Pixel Scroll 2/19/25 The Weed Of Scroll Titles Bears Punny Fruit

(1) ABOUT THE NEW COMICS AND POETRY NEBULA AWARDS. “SFWA Presents: Get to Know…Our New Comics and Poetry Nebula Awards” is a conversation with  SFWA’S Comics Committee lead Jessica Maison, and Holly Lyn Walrath, and Wendy Van Camp representing SFWA’s Poetry Committee.

In November 2024, SFWA announced the launch of two new Nebula Awards, one for speculative poetry and one for speculative comics. Eligibility for these awards began in January 2025, with the first awards for these new categories to be presented at the 2026 Nebula Awards Ceremony….

Let’s start with the big question:

Why a poetry award, and why a comics award? What traditions and recent trends in SFF are these new prizes celebrating?

Holly Lyn Walrath: I would say that there is a thriving sub-pocket of speculative poetry alive and well today. Similar to the larger SFF community, speculative poetry often does not get the recognition we might wish for in realist or “literary” circles, yet many authors who got their start in, say, an MFA end up publishing speculative poetry, and many realist/literary magazines publish speculative poetry. Speculative poetry is also a central part of the history of SFF. The earliest pulp magazines published poetry—for example, Weird Tales. There is a rich, unexplored past in speculative poetry that most writers are not familiar with, so it’s exciting to see a resurgence in the genre. 

Wendy Van Camp: ‌Genre poetry has come a long way. It used to be nearly invisible. As a poet, you’d often have to explain and defend the idea of writing poetry with science fiction or fantasy themes. Now, it has a place at major conventions worldwide. Like filk singers and genre artists, speculative poets have found a welcoming community. This poetry is not only for our fans, but traditional poets are noticing the growing opportunities. Paying markets, an award system for both books and single poems, and recognition as creators are all attractive. Literary poets realize there is a community for their ideas about technology, science, and concepts of the future.

Jessica Maison: Looking back to the first pulp magazines like Amazing Stories, a clear intersection between speculative fiction and comics emerges. Many of the pulps and comics were being published by the same larger publishers and even had some of the same heroes and stories overlap. What the pulps and comics share—besides the serial format—is that there was freedom to push boundaries and the limits of genre. That freedom has expanded tenfold in modern speculative comics, especially from its current independent creators and publishers. Whether a writer and illustrator are adapting and reinterpreting beloved characters from a favorite speculative novel like Frankenstein, or, on the flip side, a writer is adapting a story from a comic for the screen, comics weaves into traditional and emerging SFF industry in ways that push the boundaries of speculative fiction from within its structured panels. Honestly, I’m just excited to be part of it all and to introduce my favorites to as many people as possible.

(2) DETECTING ONE’S OWN BIASES. Herb Kauderer’s “Award Season: Show Me Your Bias” at SPECPO is an essay on speculative poetry awards that has application to many sff award voters.

… In recent times the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) has made some changes to their award processes to reduce inappropriate bias.  Notably, it is no longer legal for a member to nominate a work for the Rhysling if it is written by a close family member.  This certainly makes sense to me.  I have a large family that could easily flood nominations should they, or I, think that a good idea.  That would be an unfair advantage assuming they are biased toward my work.  At least, I hope they would be biased in favor of my work.  My family is always surprising.

Another point of discussion is whether members should share all their eligible poetry.  The SFPA facilitates members making their eligible poetry available to each other.  Since the membership nominates and votes on the awards, this does cause some preference to members.  Yet, in my experience members also recommend to each other poetry outside SFPA’s member packets, because we are happy to nominate and give awards to non-members’ poetry if it moves us.  F.J. Bergmann has convinced me to be generous in what I share in Rhysling packets even though some members feel flooded by them.  Yet I appreciate David C. Kopaska-Merkel’s caveat that I can exclude anything that I am uncomfortable seeing nominated.  I may not know what others find to be my best poems, but I definitely know what I’m comfortable allowing to represent my best work….

(3) HARLEY QUINN CO-CREATOR DEAN LOREY REVEALS WHY TO WATCH DC’S UNHINGED ANIMATED HIT. [Based on a press release.] JustWatch spoke to hit showrunner, producer, and writer Dean Lorey about his must watch list of movies and TV shows. Check out his take on different versions of Harley Quinn, James Gunn’s Creature Commandos and more.

Harley Quinn Co-Creator Dean Lorey Reveals Why to Watch DC’s Unhinged Animated Hit

Dean Lorey, Showrunner

Even though it’s a comedy, we write Harley Quinn like a drama, and we take the characters very seriously. We cry when they die, and we cheer them on when they do something funny. So the secret sauce of the show is that despite being a genuinely funny comedy, there’s a lot of character and tragedy behind it. We honor all of that, and to me, it’s the most defining thing about the show. It’s not how R-rated it is (although that’s obviously very important). It’s that we take the world seriously while also delivering on the raunchiness and absurdity it’s known for.

Harley Quinn Showrunner Dean Lorey Names His 3 Other Favorite On-Screen Harleys

  • Batman The Animated Series is where Harley Quinn was created, it’s where we first met her. And she just sort of explodes from the word Go! That planted the direction at the core of the character. She is chaotic and she enjoys it. I always loved that.
  • Margot Robbie‘s first appearance as Harley [in Suicide Squad] was transformative. I loved her take on it.
  • I loved Harley Quinn in the Arkham video game. There’s something about playing the character that makes you feel it a little bit more.

About Dean Lorey: Whether he’s writing, producing or showrunning, Dean Lorey is responsible for creating and developing some of your favorite tv shows and movies, from cult classics to smash hits. Starting his career writing screenplays for films like My Boyfriend’s Back and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, as well as comedies like Major Payne, Dean got arguably his biggest break writing on the landmark series Arrested Development. He’s since worked to bring some of the quirkiest comic book stories to life on projects like Powerless and iZombie. His recent notable accolades include co-creating breakout hits Harley Quinn (the animated series) and Kite-Man: Hell Yeah!, and showrunning James Gunn’s Creature Commandos.

(4) IMAGINING THE UNIVERSE. Michael Everett’s introduction to “National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Universe” at Michael Whelan’s Substack newsletter begins:

Published in 1980, National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Universe was among the most successful projects Michael has been involved with. He didn’t provide the cover—that was the stellar John Berkey—but Michael’s work on the interiors is still widely regarded today.

A massive initial print run of 670,000 copies pushed the first edition into stores everywhere where this coffee table book flourished for more than two decades in print. With revisions in 1986 and 1994, the book sold a staggering 2.5 million copies….

Then Whelan takes over —

What if…there really were creatures on other planets?

Our Universe was a fun assignment, and I’m glad so many people enjoyed the work I did for that project. Someone once asked what my favorite piece from the book was, and that’s hard to pin down. I will say that I had the most fun working on the silly alien creatures the editors came up with.

That section was written by the National Geographic editorial department. They asked me to illustrate their rather whimsical inventions, so I did these little paintings (about the size of my normal concept work) to accompany the text.

Among those, the Jupiter and Venus critters were probably my faves.

(5) SFCON ’54 ETC. Heritage Auctions has a Twelfth World Science Fiction Convention Poster and Frank R. Paul obituary clippings on the block. Here’s their description of the lot. (Its date range should be 1954-1963 since the Paul clipping shows that’s the year of his death.)

Twelfth World Science Fiction Convention Poster and Frank R. Paul Newspaper Article and Obituaries Group (Various Publishers, 1954-57). A very interesting lot for pulp collectors! Offered here is a 10″ x 14″ cardboard poster for the 12th World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco, California. Held at the historic Sir Francis Drake Hotel on Union Square from September 3rd through 6th, 1954. Attendance was approximately 700, and among the first attendees was Philip K. Dick, with the Guest of Honor being John W. Campbell, Jr. The poster is printed in red and dark blue and is in Fine condition, with only very slight soiling and handling wear. Also included is an article about Frank R. Paul, “The Dean of Science Fiction Illustrators”, and several examples of his obituary from July of 1963. The newspaper clippings are in Very Good condition, with moderate tanning.
From the Roger Hill Collection.

(6) DON’T MISS OUT. First Fandom Experience “Announces the Supplement to Volume Three of The Visual History”.

Early fans wrote and published prolifically. In The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, we excerpt and distill their work to focus on the most important, interesting and entertaining material they created. Even so, each volume has filled over 500 pages. If you’ve carried one around, you know the meaning of the term “weighty tome.”

Still, we’re frustrated by the exclusion of the full versions of key fan artifacts that provide additional richness and context. This leads to today’s announcement:

The Supplement to The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume Three: 1941 is now available. The Supplement includes 168 pages of material created by fans in 1941, with full narratives presented as originally published in seldom-seen fanzines.

Supplements for Volumes One and Two are forthcoming.

(7) WHY NOT SAY WHAT HAPPENED? Scott Edelman tells listeners to episode 19 of his Why Not Say What Happened? podcast “What Gerry Conway Wasn’t Allowed to Say About Gwen Stacy in F.O.O.M.”

While shredding another old notebook from my early comics career, I reminisce about the many wretched one-act plays I created while being taught by famed playwright Jack Gelber, the lie I told Marv Wolfman and Len Wein which got me hired at Marvel, the most wrongheaded conclusion Fredric Wertham reached in Seduction of the Innocent, my plot for an Inhumans strip starring Karnak which had no reason to exist, the most ridiculous method any writer ever conceived of for killing a vampire, what Gerry Conway said about Gwen Stacy which was censored out of his F.O.O.M. interview, the first words to reach readers about my Scarecrow character, and much more.

This link will show you where it can be found on a dozen other platforms.

(8) SOUNDS THAT NOBODY EVER HEARD BEFORE. “’We’re projecting into the future’: sounds of BBC Radiophonic Workshop made available for public use” reports the Guardian.

With its banks of bafflingly complex equipment, and staff members that were among the most progressive musical minds in the UK, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was a laboratory of 20th-century sound that produced endless futuristic effects for use in TV and radio – most memorably, the ghostly wail of the Doctor Who theme.

Now, the Workshop’s considerable archive of equipment is being recreated in new software, allowing anyone to evoke the same array of analogue sound that its pioneering engineers once did….

… The Workshop may be best known for the Doctor Who theme, but it also created music and sound effects for other sci-fi shows such as Quatermass and the Pit, Blake’s 7 and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Other cornerstone BBC shows such as Blue Peter and Tomorrow’s World were also beneficiaries of the Workshop’s creativity.

The Workshop was originally created in 1958, tasked with adding an extra dimension to plays and other shows on Radio 3. Co-founders Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe were brilliant and high-minded, inspired by musique concrète – the style that asserted that raw, tape-recorded sound could be a kind of music. Before long a highly experimental, even fantastical means of composition was afoot, with lampshades being bashed to produce percussion, and long tape loops being carried along BBC corridors…

… The newly available software will cost £149, and is available from 19 February, though it will have an introductory price of £119 until 17 March.

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

February 19, 1960 The Twlight Zone episode “Elegy”

The time is the day after tomorrow. The place: a far corner of the universe. A cast of characters: three men lost amongst the stars. Three men sharing the common urgency of all men lost. They’re looking for home. And in a moment, they’ll find home; not a home that is a place to be seen, but a strange unexplainable experience to be felt. — opening narration

On this date sixty-five years ago, Twilight Zone’s “Elegy” aired for this first time. It was the twentieth episode of the first season and was written by Charles Beaumont who you might recognize as the screenwriter of 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. Beaumont would die at just 38 of unknown causes that were assumed to be neurological in nature. 

The cast for this SF Twilight Zone episode was Cecil Kellaway as Jeremy Wickwire, Jeff Morrow as Kurt Meyers, Kevin Hagen as Captain James Webber and Don Dubbins as Peter Kirby. These are not the names in the short story it come from in that, the caretaker of the cemetery and the most logical crewman are named Mr. Greypoole and Mr. Friden respectively. In the Twilight Zone script, their names are Jeremy Wickwire and Professor Kurt Meyers.

This episode was based on Beaumont’s short story “Elegy” published in Science Fiction Quarterly, May 1954.  It’s available for Subterranean Press on their website as an epub in The Carnival and Other Stories for just $6.99. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) URSA MAJOR AWARDS NOMINATIONS OPEN. The public is invited to submit Ursa Major Awards nominations through February 28.

More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Award, the Ursa Major Award is presented annually for excellence in the furry arts.

(12) PULL TO PUBLI$H. NPR heralds “Three Harry Potter fan fiction authors set to publish novels this summer”.

Fan fiction — the creation of unsanctioned, unofficially published, new works usually based on popular novels or films — was intentionally never mainstream.

There are the legal issues — copyright laws, intellectual property laws — of drawing from someone else’s creation, for one. Fan fiction authors also have historically considered their online arenas (Archive of Our Own, Fanfiction.net and others) more of a sandbox, a place to play with new ideas using characters and worlds people already know and love.

Take, for example, fan works imagining Harry Potter and friends in their 8th year at Hogwarts. Or pairing Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger romantically — dubbed “Dramione” fan fiction.

But this summer and early fall will see the wide publication of three books by popular Dramione Harry Potter fan fiction authors: Rose in Chains by Julie Soto, Alchemised by SenLinYu and The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley.

Soto’s romantic fantasy is a reworked version of her fan fiction The Auction, centered on a heroine who is sold to the highest bidder. SenLinYu’s debut fantasy about a woman with memory loss in a war-torn world is a revision of her popular Manacled. Brigitte Knightley’s debut novel, an enemies to lovers tale, is an original work….

….Most fan fiction authors don’t worry too much about how much of their work plays off a published author’s book or film because they are writing for personal fun, not for profit. Some works do get noticed by publishers who solicit these stories and help their authors rework them to distance them from their original: It’s called pull to publish.

Pull to publish isn’t a new concept, but writers and publishers say it’s a growing area. The idea of moving from fan fiction to traditional publishing used to be a virtual nonstarter, but stigmas around fan fiction are lifting.

“I know a fan fiction writer who pulled to publish in the early 2000s and then denied they’d ever written fan fiction,” said Stacey Lantagne, a copyright lawyer focusing on fan works and professor at Western New England University School of Law. “That was not a cool thing to say, not a cool thing to admit … so if you went looking for it, you’d have a really hard time identifying those authors because they just didn’t ever connect those two parts of their background.”

Lantagne says it appears that more fan fiction is being pulled to publish than a few years back, based on what she’s seeing in her work and because more people are talking about it openly, though it’s tough to track data on this area of publishing….

(13) LOOSER. “ChatGPT can now write erotica as OpenAI eases up on AI paternalism” says ArsTechnica. So do you feel better, or worse?

On Wednesday, OpenAI published the latest version of its “Model Spec,” a set of guidelines detailing how ChatGPT should behave and respond to user requests. The document reveals a notable shift in OpenAI’s content policies, particularly around “sensitive” content like erotica and gore—allowing this type of content to be generated without warnings in “appropriate contexts.”

The change in policy has been in the works since May 2024, when the original Model Spec document first mentioned that OpenAI was exploring “whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW content in age-appropriate contexts through the API and ChatGPT.”

ChatGPT’s guidelines now state that that “erotica or gore” may now be generated, but only under specific circumstances. “The assistant should not generate erotica, depictions of illegal or non-consensual sexual activities, or extreme gore, except in scientific, historical, news, creative or other contexts where sensitive content is appropriate,” OpenAI writes. “This includes depictions in text, audio (e.g., erotic or violent visceral noises), or visual content.”…

(14) I TAKE IT BACK. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The top universities in the world for retracting science are overwhelmingly Chinese says Nature.  

A first-of-its-kind analysis by Nature reveals which institutions are retraction hotspots.

Though I’m always mindful of the former Astronomer Royal, Prof Sir Martin Rees saying better good SF than bad science…

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

Pixel Scroll 2/2/21 Like Three Zabriskan Fontemas In A Trench Coat

(1) DR. MAE JEMISON. Dr. Mae Jemison will give a talk in the Oregon State University Provost’s Lecture series on February 4. Free registration here.

Dr. Mae Jemison: the first woman of color in space; a national science literacy ambassador and advocate for radical leaps in knowledge, technology, design and thinking — on Earth and beyond. She also served six years as a NASA astronaut. Join us as we explore the frontiers of science and human potential with Dr. Jemison for the next Provost’s lecture on Thursday, Feb. 4 from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. [Pacific] Free, remote, open to all.

(2) BLASPHEMY, I TELL YOU. Throwing-rocks denier James Davis Nicoll unleashes his skepticism on some of the leading hard science authors of the genre: “Five Books That Get Kinetic Weapons Very Wrong”. Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress supplies the text for his opening lesson.  

… On the surface, this seems plausible. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation assures one that this would be quite vexing to anyone standing where the rock happens to land: at 11 kilometres per second, each kilogram of rock would have about 60 megajoules of kinetic energy, more than ten times the energy of a kilogram of TNT. Nobody wants more than ten kilograms of TNT exploding on their lap.

But…a moment’s consideration should raise concerns. For example, the rebels are using repurposed cargo vessels. How is it they are able to reach the surface at near-escape velocities without fragmenting on the way down? How did the rebels manage to erase Cheyenne Mountain from existence when (given the numbers in the book) it would take about two hundred thousand impacts to do so? How did the rebels cause a tidal wave in the UK when simple math says the wave would only have been a few centimetres high at Margate?

Heinlein probably relied on a simple but useful technique: he didn’t do the math…. 

(3) NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE, AND PROBABLY NEVER WERE. The Horn of Rohan Redux conducted “An interview with Suzanne Nelson, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature 2020 finalist” for her book A Tale Magnolious

There is something post-apocalyptic about the dust bowl-esque farm featured in this book. Did you pull ideas from history or dystopian literature? 

I’m a fan of dystopian literature, but I didn’t have any particular piece in mind as I was writing A Tale Magnolious. Certainly, the desperation of the Dust Bowl years and the Great Depression era were at the forefront of my mind as I wrote. I am an avid student of history and think often about periods, like World War II, where there have been great loss, or evil and tragedy, but where humankind has ultimately overcome these horrors through courage, faith, and love. As I crafted Nitty and Magnolious’s story, I kept returning to the idea of hope blooming in the midst of desolation. Even Neezer Snollygost had the chance to alter his self-serving, destructive path, but he chose not to. In a way, I suppose he resembled Tolkien’s Gollum in that his obsessions robbed him of his better self. But others in Magnolious like Windle Homes, gave up their resentments and anger, and once they did, their hearts reopened to love. People have a way of finding joy and one another in the darkest times through love and hope.

(4) WEBSITE DEFLECTS BLAME. Directors Notes has responded to Adam Ellis and his charges that Keratin ripped off his comic: “A Statement on Adam Ellis’ Keratin Plagiarism Accusation”.

For clarity, we would like to state that Directors Notes was in no way involved with the creation of Keratin nor have we profited from the film’s existence. We are however regretful to have used our platform to help promote the film. Had the full facts of its genesis been made clear to us at the time would have declined to run the interview.

As has been pointed out by many commentators, when asked about Keratin’s inspiration Butler and James’ response: “The original concept was inspired by a short online cartoon we saw which we developed further” fails to credit Ellis as the creator of the original online cartoon, nor does it detail the email conversation the filmmakers had with Ellis or his request that they pull the film from festivals.

(5) AVOID CROWDS. Paul McAuley has advice for writers in “World-Building The Built World”.

…Worldbuilding is hard only if you pay too much attention to it. Less is almost always better than more. Use details sparingly rather than to drown the reader in intricate descriptions and faux exotica; question your first and second thoughts; set out a few basic parameters, find your character and start the story rather than fleshing out every detail of the landscape, drawing maps, and preparing recipe cards and fashion plates before writing the first sentence. Wherever possible, scatter clues and trust the reader to put them together; give them the space to see the world for themselves rather than crowd out their imagination with elaborate and burdensome detail.

Most of the heavy lifting for the worldbuilding of War of the Maps was already done for me in a speculative scientific paper, ‘Dyson Spheres around White Dwarfs’ by Ibrahim Semiz and Selim O?ur. That gave me the basic idea: a very large artificial world wrapped around a dead star, its surface a world ocean in which maps skinned from planets were set. Almost everything else was tipped in as the story progressed. Discovering details essential to the story as it rolls out gives space and flexibility to hint at the kind of random, illogical, crazy beauty of the actual world; the exclusionary scaffolds of rigid logic too often do not….

(6) WINDOW ON A PAST WORLDCON. AbeBooks is offering “The Twelfth World Science Fiction Convention Papers” for a tad under $24,000. I now realize one of the disadvantages of the internet age – all those emails I got from pros while organizing convention programs will never be collectibles! Also, I wonder if there’s anything in the archive explaining why SFCon (1954) decided not to continue the Hugo Awards which had been given for the first time the previous year?

A UNIQUE OFFERING THE TWELFTH WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION PAPERS. Held in San Francisco in the summer of 1954 with G.O.H. John Campbell, Jr., this was one of the great early gatherings. Included in this massive archive is everything that one might want to know about running a convention: Hotel rates for rooms, banquets, buffet menus, rentals, carpenters, electricians, etc. There are letters from attendees and those who wished to attend but could not; paid invoices from photo shops, printers, etc.; canceled checks (along with some unused ones as well) and check stubs; Radio scripts from local stations and press clippings and pictures from local papers; letters from major Motion Picture Studios answering requests about film availability; SIGNED letters from advertizers (including all the small presses); the entire convention mailing list; black & white photos picturing singularly or in group Ackerman, Anderson, Boucher, Bloch, Campbell, Clifton, Dick, Ellison, Evans, Gold, Mayne, Ley, Moskowitz, Nourse, E.E. Smith, Williamson, Van Vogt, Vampira, et.al. But of course the major importance of this archive has yet to be mentioned. And that’s simply the great abundance of SIGNED letters, post-cards and notes from authors and artists. To wit: Anderson, Asimov (3), Blaisdell, Blish, Bond, Bonestell (4), Boucher (3), Bradbury (4), Bretnor, F. Brown, Howard Browne, Budrys, Campbell (5), Clement, Clifton (2), Collier, Conklin, DeCamp, DeFord, Dick, Dickson, Dollens (8), Emshwiller (2), Eshbach (2), Evans, Farmer, Freas (3), Greenberg (2), Gunn, Heinlein, Hunter (5), Kuttner, Ley (5), Moskowitz, Neville, Nolan (3), Nourse, Obler, Orban (3), Palmer, Pratt, Simak, E.E. Smith (2), Tucker, Williamson (3), Wylie, et.al. Finally, also included is a set of audio tapes which were taken at this convention. Now for the first time (depending on your age I guess) you can not only be privy to what went on at this convention, but also hear the actual voices of Anthony Boucher, John W. Campbell, E.E. “DOC”Smith and others too numerous to mention. A unique opportunity to snatch a bit of vintage post-war Science Fiction history. (The tapes, while definitely included in this grouping, may not be immediately available.).

(7) A WRITER BEGINS. Read Octavia Butler’s autobiographical article “Positive Obsession”, the Library of America’s “Story of the Week.”

…A decade after she published Kindred, as her standing in the literary world continued to rise, Octavia Butler wrote for Essence magazine a remarkably compelling essay outlining the path of her career, from early childhood in the 1950s to her status as a full-time writer in the 1980s. We present her life story as our Story of the Week selection….

MY MOTHER read me bedtime stories until I was six years old. It was a sneak attack on her part. As soon as I really got to like the stories, she said, “Here’s the book. Now you read.” She didn’t know what she was setting us both up for….

(8) SLOW READER. “’Doctor Doolittle’ returned to Canadian library was 82 years overdue” – UPI has the story.

…”We were putting a fan in our bathroom, so we had to cut a hole through our roof and while we were up in the attic, we found a bunch of old books,” Musycsyn told CTV News.

Musycsyn said the copy of Doctor Dolittle stood out because it bore markings from the Sydney Public Library.

“This one in particular had the old library card from 1939,” Musycsyn said. “And I just thought that was interesting, because it was the same week that the library had abolished their fines.

“So, I thought it was a good thing, because I wouldn’t want to know what the fine on an 82-year-old overdue book would be.”

Library officials said the old Sydney Public Library burned down in 1959, destroying most of its books. They said the tome returned by Musycsyn might not have survived if it had been returned on time.

(9) VON BRAUN’S SF BOOK. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website discusses the engineer’s literary ambitions Mars Project: Wernher von Braun as a Science-Fiction Writer”.

The German-American rocket engineer Dr. Wernher von Braun is famous—or infamous—for his role in the Nazi V-2 rocket program and for his contributions to United States space programs. He was, I have argued, the most influential rocket engineer and space advocate of the twentieth century, but also one whose reputation will be forever tainted by his association with Nazi crimes against humanity in V-2 ballistic missile production. Von Braun certainly was multi-talented—he was a superb engineering manager, an excellent pilot, and a decent pianist. In the U.S., he became a national celebrity while speaking and writing about spaceflight. But we don’t think him as a science-fiction writer. It was not for want of trying. Von Braun wrote a novel, Mars Project, in America in the late 1940s and later exploited his fame to publish a novella about a Moon flight and an excerpt from his failed Mars work.

…The political context for his fictional Mars expedition is equally fascinating. Mars Project opens in 1980, after the United States of Earth, with its capital in Greenwich, Connecticut, conquers and occupies the Soviet bloc, aided by its space station—once again called Lunettadropping atomic bombs on Eurasian targets. While von Braun reveals his tendency to naïve technological utopianism in the Martian sections, his opening displays a conservative anti-Communism suited to the Cold War hysteria of 1949. His vision of World War III is, to put it plainly, a fantasy of a successful Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union….  

(10) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.

  • February 2, 1925 The Lost World enjoyed its very first theatrical exhibition.  It was directed by Harry O. Hoyt and featured pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O’Brien, a forerunner of his work on the original King Kong. It’s the first adaption of A. Conan Doyle’s novel of the same name.  It’s considered the first dinosaur film. This silent film starred Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Wallace Beery and Lloyd Hughes. Because of its age the film is in the public domain, and can be legally downloaded online which is why you can watch it here.

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]

  • Born February 2, 1882 – James Joyce.  If I call Ulysses or Finnegans Wake fantasy, someone will answer “He just wrote what he saw”, which leads not only to Our Gracious Host’s days as an SF club secretary, but also to Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  Marshall McLuhan said in War and Peace in the Global Village he could explain what FW’s thunder said.  Half a dozen short stories for us anyway.  (Died 1941) [JH]
  • Born February 2, 1905 – Ayn Rand.  Anthem and Atlas Shrugged are ours – meaning they’re SF; I express no opinion on them or Objectivism philosophically, that being outside the scope of these notes.  I did put a Jack Harness drawing of JH’s Objectivist Mutated Mouse Musicians in the L.A.con II (42nd Worldcon) Program Book, but that was ars gratia artis.  (Died 1982) [JH]
  • Born February 2, 1933 Tony Jay. Oh, I most remember him as Paracelcus in the superb Beauty and the Beast series even though it turns out he was only in for a handful of episodes. Other genre endeavours include, and this is lest OGH strangle me is only the Choice Bits included voicing The Supreme Being In Time Bandits, an appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Third Minister Campio In “Cost of Living”, being in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (and yes I loved the series) as Judge Silot Gato in ”Brisco for the Defense.” (Died 2006.) (CE) 
  • Born February 2, 1940 Thomas M. Disch. Camp ConcentrationThe Genocides334 and On Wings of Song are among the best New Wave novels ever done.  He was a superb poet as well though I don’t think any of it was germane to our community. He won the Nonfiction Hugo for The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, a critical but loving look on the impact of SF on our culture. (Died 2008.) (CE) 
  • Born February 2, 1947 – Eric Lindsay, age 74.  Fan Guest of Honor at Tschaicon the 21st Australian natcon, Danse Macabre the 29th.  Fanzine, Gegenschein.  GUFF delegate with wife Jean Weber (northbound the Get-Up-and-over Fan Fund, southbound the Going Under Fan Fund); their trip report Jean and Eric ’Avalook at the UK here (PDF).  [JH]
  • Born February 2, 1949 Jack McGee, 72. Ok, so how many of us remember him as Doc Kreuger on the Space Rangers series we were just discussing? I’ve also got him as Bronto Crane Examiner in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, as a Deputy in Stardust, Mike Lutz in seaQuest, Doug Perren in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a Police Officer Person of Interest to name some of his genre roles. (CE)
  • Born February 2, 1949 Brent Spiner, 72. Data on more Trek shows and films than I’ll bother listing here. I’ll leave it up to all of you to list your favorite movements of him as Data. He also played Dr. Brackish Okun in Independence Day, a role he reprised in Independence Day: Resurgence, a film I’ve not seen yet. He also played Dr. Arik Soong/Lt. Commander Data in four episodes of Enterprise.  Over the years, he’s had roles in Twilight ZoneOuter LimitsTales from the DarksideGargoylesYoung JusticeThe Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Warehouse 13. (CE)
  • Born February 2, 1957 – Laurie Mann, F.N., age 64.  Co-chaired Boskone 25, chaired SMOFcon 30 (SMOF is Secret Master Of Fandom, as Bruce Pelz said a joke-nonjoke-joke, besides the Jefferson Airplane comment).  Two short stories.  Pittsburgh Bach Choir.  Fellow of NESFA (New England SF Ass’n; service).  Maintains William Tenn Website.  Fan Guest of Honor at Rivercon XII, ArmadilloCon 27 (with husband Jim Mann).  Program Division head for Sasquan the 73rd Worldcon, also (with JM) for Millennium Philcon the 59th. You might read her “Everything I Learned About Buying and Renovating Buildings I Learned from Monty Wells”.  [JH]
  • Born February 2, 1966 – Frank Lewecke, age 56.  Molecular biologist.  Half a dozen covers for German-language editions of Herbert-Anderson Dune books.  Here is House Atreides.  Here is The Butlerian Jihad.  More generally this gallery.  [JH]
  • Born February 2, 1981 – Tara Hudson,age 40.  Three novels for us.  Says she once drove a blue Camaro, got her lowest grade (B) in law school, and in that profession had a great career and stagnated.  Many seem happy with the result.  [JH]
  • Born February 2, 1986 Gemma Arterton, 35. She’s best known for playing Io in Clash of the Titans, Princess Tamina In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace, and as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. She also voiced Clover in the current Watership Down series. (CE)

(12) COMICS SECTION.

  • Tom Gauld depicts “The Runaway Lobster-Telephone Problem.”

(13) SPASEBO BOLSHOYA SUPERMAN. You don’t need millions of dollars for special effects anymore if you have a drone with a tiny camera: “Superman With a GoPro”. (Don’t ask me why the closed captions are in Russian.)

(14) WHEDON WAS HERE. Yahoo! Entertainment frames the series and trailer: “’The Nevers’ First Trailer: Joss Whedon Creates HBO’s Next Genre-Mashing Original Series”.

Whedon is back with HBO’s “The Nevers,” albeit with a twist. While Whedon created and executive produced the Victorian Era science fiction series, he announced in November he was stepping away from the series. By this point, “The Nevers” had already wrapped production on its six-episode first season. Whedon is no longer involved with “The Nevers,” but HBO’s teaser trailer for the show is peak Whedon with its clashing of genres and super-powered female action heroes.

The description from The Nevers: Official Teaser says —

Society fears what it cannot understand. Experience the power of The Nevers, a new @HBO original series, this April on @HBOmax. In the last years of Victoria’s reign, London is beset by the “Touched”: people — mostly women — who suddenly manifest abnormal abilities, some charming, some very disturbing. Among them are Amalia True (Laura Donnelly), a mysterious, quick-fisted widow, and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), a brilliant young inventor. They are the champions of this new underclass, making a home for the Touched, while fighting the forces of… well, pretty much all the forces — to make room for those whom history as we know it has no place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWdpBQFgdxQ

(15) I SAY I’M SPINACH. [Item by Cora Buhlert.] MIT scientists have used nanotechnology to enable spinach to detect components of explosives and other hazardous substances. The spinach plants can also send out an alert via e-mail, so guess what the headline is about. Though automatic e-mail alerts aren’t anything unusual. My furnace regularly e-mails me as well. From Euronews, “Scientists have taught spinach to send emails and it could warn us about climate change”.

…Through nanotechnology, engineers at MIT in the US have transformed spinach into sensors capable of detecting explosive materials. These plants are then able to wirelessly relay this information back to the scientists.

When the spinach roots detect the presence of nitroaromatics in groundwater, a compound often found in explosives like landmines, the carbon nanotubes within the plant leaves emit a signal. This signal is then read by an infrared camera, sending an email alert to the scientists.

This experiment is part of a wider field of research which involves engineering electronic components and systems into plants. The technology is known as “plant nanobionics”, and is effectively the process of giving plants new abilities….

(16) POWER WALK. [Item by Michael Toman.] Just in case Other Mostly Shut-In “At Risk” Filers can use some inspiration for taking a daily 30-minute Masked Walk for exercise toward achieving the goal of 50 miles a month? “Astronauts Wind Down After Spacewalk, Reap Space Harvest” from the NASA Space Station blog.

…NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover completed their second spacewalk together on Monday wrapping up a years-long effort to upgrade the station’s power system. They relaxed Tuesday morning before spending the afternoon on a spacewalk conference and space botany.

The duo joined astronauts Kate Rubins of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA and called down to spacewalk engineers after lunchtime today. The quartet briefed the specialists on any concerns or issues they had during the Jan. 27 and Feb. 1 spacewalks….

(17) BEWARE REDSHIRT ARMED WITH UKULELE. Howard Tayler tweeted a rediscovered drawing of John Scalzi, eliciting this comment from the subject.

(18) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In “The Mandalorian Season 2” on Honest Trailers. the Screen Junkies say the show combines “the world of Star Wars, the feel of old samurai movies, and the emotional core of Reddit’s r/awww community because every time you see Baby Yoda, you want to go “Awwwww!”

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cora Buhlert, Michael Toman, Hampus Eckerman, Andrew Porter, Martin Morse Wooster, Danny Sichel, Rob Thornton, Daniel Dern, Mike Kennedy, JJ, John Hertz, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Patrick Morris Miller.]

Lester H. Cole, Past Worldcon
Co-Chair, Has Died

Les Cole at home in his library.

By John L. Coker III: Lester Hines Cole (1926–2019), the long-time beloved husband of Esther Cole, was a Bay Area SF fan who co-chaired SFCon, the 1954 Worldcon held in San Francisco that had John W. Campbell, Jr. as its guest of honor.  SFCon activities included a chamber opera based on a Ray Bradbury short story (narrated by Anthony Boucher), and the restoration of the tradition of a masquerade ball.  Les was married to Esther Cole, who joined him in many of his fannish activities.

Cole, who died in late September, was a member of the Elves, Gnomes and Little Men’s Science Fiction and Chowder Society (at one time serving as its president).  The Society was founded in 1948; meetings and other club activities were always centered in and around Berkeley, CA.  In the early days, the club published thepopular fanzine Rhodomagnetic Digest.

Cole published the fanzine Orgasm (aka The Big O) in 1951, along with his wife and Clarence Jacobs.  Les had about fifty genre short stories, articles, and letters published, most of which appeared in Amazing, Astounding, F&SF, Venture, and Startling.  He also wrote several genre novels, including an alternate history in 2012, Spithead, in which the two World Wars never happened.  He sometimes used the pen names of Roy Carroll, Les Collins, T. M. Mathieu, T. H. Mathieu, and Colin Sturgis.  The last was used when Les collaborated with Melvin Sturgis.

An associate member of First Fandom, Les was inducted — along with his wife — into the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2017.  A photo of Les (with wife Es) appeared in A Wealth of Fable (SCIFI Press, 1992) written by SF fan Harry Warner, Jr.

He was a historian; a scholarly gentleman with many interests and great capacities who was a life-long student and a mentor; a true animal lover; someone who had one foot firmly planted in the past with the other striding boldly into the future.

Les is survived by his wife and their two sons, Dana and Lance.

(Prepared by Jon D. Swartz)

Es and Les Cole. Photo by Tove Marling

Remembering Les Cole

By Es Cole: Les was a treasure trove of SF experiences and interactions with the great fans and writers during the glory years.  He chaired the Elves, Gnomes and Little Men’s SF and Chowder Society and helped produce the 1954 Worldcon.  He also captured his bride of 70 years by reading to her The Black Flame (by Stanley Weinbaum), who wore a gown of Alexandrites, rare gemstones that cost more than 15,?000 dollars a carat.

I accepted Les’ marriage proposal on condition the engagement ring be an Alexandrite.  Les, that sneaky, funny, intellectual, got me the ring, but the Alexandrite was an artificial stone. 

My SF relationship with Les started when we first met.  I had been assigned to run the switchboard of the men’s dorm, and Les walked into that area, wearing a new hat.  He was a wiseass sophomore, age 18; I was a sophisticated, 20-year-old freshman.  This was at Cal, Berkeley.  Les spent about two hours hanging about, and I learned from him about “dry labbing.”  First thing Les taught me was how to cheat in my chem class.  Thus, I began my college career.  And it worked.  Plus I got a boyfriend.  And the rest is history — a history of almost 80 years. 

We made our first convention appearance in New Orleans, where Bob Bloch started a rumor that Es and Les were 15-year-old twin brothers, and we’ve been gender confused ever since.

No. 1 son, Dana, attended the Worldcon in Chicago at age 4 1/2 months.  Both sons – Dana and Lance – attended the Worldcon in San Francisco in 1954.

Les and Es Cole, Gary Nelson, Tom Quinn and a few other people produced SFCon 1954.  We started out with almost bare pockets.   First, we turned the 2-day event into a 3-day weekend; we upped the registration from $1 to $2.  Fans screamed at the outrageous increase.  Our most important accomplishment, which is still followed today: we voted to have world conventions produced in a different city each year, moving westward.  Prior to that, conventions had primarily been on the eastern side of the U.S.  We restored the masquerade ball.  Bob Bloch was a judge.  Willy Ley’s wife, a professional ballet dancer, wore a black, filmy, flowing gown with glowing stars.  She was “deep space”.

We arranged for a wonderful museum in San Francisco to display some original sf art, including Chesley Bonestell originals.  Additional entertainment included a chamber opera based on a Bradbury short story narrated by Anthony Boucher.

When Les was president of the Little Men, he, and several other people, hatched an idea to involve the United Nations to claim to have authority over ownership of the Moon.

The idea for the Moon Claim, originated, with the owner of the bookstore where The Little Men held their meetings.

The people who executed the Moon Claim were pros or near pros.  Les wrote about the geology of the area of the moon; a graduate student in astronomy was able to outline the area of the moon being claimed; Les’ father was studying law, so he was able to write a proper claim.  They picked a date to local papers, describing the attempt to claim a portion of the Moon, by filing such a claim with the Legal Department of the United Nations.  And yes, it worked.  Press releases went out, written with a slant that would appeal to each Bay Area newspaper.  The response was far greater than we expected.  The local Berkeley paper tore up their original front page for that day and ran the Moon Claim story.  Les received a phone call in his place of work from a reporter from England, calling from New York. The reporter was interested in the ramifications of such a claim. 

Les, as president of the Little Men had the responsibility of fielding the phone calls, hoping for a legal way to determine the ownership of part of the moon.

Les authored about 50 SF short stories, published in F&SF, Amazing, Startling; an article in Astounding; and 6 novels.  His letters to sf magazines were published regularly from when he was about 13.  After we married in 1947 he added my name – thus was born Les and Es, or Es and Les.

Books by Les Cole: The Sea Kings, Lion at Sea, The Sea People (a prehistoric arch-aeological adventure trilogy, also available in Greek); Baker’s Dozenth (a spy novel set against the American Civil War); Spithead (an alternative universe spy/adventure novel where WWI and WWII never happened because the British Navy sailed out of Spithead, England and intervened).

Judith Merrill played a big part.  Long distance by mail and phone she helped Les hone his writing skills, gave advice about character development, dialog.  Les passed on this help to other aspiring writers, an important obligation.

Les was never boring.  I don’t think he could be boring; he knew too much, his sense of humor never stopped.  His use of language was always interesting, thoughtful, and unique.  And he could write; short stories, science fiction, historical novels.

He was younger than I, and insisted that I had to marry a younger man because women live longer than men.  He was right about so many things.  Smart and funny, and knew so much.  He was never boring. 

He is still in our house.  In every corner: his books, his photographs, his little notes tucked into books.  We made each other laugh.   He taught me stuff and I may have taught him a few things, too.

Sending love,

Es and the doggies

1954 Worldcon Archive Offered

The papers of the Twelfth World Science Fiction Convention are back on the market. This archive of correspondence, contracts and the like from SFCon, held in San Francisco in 1954, previously offered in 2012 by The Fine Books Company for $12,218.50, is available from the same dealer but with a new asking price of $15,925.00.

Here is the seller’s list of all the goodies in this fanhistorical treasure trove —

A UNIQUE OFFERING THE TWELFTH WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION PAPERS. Held in San Francisco in the summer of 1954 with G.O.H. John Campbell, Jr., this was one of the great early gatherings. Included in this massive archive is everything that one might want to know about running a convention: Hotel rates for rooms, banquets, buffet menus, rentals, carpenters, electricians, etc. There are letters from attendees and those who wished to attend but could not; paid invoices from photo shops, printers, etc.; canceled checks (along with some unused ones as well) and check stubs; Radio scripts from local stations and press clippings and pictures from local papers; letters from major Motion Picture Studios answering requests about film availability; SIGNED letters from advertizers (including all the small presses); the entire convention mailing list; black & white photos picturing singularly or in group Ackerman, Anderson, Boucher, Bloch, Campbell, Clifton, Dick, Ellison, Evans, Gold, Mayne, Ley, Moskowitz, Nourse, E.E. Smith, Williamson, Van Vogt, Vampira, et.al. But of course the major importance of this archive has yet to be mentioned. And that’s simply the great abundance of SIGNED letters, post-cards and notes from authors and artists. To wit: Anderson, Asimov (3), Blaisdell, Blish, Bond, Bonestell (4), Boucher (3), Bradbury (4), Bretnor, F. Brown, Howard Browne, Budrys, Campbell (5), Clement, Clifton (2), Collier, Conklin, DeCamp, DeFord, Dick, Dickson, Dollens (8), Emshwiller (2), Eshbach (2), Evans, Farmer, Freas (3), Greenberg (2), Gunn, Heinlein, Hunter (5), Kuttner, Ley (5), Moskowitz, Neville, Nolan (3), Nourse, Obler, Orban (3), Palmer, Pratt, Simak, E.E. Smith (2), Tucker, Williamson (3), Wylie, et.al. Finally, also included is a set of audio tapes which were taken at this convention. Now for the first time (depending on your age I guess) you can not only be privy to what went on at this convention, but also hear the actual voices of Anthony Boucher, John W. Campbell, E.E. “DOC”Smith and others too numerous to mention. A unique opportunity to snatch a bit of vintage post-war Science Fiction history. (The tapes, while definitely included in this grouping, may not be immediately available.)

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Huett: 1954 Worldcon Archive on Block

By Kim Huett: While looking for something else on the ABE website I discovered that The Fine Books Company is offering for sale what it claims is the paperwork for the 1954 San Francisco Worldcon. For a lazy $12,218.50 they will provide the following:

Included in this massive archive is everything that one might want to know about running a convention: Hotel rates for rooms, banquets, buffet menus, rentals, carpenters, electricians, etc. There are letters from attendees and those who wished to attend but could not; paid invoices from photo shops, printers, etc.; canceled checks (along with some unused ones as well) and check stubs; Radio scripts from local stations and press clippings and pictures from local papers; letters from major Motion Picture Studios answering requests about film availability; SIGNED letters from advertizers (including all the small presses); the entire convention mailing list; black & white photos picturing singularly or in group Ackerman, Anderson, Boucher, Bloch, Campbell, Clifton, Dick, Ellison, Evans, Gold, Mayne, Ley, Moskowitz, Nourse, E.E. Smith, Williamson, Van Vogt, Vampira, et. al. But of course the major importance of this archive has yet to be mentioned. And that’s simply the great abundance of SIGNED letters, post-cards and notes from authors and artists. To wit: Anderson, Asimov (3), Blaisdell, Blish, Bond, Bonestell (4), Boucher (3), Bradbury (4), Bretnor, F. Brown, Howard Browne, Budrys, Campbell (5), Clement, Clifton (2), Collier, Conklin, DeCamp, DeFord, Dick, Dickson, Dollens (8), Emshwiller (2), Eshbach (2), Evans, Farmer, Freas (3), Greenberg (2), Gunn, Heinlein, Hunter (5), Kuttner, Ley (5), Moskowitz, Neville, Nolan (3), Nourse, Obler, Orban (3), Palmer, Pratt, Simak, E.E. Smith (2), Tucker, Williamson (3), Wylie, et.al. Finally, also included is a set of audio tapes which were taken at this convention. Now for the first time (depending on your age I guess) you can not only be privy to what went on at this convention, but also hear the actual voices of Boucher, Campbell, Smith and others too numerous to mention.

Under any circumstances this would be a fascinating trove to pick through but more so at the moment given that the 1954 Worldcon has been central to several discussions I’ve been involved with of late.