Archive for the ‘Reading’ Category

Eagle-eyed Browncoats have noticed a new listing at Amazon: a third Firefly Companion book from Titan Books, due out next March. What will this one cover?

No idea. Titan hasn't released details yet, other than the official title ("Firefly: Still Flying – A Celebration of Joss Whedon’s Acclaimed TV Series") and that it will be the same format — full color, 160 pages –  as their previous Firefly and Serenity Companions.

And that means you should preorder it right away. Titan's series remains the single best companions to the 'verse that have been produced, with scripts, interviews with the cast and crew, production drawings, close ups of props, and never-before-seen-pictures, which was damn impressive considering how voraciously Browncoats hunted those out.

Although it does beg the question, what could it be about? The comics? The fans? "Can't Stop the Serenity"? The various books of essays? The licensed products from QMx? A look back? Firefly's influence on other shows? More stuff from the show that didn't fit into the previous books? Tell me it contains, say, the next three unproduced scripts in the series and I'll buy it right now.

More details as I get 'em, but be aware it's out there and coming.  And if you haven't seen Titan's Firefly: The Official Companion 1, Firefly: The Official Companion 2, or the Serenity Visual Companion, go get them immediately.

A century ago, when times were tough (as they are now) and jobs were scarce (as they are now) and people needed inexpensive entertainment to get through their days, the pulp magazines were born. They were filled with lurid tales of adventurers and detectives, ape men and wild women, science fiction and romance, true crime and fantastical yarns. Science fiction was born here, and noir detective stories. Readers were transported to deep jungles and cursed pyramids, desert islands and mad scientist lairs, and they got to forget their lives and all the uncertainties of a post-world-war world for a little while.

Now, things are getting tough again. And we could really use some cheap entertainment again…*

Enter "Steampunk Tales." This collection of 10 stories by award-winning authors takes you back to the days of Victorian inventors who never used muscle when a gear would do, and never met a piston they didn't like. Steam-powered computers, mechanical men, dirigibles and anything that can be thought up by a human mind and realized in brass, iron and leather.

As for the stories themselves – like in the original pulp magazines, some worked for me, some didn't. Some, like  "Project Moebius-5" and "Tempus Fugit," had great promise but ended abruptly and poorly. Some were experimental and had excellent passages, if not plots, like "The Anachronist's Cookbook" and "The Man and the Robot." "Benedice Te" was a rollicking good adventure, "A Grain of Sand" was a decent inventor's tale, and the world of "The Reanimation Emporium" is one I'd like to read more stories about. One or two of the rest I didn't finish, but overall it wasn't a bad evening spent.

"Steampunk Tales" will be published monthly, and will only be available for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Once the 3.0 OS comes out, you'll be able to order new issues from within the app. Just $1.99.

* OK, yes, "cheap" doesn't include the pricve of the iPhone/iPod Touch itself, but work with me, here.

That was pretty much my reaction just now. Even though I write about geek issues I don't read all the trades, and somehow I completely failed to find out ahead of time that Ultimate Spider-Man #133 was the last one in the series, to be followed by two one-shot comics this summer and then a new relaunch into Ultimate Comics Spider-Man.

Usually, avoiding spoilers works in my favor. I can be surprised, the dramatic and comedic beats hit as they're supposed to without any anticipation from me so their impact is all the harder. In this case, it was a loud "WTF?!?" followed by some frantic Googling to discover what, indeed, was the F.

Major spoilers coming. If you'd rather skip that, here's the short version: I was disappointed in every way imaginable, and I have to assume that Brian Michael Bendis had a gun held to his head.

Read the rest of this entry »

If the DVDs and  soundtrack isn't enough – and it isn't – go check out the free Dr. Horrible comics at Dark Horse Presents. First up is "Captain Hammer: Be Like Me," written by Zack Whedon, drawn by Eric Canete and colored by Dave Stewart. Excellent look at Captain Hammer's life before the events of the show, and hilarious all by itself. Read it here.

Then there's "Moist: Humidity Rising," Dr. Horrible's sidekick's awesome origin! Well, kind of awesome. Well, not really. I wasn't as impressed with this one, even though Zack penned it as well (art by Farel Dalrymple and Dan Jackson). It hits all the points – got his powers, met Billy, dreamed henchmen dreams – without any memorable lines or interesting twists or much plot at all. It's just… there. Which, come to think of it, also describes Moist, so maybe it works after all. Read it here.

And out this week, "Penny: Keep Your Head Up," by Zack Whedon and Jim Rugg, a sweet tale of her activist beginnings.

Showtime may have figured out how to advertise a TV show on the Kindle.

Give everybody the first script for free.

Right now, and until August 31, you can download the script to the pilot episode of their new show "Nurse Jackie," starring former "Sopranos" star Edie Falco, to your Kindle e-book reader. You'll also get (free!) schedule information and nags to watch the show when it premieres on Monday, June 8th.

It's not a bad way to build some buzz, and I'd love to get scripts for other shows the same way (Dr. Horrible? The Guild? Are you listening?) Look for more Kindle-based promotions to come along, as long as its still the latest sexy thing.

"Save Hiatus" remains on — sigh — hiatus while Adam and I both deal with the parts of our lives that demand money, there's still places to get your whacky space fun on. I highly recommend "The Good Ship Chronicles," by Tauhid Bondia. It's the story of the ongoing reality show based on the Starcorp Delivery/Transport ship, the SS Gossamer. Captained by Hap Manning, the ship is the last stop for less-0than-stellar crewmen who have been transferred from other ships. Manning takes that as a challenge.

The various in and outs of daily starship life, combined with the regular holovision diary entries of the crew and the occasional event as someone else screws with them for ratings, leads to a hilarious webcomic. You got your overbearing and mildly delusional captain, your competent and long-suffering first officer, your openly racist and sexist counselor, your skilled doctor banished for haviung more integrity than sense, your feisty, sexy head of security, your overweight and wheelchair-bound engineer, your too-cool-for-starschool alien rep, your brimming-with too-much-information pilot, your intern who was killed in a tragic rescuing, and more.  The artwork's as good as any webcomic I've seen and the humor rocks. Go check it out.

Just come back when we're ready, OK?

Self-sufficiency. Courage. Honor. Doing what's right. Male friendship. Tough men who quote literature. Funny dialogue. Characters who don't know how to act like a man and will therefore always lose. The one true love. And the lack of any real threat.

In the last two days I read two of Robert B. Parker's recent books, "Chasing the Bear" (a young Spenser novel) and "Resolution," the second in his Everett Hitch western series. Guess what the themes were?

I love his books. I reread the Spenser series every couple of years, love the Jesse Stone series. Never got into the Sunny Randall books. Like the westerns. I tend to get his stuff in hardback soon after they come out because I know they'll be passed around the household.

But…

Read the rest of this entry »

TFAW.com has added another great deal for Whedon fans: the Whedonverse Grab Bag.

We've got a bunch of great Whedon-inspired back issue comic books from publishers like Dark Horse and IDW, and now you can bring 'em home. We've put together 10 different Whedon comics for each bundle–that's only $.50 apiece!

When ordering Grab Bag comics we cannot take requests for specific titles or series. Besides, half the fun is the mystery of what you're going to get! Some of these comics may be warehouse finds, and may have minor dings, scratches, etc.

Want to get a friend hooked on your favorite Whedon-based comics? Or maybe you just like grab bags…

Just head here for more details.

You may not recognize Len Wein's name, but you may recognize some of the things he's done. He co-created Swamp Thing, Wolverine and some other X-Men like Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. He was the editor on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons'
epic story Watchmen. He wrote for just about every major character in mainstream comics: Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, etc. And he lost his house.

OK, you might not know that last part, but it's true. On April 6 he lost his home, belongings and beloved dog to a house fire. Now friends and admirers are working to help him rebuild his comic collection. Not the ones he owned, but the ones he worked on. And you can help.

Go to the Len Wein Project and check out the latest list of needed comics to see if you have any you can provide. Then e-mail comix4len@povonline.com to let them know, and you'll get instructions on what to do next.

Len has provided many of us with many happy memories over the years. Let's give a few back.

If you had to pick a word to describe Ben Templesmith's body of work, it would be…

Well, you wouldn't, actually, because trying to boil it down to a single word would probably do nasty things to your brainmeat. But then again, so does his work. It might be easier to describe the sorts of things this Australian commercial-artist-turned-comics-superstar does, and let you draw your own conclusions.

- Artist and co-creator with Steve Niles of "30 Days of Night" (and many spinoffs), about a vampire gang living in Alaska. Became a movie with Josh Hartnett, Melissa George and Danny Huston. Nominated for an Eisner Award, comics' highest honor. Won the Spike TV Scream Award for Best Comic.
- Creator of "Wormword: Gentleman Corpse," about an extra-dimensional sentient maggot that embodies corpses in order to drink Guinness and, occasionally, save the world. Hardback collection made the New York Times Bestseller list.
- Artist for "Fell," written by Warren Ellis, about an honorable detective in a city gone feral. Nominated for an Eisner Award three years running.
- Creator of "Welcome to Hosford," where a prison run by Russian werewolves gets a new inmate/hunt victim named Ray Delgado, who turns out to be just the right kind of delusional murderer to fight back.
- Artist for "Groom Lake," written by Chris Ryall, about the day-to-day job of keeping UFOs secret.

Templesmith will be attending the FX convention in Orlando this weekend, and took a moment to talk to me about it.

Vampires, werewolves, corpses, inexplicable Nixon-mask-wearing nuns… Is the inside of your head a safe place to be?

Absolutely. It's the guys that draw cutesy crap, the Mickey Mouse guys, who you need to worry about. They internalize everything, until it all boils over. Me? I get it all out onto the page, so I'm honestly a nice guy if you were to meet me face to face. Well, except for my small baby eating habit.

Read the rest of this entry »