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Doctor Strange Gets a Director

Doctor Strange Gets a Director

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Strange Tales 110 Doctor Strange-smallI’ve been getting cranky waiting for progress on Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie, and as the wait has stretched out, I’ve been getting progressively more pessimistic (see my March post, Hurry Up With That Doctor Strange Movie, Marvel.)

The property has enormous potential to be something completely original in the superhero genre — namely a faithful rendition of Steve Ditko’s playful (and totally bonkers) inter-dimensional setting, which is what first blew away so many readers of Doctor Strange in the 1960s. A hero whose adventures routinely took him to gorgeous, bizarre, imaginative, and frequently monster-filled realms where normal concepts of space and distance were useless was something totally new, and readers thrilled to it — and it took Ditko’s unique genius to really make it work.

However, Marvel Studios took a huge step forward this week, announcing that they had selected a director for the film: Scott Derrickson, writer/director of the terrific little horror film Sinister, perhaps the best horror flick of 2012. Derrickson has an impressive resume as a writer/director, including The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and the upcoming Deliver Us from Evil (July 2014). He was also the director of the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

If you’re getting a strong horror vibe off  Derrickson’s resume, you’re not alone. Matt D. Wilson at Comics Alliance did a fine job of articulating my own feelings on the announcement yesterday:

Seriously, though, that’s pretty interesting, considering that Doctor Strange has never been what I’d call a horror character, despite his many dealings with supernatural forces, demons, dark magic, and so forth. But his stories have always tended to be more fantastical, while other Marvel characters, such as Son of Satan, Werewolf By Night, and, you know, Dracula, have tended to be more horror-focused. The decision perhaps suggests a tone that won’t necessarily please Doctor Strange fans, but may be very palatable to general movie audiences, who made the low-budget Sinister a surprise hit back in 2012.

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New Treasures: Nihal of the Land of the Wind by Licia Troisi

New Treasures: Nihal of the Land of the Wind by Licia Troisi

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Nihal of the Land of the Wind-smallWhen I first got my Kindle, I imagined it would be a gateway to a whole new way to buy and read books. The ability to browse and download books in a matter of seconds, all from the comfort of my big green chair, was pretty darned appealing — not to mention the host of free samples and complete novels Amazon posts every week.

Well, it didn’t unfold that way. Turns out that, by and large, I still buy and read novels primarily in paperback. And cover art and design have a huge impact on what I pick up every week… and frankly, much of the digital-only fantasy out there just isn’t visually appealing enough for me to bother with.

That’s starting to change, though. Exhibit A: Nihal of the Land of the Wind, the first volume of Chronicles of the Overworld, a bestselling Italian fantasy series by Licia Troisi. I have no idea who painted the cover — and the Kindle version doesn’t tell me — but it is gorgeous (click for a bigger version). Here’s the description.

Nihal lives in one of the many towers of the Land of the Wind. There is nobody like her in the Overworld: big violet eyes, pointed ears, and blue hair. She is an expert in swordplay and the leader of a handful of friends that includes Sennar the wizard. She has no parents; brought up by an armorer and a sorceress, Nihal seems to be from nowhere.

Things suddenly change when the Tyrant takes charge. Nihal finds herself forced to take action when she is faced with the most difficult mission a girl her age could imagine.

Fierce, strong, and armed with her black crystal sword, Nihal sets out to become a real warrior. Readers will be riveted as she forges her powerful path of resistance.

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Everything’s Coming up Aces: All the Covers of Galactic Derelict

Everything’s Coming up Aces: All the Covers of Galactic Derelict

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Galactic Derelict 1961-big Galactic Derelict 1971-small Galactic Derelict 1978-small

Click any of the images to see the complete wrap-around covers.

Last week I wrote a brief Vintage Treasures article about Andre Norton’s classic SF adventure novel Galactic Derelict. Here’s what I said about the book’s printing history:

Galactic Derelict was published in 1959 by the World Publishing Company and has been reprinted in eight different editions over the last half-century. It first appeared in paperback from Ace Books in 1961. It is 192 pages in paperback, priced at 35 cents. The cover is by Ed Emshwiller. If I have a few moments this weekend, I may assemble some of the other covers to display them here.

Well, on this leisurely Memorial Day weekend, I finally have a few minutes to pull together half a dozen covers from the book’s five decades in print, and here they are.

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New Treasures: Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead

New Treasures: Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead

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Voodoo Tales The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead-smallI continue to collect the Wordsworth Editions Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural, which I’ve found to be an inexpensive way to gather a diverse range of early horror writers on a single bookshelf.

My latest acquisition was Voodoo Tales: The Ghost Stories of Henry S. Whitehead, which I bought because it was huge (691 pages!), inexpensive ($3.90!), and ’cause it had voodoo in it (voodoo!). What can I tell you, it was a compelling combo.

I’ve never heard of Henry S. Whitehead, but apparently he was an early Weird Tales writer who had two Arhkam House collections. You’d think I’d be more on top of an author who had a pair of Arhkam House collections, but no. This genre keeps finding more ways to surprise me.

I’m guessing that Whitehead wrote mostly voodoo tales, but I won’t know for sure until I dig into the volume. Until then, I’m relying on the cover and the text on the back, and I’m definitely picking up a voodoo vibe.

“And behind him, like a misshapen black frog, bounded the Thing, its red tongue lolling out of its gash of a mouth, its diminutive blubbery lips drawn back in a murderous snarl…”

Let Henry S. Whitehead take you into the mysterious and macabre world of voodoo where beasts invade the mind of man and where lives of the living are racked by the spirits of the dead. In this collection of rare and out of print stories you will encounter the curses of the great Guinea-Snake, the Sheen, the weredog whose very touch means certain death, the curious tale of the ‘magicked’ mirror, and fiendish manikins who make life a living hell. Included in this festival of shivering fear is the remarkable narrative ‘Williamson’ which every editor who read the story shied away from publishing.

With deceptive simplicity and chilling realism, Whitehead’s Voodoo Tales are amongst the most frightening ever written.

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Vintage Treasures: Two Decades of Interzone

Vintage Treasures: Two Decades of Interzone

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Interzone 108-small Interzone 119-small Interzone 138-small

Interzone is the leading British science fiction magazine and has been for over 30 years. It was founded in 1982 and editor David Pringle remained at the helm for 193 issues, until he stepped down in 2004. Since then, it has been part of the TTA Press stable, with the capable Andy Cox as editor; their latest issue — Interzone 252, May–June 2014 — arrived earlier this month. In fact,the only thing not marvelous about Interzone is that it’s so hard to come by here in the US. Barnes & Noble imports issues every two months (although at the prohibitively high price tag of $11.95), but back issues are almost impossible to find. Even eBay isn’t much help.

Enter 2013 Windy City Pulp & Paper last month. I made some terrific purchases at the show, and I’ll be telling you about them over the next few weeks. But hands down, my best find of the weekend was a vast collection of fanzines and assorted 70s and 80s fantasy magazines in a $1 bin at the Adventure House booth — including 64 issues of Interzone, most of them unread. I ended up buying all of them… by far the largest collection of Interzone I’ve ever purchased. I bought about 30 recent issues from a UK seller a few years ago, but these were much older, and much less expensive: a beautiful assortment of issues between 75 and 191, with original fiction from Michael Bishop, Paul Di Filippo, Michael Moorcock, Tony Ballantyne, Paul Park, Thomas M. Disch, Eric Brown, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Geoff Ryman, Tanith Lee, Ian Watson, Richard Calder, and many, many others.

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Viking Art, Magic, and Wisdom at the British Museum

Viking Art, Magic, and Wisdom at the British Museum

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The Hunterston Brooch, c. 700, Hunterston, Ayrshire, Scotland. Gold, silver, amber. Diam. 12.2cm. Runic inscription says, ''Melbrigda owns this brooch'. Copyright National Museums Scotland.
The Hunterston Brooch, c. 700, Hunterston, Ayrshire, Scotland. Gold, silver, amber. Diam. 12.2cm.
Runic inscription says, ”Melbrigda owns this brooch.’ Copyright National Museums Scotland.

 

They journeyed boldly;
Went for gold,
Fed the eagle
Out in the east,
And died in the south
In Saracen land.
— Gripsholm Runestone (AD 1000-1100)

 

The British Museum has come up with another blockbuster with its new exhibition, Vikings: Life and Legend. Bringing together hundreds of artifacts from around the world, this massive exhibition tells about Norse life, art, and beliefs through everyday objects, works of art, magical objects, and even an entire Viking ship.

There are many surprises. For example, a whalebone axehead from Greenland dating to 1000-1300 AD shows that far-flung Norsemen in harsh regions used whatever material they had at hand. I’m sure the owner of this axehead wanted a real one of iron — the axe appears to have broken at the socket! There are also charming reminders of family life, such as some wooden toy boats from Dublin dating to around 800-1050 AD.

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Vintage Treasures: Six Worlds Yonder / The Space Willies by Eric Frank Russell

Vintage Treasures: Six Worlds Yonder / The Space Willies by Eric Frank Russell

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Six Worlds Yonder-smallWe’re back with our continued look at some of the most interesting Ace Doubles.

Last time we discussed Eric Frank Russell’s first Ace release, his 1954 novel Sentinels of Space (with a brief aside to look at his 1958 paperback collection from Berkley, Men, Martians, and Machines.) So I thought it apropos to examine his first Ace Double pair: Six Worlds Yonder / The Space Willies, published in 1958.

Six Worlds Yonder is a rather uniquely themed collection: stories of first landings on far planets, all published in Astounding between 1955 and 1957. Here’s the book description:

THE PLANET MAPPERS

One thing’s certain about the exploration of outer space — there’s not going to be two worlds alike! In this new collection of interstellar explorers, the fertile and original mind of Eric Frank Russell presents a half-dozen of the more extraordinary possibilities.

There’s the world where everything moves at a pace so different from ours that it would take a couple of lifetimes to establish communication. There’s the planet of immortals, with all that that really signifies. There’s the puzzling problem of keeping important messages secret when surrounded by truculent aliens. And there’s more…

Every story is different, every world is unique, and every adventure is science-fiction at its best.

Russell’s stories were frequently more whimsical than most others depicting the grim business of interstellar exploration in 1950s SF digests. I think perhaps Bud Webster described Russell’s style best in his book Past Masters, in his appreciation of the stories in Men, Martians and Machines.

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Vintage Treasures: The Book of Skaith: The Adventures of Eric John Stark by Leigh Brackett

Vintage Treasures: The Book of Skaith: The Adventures of Eric John Stark by Leigh Brackett

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Leigh Brackett The Book of Skaith-smallI joined the Science Fiction Book Club in the fall of 1975, when I was in my last year at St. Francis Junior High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Before I joined, I agonized over my introductory selection — three books for a just a dollar! — for days, reading and re-reading the tiny paragraphs in the brochure, and then waiting impatiently for my selections to arrive in the mail. My friend John MacMaster enrolled me and I’m pretty sure I’ll remember the contents of my enrollment package until the day I die: The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, The Hugo Winners, Volumes One and Two, edited by Isaac Asimov, and Before the Golden Age, edited by (can you guess?) Isaac Asimov.

John had introduced me to science fiction earlier that year, loaning me Clifford D. Simak’s Shakespeare’s Planet and Piers Anthony’s Ox when I was home sick from school. I devoured them both and wanted more. John explained how the club worked and it sounded terrific. “They sometimes have these big collections, a bunch of novels gathered into one book,” he said. “They’re the best.”

John was right. The year after I joined, in 1976, the featured selection for the month was The Book of Skaith: The Adventures of Eric John Stark, an omnibus of three novels by Leigh Brackett, under a new cover by Don Maitz. It was a marvelous introduction to one of SF’s great pulp writers, in an attractive and affordable package offered exclusively through the Science Fiction Book Club.

That’s one of the great things about the SFBC: its exclusive omnibus editions, highly collectible as they are, are generally still available at excellent prices. In February of this year, nearly 40 years after it was published, I bought a copy of The Book of Skaith in excellent condition on eBay for just $2.99.

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Vintage Treasures: Fantastic Novels, July 1948

Vintage Treasures: Fantastic Novels, July 1948

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Fantastic Novels July 1948-smallYesterday, I talked about finding a copy of the hardcover edition of Damon Knight’s Science Fiction of the 30’s on a sale table at Windy City Pulp and Paper for just $3.33. Items on the table were priced at 3 for $10, so before I could buy it, I had to find two additional items I could live with.

Didn’t turn out to be that hard. Right next to Knight’s dusty hardcover was a copy of the July 1948 Fantastic Novels magazine, with the gorgeous Lawrence cover at left. Admit it, that cover alone is worth $3.33. I snapped it up and didn’t even look inside.

I didn’t figure there was all that much to know about the contents, anyway. Fantastic Novels was famous for including a complete novel with each issue, which usually didn’t leave much room for filler. In addition to the cover story — Garrett P. Serviss’s 1911 novel The Second Deluge — this issue had only one additional story: Frank Lillie Pollock’s “Finis,” reprinted from the June 1906 issue of The Argosy magazine.

I imagine it had to be pretty cheap to produce a magazine containing only two reprints (assuming the editors paid anything for them at all). So what did the publishers of Fantastic Novels spend their money on? Beautiful art, that’s what. In addition to the cover by Lawrence, this issue had several full pages of art by Lawrence and the great Virgil Finlay. Click on the image at left to see the full-sized version. I have no idea what The Second Deluge is all about, but I want to frame this magazine and put it on my wall.

Alas, there were no other copies of Fantastic Novels to be found on the table — and no other hardcovers of interest. For my third item, I settled on an issue of The Original Science Fiction Stories from January 1956 that looked like it had just come off the printing press. It also has fiction by Randall Garrett and James Blish, so maybe it will turn out to be worth $3.33 too.  Either way, it’s fine by me; I got my ten bucks’ worth — and more — with the first two items.

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Art of the Genre: The Art of ‘Making Your Own Way’

Art of the Genre: The Art of ‘Making Your Own Way’

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elmore cleric basic red box d and dToday I’d like to talk about something I call, ‘Making your own way.’  Honestly, I just made that up, in case you were wondering, right here in my bed as I write this at 5:53 AM on a Sunday morning.  Couldn’t sleep, you see, and sometimes you’ve just got to get stuff out of your head.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, which in essence is creationism in pre-established role-playing canon.  You see, I’ve been writing a series of blog posts on the art of the 1983 Mentzer Basic D&D Red Box [Part One and Part Two] over on my Art of the Genre site and as I dipped into that nostalgia pool I couldn’t help but be motivated to dig a bit deeper.

I’d recently started gaming with my eight-year-old son, an experience that has been both a joy and, oddly enough, more difficult than I’d imagined it would be.  First, he’s still pretty young for an RPG, probably two or three years too young, but more importantly, as I played out each scenario, I started to wonder if I was too old!  It certainly seemed harder and harder to tell the story I wanted, to get motivated to be a dungeon master, and when I really thought about it, I realized it wasn’t really about either of our ages, but instead about the place in life I was in.  The everyday stress had gotten me down, but after looking at it that way, I was able to knock off the rust, do what gaming does best, and let myself forget the troubles of existence and then concentrate on the adventure!

So I started out just as I had with my ‘Gaming Week’ friends back in 2011, in a little province of my Nameless Realms I call Oakshire.  Oakshire was inspired by the Basic D&D module Keep on the Borderlands and I used it as the basis for an ongoing campaign that still persists today, but in the case of my son’s mini-campaign, it was more simply a backdrop for the Mentzer intro adventure and first solo adventure from the previously mentioned Red Box.

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