(1) LEARN ABOUT CHINESE SFF FILM AND TV. A technical problem prevented Xueting C. Ni from participating virtually in a Glasgow 2024 program item, however, the good news is that they distilled the information they wanted to present into this video now available on YouTube: “Glasgow Worldcon: Chinese Scifi Film And TV”.
(2) XIRAN JAY ZHAO TEACHES GRRM A TRICK. Or tries to. They’re both at Glasgow 2024. Afterwards they tell fans, “I’m not telling any of you exclusive top secret information about Winds of Winter.” So there.
(3) DAVE SIGHTING, FOLLOWED BY DAVE SLIGHTING. Ursula Vernon could hardly avoid hearing about this moment at a hotel across from the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon site. For reasons.
And the encounter has already inspired Great Art.
(4) GUFF WINNERS ASSEMBLE. Many of the GUFF delegates past and present at Glasgow 2024 took a group photo.
(5) IT IS THE END, MY FRIEND. The last Keith Kato Chili Party happened at Glasgow 2024. Here’s the ribbon:
(6) MORE DARKLIT TESTIMONY. John Durgin has added his account about the problems authors are having with DarkLit Press in “Kosa and the DarkLit debacle”, an open Patreon post.
…There are a number of reasons I’m coming forward now. First off, I had a number of friends who still kept their books with DarkLit, and I didn’t want to possibly hurt their titles by burying the press. Now that the press is folding, that doesn’t matter anymore. Secondly, I’ve seen many of those who spoke up get attacked for doing so by the press. Making Yolanda out to be a villain when we all knew it wasn’t true. Bashing Austrian Spencer’s editing quality when everyone knows he’s a top notch editor (never mind the fact that even if he DID provide a below average edit, he was still OWED money.) And then making Steve out to be some trouble maker for dropping facts that I can tell you are 100% correct.
The lack of accountability from day one was an issue that many of us discussed in private. We all wanted DarkLit to work. We had established a bond and supported one another wholeheartedly, had no reason to wish any ill will on the success of the publisher….
… It wasn’t until we grilled the new leadership and didn’t accept the vague answers we were given that we finally discovered they didn’t even have access to all the sales numbers yet. This was another massive red flag.
It was these issues along with seeing the things they said to try and ruin the image of anyone who spoke out that led me to pull my book. I can tell you things got pretty heated in the discord group. I can also tell you there was no damn misogyny in those heated exchanges. Many of the authors who had issues with the way things were headed were female. It really bothers me that Caitlin used that today when that is the furthest thing from the truth. We were left in the dark. We wanted information, and too often didn’t find it out until we wouldn’t take no for an answer. We would have demanded that transparency no matter who was in charge. …
Durgin refers to this statement from Caitlin Marceau, who was Editor-in-Chief of DarkLit Press.
(7) JIM CAUGHRAN (1940-2024). Longtime fan Jim Caughran, Fancyclopedia 3’s first editor, died August 6 at the age of 83. He discovered fandom in the 1950s while a teenager living in Nebraska.
He was in the cast of the cult favorite fan movie The Musquite Kid Rides Again in 1960 as “Doc Eney”. He was a member of FAPA, The Cult and OMPA. John Trimble published A Fanzine for Jim Caughran in May 1962.
In the last decade Jim wrote several letters of comment to File 770. He lived in Toronto at the time of his death.
(8) MARY WINGS (1949-2024). Pioneering creator of queer comics Mary Wings died July 3. “She was the first openly gay woman to write a comic book about lesbians. She went on to write detective novels with a queer woman in the lead.” The New York Times paid tribute: “Mary Wings, Pioneering Creator of Queer Comics, Dies at 75”. The link bypasses the paywall.
(9) COMICS SECTION.
- Eek! Illustrates a moment in Hulk’s history.
- Speed Bump adds a trick to the trick.
- Carpe Diem brings us art by a robot. It’s exactly what you’re thinking.
- Rubes thought it was funny at the time.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal tells an alien joke.
- Tom Gauld knows who the bears would rather meet.
(10) HISTORIC ANIMATION ART. Here are a couple more treasurers up for bid in Heritage Auction’s “The History of Animation – The Glad Museum Collection Signature® Auction” running from August 16-19.
- The Band Concert RARE Color Model Cel Setup with Master Production Background (Walt Disney, 1935).
Created for the very first shot in Walt Disney’s monumental theatrical short The Band Concert, presented is an unbelievably rare original color model cel setup displayed on its Master production background. A detailed, elaborate image, this complete setup features the whole band: Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Peter Pig, Paddy Pig, and the one and only Mickey Mouse as conductor. Directed by Wilfred Jackson (1906 – 1988) and released on 2/23/1935, The Band Concert is notable for being the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color….
- Superman (The Mad Scientist) Superman and Daily Planet Building Production Cel with Key Master Background (Max Fleischer, 1941).
When the Mad Scientist fires his powerful death ray at the base of the Daily Planet, compromising the structure of the tall building, it’s up to the Man of Steel to stop the potential catastrophe. From Superman, or The Mad Scientist, the first animated appearance of the iconic superhero, we proudly present a magnificent and unbelievably rare Key Master setup showing the Last Son of Krypton displaying his powers by holding the collapsing building mid-flight with his bare hands.
(11) HOBBIT ANTECEDENTS. “Fossils suggest ‘hobbits’ roamed Indonesian island 700,000 years ago” – from a paywalled LA Times story.
Twenty years ago on an Indonesian island, scientists discovered fossils of an early human species that stood about 3½ feet tall — earning it the nickname “hobbits.”
Now a new study suggests ancestors of the hobbits were even slightly shorter.
“We did not expect that we would find smaller individuals from such an old site,” study co-author Yousuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo said in an email.
The original hobbit fossils — named by the discoverers after characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels — date back to between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago. The new fossils were excavated at a site called Mata Menge, about 45 miles from the cave where the first hobbit remains were uncovered.
In 2016, researchers suspected the earlier relatives could be shorter than the hobbits after studying a jawbone and teeth collected from the new site. Further analysis of a tiny arm bone fragment and teeth suggests the ancestors were 2.4 inches shorter and existed 700,000 years ago.
“They’ve convincingly shown that these were very small individuals,” said Dean Falk, an evolutionary anthropologist at Florida State University who was not involved with the research.
The findings were published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers have debated how the hobbits — named Homo floresiensis after the remote Indonesian island of Flores — evolved to be so small and where they fall in the human evolutionary story. They’re thought to be among the last early human species to go extinct.
Scientists don’t yet know whether the hobbits shrank from an earlier, taller human species called Homo erectus that lived in the area, or from an even more primitive human predecessor. More research — and fossils — are needed to pin down the hobbits’ place in human evolution, said Matt Tocheri, an anthropologist at Canada’s Lakehead University.
“This question remains unanswered and will continue to be a focus of research for some time to come,” Tocheri, who was not involved with the research, said in an email.
(12) SKELETON CREW. “’Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’ Trailer Unveiled At Disney D23” and Deadline would like to tell you about it. Premieres December 3 on Disney+.
The first trailer for the new Disney+ Lucasfilm series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew dropped in the Honda Center room at Disney’s D23 in Anaheim on Friday
Jude Law came onstage and said the series harkens to the Amblin kid fantasy films of the 1980s ala The Goonies.
“I fell in love with Star Wars when I was a 10-year-old boy,” he said. “[This] series is told from the perspective of the kids.”…
…In the clip, young kids are zipping around a space academy environment. They come across a tunnel in the woods, zip down, find a ship, fly through hyperspace, encounter big monsters and fire off turret guns. Oh, and Law plays a Jedi. It’s very young-skewing….
(13) D23 BRINGS PLETHORA OF DISNEY NEWS. The Hollywood Reporter has a long list of additional news announced at Disney D23: “D23: All the Updates from Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar from 2024 Panel”.
Bob Iger got a rock star-worthy welcome Friday night, as roughly 12,000 screaming fans gave the Disney CEO a standing-ovation as he kicked off a super-sized panel at D23.
“Wow. That was more than a warm welcome,” Iger told the crowd, adding, “Boy did I miss you.”
It was a homecoming for Iger, who was temporarily retired two years ago during the last D23, which is a chance for Disney’s to show off upcoming projects from Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century….
The article has new information learned at D23 about Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, Ironheart, Fantastic Four, Captain America: Brave New World, The Mandalorian & Grogu, Andor, Frozen III, Zootopia 2, The Incredibles 3, Hoppers, Toy Story 5, Inside Out TV spinoff, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Monster Jam, and Moana 2.
Here are two of the trailers presented:
[Thanks to Steven French, Ersatz Culture, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]