Tag Archives: Rob Liefeld

Pixel Scroll 2/25/25 General Systems Vehicle Strange Women Lying About In Ponds Distributing Swords Is No Basis For A System Of Government

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(1) IAIN M. BANKS TV ADAPTATION. “’Consider Phlebas’ Series Set At Amazon From Charles Yu & Chloé Zhao” reports Deadline.

 Amazon MGM Studios is developing science fiction TV series Consider Phlebas. It is an adaptation of the novel by Iain M Banks, the first in the late Scottish author’s classic 10-book Culture book series about an interstellar post-scarcity society.

Interior Chinatown creator Charles Yu is writing and executive producing. The potential series also is executive produced by Nomadland Oscar winner Chloé Zhao through her production company Books of Shadows, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Entertainment as well as Adele Banks.

In Consider Phlebas, while war rages between the utopian Culture and the Idiran Empire, a Culture Ship AI “Mind” takes refuge on a forbidden planet. Both Horza, a shape-shifting mercenary working for the Idirans, and Balveda, a “Special Circumstances” Culture agent, have been tasked with retrieving it to tip the balance in a galaxy-spanning conflict. Consider Phlebas pits sentience against AI in an epic and bloody quest across the cosmos….

(2) WHY NOT SAY WHAT HAPPENED? Episode 20 of Scott Edelman’s Why Not Say What Happened? podcast, “The Barry Smith Comic Book Which Caused Me to Disobey My Parents”, has all the burning bridges that have fallen after him….

In my latest look back at the comics field of the ’70s, I share about the home away from home Phil Seuling built for fandom which earned his recent much-deserved accolade, whether the Ethics columns I wrote for The Comics Journal during the ’80s burned any bridges (and if I even cared those bridges were on fire), the kung fu comic book series I’d completely forgotten I’d pitched to Marvel, why my job in the Bullpen stunned writer/editor/artist Bob Budiansky, the Barry Smith Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic which caused me to disobey my parents, my initial fears I might not last long enough at Marvel to be eligible to receive unemployment benefits if I were fired, and much more.

The whole series can be downloaded from a variety of platforms at this link.

The issue of Nick Fury I wasn’t supposed to buy.

(3) GALLIFREY ONE WINDING DOWN. LA’s legendary Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One will end its run in 2028. But another LA event in the same spirit will keep the torch burning into the future. “Gallifrey One To Conclude in 2028… But The Moment Has Been Prepared For” writes Shaun Lyon.

It was with a heavy heart that we announced on February 16, 2025, at the end of this year’s convention Closing Ceremonies, that Gallifrey One will be coming to an end in 2028, after three more events over the next three years.  Our February 2028 convention will conclude an unprecedented, sometimes inexplicable and definitely historic 38-year run as the world’s largest and longest-running annual Doctor Who fan event….

…Those of us who have been on this journey for decades have earned the right to go out on our own terms. We aren’t interested in passing along our name or reputation to someone else, someone untested, who might squander the good will we engendered in the fan community. We don’t ever want Gallifrey One to be remembered as the convention that didn’t know when to quit, or is looked back upon with regret: it was great, until it wasn’t.

Most importantly, we want it to be a testament to all the people who brought it forward, from the launch in January 1989 to our first convention in May 1990, through decades of memories and connections (and even a year without one, thank you COVID) until today, when it’s the destination so many people look forward to. So many friendships have come about through the convention.  People have met and married through Gallifrey One; babies have grown up with their families attending.  And along the way, we’ve also lost so many friends through the passage of time; friends gone, but never forgotten.

We also gave our fandom three years’ notice. We didn’t want to spring this on all of you at the last minute. Many of our former attendees we know would love to come back again before we’re done. Many others out there who dream of attending one day, now have three years to plan if they want to make it in time. We didn’t have to do it, and we certainly didn’t do it to make any of you panic; this was a gift to our dedicated fan base, so that you know you’re being looked after and don’t need to think about the future… quite yet.

We don’t want the fandom that we’ve engendered here for so long, the friendships and families and memories we’ve shared, to disappear.  That is why we are confidently moving forward with our plans.

We still have three more events to bring you before we close the book. In 2026, we will proudly present our thirty-sixth convention, The 36 Legends of Gallifrey One: Stories Untold on February 6-8 due to the NBA All Star Game on our regular weekend. (More details about that convention on the wrap-up article & 2026 preview also posted today.) In 2027, our thirty-seventh convention (already named, and we will share it next year) will also be a week or two after our regular weekend (the Super Bowl returns to LA that month). And finally, in 2028, we’ll present the last Gallifrey One convention: a last hurrah and final reunion as ourselves, with a convention name our former chairperson came up with more than thirty years ago….

…In discussing the end of Gallifrey One in 2028 with Jason [Joiner] and Paul [Jones], it became apparent to us that the best opportunity to continue the spirit of our convention was with them: Showmasters Events has the financial strength to run a Doctor Who show here, run in a manner resembling much of Gallifrey One — but not entirely. Put simply, they don’t want Gallifrey One’s fan community to disappear after 2028 any more than we do. And they’ve committed to running a show, while not a non-profit event like Gallifrey One, that operates much like it does today. They have the contacts we have, and most importantly, the capital to put up (this type of event is expensive, and everyone gets paid up front these days, including the hotel and the guests.) Some of Gallifrey One’s team, as well as some guests and attendees, have already committed to helping them through the transition, so that programming operates in much the same way (discussion panels, for instance), the photos and autographs continue, your favorite dealers can continue to vend, and so forth.

We also asked them not to use the Gallifrey One name, as that brand — that legacy — retires with us; they were completely in agreement that this would be something new, but still for the fans….

(4) HOW TO DONATE TO THE LEEPER SCHOLARSHIP FUND. [Item by Evelyn C. Leeper.] People have asked more specifically how to donate to the Leeper Mathematics Scholarship.

The main page is <https://www.umassfoundation.org>, but the specific page is:

<https://minutefund.uma-foundation.org/project/29554/donate?fund_id=GEN%20SCH>

Under the Fund Designation field, select “Other” from the very bottom of the list. This will open a text box where you can write in any fund/designation you would like to support, in this case “Leeper Mathematics Scholarship”.

At the bottom of the page, you can indicate who it is “In Memory Of”.

(5) WENDY AND RICHARD PINI MAKE MASSIVE DONATION. “ElfQuest Creators Donate $500,000 To Columbia University Comics Archive” reports Forbes.

Wendy and Richard Pini, the couple behind the long-running ElfQuest independent comics series, are donating $500,000 to Columbia University to endow and conserve the school library’s growing collection of comics, graphic novels and related prose works.

“The money will go for acquisitions and stewardship for circulating and archival collections,” said Karen Green, the curator for comics and cartoons within Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. “Stewardship is a really all-embracing and umbrella term, covering digitization, preservation, anything to make sure things are accessible safely. There was a big ‘et cetera’ to the grant.”…

…Thus, in 2012, at San Diego Comic-Con, where Wendy was making one of her regular appearances, Green approached the Pinis with a compelling question: “Would you consider allowing us to preserve your legacy?”

A year later, the couple had turned over some 37 linear feet of boxes of ElfQuest-related material, including more than 2,000 of Wendy Pini’s hand-drawn, hand-painted storyboards from 1978 through about 1990….

(6) OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN. With David S. Goyer’s departure from Foundation, Inverse suspects “The Most Ambitious Sci-Fi Epic on TV Could Be In Big Trouble”.

In the sprawling future depicted by Foundation, everyone has pretty much forgotten about the planet Earth. But over several generations can remember the predictions of one man: Hari Seldon. Played by Jared Harris in the first two seasons of Foundation, the character of Seldon is able to see the twists and turns of the future history of the human Empire through a process called psychohistory. But even the study of psychohistory couldn’t have predicted what’s happening to Foundation after its upcoming third season. Because now, the show’s real-life Hari Seldon — creator David S. Goyer — is leaving the show, along with the existing writing staff.

In short, after the next season of Foundation, the literal foundation for the show’s future is very unclear.

As revealed in a newsletter from Goyer’s official site, and reproduced in its entirety on the Foundation subreddit, the writer and producer is leaving taking a massive step back from the show. Here’s what he said:

“I know a lot of you have been waiting for an update. Season 3 will likely be dropping this summer, premiere date TBD. We finally get to the Mule’s story. Expect a few surprises along the way – even for those of you who’ve read the original trilogy.

“To set the record straight, I did decide to step back from the show. S3 will be the last season with my day-to-day involvement, along with most of my fellow directors and writers. I adore the cast and it was a difficult decision. The reasons for my leaving are complicated and were certainly exacerbated by strike-related issues. The biggest reason is that I was forced to spend a ton of time in Europe, away from my family – and after 5 ½ years, it was becoming a drag on my soul. That said, I do believe Apple will green-light S4. Best of luck to the next creative team.”…

(7) ALSO HEADING FOR THE EXIT. There’s a crucial turnover coming at Lucasfilm, too: “Star Wars Succession: Who Will Replace Kathleen Kennedy?” asks The Hollywood Reporter.

…But who should Disney choose to inspire greatness in the next generation of Star Wars creatives now that longtime Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy is retiring later this year?

The job hunt will be like nothing before in Lucasfilm history. Star Wars creator George Lucas hand picked Kennedy in 2012 to run the company before selling his ownership stake to Disney, which elected to keep her in place. Now, for the first time, Disney will pick somebody new to lead its galaxy far, far away.

During her tenure, Kennedy guided the Star Wars brand across many celebrated achievements (such as the franchise’s return to theaters with The Force Awakens and its successful shift to TV with The Mandalorian). She has also been often criticized for the franchise’s many missteps (including some lackluster movies and shows, and overseeing numerous announced-and-discarded projects). The executive — along with Disney in general — has also often been targeted by franchise’s fandom for diverse casting moves and a perceived “woke” agenda (a perception that Disney boss Bob Iger has been eager to move past)….

(8) ROBERTO ORCI (1973-2025). Robert Orci, a writer-producer with credits on the Star Trek, Xena, Hercules, and Transformers franchises, died February 25. Deadline paid tribute: “Roberto Orci Dead: ‘Star Trek’, ‘Transformers’ Writer-Producer Was 51”.

Roberto “Bob” Gaston Orci, a writer-producer who worked on some of the biggest action-adventure and sci-fi movies and television shows from the first two decades of the century, died at his home in Los Angeles today, Feb. 25, after a battle with kidney disease. He was 51.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Orci moved to the United States with his family when he was 10. He started off as a writer-producer on Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and for most of his career was partnered with Alex Kurtzman.

Orci was co-writer/producer on the 2009 Star Trek movie reboot and its two sequels as well as on the 2007 Transformers movie and the 2009 followup Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Orci’s feature credits also include writing work on Mission Impossible III and The Legend Of Zorro and producing on the Now You See Me franchise, The Proposal, Eagle Eye, The Mummy as well as The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which he also co-wrote….

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

February 25, 1971 — Sean Astin, 54.

Let’s talk about Sean Astin who played Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of The Rings films. I’ll admit that he was one of my favorite hobbits in the trilogy and Sean did a sterling job of bringing his character to life here, didn’t he? I’ll also admit that I’d completely forgotten that he wasn’t in The Hobbit as in I tend to think that the hobbits in The Hobbit were the same as those who were in the trilogy.

Before The Lord of The Rings, he showed in his first film playing Mikey Walsh in The Goonies. No, not genre (remember My Birthday Write-up, my rules what gets included here) but a really fine YA treasure hunt adventure in which everyone has fun. Well not everyone.

He has a lead role in Toy Soldiers, a film I still have an odd fond spot for, as William “Billy” Tepper. Damn I liked those toy soldiers. I even had some of the action figures a long time ago.

He was Stuart Conway in a film named after a time travel device called Slipstream that was stolen by a group of bank robbers. Might be interesting to see. Any of you seen it? 

He voiced Shazam in a pair of animated DC films, Justice League: War and Justice League: Atlantis, almost proving there are might be too many DC animated films, though I have seen the second one and it’s rather well done.  Look he even did a Lego one!

In the Department of Films That I Never Knew Existed Off Novels I Never Knew Were Written is Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic, which proves how prolific he was or how bad my memory is, at any rate Sean is Twoflower here. 

Dorothy and the Witches of Oz is a 2012 series of a decade ago which apparently covered The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Road to Oz and The Magic of Oz. Somewhere in there, he was Frack Muckadoo, a servant of Princess Langwidere.

He even got to voice Raphael in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants series. 

I think the last thing I’ll mention is that he showed up in a brief recurring role on The Big Bang Theory series as Dr. Greg Pemberton, one of a team of Fermi-Lab physicists who accidentally confirmed the Super-Asymmetry paper published by Sheldon and Amy. Wasn’t that an amazingly fantastic series? 

Did you know that a spin-off of the original series was in development first several years now? More promisingly, on October 10, 2024, it was announced that a third spin-off will feature Stuart Bloom, Denise, and Bert Kibbler, with Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapkus, and Brian Posehn reprising their roles. 

Yes, there’s other kibbles and bits which I’m sure you’ll point out, but I need tea now

Ray Bradbury and Sean Astin in 2009. Photo by John King Tarpinian.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) MARVEL CINEMATIC FEUD. Deadline quoted Rob Liefeld’s latest salvo: “’Deadpool’ Creator Calls For Marvel’s Kevin Feige To ‘Get Off Mound’ After ‘Captain America’s Box Office Crash”. (In case you’ve forgotten, Liefeld made news at the time of the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere in 2024 saying he was ignored by Feige on the red carpet and found out his family was not invited to the afterparty.)

The post-Avengers: Endgame era at the box office has been challenging for Marvel, with only a few exceptions such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine.

Box office results for the second weekend of Captain America: Brave New World showed a 68% drop week-to-week, positioning it as the third-most significant drop in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The two films that fared worse were The Marvels, with a 78% dropoff, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at 68%.

Following the report of Brave New World’s results, Liefeld took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted: “Get Feige off the mound. He’s spent.”

Liefeld quoted all the Marvel films that have dropped more than 60% at the box office in its second weekend, saying in another X post that the “MCU is on an extended downside.”

“This is beyond a trend, it’s become the norm,” Liefeld said. “If this was sports, Feige would be removed. Marvel brand is like Dodgers, Lakers, Yankees, Celtics, coaches that win championships are removed a year later when the results are disappointing.”

In another X post he added, “8 movies crash over the last 3 years. Don’t we want better movies? You get the curiosity crowd then plunge.”…

(12) WARNER BROS. SQUEEZES ITS GAME BUSINESS. “Wonder Woman Video Game Canceled at Warner Bros., Studio Shut Down” – The Hollywood Reporter lists the casualties.

Warner Bros. Discovery is restructuring its video game division and shutting down three of its studios as it refocuses its efforts on some core intellectual property.

In connection with the restructuring, the company also said that it is ending development of its Wonder Woman game, which it first announced back in 2021. Instead, the company will focus on “building the best games possible with our key franchises -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones,” per a Warner Bros. Games spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that three of the company’s game studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego, will shut down amid the changes. Monolith had been developing the Wonder Woman game….

(13) HERE’S MY NUMBER AND A DIME. [Item by Steven French.] “Riki don’t lose that number …!” “If you’re going to call aliens, use this number” recommends Phys.org.

Let’s dive into one of those cosmic curiosities that’s bound to blow your mind: how we might chat with aliens. And no, I’m not talking about elaborate coded messages or flashy signals. We’re talking about something incredibly fundamental—21 cm radiation.

If you’re planning on having a conversation across the vastness of space, using light waves (electromagnetic radiation) is pretty much your go-to option. It’s fast, reliable, and, well, it’s the most practical way to shout out to other civilizations in the universe. But why specifically 21 centimeters? That’s where things get juicy.

This 21 cm radiation isn’t just some random frequency we picked out of a hat. It’s tied to something very essential, known as the hydrogen spin flip. Hydrogen atoms consist of one proton and one electron, and these tiny particles have a property called “spin.”

Think of spin like a little arrow pointing up or down. Every so often, in the vast reaches of space, a hydrogen atom’s electron can flip its spin, going from a state where its spin is aligned with the proton to one pointing in the opposite direction. This flip releases energy in the form of radiation at—you guessed it—a wavelength of 21 centimeters.

So why does this matter? Well, any smart civilization, whether they have blue skin, tentacles, or something more bizarre, will eventually discover hydrogen, understand spin, dabble in quantum mechanics, and figure out this whole 21 cm radiation thing. They’ll call it something different (they won’t have “21” or “cm”) but the concept remains universal. It’s like the cosmic Rosetta Stone….

(14) AH, THE BEACHES OF MARS. “Mars once had an ocean with sandy beaches, researchers say” – the Guardian has the resort brochure.

Mars may not seem like a prime holiday spot with its arid landscape and punishing radiation levels, but it once boasted beaches, researchers have found.

While previous discoveries of features including valley networks and sedimentary rocks has suggested the red planet once had flowing rivers, there has been debate among scientists over whether it also had oceans.

Now researchers say they have fresh evidence to support the idea after discovering buried beaches on Mars.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists report how they made the discovery after they analysed below-ground imaging data from China’s Zhurong rover.

“Zhurong was sent to southern Utopia Planitia near locations where paleoshorelines have been mapped from satellite data,” said Dr Benjamin Cardenas, a co-author of the research from Penn State University.

The authors say the results from the northern lowlands of Mars are similar to those obtained at shorelines on Earth using ground-penetrating radar: both indicate features in the subsurface material that are tilted – and with a similar angle – towards the lowland, or ocean, direction.

“Typically the radar picks up on even subtle changes in sediment size, which is probably what’s happening here,” said Cardenas.

The researchers say this Martian beach appears to have shifted position over time. The data reveals a series of features dipping towards the north – something Cardenas said indicated the beach grew out into the ocean. “In fact, it grew at least 1.3km north into the ocean.”

Cardenas said the implications were exciting. “It’s a simple structure, but it tells you there had to be tides, there had to be waves, there had to be a nearby river supplying sediment, and all these things had to be active for some extended period of time,” he said….

(15) SMILE FOR THE CAMERA. “This City’s Sewer System Is Full of Alligators, but It’s Not New York” brags the New York Times (behind a paywall).

An enduring urban legend has it that blind, albino alligators patrol New York City’s sewers. These mythical crocodilians have become ingrained in the city’s lore, and some New Yorkers even celebrate Alligator in the Sewer Day each February.

But in Florida, alligators in the sewers are no myth. The reptiles routinely find their way into municipal drainpipes. In late January, a 10½-foot gator was rescued in Cape Coral after it got stuck in a storm drain.

And not all alligators end up in sewers by accident. Recently published research in the journal Urban Naturalist reveals that alligators and nearly three dozen other species use storm water sewer systems in one urban area of Florida to safely traverse urban environments.

“It’s like something out of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’” said Alan Ivory, a Ph.D. student at the University of Florida who led the research. “The abundance of animals down there was surprising.”

While there has been thorough research on rats in sewer systems, what other animals are up to under the streets is less documented. Mr. Ivory and his colleagues suspected that these subterranean labyrinths, which are built to divert storm water and are separated from sewage systems, serve as important pathways for urban animals.

Mr. Ivory and his colleagues focused on storm water sewers under the city of Gainesville. The scientists outfitted motion-activated trail cameras with magnetic mounts and fastened them underneath manhole covers. Overall, 39 cameras were deployed in 33 storm water drains.

The cameras were left for 60 days, but not all of them survived that long. Some were swept away by storm water, while others were pilfered by bandits with sticky paws.

Who has non-opposable thumbs and apparently likes stealing motion-activated trail cameras placed by scientists? These guys. Alan Ivory, via UF/IFAS

“We would have raccoons steal cameras every now and then,” Mr. Ivory said. “They would climb up the ladders and tear them off the manholes.”…

(16) ELDRITCH LAUGHTER. Scotto.org remembers “H.P. Lovecraft: Stand-Up Comedian!” from 2015. You can watch it on YouTube. Includes jokes like, “I was worrying about the Boston Massacre. Do you know how many people actually died in the Boston Massacre? Five people. That’s not a massacre. That’s an afternoon snack for Cthulhu.”

Ran for six performances, Tues & Wed nights, April 28-May 13, 2015, at Annex Theatre in Seattle. Remounted for two performances, Sept 5 & 7, 2015, at Bumbershoot. I wrote the script and played Howie; my pal K. Brian Neel directed.

“Instead of expressing his terrifying vision of malevolent, eldritch gods via horror stories in the early twentieth century, H.P. (‘Howie’ to his friends) Lovecraft expresses his terrifying vision in the present day via stand-up comedy. But an ancient evil stirs beneath the sea— can Howie pull off one last sold-out gig before the human race is destroyed?”

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, N., Evelyn C. Leeper, Scott Edelman, Lisa Hertel, James Bacon, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day PhilRM.]

Pixel Scroll 2/8/25 God Had Names For All The Pixels. No One Else Knows Them

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(1) AMANDA PALMER ISSUES DENIAL. “Neil Gaiman’s ex-wife Amanda Palmer denies negligence allegations” reports the BBC.

Amanda Palmer, the ex-wife of British author Neil Gaiman, has denied allegations of negligence and human trafficking made by a woman who worked for the former couple.

Earlier this week, the woman filed civil lawsuits in the US alleging the former couple violated laws on federal human trafficking, with complaints of assault, battery and inflicting emotional distress against Gaiman and negligence against Palmer.

In a short post on Instagram, Palmer, who lives in the US, said she would not respond to specific allegations against her, but broadly denied them.

Gaiman has denied allegations of sexual misconduct made by eight women….

Amanda Palmer’s Instagram statement says:

I thank you all deeply for continuing to respect my recent request for privacy as I navigate this extremely difficult moment. I must protect my young child and his right to privacy.

With that as my priority, I will not respond to the specific allegations being made against me except to say that I deny the allegations and will respond in due course. My heart goes out to all survivors.

(2) RELIGION AS PART OF THE STORY IN SFF. Lancelot Schaubert wants to develop “A formalized schema for imagining and understanding religion in fantasy, science fiction, and other speculative works.” This sophisticated taxonomy is offered as “Schaubert’s Laws of Fantasy Religions”. [Via Camestros Felapton.]

…Part of the problem is that so few people, up until recently at least, have written lovingly about religion in the genre outside of, say, Walter Miller’s Canticle for Leibowitz or something like Anathem by Neil Stephenson. These days, Sanderson has written voluminously about many, many types of invented religions and he seems to understand that religion is fundamentally human. There are others, but he seems to be taking up a standard that has lain mostly unwielded on the landscape of the genre for some time. Another post for another day will survey the field, but other titles come to mind (negatively and positively) like Heinlein’s “Methuselah’s Children” and Stranger in a Strange Land (though this can be argued as anti-religion), James Blish’s “A Case of Conscience,” Lord of the World by Hugh Benson, M.P. Shiel’s Lord of the Sea, C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy, “The Man” by Ray Bradbury, “Fool’s Errand” by Paul L. Payne, Believers’ World by Robert Lowndes.

I wanted to create a taxonomy that would work no matter what you run through it, sort of a philosophical grid for making these sorts of systems analogous to Sanderson’s Laws of Magic (which works no matter the kind or scale of magic system). It works for me, that’s sufficient.

Here’s one example of Schaubert’s analysis.

…I want to speak to a couple of rights and beliefs in fantasy to show how this ends up being helpful in the narrative.

Mindful of the Cosmology of Tolkien’s legendarium, the light of Ilúvatar is given to Frodo by Galadriel. Sam ends up, in faith, wielding that vial in the depth of Shelob’s darkness. Now Ilúvatar means, more or less, “All father” which indicates “the alone.” And Shelob, being a child of Ungoliant, is a lesser Maia. Sort of a fallen angel, an immortal spirit who feasts on light and spins it into her webs. It’s a statement about proximate good in the reality of Tolkien’s world, but it’s also a statement about the substance of light. And when the undiluted light is unveiled — perhaps even unknowingly — by Sam, it is too much for the demon spider.

So here you have an object, a rite, a belief, and the reality of the world playing at very different levels….

(3) THIS IS THE CASH WE’RE LOOKING FOR. “Prince Andrew’s ex Koo Stark is suing Star Wars producers for £190million” says Bang Showbiz NZ.

Prince Andrew’s ex Koo Stark is suing ‘Star Wars’ producers for £190million.

The 68-year-old actress – who dated Prince Andrew in the early 1980s prior to his now-defunct marriage to Sarah, Duchess of York – starred as Camie Marstrap in the 1977 film ‘New Hope’ but her scenes were cut from the final film.

The scenes in question have resurfaced online in recent times and the character has appeared in various spin-offs over the years, so litigation filed in an LA court claims that the production company has profited off her likeness.

The legal action was brought by actor Anthony Forrest – who also starred in the film as Fixer in scenes that were eventually cut – and it is claimed that their “intellectual property rights were exploited” when the scenes became available online and on DVD.

In the film, Anthony – who also played a storm trooper and appeared in the James Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ – utters the line: “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for”, and has claimed that he has received no compensation for his work….

(4) DIGITAL GHOSTS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The idea of data scraping all that can be had about an individual and using that to train an AI to create a quasi-version of that individual has come up in science fiction, including in an episode of Black Mirror.

Indeed, StoryFile already does this by training a Chat-Bot with an individual’s writing, social media and so forth.  However, with generative AI it is possible to go further and create something even more interactive.  This week’s BBC Radio 4 programme Sideways takes a look at this as we are now on the cusp of creating digital ghosts.

Amy Kurzweil’s dad is a famous inventor, futurist and pioneer in the field of AI. In 2015, she discovers his aspiration to make an AI chatbot of her late grandfather, Fred. Fred was a musician who dramatically escaped the Holocaust, but he died before Amy was born. Matthew Syed delves into Amy’s fascinating journey with her father to build the ‘Fredbot’ and have an online conversation with the grandfather she never met.

The idea of using AI to simulate conversations with the dead troubles Matthew and raises all sorts of ethical questions. With the help of experts, he discovers how similar concepts were once debated by ancient Chinese philosophers and explores how digital ghosts could affect the grieving process.

Featuring references to the graphic novel Artificial: A Love Story by Amy Kurzweil, published in 2022 by Catapult Books.

You can download the half-hour episode here.

(5) DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER. Longreads’ “Remember the Titans: An ‘Attack on Titan’ Reading List” is a list of recommended articles with brief excerpts (just like the Scroll!)

Despite coming nearly a century after the art form’s birth, Attack on Titan may be one of the most genre-defining anime Japan has produced. The original manga, about a war between humans and the colossal creatures who attack them, has some 140 million copies in circulation. The televised adaptation that began in 2013 expanded anime’s global audience. There’s even a stage musical—performed in Osaka and Tokyo in 2023 and New York City in 2024. And now, the series is officially a piece of history: Next week, the anime’s final two episodes, which first aired in 2023, arrive in movie theaters as a single film. 

At the series’ outset, we’re told that the last remnants of humanity erected a network of concentric walls to fend off the Titans, and meet the three preteens living behind those walls who become our initial protagonists. That premise quickly proves to be knottier than expected, however; this is no simple humans-versus-megamonsters kaiju like Godzilla or Pacific Rim. While Hajime Isayama’s saga might begin as a dystopian fantasy, it soon twists into a speculative, discomfitingly realistic meditation on imperialism, war, genocide, hubris, and cyclical violence. ’…

(6) DIRDA SIGNS OFF. Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda, who frequently covered sff, has brought his time there to an end (column behind a paywall). Thanks to Scott Edelman for screencapping this part.  

(7) TUTTLE REVIEWS. Lisa Tuttle’s Guardian column, “The best science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup”, looks at Old Soul by Susan Barker; Model Home by Rivers Solomon; Mother of Serpents by John R Gordon; Symbiote by Michael Nayak; and Waterblack by Alex Pheby.

(8) FRANK HILDEBRAND (1950-2024). Fear of the Walking Dead Frank Hildebrand producer and production manager died November 21 at the age of 73 reported Deadline today.

Born and educated in Zurich, Switzerland, Hildebrand began his filmmaking career in the UK before moving to Hollywood in the 1980s, working on such indie films as Vice Squad (1982) and Once Bitten (1985).

He then went on to line produce and supervise on such films as Triumph of the Spirit (1989), Freeway (1996), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Into the Wild (2007), The Runaways (2010), Fair Game (2010) and The Tree of Life (2011). In recent years, Hildebrand served as a producer on the last seven seasons of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead.

(9) MARIA VON BRAUN DIED. “NASA rocket pioneer Wernher Von Braun’s widow passes away at home in Alexandria, Virginia” – AL.com has the story.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center announced the passing of Maria von Braun, Wernher von Braun’s widow on Friday.

The center said she died Jan. 20 at her home in Alexandria, Va. She was 96.

(10) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Planet of the Apes (1968)

By Paul Weimer: You maniacs!

You’ve seen the meme even if you have never seen the Planet of the Apes. Charlton Heston as Taylor, finds out he and his crew had just crashed landed on Earth in the far future. He hadn’t seen a new world of apes ruling men…he saw the future of his own society. 

So yes, first and foremost Planet of the Apes (forgot the Marky Mark remake and the newest remakes are a different kettle of fish entirely) are a one way time travel story. The sequels they made are in the end not necessary. They are surplus to requirements. 

All you need is the original. I saw it on WPIX back in the day, and have seen it many times once. The movie cheats a bit here and there, particularlg with the Moon which would have given the game away earlier. 

But it is such a rich and visually interesting movie. The Eden that Taylor and his crew find and where they are captured. The Ape Judges that do the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” bit. The creepy taxidermy of his fellow astronaut. The cave and tunnel shaped dwellings. The excellent makeup and prosthetics for the people playing the Apes.and on and on.

And then the cast, not just Heston, but Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans providing stroke and unmistakable acting and passion even with such a heavy transformation. 

And did you know Rod Serling helped write the screenplay?

And now I am definitely due a rewatch.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) THE CUT DIRECT. Beau Brummel wouldn’t put up with this either: “Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld Cuts Ties With Marvel” reports Deadline.

Nearly 35 years after creating Deadpool, Rob Liefeld has reached his boiling point with Marvel.

The comic book creator, who conceived the character in a 1990 issue of New Mutants, publicly cut ties with Marvel as he recounted being snubbed at the July 2024 premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine.

“It was meant to embarrass, diminish, defeat me,” he said in the latest episode of his Robservations podcast, which was titled ‘Marvel: Access Denied!’

The description of the episode reads: “Why I left Marvel Entertainment and won’t look back.”

He recalled being ignored by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige on the red carpet before finding out he and his family were not invited to the afterparty, the final straw for Liefeld. Meanwhile, Liefeld posed on the carpet with creatives from the movie but later learned those photos were deleted, as he believes they were only taken to appease him.

“At some point, you go, ‘I’ve received the message, and the message is clear,’” added Liefeld.

Previously, Liefeld sent an email to Marvel after they granted Wolverine co-creator Roy Thomas a special spot in the film’s credits, which upset co-creator Len Wein’s widow Christine Valada, a friend of Liefeld. He also inquired about a special mention for himself in the credits, noting he did not ask for money.

“Marvel’s treatment of creators has never been their strength,” he wrote in the email. “Without the worlds, the characters and the concepts that we create — and in this specific case, the world of Deadpool — there are no films to shoot. No blockbusters to distribute. … I am not the easy button at Staples. I am the human imagination behind it all.”

Liefeld added, “Comic book creators cannot continue to be relegated as afterthoughts. This is easy to address. Unless I reach out to address it, it will never manifest.”…

(13) GOTHAM HIJACK. What Vera Drew told the Guardian: “The trans film-maker who remade Batman: ‘There’s a reason all the heroes are queer, mentally ill villains’”.

It started as a joke,” says Vera Drew. “I just took it a little too far.” The 35-year-old former editor for Sacha Baron Cohen, Nathan Fielder and Tim & Eric is referring to her debut movie: The People’s Joker, a transgender-punk-superhero comedy in which she hijacks DC Comics characters to tell her own coming-out story. The film is set in an apocalyptic Gotham City ruled by Batman, billionaire groomer of teenage boys. Comedy can only be practised by licensed clowns divided into Jokers (male) and Harlequins (female). Enter Joker the Harlequin, played by Drew, who establishes an illegal comedy club specialising in cringe and bad-taste humour.

(14) STAYIN’ ALIVE. Camestros Felapton posted an interesting game review: “Currently Playing: Citizen Sleeper”.

…I’m saying all that because I’m actually enjoying Citizen Sleeper. Functionally, it is really just a text based adventure game with a limited set of locations. It looks better than that, with a nice 3D view of a space-station-city-habitat showing you where you (or rather your character) is. However, the other people you meet are just two dimensional art work with text.

You are a Sleeper, some sort of emulated-human-construct-robot-escaped-indetured-servant. You don’t remember much but you are a fugitive and you have woken on-board a run-down industrial space habitat. You need energy to live but also your body is slowly breaking down and you’ll need cash and technology to stay alive. You need work and you need somewhere safe to sleep. It is a basic struggle to stay alive in a shitty world….

(15) THEY DINED ME WITH SCIENCE! [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] It’s not just Eating The Fantastic with Scott Edelman that’s reported in File 770, it’s cooking tips too! So, starting with the basics, what is the best way to cook a boiled egg?  Well, scientists to the rescue…primary research here.  And this week’s BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Science tried it out to save you the hassle.  

You can listen to the programme here (topic is two-thirds way through).

Science-backed boiled egg recipe:

– You need two pans… and exactly 32 minutes
– Keep one pan at 100 degrees Celsius (boiling) and the other pan at 30 degrees Celsius
– Move the egg between the two every two minutes for 32 minutes

Enjoy!

(16) BLOOPS AND BLEEPS! TVcrazyman adds his own commentary to these “1978 Battlestar Galactica Goofs, Facts, and Bloopers” which does kind of improve them.

(17) LIVE FROM AREA 51. Get a head start on the Super Bowl commercials with “Unidentified Frying Object” featuring Gordon Ramsay and Pete Davidson.

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