO possible Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. The hope is that we can use JWST to study at least one of them.

(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. From the Late Show, “Is ‘Dune’ A Perfect Movie? Neil deGrasse Tyson And Stephen Colbert Agree To Disagree”. The Hollywood Reporter tells some of the things they disagree about in “Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Colbert on Dune 2 Sandworms Accuracy”. Because Neil is like your fannish friend who knows why the movie you love is impossible!

…Tyson explained that the film takes place in the sand dunes on the planet of Arrakis. The dunes are home to massive, very hungry sandworms that will appear wherever a thumper — a device that sends repeated vibrations through the sand — is placed.

“Somebody didn’t do the research on that,” he stated. When Colbert asked if that’s because that’s not how sandworms — which are fictional creatures — actually behave, Tyson said, “I’m saying you can’t thump sand.”

He noted that if someone hits sand repeatedly, it’s not audible because it’s sand. “You can’t hear it, but a sandworm can. They hear things differently than we do, Neil Tyson,” Colbert retorted, jokingly. “If you wanted to insulate yourself acoustically from your surroundings, fill the volume with sand,” the astrophysicist responded. “No one will hear you. I’ve got to let it go because there’s no movie without it.”…

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Robin Anne Reid, Ryan H., Joseph T. Major, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]

2023 Ringo Awards

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The 2023 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards winners were revealed in a ceremony during Baltimore Comic-Con on September 10.

The Ringo Awards are picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)

  • Kate Beaton

Best Writer

  • Ed Brubaker

Best Artist or Penciller

  • Evan “Doc” Shaner

Best Inker

  • Klaus Janson

Best Letterer [Tie]

  • Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
  • Stan Sakai

Best Colorist

  • Jordie Bellaire

Best Cover Artist

  • Greg Smallwood

Best Series

  • Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios

Best Single Issue or Story

  • Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press

Best Original Graphic Novel

  • It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, Image Comics

Best Anthology

  • Young Men in Love, A Wave Blue World

Best Humor Comic

  • The Illustrated Al: The Songs of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Z2 Comics

Best Webcomic

  • Lore Olympus, WEBTOON

Best Humor Webcomic

  • Evil Inc., evil-inc.com

Best Non-fiction Comic Work

  • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Drawn & Quarterly

Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel

  • Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press

Best Presentation in Design

  • Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition—Last Call, IDW Publishing

The Fan-Only Favorites voted by the public, the Ringo Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award were also presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.

Fan Favorites

  • Favorite Hero: Sam Young from Let’s Play (Rocketship Entertainment)
  • Favorite Villain: Adam from The Guy Upstairs (WEBTOONS)
  • Favorite New Series: Nevermore (WEBTOON)
  • Favorite New Talent: Ellie Wright
  • Favorite Publisher: Dark Horse

Mike Wieringo Spirit Award

  • World’s Finest, DC Comics

Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award

  • Al Milgrom

Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Chris Claremont

2023 Ringo Awards Finalists

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The 2023 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards final ballot has been released. The nominees were selected by the combined efforts of jury and public voting.

Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

In addition to Final Ballot categories, both Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and Hero Initiative Awards (The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award) will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony the evening of September 9 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.

Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)

  • Kate Beaton
  • Wes Craig
  • Alexis Deacon
  • Jenny Jinya
  • Snailords
  • Stan Sakai
  • Zoe Thorogood

Best Writer

  • Ed Brubaker
  • Anthony Del Col
  • Drew Edwards
  • Scott Snyder
  • Brian K. Vaughan

Best Artist or Penciller

  • Fahmida Azim
  • Kate Flynn
  • Molly Mendoza
  • Nicola Scott
  • Evan “Doc” Shaner

Best Inker

  • Gigi Baldassini
  • Scott Hanna
  • Sandra Hope
  • Klaus Janson
  • Mark Morales

Best Letterer

  • Justin Birch
  • Jerome Gagnon
  • Todd Klein
  • Micah Myers
  • Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
  • Stan Sakai

Best Colorist

  • Daniela Barisone
  • Jordie Bellaire
  • Chris O’Halloran
  • Jacob Phillips
  • Dave Stewart
  • Ellie Wright

Best Cover Artist

  • Wylie Beckert
  • Jason Muhr
  • Bryan Silverbax
  • Greg Smallwood
  • JH Williams III

Best Series

  • Fractured Shards, Comics2Movies
  • Parker Girls, Abstract Studios
  • Saga, Image Comics
  • Season of the Bruja, Oni Press
  • Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios

Best Single Issue or Story

  • 88 Days of Hell: One Ukrainian Man’s Experience in the Russian Filtration, Insider
  • A Hunter’s Tale, Elephant Eater Comics
  • Finding Batman, DC Comics
  • Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press
  • Punisher #1, Marvel Comics
  • Thieves, Nobrow
  • You Were My Joker That Night, Anatola Howard

Best Original Graphic Novel

  • Chivalry, Dark Horse Comics
  • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Drawn & Quarterly
  • It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, Image Comics
  • Tokyo Rose—Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman’s Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II, Tuttle Publishing
  • Twilight Custard, Ghostpod Publishing

Best Anthology

  • Cthulu Invades Wonderland, Orange Cone Productions
  • Lower Your Sights, Mad Cave Studios
  • The Silver Coin, Image Comics
  • Voices That Count, IDW Publishing
  • Young Men in Love, A Wave Blue World

Best Humor Comic

  • Breaking Cat News, GoComics
  • Crash and Troy, A Wave Blue World
  • Grumpy Monkey: Who Threw That?, Random House Children’s Books
  • The Illustrated Al: The Songs of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Z2 Comics
  • Little Tunny’s Snail Diaries, Silver Sprocket
  • My Bad, AHOY Comics
  • Revenge of the Librarians, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Whatzit, Heavy Metal

Best Webcomic

  • 88 Days of Hell: One Ukrainian Man’s Experience in the Russian Filtration, Inisder
  • The All-Nighter, Comixology Originals
  • The Guy Upstairs, WEBTOON
  • I Love Yoo, WEBTOON
  • Lore Olympus, WEBTOON
  • Offside: I Was a Pro Football Player. I Was Tricked into Going to Qatar to Work Construction, Insider
  • You Were My Joker That Night, Anatola Howard

Best Humor Webcomic

  • Background Noise, backgroundnoisecomic.com
  • Evil Inc., evil-inc.com
  • Finding Fiends, WEBTOON
  • Live with Yourself!, WEBTOON
  • Vampire Husband, WEBTOON

Best Non-fiction Comic Work

  • 88 Days of Hell: One Ukrainian Man’s Experience in the Russian Filtration, Insider
  • A Game for Swallows Expanded Edition, Graphic Universe – Lerner Publishing Group
  • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Drawn & Quarterly
  • I’m Still Alive, Archaia – BOOM! Studios
  • Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag, Street Noise Books
  • Radium Girls, Iron Circus Comics
  • The Third Person, Drawn & Quarterly

Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel

  • The Aquanaut. Scholastic Graphix
  • Frizzy, First Second Books
  • The Ghoul Agency, Action Lab Entertainment
  • Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press
  • Kaya, Image Comics
  • PAWS: Gabby Gets It Together, Razorbill Books, Penguin Random House
  • Punk Taco 2, Adam Wallenta Entertainment
  • Tin Man, Abrams ComicArts

Best Presentation in Design

  • Beneath an Alien Sky, Rocketship Entertainment
  • Best of EC Stories Artisan Edition, IDW Publishing
  • Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition—Last Call, IDW Publishing
  • Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars, Abrams ComicArts
  • Sara Deluxe Hardcover, TKO Studios

2022 Ringo Awards

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The 2022 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards winners were revealed in a ceremony during Baltimore Comic-Con on October 29.

The most honored work of the night was Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, winner of three categories including Best Original Graphic Novel.

The Ringo Awards are picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

The Fan-Only Favorites voted by the public, the Ringo Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award were also presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.

2022 RINGO AWARD WINNERS

BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)

  • Jeff Lemire

BEST WRITER

  • James Tynion IV

BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER

  • Filipe Andrade

BEST INKER

  • Sal Buscema

BEST LETTERER

  • Taylor Esposito

BEST COLORIST

  • Dave McCaig

BEST COVER ARTIST

  • Simone Di Meo

BEST SERIES

  • Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY

  • Something is Killing the Children #20, BOOM! Studios

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks

BEST ANTHOLOGY

  • DC Pride 2021, DC

BEST HUMOR COMIC

  • Not All Robots, AWA Studios

BEST WEBCOMIC

BEST HUMOR WEBCOMIC

BEST NON-FICTION COMIC WORK

  • Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks

BEST KIDS COMIC OR GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender–Suki, Alone. Dark Horse Comics

BEST PRESENTATION IN DESIGN

  • Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks

RINGO SPIRIT AWARD WINNER

  • Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, Oni Press

RINGO AWARD WINNER FOR FAN FAVORITE HERO

  • Sylas from Syphon

RINGO AWARD WINNER FOR FAN FAVORITE VILLAIN

  • Captain Martell from Blowback

RINGO AWARD WINNER FOR FAN FAVORITE NEW SERIES

  • Clinic of Horrors (WEBTOON)

RINGO AWARD WINNER FOR FAN FAVORITE NEW TALENT

  • Vincent Kings

RINGO AWARD WINNER FOR FAN FAVORITE PUBLISHER

  • Image Comics

DICK GIORDANO HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

  • Scott Dunbier

HERO INITIATIVE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

  • Steve Geppi

2022 Ringo Awards Final Ballot

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The  2022 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards final ballot has been released. The nominees were selected by the combined efforts of jury and public voting.

Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

In addition to Final Ballot categories, both Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and Hero Initiative Awards (The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award) will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony the evening of October 29 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.

BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)

  • Jeff Lemire
  • Sas Milledge
  • Eric Powell
  • Caytlin Vilbrandt
  • Thomas Zahler

BEST WRITER

  • Jeff Lemire
  • MerryWeather
  • Chris Miskiewicz
  • Tom Taylor
  • James Tynion IV

BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER

  • Filipe Andrade
  • Juan Cavia
  • Tyler Crook
  • Jeff Edwards
  • Jock
  • PokuriMio
  • Gabriel Rodriguez

BEST INKER

  • Sal Buscema
  • Adelso Corona
  • Eber Ferreira
  • Jonathan Glapion
  • Sandra Hope
  • Mark Morales
  • Norm Rapmund

BEST LETTERER

  • Andworld Designs
  • Clayton Cowles
  • Crank!
  • Taylor Esposito
  • DC Hopkins
  • Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

BEST COLORIST

  • Juan Cavia
  • Bruna Costa
  • Dijjo Lima
  • Dave McCaig
  • K. O’Neill
  • Sandro Pacucci
  • Santiago R. Villa

BEST COVER ARTIST

  • Simone Di Meo
  • Jeff Edwards
  • Stephanie Hans
  • Javan Jordan
  • Jeff Lemire
  • Peach Momoko
  • Sana Takeda

BEST SERIES

  • Locke & Key/The Sandman Universe: Hell & Gone, IDW Publishing
  • Many Deaths of Laila Starr, BOOM! Studios
  • Something is Killing the Children, BOOM! Studios
  • Stray Dogs, Image Comics
  • Syphon, Image Comics

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY

  • Commander RAO #1, Scout Comics
  • Mamo #1, BOOM! Studios
  • The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #3, BOOM! Studios
  • Something is Killing the Children #20, BOOM! Studios
  • Tales of the Night Watchman: Under the Surface, So What? Press

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Ballad for Sophie, Top Shelf Productions
  • Blowback, self-published
  • Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks
  • Djeliya, TKO Studios
  • Save it for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest, Abrams Books
  • This is Where We Fall, Z2

BEST ANTHOLOGY

  • DC Pride 2021, DC
  • SENSORY: Life on the Spectrum, self-published
  • Smut Peddler Presents: Sordid Past, Iron Circus Comics
  • You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife, Iron Circus Comics
  • Yule: Dreadful Tales for the Holiday Season, self-published

BEST HUMOR COMIC

  • Cyclopedia Exotica, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Love and Capes: In the Time of Covid, Maerkle Press
  • Not All Robots, AWA Studios
  • Twiztid Haunted High-Ons: Curse of the Green Book, Source Point Press
  • Wicked Things, BOOM! Studios

BEST WEBCOMIC

BEST HUMOR WEBCOMIC

BEST NON-FICTION COMIC WORK

  • The Comic Book History of Animation, IDW Publishing
  • Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks
  • Elvis: The Official Graphic Novel, Z2
  • Hakim’s Odyssey, Book 1: From Syria to Turkey, Graphic Mundi
  • Run: Book One, Abrams Books
  • Yummy: A History of Desserts, Random House Children’s Books

BEST KIDS COMIC OR GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender–Suki, Alone. Dark Horse Comics
  • Better Place, Top Shelf
  • Just Roll With It, Random House Children’s Books
  • Nobody Likes You, Greta Grump, Fantagraphics
  • Rainbow Bridge, Aftershock
  • The Underfoot: Into the Sun, Oni Press

BEST PRESENTATION IN DESIGN

  • Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, Albatross Funnybooks
  • EC Covers Artist’s Edition, IDW Publishing
  • Friday Foster: The Ultimate Collection, ABLAZE Comics
  • Jim Lee’s X-Men Artist’s Edition, IDW Publishing
  • Locke & Key: Keyhouse Compendium, IDW Publishing
  • Stake, Scout Comics

Pixel Scroll 4/15/22 Is That A Real Pixel, Or Is That A Sears Pixel

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(1) WISCON NEWS. Today’s “#SaveWisCon Update” has its ups and downs:

We are making AMAZING progress on our work to #SaveWisCon, thanks to your help!

      • We have now raised just over $32,000 in donations of which $30,000 will be matched, for a total of $62,000 raised to support WisCon! This is absolutely incredible, and we are so grateful for everyone who contributed and helped spread the word.
      • 70 people have completed our Volunteer Interest Form to help out with pre-con volunteering. Thank you all!
      • We’ve gained 252 new email newsletter subscribers since November, which is helping us make sure everyone gets the latest con news and updates. Not getting the newsletter? You can sign up here.
      • We have a total of 418 registrations (in-person and online). Our goal is 1,000! Please registerand tell your friends about WisCon, too.

PLUS we are receiving a total of $5,500 in grants from:

We deeply appreciate their support and encourage everyone to learn more about these excellent organizations.

Thanks to your donations and these grants, we’re at roughly $67,000 in total funds raised!

Is this the end of #SaveWisCon fundraising? Are we just done now, forever?

Well…probably not, y’all, for a couple of reasons…

The two main reasons are: (1) It’s “basically impossible” for them to book enough rooms to meet their contract so they will owe a big penalty. That’s an effect of the pandemic and people’s assessment of the risk of in-person events. (2) They have sold only a fraction of the 500 online memberships that are an expected revenue source.

(2) NOT A SWEET SOUND IN THEIR EARS. Appropriate to April 15, the usual income tax filing day in the U.S. (although not in 2022, when it’s April 18), the SFWA Blog posted this: “SFWA Alert: Tax Guidance for Audible/ACX Royalties Reporting”.

…Audible/ACX’s New Tax Reporting Policy: What Authors Should Know

As of January 1, 2021, authors who publish their own audiobooks on ACX and use ACX producers must now declare the producers’ portion of the royalties as income and then deduct those payments as business expenses when they file their taxes.  This is because Audible/ACX now reports all of the net earnings from ACX audiobooks on the authors’ 1099-MISC forms, including the earnings it paid over to producers, as the authors’ royalty earning. It has also stopped issuing 1099-MISCs to producers and instead now issues 1099-Ks to producers that meet the income threshold.

With these new accounting practices, Audible/ACX is treating the payments it makes to voice actors, audiobook producers, and studio pros (collectively referred to as Producers in the agreements) as part of the royalties payable to the authors (referred to as Rights Holders in the agreements)—on the notion that it is the authors, not Audible/ACX, who hire the Producers and owe the Producers a share of their own royalties as compensation for recording the book. The new structure makes clear that Audible/ACX is limiting its role to that of a third-party payment settlement service, even though it makes the Producers’ services available to their authors, sets the terms of that engagement (a 50/50 royalty split), and is the one to send payment to the Producers….

(3) MOURNING STAR. [Item by Andrew Porter.] Last night’s episode of Young Sheldon starts with the momentous news, related by the young version of Sheldon Cooper, that Isaac Asimov has died. (Which happened in 1992.) His parents are monumentally dismissive, but others not as much. I can honestly state that more Asimov works are mentioned there than on any other TV show, ever.

All I can say is, hilarity ensues!

It’s Series 5, Episode 18, “Babies, Lies and a resplendent Cannoli,” with the description on my TV, “Sheldon copes with the death of a hero; Missy wants to babysit; Georgie struggles with a big secret.”

Likely available On Demand.

(4) THE ANSWER IS 47. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Financial Times behind a paywall, Sarah Hemming reviews The 47th, a Shakespearean pastiche by Mike Bartlett about the 2024 presidential election which is playing at the Old Vic Theatre (oldvictheatre.com) through May 28. (I reviewed Bartlett’s previous near-future Shakespearean pastiche, King Charles III, here in 2017 “King Charles III”: A Review”.)

(5) RINGO AWARDS 2022 NOMINATIONS OPEN. The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards return for their sixth year on Saturday, October 29, 2022 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con. The Ringo Awards include fan participation in the nomination process along with a jury of comics professionals. Fans are welcome to nominate until June 30 at the website here.

Fan and Pro Nominations: Fan and pro-jury voting are tallied independently, and the combined nomination ballot is compiled by the Ringo Awards Committee. The top two fan choices become nominees, and the jury’s selections fill the remaining three slots for five total nominees per category. Ties may result in more than five nominees in a single category. Nominees will be listed on the ballot alphabetically. Nomination ballot voting is open to the public (fans and pros) between April 15, 2022 and June 30, 2022.

Final Ballot Voting: After processing by the Ringo Awards Committee and Jury, the Final Ballots are targeted to be available to comic creative professionals for voting on August 31, 2022 and will be due by September 28, 2022 for final tallying. Presentation of the winners will occur at the Baltimore Comic-Con on the evening of Saturday, October 29, 2022.

(6) NO VIVIAN IN 2022. The Romance Writers of America have postponed the next Vivian Award to 2023. The announcement was made last October – but it was news to me. The decision came in the aftermath of RWA rebranding its annual award (formerly the Rita), and the organization’s decision to rescind one of the inaugural Vivian Awards.

In an effort to provide the VIVIAN Task Force the time needed to thoroughly examine the 2021 VIVIAN contest, the RWA Board has approved the task force’s recommendation to postpone the 2022 VIVIAN Contest. This postponement will give the task force time to conduct a thorough analysis of the inaugural contest and make recommendations for changes to be implemented for the 2023 contest period. Under normal circumstances, our contest period begins in October with marketing and advertising campaigns followed by the recruitment and training of judges and accepting contest entries. However, the Board recognizes that the VIVIAN Task Force needs more than a couple of weeks to break down all aspects of the contest to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses outside of those revealed this year.

(7) LANGELLA OUT OF USHER. Yahoo! reports“Frank Langella Fired From ‘Fall of the House of Usher’ After Netflix Investigation”.

Veteran actor Frank Langella has been fired from Mike Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” following a Netflix investigation that found Langella acted inappropriately on set, a source close to the production confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday evening.

Netflix had no comment on the situation and a rep for Flanagan did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

TMZ reported on Tuesday that Netflix was looking into allegations that the 84-year-old had been accused of sexual harassment, including making inappropriate comments to a female co-star on the set of the limited series….

(8) OH GIVE ME A HOME, WHERE THE PORTAL HAS COME. A new sf western begins today on Amazon Prime: Outer Range.

Outer Range centers on Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin), a rancher fighting for his land and family, who discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness. A thrilling fable with hints of wry humor and supernatural mystery, Outer Range examines how we grapple with the unknown. At the onset of the series, the Abbotts are coping with the disappearance of daughter-in-law Rebecca. They are pushed further to the brink when the Tillersons (the gaudy owners of the neighboring profit-driven ranch) make a play for their land. An untimely death in the community sets off a chain of tension-filled events, and seemingly small-town, soil-bound troubles come to a head with the arrival of a mysterious black void in the Abbotts’ west pasture. Wild revelations unfold as Royal fights to protect his family; through his eyes, we begin to see how time contains secrets held in the past and unsettling mysteries foreshadowed.

(9) CHRISTINE ASHBY OBIT. Australian fan Christine Ashby, the 1976 Down Under Fan Fund delegate, died at her home on March 29. She was 70 years of age. In 1976 DUFF she attended that year’s Worldcon, MidAmeriCon. Her trip report, The Flight of the Kangaroo, was published about a decade later.

(10) ESSAY: JO WALTON’S SMALL CHANGE TRILOGY. [By Cat Eldridge,] Doing alternate history right is always hard work, but Jo Walton’s  the Small Change books consisting of  Farthing, Ha’penny and Half a Crown get it perfectly spot on. Set as you know in Britain that settled for an uneasy peace with Hitler’s Germany, they are mysteries, one of my favorite genres. And these are among my all-time favorite mysteries of this sort. 

The audiobooks are fascinating as befitting that there being shifting narrators with Peter Carmichael whose presence in all three novels is voiced by John Keating, and Bianco Amato voicing David Kahn’s wife in Farthing, but Viola Lark being played by Heather O’Neil in Ha’penny and yet a third female narrator, Elvira, is brought to life by Terry Donnelly in Half a Crown. 

Now I’m fascinated by what awards they won (and didn’t) and what they got nominated for. It would win but one award, the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian SF Novel for Ha’Penny which is I find a bit odd indeed given there’s nothing libertarian about that novel. 

Now Half a Crown wracked an impressive number of nominations: the Sidewise Award for Best Long Form Alternate History, Locus for Best SF Novel, Sunburst award for a Canadian novel, and this time deservedly so given the themes of the final novel a Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian SF Novel.

Farthing had picked up nominations for a Sidewise, a Nebula, Campbell Memorial, Quill where Ha’Penny only picked a Sidewise and Lambda.

Not a single Hugo nomination which really, really surprised me. 

There is one short story set in this series, “Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction” which you can read in her Starlings colllection that Tachyon published. It is is a fantastic collection of her stories, poems and cool stuff! 

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born April 15, 1918 — Denis McLoughlin. No, he didn’t do any genre work that you’d know of. (And I’m not interested in it anyways. This is not about a genre artist.) His greatest fame came from work doing hard-boiled detective book covers produced for the London publishing house of Boardman Books spanning a career that lasted nearly eight decades with other work as well. And oh what covers they were!  Here’s is his cover for Adam Knight’s Stone Cold Blonde, and this is Henry Kanes’…Until You’re Dead. Finally let’s look at his cover for Fredric Brown’s We All Killed Grandma.  He was in perfect health when he took a revolver from his extensive collection of weapons and committed suicide. No note was left behind. (Died 2002.)
  • Born April 15, 1922 — Michael Ansara. Commander Kang  in Trek’s “The Day of The Dove” as well as a lot of other genre work including a recurring role as Kane on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, multiple roles on I Dream of Jeannie andmyriad voicings of Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze in the Batman series. (Died 2013.)
  • Born April 15, 1926 — Jerry Grandenetti. In my opinion, his greatest work was as the illustrator who helped defined the look of The Spirit that Will Eisner created. He also worked at DC, mostly on war comics of which there apparently way more than I knew (All-American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces and Star Spangled War Stories) though he did work on the House of Mystery and Strange Adventures series as well. (Died 2010.)
  • Born April 15, 1933 — Elizabeth Montgomery. She’s best remembered as Samantha Stephens on Bewitched. Other genre roles included being Lili in One Step Beyond’s “The Death Waltz” which you can watch here. She also had one-offs in The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and voicing a Barmaid in the “Showdown” episode of Batman: The Animated Series. (Died 1995.)
  • Born April 15, 1959 — Emma Thompson, 63. Professor Sybill Trelawney, Harry Potter franchise. Men in Black 3 and Men in Black: International as Agent O, I am Legend, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle as Polynesia, the extraordinary Tony Kushner derived HBO series Angels in America, Beauty and the Beast as Mrs. Potts, the castle’s motherly head housekeeper who has been transformed into a teapot, Brave, Beautiful Creatures and Treasure Planet voicing Captain Amelia. 
  • Born April 15, 1974 — Jim C. Hines, 48. [Item by Paul Weimer.] Writer, and blogger. Jim C. Hines’ first published novel was Goblin Quest, the tale of a nearsighted goblin runt and his pet fire-spider. Jim went on to write the Princess series, four books often described as a blend of Grimm’s Fairy Tales with Charlie’s Angels. He’s also the author of the Magic ex Libris books, my personal favorite, which follow the adventures of a magic-wielding librarian from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, who happens to have the same pet fire-spider lifted from the Goblin novels as his best friend. He has two novels in his Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. Jim’s novels usually have the fun and humor dials set on medium to high. Jim is also an active blogger on a variety of topics and won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer at Chicon 7.
  • Born April 15, 1997 — Maisie Williams, 25. She made her professional acting debut as Arya Stark of Winterfell in Game of Thrones. She was Ashildr, an immortal Viking woman of unique skills, the principal character of “The Girl Who Died”, “The Woman Who Lived”, “Face the Raven” and “Hell Bent” during the time of Twelfth Doctor. She was also Lucy in the Netflix SF iBoy. She is set to star as Wolfsbane in the forthcoming Marvel film New Mutants, due for release sometime, well who knows, as it keeps getting delayed. 

(12) HEROS AND STINKERS. Here’s a research project that will amuse (or bemuse) you: “All The Hobbits From Lord Of The Rings Ranked Worst To Best”. Looper ranks 18 of them.

… There are a lot of hobbits in “Lord of the Rings.” So many, in fact, that we’ve decided to round them all up into a good ol’ worst-to-best ranking. After all, what good is this iconic race of hole-dwellers if we can’t subjectively compare them to each other? Here are all of the hobbits who play at least a minor role in the story, ranked by a general conglomeration of heroics, accomplishments, humor, toughness, and overall importance to Tolkien’s world….

16. Ted Sandyman is a pathetic excuse for a Hobbit

…While he plays a similar part in the book, Sandyman’s role is a bit bigger on-page. He’s in a lengthy scene in “The Fellowship of the Ring” where he verbally spars with Sam, rebutting his romantic notions of the world. Then he reappears at the end of “The Return of the King,” where it’s revealed that he’s gone over to the dark side, helping Saruman’s minions overrun the Shire and turn it into an industrialized police state….

Ted Sandyman is eventually put in his place, but during his time in the story he proves to be nothing more than a troublemaking bully who runs at the first site of trouble. To the bottom of the list he goes…

(13) WE’RE DOOMED, DOOMED! [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] An analysis announced by Nature this week reveals that even if all the agreed actions from last November’s COP26 UN climate change summit were implemented global temperatures could not be kept below the target 1.5°C warming.

The researchers say that to meet this target we are going to have to actively remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Personally, having studied climate change for some decades now, I am all too aware of the difficulties. Indeed, back in 2009 I posted an online essay that concluded it would be difficult to keep warming below 2°C.

Since 2009, there has been a growing body of research pointing in the same direction, of which this Nature paper is but the latest.

Quantifications of the pledges before the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) suggested a less than 50 per cent chance of keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius…

Limiting warming not only to ‘just below’ but to ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius or 1.5 degrees Celsius urgently requires policies and actions to bring about steep emission reductions this decade, aligned with mid-century global net-zero CO2 emissions.

(14) REPEAT AFTER ME. If you have eight minutes to spare you can watch a “Giant ‘Live Long and Prosper’ Supercut” with every appearance of the Vulcan phrase in every Star Trek series. Nerdist gives a rundown —

…This montage (which we first saw at Laughing Squid) includes all the times someone said that phrase, from the franchise’s first days to right now. Characters first told others to “live long and prosper” on the original cast’s show, animated series, and movies. Since then Star Trek characters in The Next Generation, First Contact, Voyager, Enterprise, Lower Decks, and Prodigy have said the phrase, too.

(Uh, can we go back and edit one into Deep Space Nine? Now that we know zero characters ever said the Vulcan salute, it seems weird, right?)

(15) MIXED MEDIA. Daniel Greene’s “Best of the Year 2021” rankings are unusual in that he includes written as well as filmed media, so there’s some nice shout-outs for several notable SF/Fantasy printed works in here.

(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] The How It Should Have Ended gang takes on the Snyder cut in this video, which dropped Thursday. “How The Snyder Cut Should Have Ended”.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Jennifer Hawthorne, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Irwin Hirsh, Joyce Scrivner, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jeff Smith.]

2021 Ringo Awards

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The  2021 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards winners were revealed in a virtual ceremony during the Baltimore Comic-Con on October 23.

The Ringo Awards are picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

The Fan-Only Favorites voted by the public, the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spirit Award, and the Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award were also presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.

2021 RINGO AWARDS

BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)

  • Stan Sakai

BEST WRITER

  • James Tynion IV

BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER

  • Jamal Campbell

BEST INKER

  • Sanford Greene

BEST LETTERER

  • Aditya Bidikar

BEST COLORIST

  • Tamra Bonvillain

BEST COVER ARTIST

  • Peach Momoko

BEST SERIES

  • Usagi Yojimbo, IDW Publishing

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY

  • The O.Z., self-published

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Pulp, Image Comics

BEST ANTHOLOGY

  • Be Gay, Do Comics, IDW Publishing

BEST HUMOR COMIC

  • Metalshark Bro 2: Assault on Hamzig Island, Scout Comics

BEST WEBCOMIC

BEST HUMOR WEBCOMIC

BEST NON-FICTION COMIC WORK

  • Kent State, Abrams Books

BEST KIDS COMIC OR GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Twins, Scholastic Graphix

BEST PRESENTATION IN DESIGN

  • Dave Cockrum’s X-Men Artifact Edition, IDW Publishing

FAN AWARDS

FAVORITE HERO

  • Persephone fromLore Olympus

FAVORITE VILLAIN

  • Emma from My Deepest Secret

FAVORITE NEW SERIES

  • Midnight Poppy Land

FAVORITE NEW TALENT

  • Lilydusk

FAVORITE PUBLISHER

  • Rocketship Entertainmnt

HERO INITIATIVE LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR 2021

  • Joe Quesada

RINGO SPIRIT AWARD

  • Folklords, BOOM! Studios

DICK GIORDANO HERO INITIATIVE HUMANITARIAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

  • Gene Ha

2021 Ringo Awards Final Ballot

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The  2021 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards final ballot has been released. The nominees were selected by the combined efforts of jury and public voting.

Final ballot voting is restricted to comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

The Ringo Awards, the Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot, and The Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award and The Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award will be presented at the Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards ceremony on Saturday, October 23 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con.

2021 RINGO AWARDS NOMINEES

BEST CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)

  • Derf Backderf
  • Mongie
  • Stan Sakai
  • Rachel Smythe
  • Adrian Tomine
  • Sophie Yanow

BEST WRITER

  • Penelope Bagieu
  • Anthony Del Col
  • Jason Douglas
  • N.K. Jemisin
  • Marjorie Liu
  • James Tynion IV
  • Ram V

BEST ARTIST OR PENCILLER

  • Josh Adams
  • Jamal Campbell
  • Elsa Charretier
  • Hanza Art
  • Sana Takeda

BEST INKER

  • Sanford Greene
  • Brett Hobson
  • Jjolee
  • Gabriel Hernandez Walta
  • Tonci Zonjic

BEST LETTERER

  • Deron Bennett
  • Aditya Bidikar
  • DC Hopkins
  • Micah Myers
  • Chas! Pangburn

BEST COLORIST

  • Toyin Ajetunmobi
  • Laura Allred
  • Tamra Bonvillain
  • Aladdin Lee Grant Rutledge Collar
  • Jacob Phillips
  • Joe Todd-Stanton
  • Christian Ward

BEST COVER ARTIST

  • Gian Carlo Bernal
  • Stephanie Hans
  • Maan House
  • Steve Lieber
  • Peach Momoko
  • Kevin O’Neill
  • Joe Todd-Stanton

BEST SERIES

  • The Department of Truth, Image Comics
  • Far Sector, DC Comics
  • Lore Olympus, WEBTOON
  • My Deepest Secret, WEBTOON
  • Usagi Yojimbo, IDW Publishing
  • Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, DC

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY

  • All-America Comix #1, Image Comics
  • Firefly: The Outlaw Ma Reynolds (BOOM! Studios)
  • Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
  • “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” from Ice Cream Man Present Quarantine Comix Special #1, Image Comics
  • The O.Z., self-published
  • Parallel, Source Point Press

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Buried But Not Dead, Source Point Press
  • Kent State, Abrams Books
  • The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Moms, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Pulp, Image Comics

BEST ANTHOLOGY

  • Be Gay, Do Comics, IDW Publishing
  • Hey, Amateur! Go From Novice to Nailing It in 9 Panels, IDW Publishing
  • Maybe Someday: Stories of Promise, Visions of Hope, A Wave Blue World
  • Pandemix: Quarantine Comix in the Age of ‘Rona, self-published
  • Votes for Women: The Battle for the 19th Amendment, Little Red Bird Press

BEST HUMOR COMIC

  • Akissi: Even More Tales of Mischief, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
  • ArkhaManiacs, DC
  • Billionaire Island, AHOY Comics
  • Love and Capes: The Family Way, Maerkle Press/IDW Publishing
  • Metalshark Bro 2: Assault on Hamzig Island, Scout Comics
  • Moms, Drawn & Quarterly
  • Wicked Things, BOOM! Studios

BEST WEBCOMIC

BEST HUMOR WEBCOMIC

BEST NON-FICTION COMIC WORK

  • Banned Book Club, Iron Circus Comics
  • Chasin’ the Bird: Charlie Parker In California, Z2 Comics
  • Come Home Indio, Street Noise Books
  • Dancing after Ten, Fantagraphics Books
  • Grateful Dead – Origins, Z2 Comics
  • Kent State, Abrams Books
  • We’ll Soon Be Home Again, Dark Horse Comics

BEST KIDS COMIC OR GRAPHIC NOVEL

  • Akissi: Even More Tales of Mischief, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press
  • Cat Kid Comic Club #1, Scholastic Graphix
  • Jupiter Jet and the Forgotten Radio, Action Lab Entertainment
  • Max Meow: Cat Crusader, Random House
  • The Perhapanauts: First Blood, Scout Comics
  • Twins, Scholastic Graphix

BEST PRESENTATION IN DESIGN

  • Crescent City Monsters, Dream Fury Comics
  • Dave Cockrum’s X-Men Artifact Edition, IDW Publishing
  • The Harrowing of Hell, Iron Circus Comics
  • Heavy Metal #300, Heavy Metal
  • Impossible Jones, Volume 1: Grin & Gritty, Panic Button Press
  • Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx, Flying Eye Books (US) / Nobrow Press

2020 Ringo Awards

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The 2020 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards winners were revealed in a virtual ceremony during the Baltimore Comic-Con on October 24.

The Ringo Awards were picked by a vote of the comic book industry creative community — anyone involved in and credited with creating comics professionally.

Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)

  • Stan Sakai

Best Writer

  • Mariko Tamaki

Best Artist or Penciller

  • Sanford Greene

Best Inker

  • Sandra Hope

Best Letterer

  • Nate Piekos

Best Colorist

  • Jordie Bellaire

Best Cover Artist

  • Sana Takeda

Best Series

  • Bitter Root, Image Comics

Best Single Issue or Story

  • Usagi Yojimbo #6, IDW Publishing

Best Original Graphic Novel

  • Snow, Glass, Apples, Dark Horse Comics

Best Anthology

  • Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Sirens, Archaia (BOOM! Studios)

Best Humor Comic

  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, DC Comics

Best Comic Strip or Panel

  • Nancy, Olivia Jaimes, Andrews McMeel Universal

Best Webcomic

Best Non-fiction Comic Work

  • They Called Us Enemy, Top Shelf (IDW Publishing)

Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel

  • Guts, Graphix/Scholastic

Best Presentation in Design

  • Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: The Complete Grasscutter Artist Select, IDW Publishing

Fan Favorite – Publisher

  • Tapas

Fan Favorite – New Talent

  • Sinran

Fan Favorite – New Series

  • Fangs by Sarah Andersen

Fan Favorite – Villain

  • John from unOrdinary

Fan Favorite – Hero

  • Clove from SubZero

Mike Wieringo Spirit Award

[Selected by Mark Waid, Craig Rousseau, Todd Dezago and Matt Wieringo]

  • Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Yung Yang

Pixel Scroll 10/14/20 Don’t Need A Pixelman To Know Which Way The File Scrolls

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(1) BALLOTS TO BEAM UP. The Guardian takes notes as “Biden campaign targets Trekkies with star studded Star Trek event”.

They did indeed boldly go.

Politicians are fond of telling the electorate that “every vote counts”, and Joe Biden’s campaign went far out on Tuesday night when it held a virtual rally targeting the Star Trek voting bloc.

Hosted by Democatic politicians Stacey Abrams, Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang, “Trek the vote to victory!” was an unusual campaign event – featuring a raft of Star Trek stars including Patrick Stewart, Mulgrew and George Takei, and apparently aimed firmly at Trekkies.

The rally offered the latest example of how Biden has attracted celebrities to his campaign, and it also provided a chance for whoever runs the Biden campaign Twitter account to do a joke.

…It was Yang, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination, who opened up the event, the self-professed “math nerd” proving himself to be a keen trekker.

Things didn’t go immediately to plan, however, when one of the Star Trek actors – 19 cast members, from five iterations of the show, appeared at the event – immediately praised a policy idea that Yang had championed, and that Biden has ignored.

“I just want to say thank you for bringing the idea of universal basic income into the mainstream of political conversation,” Will Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: Next Generation, told Yang.

“It’s super important and there’s no excuse for that not to go forward.”

Universal basic income – the idea of the government giving every adult a regular stipend – was Yang’s key issue during his presidential campaign, but it is not a part of Biden’s plans for government.

The awkwardness continued as Marina Sirtis, aka Counselor Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation, used the Biden event to offer very faint praise for the Democratic nominee.

“I mean I lean very left,” Sirtis said. “But this time we had to just find someone who can beat Trump.”…

(2) THE MAN FROM UNCLE’S. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune keeps shaking up foot-dragging bureaucrats who stand in the way of efforts to rebuild on the lot where Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore stood. “In Minneapolis, a parking dispute delays Chicago Avenue rebuilding project”.

… City officials did not reverse course until a Star Tribune reporter inquired about the stalled project. On Thursday, Barbarawi received an e-mail informing him that he can use the slab for parking, at least on a temporary basis.

“I apologize for the confusion,” wrote Brad Ellis, manager of zoning administration and enforcement for Minneapolis….

… Over the summer, Barbarawi struck a deal with Blyly to buy the bookstore property. With three large concrete slabs, the parcel offers ready-make parking for as many as 10 cars. But the plans hit a roadblock when Barbarawi shared his proposal with a city inspector, who insisted that all of the slabs be removed immediately.

[Steve Poor, the city’s director of development services] said the project was stopped because the Minneapolis City Council limited parking in the neighborhood years ago. Though Barbarawi’s building would normally be allowed to have up to 15 parking spaces, the code change brought that down to 12.

Barbarawi was told he could seek city approval for a new parking lot once he finalizes his expansion plans, but he and Blyly objected since it would cost another $25,000 to remove the slabs and meet the city’s other requirements, and even more money to rebuild the parking lot.

“It’s such a waste of resources that doesn’t need to be spent,” said Andy Ristrom, the project manager at Bolander who has been overseeing the demolition work.

Poor, who approved the temporary parking arrangement for Barbarawi, said the city will likely struggle with other rebuilding projects.

“We recognize that people need assistance to guide them through the government,” Poor said. “And right now we just have a lot more new and novel problems to try and address. I am not sure anybody was prepared to make this kind of pivot that we’ve all had to make in the last six months.”

Blyly said he’s glad the city found a way to compromise, but he’s not sure he will be rebuilding in Minneapolis. He’s considering a move to St. Paul or Richfield.

“It would be more convenient for me and a lot of my customers if I stayed in Minneapolis, but Minneapolis has felt very unfriendly toward businesses — especially after the riots,” Blyly said.

(3) STICK A FORK IN IT. LA Comic Con is now officially cancelled says SYFY Wire. While this seemed inevitable, they had announced plans to run in December. The con’s now rescheduled for September 24-26, 2021.

…”Last week on Oct. 7, Gov. Newsom finally gave an update on reopening plans for theme parks, which most people thought would precede event and convention guidelines,” reads the L.A. Comic-Con website. “In his announcement, the Governor said he had decided NOT to provide reopening guidelines yet for theme parks, and by extension, events. Without guidelines, there is no way for L.A. County, the City, or event organizers like us to know if the plans and changes we made to be safe will be right, or enough. So with that new direction from the State, we are rescheduling.”

(4) REMEMBERING A SFF PIONEER. Czech diplomat and sff fan Jaroslav Olsa Jr. commemorated the anniversary of Miles J. Breuer’s death (3 Jan 1889 – 14 Oct 1945) today by posting an excerpt of his forthcoming article “Pioneering Sf Writer Of Gernsback´s Amazing Stories Has Died Exactly 75 Years Ago”. “But do you know he was Czech? And do you know that he wrote many of his science fiction stories originally in Czech?”

…For its first nine issues, Amazing Stories [founded in 1926] contained classics from the likes of Verne, Wells and Edgar Allan Poe, supplemented by more modern works from speculative fiction writer Edgar Rice Burroughs and fantastic fiction writer Abraham Merritt, both of whom were already publishing their works in pulp magazines.

Only in subsequent years did Amazing Stories feature a new generation of writers. In 1928, Jack Williamson, whose career as a science fiction writer would span three-quarters of a century, published his first story in the magazine. A year earlier, Amazing Stories featured a story by David H. Keller, one of the pioneers of early technological “scientifiction”. However, the very first writer in this wave is the now largely forgotten Miles J. Breuer. His story “The Man with the Strange Head” was published by Gernsback in the January 1927 issue – as soon as the serialization of Wells’ The First Men in the Moon concluded.

Breuer was born in Chicago, studied in Texas, became a doctor in Nebraska and died in Los Angeles. At the turn of the 1920s and 30s, Breuer’s readers viewed this author, who was supposedly “discovered” by Gernsback, as a major star of the science fiction genre. However, Breuer’s career as a writer did not begin with Amazing Stories. Rather, his first genre tale had already been published almost two decades prior. Indeed, writing under the Czech version of his name as Miloslav J. Breuer, the author had already published numerous stories in the Czech language (which were subsequently published in English in early science fiction magazines)….

(5) FANS ON THE BOARDS. UK fanhistory site THEN host Rob Hansen has added a page listing “Dramatic Presentations By Fans At UK Conventions”.

…While produced by fans and sometimes including fannish references, the majority of these productions are not actually *about* fandom the main focus in most cases being the parody of other works, hence the FAN and SF/PARODY distinction. The line between the two is often a fine one, however, and some may disagree with the side of it on which some of these have been placed.

Most of these productions were humorous. The few that were serious have been labelled DRAMA. You’ll notice that one – and only one – production was also labelled ‘BALLET’. This was performed to the strains of ‘Danse Macabre’ and featured several male fans in panto drag, including Ted Tubb! Sadly, only two photos of this ‘ballet’ are known to survive….

Hansen adds: “I also recently discovered a pile of production photos the Liverpool Group took while filming ‘May We Have The Pleasure?’ in 1957. These can be found via the link on the above page.”

(6) MEADOWS OBIT. TeleRead’s main contributor Chris Meadows died today. He was 47. He had been seriously injured in an electric bike accident last week. TeleRead’s tribute is here.

…Chris has been ebooking since the late 1990s and, except for some time at The Digital Reader, has been writing for us since 2006. He has also run his own blogs, including That’s All I Have to Say, full of miscellaneous essays as readable as his TeleRead posts.

An SF fan, Chris is author of The Geek’s Guide to Indianapolis: A Tour Guide for Con Gamers and Other Visitors, well-received by Kindle readers.

Over the years Chris also left some fearless comments here, not the least being the time he called on me to furnish “A bit more precision in your writeup, please.” Something I probably need to be reminded of nearly every day.

(7) MEDIA ANNIVERSARY.

  • 1995 — Twenty five years ago at Intersection, Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold would win the Best Novel Hugo. It would also win the Locus Award for Best SF novel, and was on the long list for a Nebula.  It was the ninth published novel in the universe of the Vorkosigan Saga.  It was published by Baen Books the previous year. Runner-ups were Mother of Storms by John Barnes, Beggars and Choosers by Nancy Kress, Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop and Towing Jehovah by James Morrow. 

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]

  • Born October 14, 1829 – August Malmström.  Collected motifs from Norse mythology.  Professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, later its manager.  Bequeathed 650 watercolors and drawings, 26 sketchbooks to the Nordic Museum on Djurgården.  Here is Dancing Fairies; see this one too.  Here is King Heimer and Aslög.  (Died 1901) [JH]
  • Born October 14, 1877 – Grace Wiederseim.  Pioneering woman cartoonist.  Invented the Campbell Soup Kids.  Also Dolly Dingle dolls.  Cartoonist for Hearst (first woman cartoonist he hired) drawing e.g. Dolly Dimples and Bobby Bounce).  For us e.g. Molly and the Unwiseman Abroad.  (Died 1936) [JH]
  • Born October 14, 1893 – Lois Lenski.  Author, illustrator (of others’ work too, e.g. first ed’n of The Little Engine That Could; Hugh Lofting’s Twilight of Magic which puts her with us).  Prose, poetry, lyrics, plays, paper dolls.  Newbery Medal, two Newbery Honors; Regina Medal; three honorary doctorates.  (Died 1974) [JH]
  • Born October 14, 1894 – E.E. Cummings.  (In fact he wrote his name with capital letters.)  Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard, how do you like them apples, hey?  Master poet.  Distinctive, inimitable style (proof, many have tried and failed).  A nice question whether his poetry or Shakespeare’s is more attractive or more substantial – answer, yes.  Anyone wondering what he has to do with us may read this.  (Died 1962) [JH]
  • Born October 14, 1910 – Marian Place.  A tireless researcher, a strong opinionated woman.  Fifty books for children and adults.  Four Golden Spur awards.  For us e.g. The First Astrowitches.  (Died 2006) [JH]
  • Born October 14, 1926 1953 — Richard Christian Matheson. Son of fiction writer and screenwriter Richard Matheson. He is the author of over 100 short stories of psychological horror and magic realism which are gathered in over 150 major anthologies and in his short story collections Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks, Dystopia and Zoopraxis.  Best known for I Am Legend which has been adapted for the screen four times, as well as the film Somewhere In Time for which he wrote the screenplay based on his novel Bid Time Return. Seven of his novels have been adapted into films. In addition, he wrote sixteen episodes of The Twilight Zone including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and “Steel”. The former episode of course has William Shatner in it. (Died 2013.)  (CE) 
  • Born October 14, 1927 — Roger Moore. Bond in seven films 1973 to 1985, a long run indeed. And he played Simon Templar in The Saint for most of the Sixties, one hundred and eighteen episodes. Let’s not forget that he was in the Curse of the Pink Panther as Chief Insp. Jacques Clouseau! (Died 2017.) (CE) 
  • Born October 14, 1935 – Dennis Hamley, 85.  Seven novels, a dozen shorter stories for us (including “Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick”).  Other fiction and nonfiction.  His first book was three medieval Mystery Plays in modern versions for schools, so a few years later he imagined a boy led back into the 14th Century.  DH talks about his life and work at his Website.  [JH]
  • Born October 14, 1946 — Katy Manning, 74. She was Jo Grant, companion to the Third Doctor. She also appeared with the Eleventh Doctor on the Sarah Jane Adventures in a two-part story entitled “Death of the Doctor”. She appears as herself in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. (CE)
  • Born October 14, 1953 — Greg Evigan, 67. TekWar, one of Shatner’s better ideas, starred him as Jake Cardigan. I really liked it. Yes. Shatner was in it. He also shows up in DeepStar Six as Kevin McBride, as Will South in the horror film Spectre aka The House of The Damned, as Marcus Cutter in Cerberus: The Guardian of Hell, and on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents as David Whitmore in “In the Driver’s Seat”. (CE) 
  • Born October 14, 1956 — Martin Millar, 64. Among his accomplishments was the novelization of the Tank Girl film. Apparently it’s even weirder than the film was! He won the World Fantasy Award for best novel with his book Thraxas, and the entire Thraxas series which are released under the name Martin Scott are a lot of not at all serious pulpish fun. (CE)
  • Born October 14, 1963 — Lori Petty, 56. Rebecca Buck – “Tank Girl” in that film. She was also Dr. Lean Carli in Cryptic, and Dr. Sykes in Dead Awake. She had one-offs in The Hunger, Twilight Zone, Star Trek: Voyager, Brimstone, Freddy’s Nightmares and Alien Nation, and voiced Livewire in the DCU animated shows. (CE) 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) RINGO FAN FAVORITES. The winners in the 2020 Ringo Award Fan Favorite categories, sponsored by Rocketship Entertainment, were announced today.

FAN FAVORITES

Favorite Hero: Clove from SubZero (WEBTOON)

Favorite Villain: John from unOrdinary (WEBTOON)

Favorite New Series: Fangs

Favorite New Talent: Sinran

Favorite Publisher: Tapas

The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards will be presented virtually on October 24 as part of The Baltimore Comic-Con streaming presentation (baltimorecomicconlive.com).

(11) FAN ADAPTATION OF WATTS HUGO FINALIST. At Tor.com, Andrew Liptak urges readers to “Watch This Superb Fan Adaptation of Peter Watts’ Blindsight”.

Peter Watts’ Blindsight looked at first contact with aliens in a different way when it was first published in 2006, and it’s been one of those books that friends have fervently recommended in the years since.

One fan [Danil Krivoruchko] has taken it upon himself to adapt as a short film, which he released this week: a short CGI short that looks absolutely stunning….

“Danil reached out to me pretty close to the start of the process,” Watts commented. “They were in the ‘Let’s make a tribute fan site’ phase, which as I understand it fell somewhere between the ‘let’s do a couple of CG illustrations for the rifters gallery’ and ‘Let’s blow off the doors with a trailer from an alternate universe where someone made a movie out of Blindsight’ phases.”…

(12) CAN’T SLEEP? [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] I’m not sure where “The 52 Stages Of Insomnia” by Marco Kaye at McSweeney’s fits in the File 770 categories but it’s definitely fannish!

(13) RIDING THE CIRCUIT. It’s looked cool in comics – will it look cool on you? “New Technology Allows Circuits To Be Printed Directly On The Skin”.

Sensors printed directly on the skin have been inching closer to commercial reality in recent years. The dream of highly sensitive sensors could have a wide array of applications, from robotics to medicine, but the field has been limited by its method of circuit printing. Currently, printing circuits directly on the skin requires a lot of heat – something the skin isn’t generally fond of.

Now, researchers believe they may have solved this problem. A team from Penn State University have developed a method of fabricating high-performance circuitry directly on skin without heat, according to a study published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

While flexible sensors already exist and have applications in future physiological monitoring, applying that technology to the skin has remained an issue for scientists. If this process is viable on a large scale, it may pave the way for the technology to help patients with various conditions. 

(14) CHANGE OF SHIFT. “Russian, US astronauts launch to International Space Station” – ABC News has the story.

A trio of space travelers has launched successfully to the International Space Station, for the first time using a fast-track maneuver to reach the orbiting outpost in just three hours.

NASA’s Kate Rubins and Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled Wednesday morning from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan for a six-month stint on the station.

…“We’re planning to try some really interesting things like bio-printing tissues and growing cells in space and, of course, continuing our work on sequencing DNA,” Rubins said.

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In “Honest Trailers: Scream” on YouTube, the Screen Junkies take on the 1996 film, from a more innocent time when people didn’t lock their doors and a cop could ask a teenager, “What are you doing with this cellular telephone, son?””

[Thanks to Howard Beale, Andrew Porter, John Hertz, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, JJ, Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, Rich Lynch, Rob Thornton, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Xtifr.]