I love reading Umberto Eco books. Actually, let’s clarify that statement. I love having read Umberto Eco books. The books themselves are, at times, a little difficult to get through. They are extremely dense and lyrical and definitely not books that you can easily skim through and understand what is going on. From the 1860s through the end of the century, Eco’s newest book, The Prague Cemetery, deals with the rise of the antisemitism from Herrmann Goedsche’ Biarritz through the Dreyfus Affair (with a large stop at The Protocols of the Elders of Zion). It’s an amazing story where only the main character (and possibly his grandfather) are fictional. Everyone else is a real person and actually did the actions Eco writes about. So, let’s check out the scourge of Judaism and the Freemasons (and the Catholic Church, depending on who’s paying).
2012 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced
The SFWA has announced this years Nebula Award Nominees. The novel nominees are:
- Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)
- Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey; Subterranean Press)
- Firebird, Jack McDevitt (Ace Books)
- God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)
- Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, Genevieve Valentine (Prime Books)
- The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Click through to see the other nominees.
Stephen Hawking’s Sci-Fi Masters
Browsing the channel guide, I happened upon a Science Channel show titled Stephen Hawking’s Sci-Fi Masters. I thought that this was a cool new series featuring introductions by Stephen Hawking and adaptations of classic short stories by science fiction masters such as Robert Sheckley, Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein and others. Imagine my surprise to discover that this series originally ran on ABC in 2007 with only 4 of the 6 episodes shown. A science fiction anthology on a major American broadcast network only 4 years ago and I never heard of it. I’m guessing that there wasn’t a lot of promotion for it.
Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips, Volume 1 by Walt Kelly
Of all the comic strips that dominated the landscape in the mid century, Pogo stood head and shoulders above them. Not only was it extremely popular, but Walt Kelly’s influence on everything from Doonesbury to Alan Moore (issue #32 of Saga of the Swamp Thing was an amazing homage to Pogo) can not be over emphasized. Kelly was truly a giant on the comics scene with the language, characters and political commentary. So, it is with great excitement that I purchased the Volume 1 of Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Strips. For anyone who loves comic strips, this is easily the book of the year. Let’s check in why.
Michael Chabon comic inspired short story
In the latest issue of the New Yorker (available to subscribers only), Michael Chabon has a new short story:
Citizen Conn:
Short story about the attempts of a female rabbi at an assisted-living facility to reconcile two estranged comic-book artists
Alan Moore chat
How did I miss this? Alan Moore had a 2-1/2 hour chat with supporters of the kickstarter project to have a Harvey Pekar Library statue in Cleveland. Go watch, go watch now.
Avenger’s Super Bowl commercial
Did you see the commercial? What did you think? It’s embedded after the jump.
Before Watchmen, A Really Bad Idea
So, DC is going ahead and publishing a series of prequels to Watchmen. This is a bad idea on a number of levels.
First of all, the series has all the back story and information about all the characters. There really isn’t any back story to be told.What more do we need to learn about any of the characters that wasn’t already there in the original story?
Second of all, only one of the creators is involved. Dave Gibbons has given his blessing, but Alan Moore is laughing at it all. Without both of the amazing creators, then I doubt it could be anywhere near as good.
Speaking by telephone from his home in Northampton, England, Mr. Moore said, “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”
Third of all, it makes no sense. There was already a movie. It didn’t do enough business to justify a sequel. There have been Watchmen merchandise out for the last 25 years. Does DC think they can make more merchandise sales off a prequel? It’s not going to appeal to little kids, so the merchandising opportunities are limited. They aren’t talking about ongoing series, so there really doesn’t seem to be any long term plan here.
Overall, this looks like DC grasping at straws to find something that will connect to people without any understanding of why Watchmen was special. There’s a huge gap between using Watchmen as an influence for a new series and trying to trade on Watchmen’s popularity to try and sell comics. DC has crossed the line and no one is surprised.
Alcatraz after 3 episodes
Technically it could be considered 4 episodes of Alcatraz since the 2 hour pilot episode was really only two back-to-back episodes. For those of you who haven’t been watching along, Alcatraz is the newest J.J. Abrams procedural with weird stuff in the background series. This series, as you can tell by the title, focuses on the ex-prison (and now tourist attraction) Alcatraz. They imported Jorge Garcia from Lost and setup the long term storyline which is moved along by the weekly procedural storyline. So, let’s see what the show’s about.
Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
I really should stop reading Orson Scott Cards continuing Ender Saga. After the first couple books, it seems more and more like he’s reading his notes and writing stories about what happened in the margins of other books. The latest, Shadows in Flight, shows what happens after the Shadows series of books ended with Bean and his three little legumes that had Anton’s Key (the gene change that makes them smart, but unable to stop growing) turned on. This felt more like a “Where Are They Now?” segment than a continuation of the story. So let’s see what happened.