Browsed by
Category: Blog Entry

Blogging Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Part Fourteen – “Power Men of Mongo”

Blogging Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Part Fourteen – “Power Men of Mongo”

Comments 0 Comment

flashgordonpowermenofmongopower-men1“Power Men of Mongo” was the fourteenth installment of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally published between April 14, 1940 and January 12, 1941, “Power Men of Mongo” picks up the storyline where the thirteenth installment, “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo” left off with Flash, Zarkov and Katon speeding by rocket-engine to Mingo City in a desperate attempt to rescue Dale. The rocket-engine is hijacked by Logun and the remnants of the Freemen who happily rejoin the battle to overthrow the Emperor of Mongo. They succeed in infiltrating the city, but one of the Freemen, Pital betrays Flash for the reward promised by Ming. The Emperor sets a trap to capture Flash and the Freemen when they meet in a warehouse at night. Dale starts a chemical fire in the warehouse to warn Flash of the danger. Ming leaves her to burn. Unable to remove her from the blazing warehouse, Flash settles for putting out the fire and then making a daring escape.

Flash successfully infiltrates Ming’s royal guard and very nearly succeeds in rescuing Dale, but Ming outmaneuvers him. Hunted by the police, Flash is rescued by Katon who leads him to the underground electrical works where the Power Men of Mongo are employed. Ergon, head of the Lodge of the Power Men has already befriended Zarkov and is eager to have the Power Men join the rebellion against Ming. The Power Men cause a blackout in the palace during which Flash and Zarkov (disguised as Power Men) eventually succeed in rescuing Dale. It is interesting to note that Flash’s Power Man outfit makes him look suspiciously like DC’s superhero, The Flash. Zarkov is given more of a chance to show his heroism. A turning point comes when Flash finds many of his former Freemen working in Ming’s munitions factory. Flash orchestrates a workers’ revolt and has the men turn on their foremen and seize control of the factory.

…

Read More Read More

Goth Chick News: New Haunted Tunes and Something Cool to Read While You Listen to Them

Goth Chick News: New Haunted Tunes and Something Cool to Read While You Listen to Them

Comments 0 Comment

image008Question: If grungy rock musicians from Seattle get all the Barbie-doll girls, then who gets the Goth Chicks?

Answer: Moody dudes in top hats and capes playing disturbing, dark dirges, that’s who.

Cue the organ music and pull back the black velvet curtains to reveal the boys of Midnight Syndicate and their newest title Carnival Arcane; just in time for your Ray-Bradbury-inspired, Something Wicked This Way Comes themed cocktail party.

You all have one of those, right? Or is it just me…?

The Bradbury reference is inevitable as a haunted, night circus is what immediately came to mind when I listened to this CD. And if clowns are your nightmare, I wouldn’t fall asleep with the track “Sea of Laughter” playing in the background.

The narrative of the disc surrounds the Lancaster-Rigby Carnival, a turn-of-the-century traveling circus with more than a few skeletons in its closet.

Inspired by historical research into carnivals of that time period, Carnival Arcane co-creator (and my musician-groupie crush) Ed Douglas describes the music this way:

We wanted to push the boundaries on this disc. For a band that’s made a career of making “soundtracks to imaginary” films, I think this one feels more like a movie than anything we’ve done to date.

And co-creator Gavin Goszka says:

It’s definitely the most complete and intricate soundscape we’ve ever produced. You can practically smell the popcorn and Fairy Floss (cotton candy). “There’s also a tremendous amount of variety. There are moments where I think the listener will find themselves caught up in this strange sense of wonder and macabre fascination, and others that will leave them shaking in their boots. We were able to expand our instrument roster on this disc in ways that we’d only touched on before.

Each one of the twenty-five tracks is a self-contained gem of a storyline that will strike a nerve with anyone who believes there’s something more disturbing at traveling carnivals than employees without good dental plans.

…

Read More Read More

Art Evolution 2011: Chuck Lukacs

Art Evolution 2011: Chuck Lukacs

Comments 1 comment

fire-lukacs-255

Ok, so I work as Art Director here at Black Gate L.A., and that means I get to see a good amount of really fantastic art, especially where Art Evolution is concerned. That being said, it’s not often I get introduced to talent on the magazine that I wasn’t previously aware of. Still, it does happen, and one such artist is Chuck Lukacs.

Now that’s not to say Chuck is new to the fantasy industry, far from it, but as I’ve never been a Magic the Gathering player, and with the mass of D20 D&D books hitting the shelves since 2000, you can’t always identify every artist you see.

Chuck, however, was doing his due diligence during the 2000s, and his talents were recognized by many youthful minds along the way. He’s graced the pages of dozens of RP books, as well as Magic collections, and his art finally made it to me as I read the tales of Morlock the Maker which appeared in the pages of Black Gate’s print edition. Here, Chuck helped define James Enge’s character that would eventually go on to produce full novels in his own right.

…

Read More Read More

Book Jewelry by Emily Mah Jewelry Designs

Book Jewelry by Emily Mah Jewelry Designs

Comments 4 comments

pendantEmily Mah Jewelry Designs is a company I formed when I decided that raising two small children; writing speculative fiction short stories, romance novels, and jewelry making articles; taking classes in new jewelry media; selling jewelry on Etsy; and figuring out how to stay within my husband’s student stipend budget in London weren’t keeping me busy enough. I was merely overstretched, not fully flirting with insanity, and as a Clarion West survivor and law school graduate, I found that abnormal. So I decided to make use of my law degree, Clarion West connections, and jewelry making skills.

I contacted my workshop-mate, Stephanie Burgis, author of The Un-ladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, a middle grade fantasy trilogy set in Regency England. The first book, Kat Incorrigible came out this year in the US (it was released last year in the UK as A Most Improper Magick). Though Steph and I are both Americans, we live as ex-patriates in the UK – me in London and she in Wales. She was immediately in support of the idea and has been the ideal business partner, which is to say, she’s maintained her enthusiasm and been endlessly forgiving as I hit dead ends, overrun self imposed deadlines, and bumble my way through this whole venture. I send her what free jewelry I can to show my gratitude.

Draft pendantAnd now, months later, our collaboration is taking shape. I’ve produced three designs, a pendant that I released at the same time that Kat, Incorrigible hit bookstores, a pair of earrings that debuted at the launch party for the second book, A Tangle of Magicks (this will be released as Renegade Magic in the US next year), and a charm bracelet that just went on the market about an hour before I sat down to write this post. One might ask, how big is the market for book tie-in jewelry like this? I have no idea. Ask me in a year or two. What I can talk about, though, is how we started this venture. …

Read More Read More

SEVEN PRINCES – Cover Launch

SEVEN PRINCES – Cover Launch

Comments 9 comments

sp-coverOrbit Books just did a cover launch for SEVEN PRINCES on their official site today: http://www.orbitbooks.net/ I’ve wanted to share this with BG readers for months, and the day has finally come…

Artist Richard Anderson did an amazing job, giving us a silhouette of each prince, evoking the golden sun of a battlefield, the waving standards of ancient armies, and leaving just enough detail to the imagination.

Richard will also be doing the covers for the 2nd and 3rd Books of the Shaper, i.e. SEVEN KINGS and SEVEN SORCERERS. More of Richard’s cutting edge artwork can be found at his own site:  http://www.flaptrapsart.com/

Amazon is taking pre-orders for SEVEN PRINCES right here: http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Princes-Books-Shaper-Fultz/dp/0316187860/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317091065&sr=8-1

Peace!
John

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.1 “Meet the New Boss”

Supernatural Spotlight – Episode 7.1 “Meet the New Boss”

Comments 3 comments
God-Castiel faces off against Death, with Dean Winchester looking on.
God-powered Castiel faces off against Death, with Dean Winchester looking on.

The last season ended with Castiel pulling all the souls out of Purgatory. Sam tried to stab him with an angel blade, but the new souls made Castiel so powerful that it didn’t kill him. The sixth season ended with him saying to Sam, Dean, and Bobby:

… the angel blade won’t work, because I’m not an angel anymore. I’m your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord, or I shall destroy you.

Bobby – being the most common sense-having of the trio – begins this episode by bowing down before him. Dean and Sam are about to follow suit when Castiel tells them not to bother, since it means nothing if they’re doing it out of fear. He makes it clear, though, that he has no particular affection left for them anymore. He’s not going to kill them, because there’s no point to it. As long as they do not move against him, he sees no need to kill them.

The status is definitely not quo this season.

…

Read More Read More

Strange Horizons 2011 Fund Drive

Strange Horizons 2011 Fund Drive

Comments 1 comment

sh_headWebzine Strange Horizons is conducting its 2011 fund drive, where your donation supports one of the first (and one of the few surviving from that era) on-line speculative fiction markets. Publishing weekly for over a decade (which in Internet time is something like a century/), Strange Horizons features short fiction (this past week it was Lewis Shiner), regular columns from the likes of John Clute and Matthew Cheney, articles, poetry and book reviews. To my knowledge, Strange Horizons is the only paying on-line market that relies on the “public broadcasting” non-profit model of member donations to keep operations afloat. So the one value of “subscribing” is you at least get a tax deduction out of it.

As of Friday, they were a little over a quarter of the way towards their goal of $8,000.

Blogging Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Part Thirteen – “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo”

Blogging Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, Part Thirteen – “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo”

Comments 0 Comment

ice-kingdom-2ice-kingdom-1“The Ice Kingdom of Mongo” was the thirteenth installment of Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday comic strip serial for King Features Syndicate. Originally published between March 12, 1939 and April 7, 1940, the epic-length “Ice Kingdom of Mongo” was the first story whose continuity lasted more than a year. “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo” picks up the storyline where the twelfth installment, “The Tyrant of Mongo” left off with Flash, Dale, Zarkov and Ronal rocketing their way to explore the frozen North. The freezing temperatures (100 below zero) cause their rocket ship to crash. While Zarkov and Ronal use heat guns to carve a shelter in the glacier, Flash goes off to hunt an ice bear for dinner unaware that a snow dragon is stalking him. Flash slays the snow dragon, but his shoulder is badly injured in the process. Ingeniously, he severs the dragon’s broad tail to use as a makeshift sled to transport the ice bear’s corpse and himself back to the glacier.

The four of them are quickly apprehended by Queen Fria of Frigia and her troops who are patrolling the area on skis. Taken captive, the group is set upon by a snow serpent. Flash saves the Queen from the monstrous beast and earns a place driving her snowbird-drawn chariot on the ride back to her palace. This earns him the enmity of Count Malo who turns off the heat to Flash’s bedchamber while he sleeps that night knowing that the freezing temperatures could kill him. Flash’s life is saved only by Zarkov’s timely arrival and superior medical knowledge. Determined to succeed, Count Malo disguises himself as Flash’s doctor and attempts to murder him in his hospital bed. Flash’s life is spared thanks to Dale’s intervention. Malo escapes with his identity still hidden from Flash and Dale.

His third attempt on Flash’s life occurs while a recovering Flash is getting some much-needed exercise in the pool with Dale. Count Malo again tampers with the heating mechanism causing the pool to instantly freeze. Flash and Dale barely manage to escape alive. While hunting snow oxen with the Queen’s hunting party, Flash saves Malo’s life from a ravenous ice worm. Ashamed of his actions, Count Malo confesses to his crimes and is stunned when Flash forgives him without demanding retribution. Of course, Malo’s comeuppance is close at hand as the hunting party fall prey to a tribe of primitive giants. Flash and Fria escape from their clutches, but Dale and Ronal are taken as slaves. While setting out to rescue them, Flash and the Queen come upon the frozen corpse of Count Malo which the giants have left behind as a grim warning.

…

Read More Read More

Goth Chick News: Logan’s Re-Run

Goth Chick News: Logan’s Re-Run

Comments 5 comments

image011Recently, I made a DVD acquisition that is a tad off the beaten path at Chateaux Goth Chick. While admittedly my movie collection is somewhat top-heavy with an equal mixture of black and white classic horror and modern day scream-fests, there are the occasional outliers such as all the Terminator movies and the complete Harry Potter series.

Apparently, this choice was an outlier of the outliers.

When Logan’s Run arrived in my mailbox, Mr. Goth Chick groaned out loud, announcing that is was very nearly the “cheesiest film of all time.” He then went on to abuse my admiration of what I consider a classic from 1976 until I set him straight on a few points.

For instance.

Did you know that in 1977 Logan’s Run was nominated for two Oscars (Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography) and won a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects?

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films gave it six “golden scrolls” that same year, primarily for the special effects that at the time were cutting edge.

…

Read More Read More

The Joys and Pitfalls of Writing a Series

The Joys and Pitfalls of Writing a Series

Comments 2 comments

shadows-lureWhen my agent first told me that he had secured a three-book deal with Pyr Books, I was ecstatic. Three books! What a brilliant stroke of luck.

But then reality set in. Wait a tick. You mean I actually have to write all those books on a deadline?

And the publisher wants outlines for the second and third books right away? Gulp.

Eventually I recovered and dove in with gusto. What was the big deal, right? Writing a series is just like writing three separate books in order, isn’t it?

Well, yes and no. The biggest problem I ran into was maintaining a continuous theme throughout the series while giving each book its own separate identity.

Writing a novel, any novel, is a difficult task. Getting all your ideas down and having them make sense, AND be entertaining, is a tall order.

You would think a sequel would be easier because you’ve already introduced the main characters and the setting (if they carry over into the next book), but I found it more difficult because I had to devise a story that fit those specific characters. I couldn’t go too far off the deep end for fear of alienating those who had enjoyed the first book.

…

Read More Read More