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Vintage Treasures: Science Fiction in the Golden Age

Vintage Treasures: Science Fiction in the Golden Age

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sf-golden-ageJames Van Hise, renowned comic and pulp expert and editor of The Rocket’s Blast ComicCollector magazine, has compiled a terrific collection of non-fiction articles from the dawn of the science fiction pulp era.

Science Fiction in the Golden Age arrived in the mail a week ago, and I’ve been mesmerized by it ever since. It gathers articles, letters, interviews, advertisements and artwork that appeared in pulps, fanzines and other sources between 1908 and 1955, including a H. G. Wells piece in a 1908 issue of Cosmopolitan speculating about life on Mars – with four illustrations, all reproduced here in color – a 1938 report on John W. Campbell’s plans as the new editor of Astounding Science Fiction, a review of E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Galactic Patrol from 1950,  a report from “Inside the Graf Zeppelin” from Science & Invention (1929), and a lot more.

Authors include Hugo Gernsback, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thomas Sheridan, and Ray Bradbury, and the vintage art from pulps and fan magazines includes classic work by Frank R. Paul and others, as well as unused art intended for the first edition of The Skylark of Space. I particularly enjoyed the house ads for magazines and novels, including Amazing Stories and Otis Adelbert Kline’s The Planet of Peril.

This is clearly a labor of love from someone who spent years reading and gathering literary gems and curiosities from some extremely rare sources, including Air Wonder Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Scientifiction, Fantasy Review, Boys Magazine, Writers Digest, Fantasy Advertiser, and many other pulps and fanzines. The only criticism I have is that the page numbers in the TOC are rather useless, given that most of the magazine isn’t paginated.

Science Fiction in the Golden Age is the first in a planned series, although since this one came out in May 2005 and no new volumes have followed, I’m not sure about the state of those plans. Volume One is 160 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 (side-stapled) with full color front and back covers by Frank R. Paul. I bought mine from the author on eBay for $20; additional copies are still available.

Locus 602 Arrives

Locus 602 Arrives

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locus-602The latest issue of Locus, the Magazine of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Field, has arrived at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters.

This issue contains interviews with Gene Wolfe and Alaya Dawn Johnson, a spotlight on Sean Wallace, a column by Cory Doctorow on “Explaining Creativity to a Martian,” short fiction reviews by Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton, the usual treasure trove of detailed book reviews by Gary K. Wolfe, Faren Miller, Paul Witcover, and many others, and a quarterly listing of US & UK Forthcoming Books through December 2011 — the most detailed and accurate catalog of forthcoming books in the industry.

As always, Locus also contains the latest news from the field. This issue includes coverage of the Nebula and Bram Stoker Award nominations, Borders’ bankruptcy, an obit of Brian Jacques, snippets and gossip on people & publishing, and much more.

The complete Table of Contents is here.

Simply put, if you want to keep up with what’s really happening in science fiction and fantasy, you need to be reading Locus.

We last covered Locus with the August 2010 issue.

This issue is 72 pages and priced at $6.95; a one-year (12-issue) subscription is $60. Their website is here, and online subscription form is here.

Goth Chick News: 16th Annual Halloween & Attractions Best in Show

Goth Chick News: 16th Annual Halloween & Attractions Best in Show

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24150_390196963255_167128213255_3900787_3094256_nLast weekend, St. Louis, MO played host to the 16th Annual Halloween & Attractions Show which was side by side with the Halloween Costume & Party Show. These events have not occurred simultaneous in several years and to have this much Halloween in one place was, well…

Let’s just say I needed to have a nice long lie down afterwards.

The HAS and the HCPS play host to vendors of every imaginable item for professional haunted attraction creators. Aisles of latex body parts, animatronic werewolves, smoke machines, scary sound effects, fake castle walls, grossly realistic masks and special effects makeup kept me engrossed for the full nine hours that the show ran on Saturday. In addition, I met several amazing artists, and a couple of horror movie directors that I’m sure you’ll recognize. But I’ll leave those as a surprise for later.

Over the coming weeks I will have the pleasure of bringing you several full-length interviews with the most intriguing people I met. But as I’ve done each year, we’ll start with a “Best in Show” list and let me say, it’s hard to stand out amidst this bloody mess. All of these items are available for purchase by the general public on the web sites indicated and represent the most innovative products for 2011.

I love this job.

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Howard Andrew Jones on How Captain Kirk Led Me to Historical Fiction

Howard Andrew Jones on How Captain Kirk Led Me to Historical Fiction

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captain-kirkMan, that Howard Andrew Jones is, like, everywhere.

Today he’s at Tor.com, writing about how James T. Kirk led him on a many-year mission to explore strange new worlds of historical fiction:

I’d read that Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry had modeled Captain Kirk after some guy named Horatio Hornblower. I didn’t think I’d like history stories, but I sure liked Star Trek, so I decided to take a chance. Once I rode my bicycle to the library and saw how many books about Hornblower there were, I figured I’d be enjoying a whole lot of sailing age Star Trek fiction for a long time to come.

Of course, it didn’t turn out quite like that. Hornblower wasn’t exactly like Kirk, and his exploits weren’t that much like those of the Enterprise, but they were cracking good adventures. Thanks to my own curiosity but mostly to the prose of the talented C.S. Forester, my tastes had suddenly, and accidentally, broadened beyond science fiction… I no longer thought of historical fiction as a strange, untouchable world, and as I grew older I tried more and more of it, sometimes because a period interested me and sometimes just because I liked a cover or a title. That’s how I found the work of Cecilia Holland, and it’s why I wasn’t afraid to try out a book by Harold Lamb titled The Curved Saber after I was spellbound by Lamb’s biography of Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general…

The complete article is here, and you can learn the mind-boggling details about Howard Andrew Jones month at Black Gate here.

Bradley Beaulieu’s The Winds of Khalakovo Released This Week

Bradley Beaulieu’s The Winds of Khalakovo Released This Week

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windsofkhalakovocover_smBlack Gate blogger Bradley Beaulieu’s first novel The Winds of Khalakovo was published by Night Shade Books on Monday. I asked him to tell us a little bit about it, and his influences:

Thanks for having me on Black Gate. It’s great to be able to talk to some of the fans of the magazine, because unlike other places where I often feel like a relative newcomer — a welcome guest, so to speak — here I feel at home. I feel like I’m among friends, like we’re all part of an extended family: those who love adventure – and epic-based fantasy. So I was excited about the chance to share the news about my debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, just released by Night Shade Books.

The Winds of Khalakovo is a story about Nikandr, the Prince of a Grand Duchy modeled loosely after Muscovite Russia. The Nine Duchies of Anuskaya have been beset by a decade-long blight, by a wasting disease that strikes commoner and royal alike, and by the Maharraht, a rebellious splinter group that wants nothing more than the destruction of the Grand Duchy and her people. While searching for a way to heal the islands, Prince Nikandr stumbles across a boy, a boy who has the power to break worlds, and he finds that the Maharraht are bent on using this boy to achieve their goals. But the boy also has the power to heal, and it falls to Prince Nikandr to unlock his secrets before the Maharraht can use him to lay waste to his home of Khalakovo.

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Will Mars Needs Moms be one of the Biggest Box Office Bombs in History?

Will Mars Needs Moms be one of the Biggest Box Office Bombs in History?

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mars-needs-momsThe New York Times is reporting that Mars Needs Moms, which opened on Friday, “is on track to become one of the biggest box-office flops ever.”

In the movie business, sometimes a flop is just a flop. Then there are misses so disastrous that they send signals to broad swaths of Hollywood. Mars Needs Moms is shaping up as the second type.

Walt Disney Studios spent an estimated $175 million to make and market Mars Needs Moms, which sold $6.9 million in tickets at North American theaters in its opening weekend. That grim result puts the 3-D animated adventure on track to become one of the biggest box-office bombs in movie history, on par with such washouts as The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Cutthroat Island and The Alamo.

Much of the blame for the film’s poor reception is being placed on high ticket prices, especially for Imax.  While it costs between $8 and $9 to seat a child for a typical movie, ticket prices for 3-D screenings average around $13 — and $15.50 for the Imax version.

The film is based on the 2007 book Mars Needs Moms! by Berkeley Breathed, creator of Bloom County. It follows the adventures Milo, of a 9-year-old boy (voiced by Robot Chicken creator Seth Green) whose mother (Joan Cusack) is abducted by Martians.

The NYT predicts the impact on Disney “will be severe.” Disney has already closed down ImageMovers Digital, Robert Zemeckis’ animation division. Zemeckis, the Oscar-winning director who helmed Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and The Polar Express, was a producer for Mars Needs Moms.  His last film using the same motion-capture animation style, A Christmas Carol (2009) was also a disappointment for Disney, and now the studio has canceled his next planned feature, a 3D remake of Yellow Submarine.

I thought the trailer looked good, and Breathed’s book was terrific. My kids want to see Mars Needs Moms, so I guess I’ll discover firsthand if the film is enjoyable… but the odds aren’t promising.

First Teaser Trailer for Conan the Barbarian

First Teaser Trailer for Conan the Barbarian

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conan-3dThe first trailer for the new 3D remake of Conan the Barbarian has been unleashed this week by Lionsgate.

The trailer is quite brief (one minute), and doesn’t show much beyond a lot of smoke, a few poorly nutritioned villains, a beautiful woman, and some goofy dialog on how to achieve contentment through slaying.  That part reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with more swords and a better soundtrack.

The brief film description reads:

The tale of Conan the Cimmerian and his adventures across the continent of Hyboria on a quest to avenge the murder of his father and the slaughter of his village.

I don’t remember anything about his father in the original version. But as Howard Andrew Jones is constantly telling me, I probably need to read more Robert E. Howard.

The finished film will be released on August 11, 2011.  It is directed by Marcus Nispel and stars Jason Momoa (Stargate: Atlantis) as Conan.

The film also stars Ron Perlman, Stephen Lang, and Rose McGowan, who’s preparing her own take on a Robert E. Howard character in the upcoming Red Sonja, also scheduled for release this year.

Howard Andrew Jones’ Plague of Shadows Now on Sale

Howard Andrew Jones’ Plague of Shadows Now on Sale

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Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows, by Howard Andrew Jones. Coming February 2011Howard Andrew Jones’ second novel in two months officially goes on sale today:

The race is on to free Lord Stelan from the grip of a wasting curse, and only his old elven mercenary companion Elyana has the wisdom — and swordcraft — to solve the mystery of his tormentor and free her old friend before three days have passed and the illness takes its course. When the villain turns out to be another of their former companions, the elf sets out with a team of adventurers across the Revolution-wracked nation of Galt and the treacherous Five Kings Mountains to discover the key to Stelan’s salvation in a lost valley warped by weird magical energies and inhabited by terrible nightmare beasts. From Black Gate magazine’s managing editor Howard Andrew Jones comes a fantastic new adventure of swords and sorcery, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows is the third novel in the new line of Pathfinder Tales from Paizo. They are standalone tales set in the world of Golarion, home of the succesful Pathfinder role playing game; Plague of Shadows follows Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross and Winter Witch by Elaine Cunningham.

You can order copies directly from Piazo, either individually or as part of their Pathfinder Tales subscription.

Weird Tales 357 Arrives

Weird Tales 357 Arrives

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weird-tales-357The office copy of Weird Tales arrived today, and it looks great. Howard Andrew Jones immediately challenged me to rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock for the right to take it home, and then had the poor grace to win the best two-out-of-three rematch. Bonehead.

Before it passed out of my grasping hands forever, I did notice that this issue has six new short stories, from N.K. Jemisin, Karen Heuler, J. Robert Lennon, Karin Tidbeck, Peter M. Ball, and Mark Meredith, and poems by Kurt Newton and Seth Lawhorn.

Matthew Kressel contributes a non-fiction piece on real-life weird tales, Geoffrey H. Goodwin interviews Caitlin R. Kiernan, and Contributing Editor Kenneth Hite reports on Lovecraft’s fascination with the town of Kingsport in “Lost in Lovecraft.”

Rounding out the issue are four pages of book reviews and an editorial by Ann VanderMeer, in which she reports on staff changes at the magazine, including the resignation of Stephen Segal, who left for an editorial position at Quirk Books. Ann has now become Editor-in-Chief, and continues to serve as fiction editor, and Mary Robinette Kowal and Paula Guran have joined the staff, as Art Director and Non-Fiction Editor, respectively.

We last reported on Weird Tales with issue 356 in November.  Good to see the magazine stick to a regular quarterly schedule, just as promised.

Cover price for the issue is $6.99. It is 80 pages; the gorgeous cover is by Lee Moyer. Their website is here.

Steven Erikson finally gets a Bestseller with The Crippled God

Steven Erikson finally gets a Bestseller with The Crippled God

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the-crippled-godJustin Golenbock, publicist at Tor, tells us that Steven Erikson’s The Crippled God, the last book of The Malazan Book of the Fallen, will debut at #12 on the print bestseller list in the March 20 edition of The New York Times. It’s only the second time for Erikson — last year his previous novel barely made the list.

As Justin puts it:

Steven’s first novel, Gardens of the Moon, came out in 1999 to much fanfare…and flopped. We spent the next ten years and eight novels telling everybody and anybody who would listen that this was THE fantasy series to be reading, the best that no one knew about. The depth and breadth of its world, characters and cultures, its heartbreaking yet addictive story, and the level of pathos and philosophy embedded into every narrative layer is staggering. Erikson’s core fans knew; so many of our top-selling authors kept telling us, he’s the guy who deserves it more; yet it was on us to convince everyone else.

Then last fall, Steven’s ninth novel, Dust of Dreams, finally squeaked its way onto the NYT extended bestseller list, claiming the last spot at #35… and it was just this afternoon that we learned that the tenth and final novel in his Magnus opus will get the due he so richly deserves.

During his 2008 book tour Steven confirmed that he had signed to write six more Malazan novels; two trilogies, one of which would be a prequel to the main series, detailing the history of Anomander Rake and Mother Dark. He also plans six additional Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas, set in the same world.

Congratulations to Steven Erikson, Justin Golenboc, and Tor books on a job well done!