News – Page 68 – Black Gate

Hello Jetpacks! And About Time

Saturday, February 5, 2011 John ONeill Comments 6 comments

It’s 2011. As far as I’m concerned, personal jetpacks have been overdue for about a decade.

Fortunately, CNN is reporting that a new commercial jetpack is getting set for a release in a few short months:

This summer you could be whizzing around on a Jetlev, a new water-powered jetpack. It’s taken over 10 years for its Canadian inventor, Raymond Li, to realize his dream and see his jetpack go on sale, but judging by the pictures it looks well worth the wait. The Jetlev has three main components — a lightweight carbon fiber backpack, a 10-meter hose and an engine unit which floats on the water. The engine sucks water up through the hose and forces it through two adjustable nozzles on the backpack, creating up to 500 pounds of thrust.

At the age of 12, when I first imagined buying one, a jetpack wasn’t something advertised as a recreational water accessory. But after thirty years of waiting, I’ll take what I can get.

I bet it makes the inevitable crash landings during the “student driver” phase a little less painful, though. So I suppose it’s got that going for it.

The Jetlev has a reported top speed of 22 mph, and max achievable altitude of 10 meters. So I can’t realistically use it to get to the moon, which I swore would be my first jetpack destination (at the age of 12).

Not without a few modifications, anyway. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the 10-meter max altitude has something to do with that 10-meter hose attachment. So my first modification would be to lengthen it to, oh I don’t know, something that can reach the moon.

It also retails for $136,000. That’s a bigger obstacle than I thought it would be (at the age of 12). Back then I figured I’d just get in line and pay whatever the guy at the counter wanted. I mean, come on. Jetpack.

So for various mundane reasons, I won’t be rushing out to buy the first JETLEV-FLYER — breaking a promise I made to myself all those decades ago. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

You know what your inner 12-year-old would do. And when has he (or she) ever been wrong?

… Not to mention Matthew David Surridge and C.S.E. Cooney

Thursday, February 3, 2011 John ONeill Comments 5 comments

bg-14-cover3 Congratulations to James Enge on the inclusion of his latest novel The Wolf Age in the Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List!

This is the second time on the list for James — his first novel, Blood of Ambrose, made the list in 2009.

Both novels feature Morlock the Maker, who appeared in Black Gate 8 in James’ first published story, “Turn Up This Crooked Way.”

Since that first appearance Morlock has been in our pages a half-dozen times. We’re practically his second home — he doesn’t even knock when he drops by anymore.

But that’s not the only reason we’re celebrating the Locus list. Also on the list is Matthew David Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael“, from Black Gate 14, which was recently selected for the upcoming Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, edited by Richard Horton.

And although she was too modest to mention it in her post below, C.S.E. Cooney’s own story “Braiding the Ghosts“, from the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 3, made the list as well.

[While we’re on the topic, C.S.E. made the list last year too, with “Three Fancies from the Infernal Garden“, from Subterranean magazine, Winter ’09. “Braiding the Ghosts” will also be in Rich’s Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy volume, coming this summer.]

Congratulations to all!

Goth Chick News: Get That Raven an Agent

Thursday, February 3, 2011 Sue Granquist Comments 1 comment

Here is definitive proof there is life after death.

Over the last couple years, the lovely Ms. Betty White has been blogged, tweeted and Facebooked back into the Hollywood limelight at the age of 89. She is “cute” and “sweet” and now apparently even “hot” by the standards of an entertainment industry which generally saves its highest praise and adoration for the youthful (or at least the youthful appearing).

Betty White’s resurgence of popularity is nothing short of miraculous when taken in this context.

However, relatively speaking, Ms. White is jail bait beside Mr. Edgar Allen Poe, who last month turned 202 and seems to be enjoying a second public life of his own.

And the one thing he is which Betty White definitely is not (as far as we know) is dead; a state Poe has been in for 162 years but which is not stopping him from recently getting his name in the press, or starring in several upcoming Hollywood projects.

Of course it doesn’t hurt to be terminally interesting as well.

…

Art Evolution 20: Keith Parkinson [1958-2005]

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 Scott Taylor Comments 19 comments

Art Evolution turns twenty, and in so doing fades from this prestigious stage provided by Black Gate, but as the name contends, art is ever changing, and so I will never say never where the process and these articles are concerned. Still, if you’ve missed any of these wonderful works, the journey’s beginning can be found here.

After the addition of last week’s ‘Demented Lyssa’, I’ll take a step back to the place where the true power of this article first struck me.

In late 2009 I’d just signed Larry Elmore and Wayne Reynolds, my spirits flying high as I spent my nights searching the web for artwork that might also apply to art evolution. It was during this process that a distinct sorrow assailed me in regards to the passing of Keith Parkinson.

To me, Keith represented my youth, so many of his images galvanized in my mind along the way it was difficult to think of this article without him. For the first time I regarded this journey as a thing not involving me, but instead the artists, and the lives they’d touched along the way.

Having heard so much about Keith from his fellows, I couldn’t help but feel that it would be selfish not to include him in the article because he couldn’t do a rendition of Lyssa. Lyssa was secondary to the art, after all, and the mission statement I now followed pushed for a thing greater than my ego.

…

A Critical Appreciation of James Enge

Thursday, January 27, 2011 John ONeill Comments 9 comments

thewolfage No sooner does our man James Enge — World Fantasy Award-nominated author, Black Gate blogger, and international man of mystery — appear on the scene with his third novel The Wolf Age, than Western Civilization finally begins to acknowledge his genius. The latest accolades are courtesy of John H. Stevens at SF Signal:

Enge has described in his Black Gate interview how he “took a big hammer” and smashed away at Morlock to transform him from a “mopey Byronic wish-fulfillment self-image” into a more flawed character. He did this to a large extent to get away from what he saw as the “wish-fulfillment” in much of fantasy fiction. But after reading Enge’s work it is clear that he has continued hammering away at fantasy to bend it into spooky and unconventional shapes…

His third novel has a richer texture to its plot, and this makes it the most enjoyable, and in some ways the most profound, of his major works to date… There is a surer hand at work here, and a smoother progress in the story than in the first two novels.

Stevens links to much of the recent coverage of James, and includes what is already my favorite quote of the year, from an interview with James at Civilian Reader:

I like Zelazny’s description of his masterwork, the original Amber series: ‘a philosophical romance shot through with elements of horror and morbidity.’ That’s what I try to write: philorohorrmorbmance.

Sample chapters from The Wolf Age are available here.

The complete Critical Appreciation of James Enge is available here.

Goth Chick News: “Slasher Films”… Really?

Thursday, January 27, 2011 Sue Granquist Comments 3 comments

I was right on the verge of having a field day with this and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

It starts with today being exactly 24 hours past my usual Black Gate deadline. The events leading up to this would appear to be insignificant, but trust me when I say their aggregated affect — culminating in the toilet set being left up (again) in the “unisex” Black Gate bathroom — had wreaked utter havoc with my normally cheery disposition.

But then a ray of sunshine penetrated the underground bunker of the Goth Chick offices; a statement so rife with possibilities that I was mentally riffing on it before the final syllable was spoken.

“Slash is starting a horror movie production company.”

Oh yes, it was going to be a good day after all.

Let me back up and color this in a bit for you.

The year is 1988 and a hair band out of Los Angeles called Guns n’ Roses finally scores a number one hit with “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” There’s a guy with a wild mass of long, frizzy black locks, banging away on lead guitar who was christened Saul Hudson when he was born in Hampstead, England but was now know by the far cooler name “Slash.”

Yep, that Slash.

…

Bud Webster Joins Black Gate as Poetry Editor

Thursday, January 27, 2011 John ONeill Comments 4 comments

bud-webster Genre historian and poet Bud Webster, author of Anthopology 101, joins the Black Gate team as our first poetry editor, effective immediately.

Bud Webster is a prize-winning epic poet, and served as poetry editor for the online magazine HELIX SF. During his tenure there, eight of the poems he published were nominated for the Rhysling Award, with one taking first place in the Long Poem category. He was co-editor of SFPA founder Suzette Hadin Elgin’s The Science Fiction Poetry Handbook (Sam’s Dot Publishing, 2005), and has been nominated for the Rhysling himself a couple of times.

Bud has gained considerable renown over the past decade for his Past Masters columns, examining and promoting the work of some the finest of science fiction and fantasy authors of the 20th Century. He continues that theme with his Who? columns for the print edition of Black Gate magazine. The first Who? column, on author Tom Reamy, appears in the upcoming Black Gate 15.

Bud’s first online article for us was What I Do and Why I Do It in December of last year; his most recent was What I Do It With. His enthusiasm for — and encyclopedic knowledge of — classic SF and fantasy, and the tireless energy with which he promotes neglected authors, are a welcome addition to the Black Gate team.

Bud will be purchasing 6-10 original fantasy poems for each issue of Black Gate magazine. The first issue to feature his selections will be BG 16.

For a complete list of the folks responsible for Black Gate, visit our Staff Page.

Changes at Weird Tales

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 John ONeill Comments 1 comment

Weird Tales editor Ann VanderMeer announces a re-vamped website, higher pay rates, a nifty new submissions portal, a new schedule, and a blog:

In addition to launching this new website, editor-in-chief Ann VanderMeer and publisher John Betancourt have raised the pay rate to 5 cents per word and implemented a new submissions portal for potential contributors… The new site also features a blog, through which VanderMeer and the rest of the Weird Tales team will discuss fiction and topics related to the revamped magazine…

Weird Tales will return to its normal quarterly schedule this year, with future issues slated for May, August, and November.

The submissions portal is based on the one designed by Neil Clarke for Clarkesworld magazine, and he implemented this one for Weird Tales. Matt Kressel designed the new website.

The upcoming issue of the magazine, number 357 (!) includes fiction from N.K. Jemisin, author of Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Karin Tidbeck, and J. Robert Lennon, plus an interview with Caitlin R. Kiernan.

The Weird Tales team includes Paula Guran, nonfiction editor, and art director Mary Robinette Kowal. Dominik Parisien and Alan Swirsky have joined Tessa Kum as editorial assistants.

The new website is here.

Wizard and ToyFare Magazines Cease Publication

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 John ONeill Comments 11 comments

Longtime comic magazine Wizard, once one of the most popular publications in the industry, has folded. Its sister magazine ToyFare, dedicated to pop-culture toys and action figures, has also ceased publication. Both magazines were owned by Wizard Entertainment.

Wizard was launched in 1991, near the height of the “speculator boom,” fueled by the arrival of Image Comics and the rise of superstar artists such as Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee. Dedicated to covering news, pricing trends, and personalities in the field, Wizard quickly captured a large readership and brought real production values — including glossy paper, full-color interiors, and rock-star journalism — to comic fandom for the first time.

With its regular Wizard Top 10 and Market Watch columns, which reported on the “hottest back issues” of the month and predicted future price trends, Wizard catered to a new generation of fans and buyers who purchased comics chiefly for their collectability and perceived future value.

It also shared much of the blame when the comic marketplace collapsed as those speculators, burned by numerous bad investments, fled the market in the late 90s.

Two-thirds of comic book stores across the country closed between 1993 and 1997, many major publishers were driven out of business, and even Marvel Comics declared bankruptcy in 1997.

For most of its life every issue of Wizard also had a price index, allowing collectors to track the price of their latest hot comics month-to-month (but I only read it for the articles).

At the peak of its popularity Wizard sold over 110,000 copies/month through Diamond alone. With its final issue, that number had dropped to 17,000.

Publisher Wizard Entertainment made this announcement yesterday:

Wizard Entertainment is ceasing publication of the print magazines Wizard and ToyFare. Wizard World, Inc. will begin production of the online publication ‘Wizard World’ beginning in February. We feel this will allow us to reach an even wider audience in a format that is increasingly popular and more readily accessible.”

Wizard Entertainment continues with its other ventures, including the Chicago Comic Con and many other conventions. Their website is here.

Happy 100th Birthday, C. L. Moore!

Monday, January 24, 2011 John ONeill Comments 3 comments

Catherine Lucille (C.L.) Moore, one of the great pulps writers of the 20th Century and author of Judgment Night, Shambleau and Others, Northwest of Earth, and Jirel of Joiry, was born 100 years ago today, on January 24, 1911.

Moore’s first story, “Shambleau,” the tale of a beautiful alien vampire, introduced interplanetary adventurer and pulp hero Northwest Smith in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales. The next year she published “Black God’s Kiss,” the first tale of Jirel of Joiry. They remain two of the most famous stories Weird Tales ever published.

Much of Moore’s early science fiction and fantasy stories were collected by Gnome Press in handsome volumes that are still highly collectible today, including Judgment Night (1952), Shambleau and Others (1953), and Northwest of Earth (1954).

Moore married fellow science fiction author Henry Kuttner in 1940, and they collaborated on many classic tales for the pulps, including “Mimsy Were the Borogroves,” (filmed in 2007 as The Last Mimzy), “The Twonky,” and “Vintage Season.” Much of their work together appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction, usually under the name Lewis Padgett or Laurence O’Donnell.

Moore published three novels before her death in 1987: Doomsday Morning(1957), and two with Kuttner: Earth’s Last Citadel (1943) and The Mask of Circe (1948).

Unlike most pulp authors, C.L. Moore’s fame continued to grow after her death, and the past decade alone has seen several major collections of her work including two Planet Stories editions from Paizo: Black God’s Kiss (2007) and Northwest of Earth (2008); as well as Volume 31 in the Fantasy Masterworks series from Gollancz, Black Gods and Scarlet Dreams (2002); and two huge retrospectives: Two-Handed Engine (Centipede Press, 2006) and Detour to Otherness (Haffner Press, 2010).

Over the years we’ve done our own tributes to C.L. Moore, including Ryan Harvey’s Jirel of Joiry: The Mother of Us All, Paul Di Filippo’s review of Judgment Night, and C.S.E. Cooney’s recent Jirel, Ma Joie!

Celebrate the life of one of our finest writers this week — pick up and enjoy a C.L. Moore story. You’ll thank us later.

[Thanks to Stephen Haffner of Haffner Press for the tip.]

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