As Homer Simpson would say...
"D'oh!"
Friday, December 31, 2021
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Best of Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Behold the Man" Conclusion
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| Art by Frank Brunner |
Time traveler Karl Glogauer journeys to Palestine almost 2,000 years in the past to confirm the existence of Jesus Christ.
With his time machine damaged beyond repair and discovering he's gone a decade too far back, the now-stranded Glogauer encounters John the Baptist...
Published in the British sci-fi magazine New Worlds (which Moorcock himself edited) in 1966, the non-linear story running two parallel plot/timelines won the Nebula Award for "best novella".
Moorcock expanded it to novel length...
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| Art by Robert Foster |
...and it is that currently OOP version which is best-known to American audiences and served as the basis of this never-reprinted adaptation in Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6 (1975) by writer Doug Moench and artist Alex Nino.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ATARI FORCE "Chapter One: Intruder Alert!"
Remember back in 2005, when Atari was the only thing standing between the world and total disaster?
Well, maybe this graphic reminder will jog your somewhat foggy memories...
The Saga Continues...
In 1982 Atari was one of the biggest video game producers in the world.
Their home console titles, mostly ported versions of successful video arcade games, were doing well, but competition from other console producers was starting to erode Atari's share of the market.
It was decided that Atari's game cartridges would include mini-comic books with a plotline that would tie the previously-unrelated games together into a cohesive universe, though the comic's plots and characters weren't incorporated into the video game!
It was believed that the comics would give fans a reason to collect other games they might not have purchased otherwise, plus open up a new market of comic book fans and collectors who would, hopefully, become Atari game users.
Atari's fellow Time/Warner company DC Comics created and produced the mini-comics.
The first comic, Atari Force #1, shipped with the videogame Defender.
Plotted by Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway with Conway doing the script, this first "issue" introduces us to the devastated Earth of 2005 and the group that will eventually become "Atari Force", with flashbacks about most of them.
Illustrated by Ross Andru (pencils) and Dick Giordano & Mike DeCarlo (inks), the premiere had a slick, clean, highly-professional look.
Join us next week as we probe further into both the fictional and real-life worlds of Atari Force!
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Best of Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Behold the Man" Part 1
With Christmas behind us and New Year's Day just ahead...
...we're going to re-present a controversial (albeit award-winning) time-travel tale about the guy whose birthday we just celebrated!
To Be Concluded...
Thursday!
In the 1960s, science fiction experienced an influx of a "New Wave" of writers who wanted to go beyond "hard" sf and experiment, both in form and in content, with a more literary/artistic sensibility.
New Wave writers often saw themselves as part of the modernist tradition, writing "soft" or metaphysical stories instead of the technology-oriented or "hard" sf of Asimov, Heinlein, et al.
The leading proponent of the movement was Michael Moorcock, editor of the British magazine New Worlds as well as an established and successful "hard" sf writer.
to be continued...
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Monday, December 27, 2021
Monday Mars Madness WORLD OF FANTASY "What Went Wrong?"
You think you've prepared for every contingency...but is that truly possible?
Can anyone always account for the "human" factor?
Illustrated by Bob Forgione, whose credits at Timely/Atlas included a number of sci-fi stories including an issue of Speed Carter: SpaceMan, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' World of Fantasy #1 (1956) is one of those "average guy inadvertently saves the world" tales that writers (in this case, unidentified) love to tell.
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