Forbidden Planet International Blog Logs

End of an era

The curtain should be coming down towards the end of today on our standalone graphic novels site. With the much more flexible and dynamic new FPI webstore now having every graphic novel listed there too the time has finally come to wind down the GN site and move everything to the new home. It won't affect the actual range however since I will still be adding exciting graphic novels from the big publishers and the small, known names and fresh talent alike, with the benefit of better layout, more felixibility, better images and the ability to host some previews pages and allow users to add their own reviews. Up, up and away.

And in the spirit of adding new graphic novels, Fantagraphics titles for August are on the site; comics fans will be thrilled to hear that Gilbert Hernandez, one of the most important cartoonists/writers working in the genre, will be wrapping up his post-Palomar series this summer with Luba: Three Daughters. And as a bonus he is also starting a series of Fanta's Ignatz series, The New Tales of Old Palomar, also in august.

The Ignatz range is a sort of halfway house between comic issues and a full graphic novel, coming in irregular issues, comics page count but with proper stiff covers and flaps. Since they are drawing on some of the best artists and writers but come in at the price of a deluxe comic they offer a very low-cost path to exploring creators some readers may not have picked up on yet. Richard Sala also begins an Ignatz series with Delphine #1 in August; these three new Fantagraphics titles alone have some of us here very, very excited!

More Torchwood cast added

SFX online carries news from the Beeb that more cast members have been added to the new Who spin-off, Torchwoos, about to start filming in Wales shortly. Burn Gorman, last see in the new Bleak house adaptation, will play the team's medic, Owen Harper while Naoko Mori (who appeared breifly in last season's Aliens of London episode) will play Toshiko Sato, Torchwood's gadget and technological wizard. Last weekend's werewolf epsiode of the new Doctor Who began building links to the spin-off show when viewers saw Queen Victoria, in a very League of Extraordinary Gentlemen moment, deciding to establish a cover group called Torchwood to protect the British Empire from dastadrly aliens and supernatural threats (I have visions of Mulder and Scully in Victorian garb for some reason now).

The Eagle Awards

An online voting form is now open for the Eagle Awards, which has a component supporting and celebrating British comics as well as international publications. You can pick from three choices in 28 categories, but voting ends on May 7th, so get your Flash suit on and zip over and vote. The awards are announced on May 13th at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, Bristol during the Comic Expo.

Living in the 24th century

NPR has an interview and photographs of Tony Alleyne, a Star Trek fan who decided after a bad break-up to remake the interior of his home into a Star Trek set. Much as I like Trek I'm not sure I'd want to live in this! Still, could be worse, could be single man living in the set from Dark Star...

Stardust

Film Magic has posted several photographs from the set of Stardust, currently filming on the Isle of Skye here on Bonnie Scotland, with Michelle Pfeiffer wrapped up against the Scottish spring weather.

Ragnarok

The highly unusual mixture of electronica, synths and sitar from Ragnarok, who played to great acclaim at the recent Eastercon SF event in Glasgow, can be heard via the magic of MP3 on their own web site.

Brian Aldiss

I had an email from the folks at Meet The Author recently. If you haven't visited this excellent site, it uses sound and video clips of a wide variety of authors introducing their own work in order to give people who don't get to see authors at a bookstore event in person a chance to see and hear them. I think it is a terrific idea and enjoyed a good browse through some of the authors on there, although I was disappointed to see so few SF-related entries at first. Well, I've been told that there are now a good number of entries from one of our finest scribes, the great Brian Aldiss available. I've just finished listening to Brian talking about Helliconia and it was a nice little treat - I've met a lot of authors in my work but not Brian, so this was the next best thing; just head to the main site and use the search page to find the author you are interested in watching.

K9 to get own show

K9, the faithful robotic hound from the glory days of the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who is set for a return in the next episode of the new show this coming Saturday, alongside one of the favourite companions in DW history, Sarah Jane Smith (who accompanied both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker). The Times reports that K9 is also now going to be the latest spin-off from Who, getting his very own £3 million CGI animated adventure from Jetix Europe who own a number of children's channels across Europe. The Doctor will not appear in these adventures because he is the copyright of the BBC whereas K9's rights were retained by co-creator Bob Baker, who is involved in the new show and promises a “a sleek new look using state of the art CGI animation mixed with live action” for K9 in exciting space adventures for younger viewers. The Times also notes that an animated K9 is likely to be less trouble than the original radio controlled prop, which I doubt anyone involved in making Who back then would dispute! Let's hope no-one decides to resurrect Tweeky from the disco-era Buck Rogers as a cartoon...

P-Con IV announces GoH

That's Guest of Honour if you're not familiar with convention-speak; 'GoH' is also the sound certain SF writers make at 3am in the convention bar when informed it is their round. Kim Newman, writer, journalist, broadcaster and master of sculpted facial hair will be the Guest of Honour for P-Con IV, which is gearing up already even while memories of P-Con III are warm. Kim is well-known to genre and film fans from his novels, articles (including regular spots in Empire movie mag) and his non-fiction (I still swear by the BFI Companion to Horror he edited a few years ago and wish they would publish a new edition).

Also signed up to appear are the most excellent Juliet E McKenna who will appear with her performing pterodactyls (performing budgies are for wimps, she says) and my good mate and star editor of the Alien Online and tireless promoter of good SF, Ariel, who, rumour has it, will chair a panel about home extensions and DIY in parallel dimensions. Both Charlie Stross and Charlie Stross' beard are also on board, with Charlie's beard and Kim's whiskers giving a talk on the role of facial fuzz in fantasy; P-Con IV is scheduled for the weekend of 10th-11th March 2007 at Wynn's Hotel in the fair city of Dublin.

Carey Vision

In a superb piece of news my chum George at top SF publishers Orbit reports that Mike Carey has a deal to turn the Felix Castor novels into TV series with the same people behind the quality show Midsomer Murders. There does seem to be quite an appetite in TV-land right now for SF and Fantasy which isn't aimed only at we geeks; shows like Medium for instance may use psychic powers but it is the sort of detective/soap drama that my mother would watch. While Devil You Know obviously has horror and supernatural elements to it (quite intriguing ones which Mike will expand on as the series progresses) it is also very much a Noir-ish gumshoe detective yarn which will not alienate the non SF&F audience. Well done, Mike!

New Emerald City online

The latest issue of Emerald City, number 128, has just hit the virtual newstands and includes a cracking review of V For Vendetta by Moore-expert Pádraig Ó Méalóid, an essay on style by that sultan os linguistic sartorialness Hal Duncan, Victoria Hoyle reviewing the Clarke-shortlisted Never Let Me Go, Cheryl reviewing Mike Carey's Devil You Know and a review of the first two Judge Dredd Complete Case Files volumes by your humble blogger among a plethora of other fascinating items.

BAFTA Cymru - What's 'Who' in Welsh?

The first season of the revamped Doctor Who, produced by BBC Wales, was nominated for foutreen categories of the BAFTA Cymru awards (fourteen!!! count 'em!) and walked away at the weekend with five, including Best Drama and Best Drama Director. Russell T Davies picked up the special Sian Phillips Award four outstanding contribution to network television. The BBC reports that the show is once again nominated in the main BAFTA awards (held later in May) in the Best Drama category. Go, Who!

And still on the Who front, how utterly terrific was this weekend's episode?!?!? Do I sound like a gushing fanboy? Well, I am, so that's nothing to worry about, is it? Scottish glens (except not filmed in Scotland of course!), howling werewolf, kung-fu monks, Queen Victoria being chased through a Scottish castle by a lycanthrope! Yes, in many ways it was a rather silly episode, but a gloriously silly one - Tennant slipping into his native Scots accent and out again, Billie Piper attempting a Scottish accent that makes Groundeskeeper Willie sound real. The Doctor's wonder and delight at seeing an actual werewolf contrasted against everyone else legging it in the other direction was priceless.

And how about that ending, clearly cribbed from the Tom Baker-era creepy tale, the Horror of Fang Rock, which in turn was based on the equally creepy Ballad of Flannan Isle by Wilfred Gibson, (SPOILERS AFTER THIS!!!) where the Doctor improvised a primitive laser using the lighthouse lamp and some diamonds to save the day from what appeared to be a supernatural menace but was actually a nasty Rutan (enemies of the Sontarans). Sounds a little familiar to this weekend's finale, doesn't it? Given Davies is a huge fan of the original it is obviously more than coincidence and it worked well; for newbies it was a good ending as it was for us old hands too, with the added bonus of seeing a homage to a classic Baker tale.

And very nicely we see the groundwork for the spin-off series Torchwood being laid, as Queen Victoria decides the Castle, Torchwood, will give its name to a new organisation designed to investigate the unusual events which are clear threats to the Empire's security - how very League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! Although I am now wondering how the writers will square the existence of Torchwood from the Victorian era onwards with the fact that it has never been mentioned in Who lore before - for example why wouldn't UNIT work with Torchwood to combat alien threats? They will need to come up with an explanation for that or they could paint themselves into a continuity corner the way Enterprise did with Trek by being set before the other shows but made after, muddling the history somewhat. But given the track record so far I'm pretty confident Davies et al can handle this. Next week we have Anthony Head - former Nescafe Gold Blend man, Giles in Buffy and the PM in Little Britain - to look forward to and monsters bursting out in a local school (perhaps the Doctor will simply set chavs on them?).

Tarsus Manifesto

I spotted a very cool and very stylish free webcomic by Christopher Cocking this week, the Vortex Chronicles: the Tarsus Manifesto. It's an SF tale which reminded me partly of Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan and the universe of Takeshi Kovacs in Richard Morgan's novels. It is well worth checking out - I'll certainly be going back regularly to see how it develops as it is as good as some of the professionaly produced comics I see everyday here at FPI. Hopefully it will eventually make the leap to print, but in the meantime I highly recommend going to check it out (I even like the landscape format for the graphics, easier to read on a computer screen than the more traditional portrait format page and handy back and forward links as you scroll to the end, very neat design).

Paradise Lost

The BBC picks up a story via Variety that John Milton's poem Paradise Lost is to get the feature film treatment, with Scott Derrickson down to direct and Legendary Pictures (who are behind the new Superman Returns film) producing. No details have emerged yet as to cast or shooting schedule. Coming soon Dante from Clerks is Dante in the Divine Comedy... Okay, made that one up, but you never know!

As an interesting sidebar this news comes as that excellent scribe Mike Carey has a new Hellblazer graphic novel coming out, All His Engines, which lifts the titles from Milton:

"Nor aught availed him now
To have built in heav'n high tow'rs; nor did he scape
By all his engines, but was headlong sent
With his industrious crew to build in hell."

You see, this blog is even educational!

New Trek on the way?

Ain't It Cool News draws attention to a story on Variety which states that J J Abrams, responsible for the forthcoming Mission Impossible III, Alias and Lost is to team up with fellow Lost crew-members Damon Lindelof (currently writing for Marvel Comics) and Bryan Burk to work on an eleventh Star Trek feature film. Details are rather sketchy at this stage, but according to Variety the film will centre around young Kirk and Spock, with their first meeting at Starfleet Acadmey and first deep space mission.

This would obviously require new actors to play the younger versions of the two characters, although it leaves room for a possible cameo by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as the older versions. It sounds an interesting idea to breathe some life back into Trek after Enterprise was cancelled (just as it was becoming good!) but I'm not sure how fans will react to other actors playing the roles of two such beloved Trek icons - I think I'd find it hard to buy anyone else as Kirk or Spock. It is also a tad ironic given that before Enterprise the notion of a new series based around Starfleet Academy was one of the front runners. Shame it won't be happening in this, the fortieth anniversary year though.

Simpsons Office

Ricky Gervais of the Office fame will make his appearance for UK audiences this Sunday in the Simpsons on Sky One. I'm normally excited at the prospect of a new Simpsons, but being one of the handful of people in Britain who don't find Gervais very funny I'm really not sure about this. Oh well, a new Simpsons is a new Simpsons.

Black Hole

Not the graphic novel by Charles Burns but the astronomical feature which gets Stephen Hawking so excited - NASA has managed to create a mathematical script to describe how the gravitational waves from two merging black holes would look animated on a computer (previously the maths simply crashed the programmes). Scientific theory and science fiction coming together in a beautiful piece of rippling animation which belies the sheer energies it represents.

From off the streets of Cleveland

Hope Harvey Pekar doesn't mind me using his catch-line! No, it isn't American Splendor news - it is the news that Spider-Man 3 will be filming from today on the streets of Cleveland, with the local radio station WMIJ 105.7 getting into the spirit of things by using the Spidey theme by the punk gods The Ramones for all of their traffic bulletins, according to Comics Continuum! It probably isn't going to happen, but how could would it be if Sam Raimi decided while he was there he had to have an American Splendor - Spider-Man crossover?!?!? Or at least a background cameo from Harv.

Author talks to author

Padraig over at Irish SF News directs my attention to the transcript of an interview between to excellent fantasy novelists as Juliet E McKenna interviews Susanna Clarke over at Fractal Matter. There are also some other damned interesting interviews available on the main page, including Colin Greenland and Mike Carey - well worth a visit.

Respectable comics

Graphic novels and comics continue to become more respectable (but don't expect me to wear an FPI tie when I write this!) as the Beat notes that the 27th Women Writers Conference this weekend at the University of Kentucky has a slot on Saturday's itinerary entitled The Graphic Novel Quorum at 3pm, described on their site thus:

"Part literary artist and part visual artist, the graphic novelist works with many media to create new worlds, or to tackle the real world. Leading women of the business, Phoebe Gloeckner , Lauren Weinstein , Amy Kim Ganter , and Lexington's own Sara Turner will talk about it all. Moderated by OSU Cartoon Research Library curator Jenny Robb ."

I am unsure if the delegates will imbibe as much real ale as the recent Eastercon folks did, although I hear Kentucky makes a highly enjoyable other drink to lubricate these occassions.

Initial D at Hong Kong

A live-action Chinese film based on the long-lived Manga racing car series Initial D (volume 22 has just been released) has picked up several nods at the Hong Kong Film Awards, according to the Beat. The manga movie adapatation picked up a Best New Performer award for Jay Chou (a singer from Taiwan apparently) and Best Supporting Actor for Anthony Wong, as well as Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects. No news as to when it gets released in the UK or North America yet, but given the popularity of manga at the moment it is bound to appear sooner or later.

Author mini-interview: Margo Lanagan

Joe: I’d like to welcome Margo Lanagan, one of the latest fine Australian authors to be published in the UK when Black Juice came out in February. Margo, it is unusual for a major publisher to introduce an author to a new market with a collection of short tales rather than a novel. Some people may think writing shorts is simpler than writing a novel, but most writers I know tend to think building a well-crafted short tale is much harder; are you especially fond of the short fiction form and, if so, why?

Margo: I’m getting fonder of short stories the more I struggle with novels, I have to say. It’s much easier to keep track of all the elements in a short story, and usually I’m trying to show a single change happening within or near a single character, so it’s easy to stay focussed. When I’ve been working on novels lately I’ve had trouble keeping a sense of the throughline, I’ve been so busy trying to cram the whole world into the story. Need more practice. The last substantial novel I completed (a 60K mainstream YA novel) was in 1996. I think the novel-completion muscle might have atrophied a little.

Joe: I’ve often thought that short fiction has a lot in common with poetry, in that it tends to convey a concentration of images and emotions with only a light touch of narrative, unlike a full-length novel which has to concentrate far more on plot structure. I find that the well-written short story engages the reader’s imagination as much as the writer’s to fill out the sketch of the world briefly glimpsed. Is it a bit of a balancing act, trying to imbue the tale with enough emotional investment in the characters and detail for the setting but maintain a tight, short form of prose? And do you enjoy bringing the reader’s imagination into the process?

Margo: It is a balancing act — really enjoyable to perform, too! I tend to underwrite on a first draft, and expand from there. I very seldom expand so far that I have to cut much back again. I started out writing poetry, which is probably where this practice comes from — the first draft is often in a kind of code to myself, containing notes and instructions and maybe a scrap of dialogue and the gist of the action.

I enjoy bringing my imagination to the process of reading, so I guess I like to think I’m giving readers that pleasure too. I like to read stories that disorient me (up to a point, beyond which disorientation can be an indulgence of the author’s and get boring), stories I can explore, and I like to make stories that are still interesting for me to reread after the first dozen readings — editing and proofing are part of my job, so I may as well enjoy them! But I realise that my stories are not for people who like everything spelled out for them. That’s OK — there are plenty of books out there for them.

Joe: From my reading of Black Juice and from your own comments in our What The Author Says feature I had a strong impression of a very personal angle to these tales, with themes such as love and loss provoking an emotional empathy with the reader (certainly did with me). Do you find that investing a lot of personal emotion into these tales is cathartic for yourself (and perhaps for readers)?

Margo: Well, I like a good, intense story, both to write and to read. When I’m writing at my best, I’m dragging it up from my subconscious, and often I couldn’t say what the source of the emotion was — sometimes it becomes clear afterwards, sometimes not. There is a kind of release in writing an emotionally intense story, though, as there is in reading one — or in watching a weepy movie!

When you say I ‘invest a lot of personal emotion’ in the stories, though, it conjures up an image of me weeping torrents over my own prose, declaiming and full of angst. If you were to watch me working, you would see nothing but an almost motionless person with her pen moving across the page, and at the worst moments reaching for a tissue and having a bit of a nose-blow and an eye-wipe before continuing. Then afterwards I’d just look kind of stunned and tired, and it would take a bit of effort for me to make conversation.

It’s a different experience writing an affecting story from reading one. Readers tell me they can’t forget, or can’t get over, the image of Ikky sinking in the tar in ‘Singing My Sister Down’, whereas having generated that image myself, I think I’ve processed it and absorbed it in a different way — not that I don’t still go a bit wobbly whenever I read that story, but it never had the power for me that readers get, of surprise at, and resistance to, where this story was headed. I always knew Ikky was going to die; my job was to put readers right there with her little brother, witnessing it all and feeling his surprise and grief when, at the end of the story, he understood the finality of her sinking. I had to very carefully manipulate other people’s emotions, using my own as a guide. Sounds a bit cold-blooded, eh? Writers are not necessarily nice people.

Joe: Let’s move on to some of the stories in Black Juice. I was struck by how many important stages of a person’s life were covered between these tales: marriage (Wooden Bride), death (Singing My Sister Down, Perpetual Light and others), youth and old age (The Point of Roses). Was this deliberate or really a product of the emotional investment you put into them, drawing on your own life experiences?

Margo: I’m not quite sure what you’re after with this question [re-reading this now I’m not sure myself! Probably the stories created an emotional question I simply couldn’t articulate properly - Joe]. Mainly I was trying for variety — variety in settings and in the age and gender of protagonists. I’m definitely drawn to significant transitions in life, as subject matter — name me a storyteller who isn’t. I also like to go for fairly universally applicable transitions — like, everybody dies, right? J And it’s around those transitions that emotionally and culturally interesting events cluster.

Joe: At first I thought Wooden Bride to be an unusual take on marriage and how women are viewed in the context of that institution, but when I re-read it I realised that every bride, every wedding, every marriage is unusual because it is unique to those involved. Do you think the fact that readers can identify and empathise with events and emotions in your tales is a key to why Black Juice has been so successful?

Margo: ‘Wooden Bride’ isn’t actually about marriage — the ceremony the girl goes through is more like the Catholic sacrament of confirmation, where you become an adult in the Church, or like a novice becoming a nun (a ‘bride of Christ’). You wed yourself to a certain set of ideals, in this story’s case a tradition of emotional and physical restraint.

And yes, I think my choosing those universal themes and experiences you talked about earlier means that a lot of people can identify with the characters in the Black Juice stories. I also try to make the different worlds the stories take place in convincing, so there’s a combination of a realistic setting and a strong pull on your emotions that makes the stories ideal as little escapes from the real world.

Joe: I have to ask – where did the elephants come from? I loved that story and especially enjoyed seeing the human world through elephant eyes. You don’t have a hidden elephant fetish where you write your stories wearing a plastic trunk and answering to the name ‘Nelly’ do you?

Margo: ‘Sweet Pippit’ came from research. I think the combination of learning about the infrasound elephants use to communicate, and the chamber in their skulls where the infrasound resonates, and seeing a picture of a very ornately dressed young mahout was what set me off. I don’t have a fetish about them, although they seem to be one of those animals that people do develop fetishes about, like owls or cats. I’ve written several animal stories now, and elephants are just one kind of animal whose particular strangeness appeals to me. (I’ve done Kenyan naked mole rats, a budgerigar, macaques – and angler fish are next on the list.)

Joe: The Point of Roses reminded me a little of Neil Gaiman while parts of other tales made me think of Ray Bradbury. Are there any authors in particular you admire for their short story ability?

Margo: George Saunders is my favourite at the moment. I’ve also enjoyed Christina Stead’s and Helen Garner’s short stories (Australian, mainstream, literary). Isobelle Carmody’s collection Green Monkey Dreams made me realise that a collection of spec-fic short stories could work.

Joe: I enjoyed Black Juice enormously but I have to say it has left me hungering for a full-length Margo Lanagan novel; it is a little like eating like eating a whole bunch of entrees and wanting to proceed to the main course. I’m sure a lot of other readers around the globe feel the same way – are we going to be indulged?

Margo: Well, if you can stand stepping into the mainstream, there are my two YA novels, The Best Thing and Touching Earth Lightly. I’ve been attempting full-length fantasy novels for several years now, but without success. Maybe I should work up to them more gradually, doing novellas first for a while, then novelettes, rather than trying to do the epics and the quartets straight off!

The short answer is: I’m working on it.

Joe: In wrapping up I often ask authors who they’d like to see (in an ideal world) direct and star in a film of their book. With short story collections perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask what sort of other medium would you like to see any of the tales adapted to? For some reason I kept thinking how beautiful a short animation of The Point of Roses could be while Wooden Bride struck me as a perfect tale for a dance routine (the paper shoes instead of the Red Shoes?). Given any medium – TV, animation, stage, film, dance, etc – and any person you wanted to make them any thoughts on which tales you would pick and how you’d like to see them?

Margo: Timur Bekmambetov, director of Nightwatch, should write and direct Red Nose Day. I’d be deliriously happy for Hayao Miyazaki to do any of the others. I think Studio Ghibli would animate The Point of Roses, or Earthly Uses, or Rite of Spring beautifully — but really, he can take his pick! House of the Many strikes me as suitable for adaptation into some kind of weird opera with accordions and choruses. The elephant story would make a good radio play — lots of opportunities for interesting soundscapes in there. ‘Singing My Sister Down’ is kind of the hit single of the collection, but I think it would make for a very static movie – not impossible. Wim Wenders, maybe.

Joe: One last question then – who are the authors on your bedside table right now?

Margo: Gene Wolfe, Jeff VanderMeer, Michael Cunningham, Jane Yolen, E. L. Doctorow, Kenzaburo Oe (yeah, you caught me at a highbrow moment), Kate Grenville, Helen Garner, Nick Hornby.

Joe: Margo Lanagan, thank you very much for joining us.

Margo: It’s been a pleasure!

Moving graphic novels

Visitors to the stand-alone graphic novels site may have noticed that large, cheery image of Captain Marvel (the Shazam variety, not the Marvel variety, if you see what I mean) on the top banner explaining that the site will soon be moving. The latest version of the FPI webstore now has all of the graphic novel content, old and new, that the current stand-alone site has and the time is coming to switch over completely to the new site.

I've really enjoyed setting up the GN site and putting out a good mix of the bestselling with the more unusual independent titles and judging by the visitors and sales so have many readers - thank you all for using the site and please, if you haven't already, come on over and browse the new store. Most readers are now going through the new FPI site which has all of the graphic novels on it now and offers a more dynamic site, with larger images, links, preview pages, awards listings pages and even some pieces by authors talking about their works. The stand-alone graphic novel site will be coming to an end soon, but I'll still be bringing you the same huge range of graphic novel goodness on the new, improved FPI site, where, if you want, you can browse and buy all of our wares under one 'roof'. And if you are mostly interested only in continuing to browse the graphic novels the new site has a whole huge segment devoted to them, including the very latest Marvel titles which I just added today to the pre-orders section and the DC advance titles for August and Image Comics July which went live yesterday.

Stealth ads in comics

Cynical audience are well used to enduring product placement in television programmes and feature films. We’ve seen rather (in my view) vulgar and obvious corporate sponsorship in literature as well, pimping Bulgari jewellery by an author who should know better. So it shouldn’t be a great surprise that the advertisers want to use the medium of comics to push yet further wares on a public already saturated with commercials.

This isn’t the usual adverts which we’ve always seen but the aforementioned trick of product placement, a method of stealth advertising where readers or viewers are exposed to advertising techniques and corporate branding often unwittingly - and perhaps unwillingly; after all, you can choose to read an advert page or not, but if the products are placed in the story for a fee then you are going to come across it. I think the deviousness of it is what most irritates me along with the fact it does make you wonder exactly how the publishers who indulge in this blatant attempt to make extra money by shamelessly manipulating their readers view that readership.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Marvel are already running product placements – the Nike swoop has featured already and more elements are on the way, while DC is soon to being a mini-series called Rush which is benefiting from a deal with Pontiac, with the central character’s car being, yes, you guessed it, a Pontiac.

"The car will be as essential to the character as the Aston Martin was to James Bond," David McKillips, vice president of advertising and custom publishing for DC Comics told the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps being a little optimistic there – hard to see any new character’s car becoming quite as iconic as that so quickly!

It is easy to see why the advertising suits are happy to sign up to this – after all, it gives them access to an entire demographic (especially of those single males between the ages of 20 to 30) and another marketing tool to use in a crowded marketplace. Even better, a marketing tool which many readers may not even notice consciously and, given it is a part of the normal artwork of the story they are reading, they aren’t going to simply skip as they may a traditional page of advertising or flick a channel on TV (or even avoid a link on here to our webstore! Bang goes choice).

From a personal point of view I find it highly distasteful and perhaps even somewhat manipulative (hopefully they won’t stoop to using such advertising to titles aimed at younger readers, one hopes). On the other hand I can see why publishers would be eager to seize on a potentially lucrative new stream of revenue and perhaps those pieces of silver from the ad-men will help the publishers to pay artists and writers better and to encourage fresh talent. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to work on the pitch for my new fantasy trilogy set in a prominent local brewery that shall remain nameless… Until they cough up some ‘support’…

Dead by Dawn extra screenings

Just in from Adele, the driving force behind Dead by Dawn, Scotland's major horror film festival:

Dead by Dawn, Scotland's International Horror Film Festival is hosting a second all-nighter on Saturday 22 April, in Cinema 2 to compensate the horror-hungry for the main event being sold out. Tickets priced £20 are on sale now and available any day after 12 noon from Filmhouse box office on 0131 228 2688.

The programme is:

LUCKY (short) + LAST BLOOD (short) + ZOMBIE JIEITAI (feature) EL DESAFIO A LA MUERTE (short) + REPOSE EN PAIX (short) + BROKEN (feature) DEADLY TANTRUM (short) + ISOLATION (feature) *B R E A K F A S T* LE BOURREAU DES INNOCENTS (short) + NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH (feature) GORGONAS (short) + SEVERED (feature)

The whole thing kicks off just after midnight (0015) and finishes just before 11am. The bar will open for breakfast between the third and fourth features.

Pilot of the future

Digital radio station BBC7 is repeating the first Dan Dare tale Voyage to Venus, which sees Dan and crew captured by the evil Mekon of Mekonta and his Treens while exploring Venus to see if crops could be grown there to feed the hungry Earth. Check out the Listen Again button on the left-hand side of the BBC7 menu.

Woman of Mass Destruction

The latest pre-orders for Image Comics' July graphic novel releases are live on our webstore now. Among their latest crop is the first collection of the much-talked about comic series from Jimmie Robinson, Bomb Queen: Woman of Mass Destruction. I've had a look through some of the original issues and quite enjoyed this cheeky little series. There is the truly huge Witchblade Compendium, which gathers together the first 50 issues - that's over 1200 pages of comic goodness! Sure, some folk say Witchblade plays up to male reader's sexual fantasies with the incredibly sexy artwork of lead character Sara, but it is also very popular with female fans as well and as Xena and Parrish Plessis proved, you can be sexy and still be a serious action heroine too.

There is one interesting title which takes the Pinnochio fairytale and twists it into something rather darker, more Frankenstein in nature (or un-nature). Alas it has a title which, although probably perfectly acceptable in the US, is more than a little unfortunate in the UK since it unwittingly uses a word which is Brit slang for something a tad rude (clue: dangly spherical objects): the Cobbler's Monster. A shame, because it looks like something I do want to read, but that title conjures up a different mental image in Britain...

Hordes

My colleague Paul, our resident RPG fiend (who can always be distracted with a 12-sided dice) is tickled pink and even mauve over a new range of RPG goodies he has just added onto our webstore. Over to Paul:

HORDES is the brand new game from Privateer Press, the same people who made the outstanding WarMachine - and they haven't let up with the design of their miniatures. These 30mm warriors are things of beauty and look absolutely stonking on the battlefield! And even better - we've got them at 20% off RRP!

So far there are four main factions announced, and only two items per faction at the moment. But there will be a deluge of new HORDES miniatures coming soon! Let’s take a quick look at some of them...

CIRCLE ORBOROS

A mysterious and secretive group, few know of this ancient order of druids. Though few in number, they wield great power and influence wherever the shadow of wilderness falls. Capable of summoning the forces of the storm and stone, their will is rarely contested. Now they command the beasts of the wild to fight any who would dare.

The Circle Orboros boasts warlocks of great magical might, with the power to transform their beasts into deadly hunters and controlling the very terrain of the battlefield. With a mobility born not just of speed but of control of the land, a Circle army excels in guerrilla-style combat—hitting hard, hitting fast, and disappearing into the forest shadows.

TROLLBLOODS

For centuries they have seen their sacred lands taken and their numbers diminished. Now the human nations have brought war to their last refuges in western Immoren. Banding together with their less civilized kin, the trollkin are on the warpath united with heavily armed trolls and the wild dire trolls. The Trollblood march to war to claim what is theirs.

Heavily armoured and mad as hell—the Trollblood faction brings the hurt like no other faction in HORDES. For centuries the Trollbloods have seen their sacred lands taken and their numbers diminished. Now the human nations have brought war to their last refuges in western Immoren. Banding together with their less civilized kin and united with heavily armed trolls and wild dire trolls, the trollkin are on the warpath. The Trollbloods march to war to claim what is theirs.

LEGION OF EVERBLIGHT

There are some evils possessed of infinite patience and guile. Dragons are such a force. They are not alive in the same fashion as other beasts, nor do they die. A dragon’s flesh is a transitory shell for carrying its malignant consciousness. Even when obliterated down to its core essence, the athanc, a dragon endures. From this unholy stone, a new dragon can be reborn with the mind of the old, quickly regenerating to full strength. No lore or craft of mortals has been able to destroy these dragon stones.

The Legion of Everblight uses speed and the threat of first strike as its primary tactics. Flanking and threatening charges by multiple targets, this army surrounds an enemy like the jaws of a dragon. A single false move on the opponent’s side will open them up for the killing blow, as the dragon’s maw closes with surprising swiftness.

SKORNE

From beyond the treacherous Bloodstone Marches, the savage race of the Skorne now march on western Immoren with but one purpose: the utter of all its nations under their dreaded touch. With this army of sorrows come warbeast the likes of which the nations of men have never seen.

From beyond the treacherous Bloodstone Marches, the savage race of the Skorne now march on western Immoren with one purpose: the utter subjugation of all its nations under their dreaded touch. With this army of sorrows come warbeasts the likes of which the nations of men have never seen. Broken to serve as weapons of war, these enslaved warbeasts are barely restrained in battle, while the Skorne troops are rigorously disciplined.

VanderMeer International

As I enjoyed an ale break at Eastercon over the weekend I picked up one of the many fliers on the tables and blow me if the international VanderMeer label didn’t leap out at me. Strange, I thought Jeff and his other half were busy ‘sampling’ fine European ales that weekend (he said, putting it politely). I look closer and realise he isn’t actually at Eastercon, it is Jeff’s name prominent on a flier for Finncon 2006 this August (18^th to 20^th) in Helsinki, Finland (where Lapp-dancing is somewhat different from what we may expect).

No matter where you go, the VanderMeer label follows you, especially if you are near water; I am uncertain, but I think I heard one of his freshwater squid singing in the River Clyde near the Eastercon hotel (I think it was “I belong to Glasgow” but cannot be certain). I am now moved to speculate that Jeff has a battalion (or whatever the collective term is for squid – a squad of squid perhaps?) who travel the world, swimming up rivers and deposting fliers announcing forthcoming appearances as convention-goers slumber. In the face of this and his hi-tech, multimedia campaign I can only recommend potential readers simply surrender and read his books.

One of the Eastercon guests, the most excellent Justina Robson is also on the bill for Finncon and, apparently, Emerald City’s Cheryl Morgan, although rumours that Cheryl will don a woolly hat with ears and bobbles to perform a traditional northern Finnish Lapp-dance cannot be confirmed at this time. Finncon 2006 has a website with more details here, but, alas, no facility to report sighting of freshwater squid.

More awards

It was a busy weekend for awards; in addition to the delightful anarchy of the BSFA awards ceremony at Eastercon, Cheryl at Emerald City reported that the Philip K Dick awards were announced (as Eastercon goers were busy sipping real ale and admiring the large number of pirates wandering the hotel). War Surf by M.M. Buckner won the Dick award with one of Eastercon’s guests (and one of Brit SF’s best writers), Justina Robson garnering herself a special citation for Natural History. Cheryl also pointed out that on the other side of the world from those of us swilling real ale at Eastercon (the image of a bearded, real ale drinking fan may be a stereotype, but like all myths it has more than a seed of truth in it!) the Ditmar awards were being announced in Australia, with Geodesica: Ascent by Sean Williams and Shane Dix taking the best novel award, with the rest of the results here.

New Who takes the top spot

Hurrah - the first, cracking episode of the new Doctor Who season has claimed the top viewing spot for Saturday night, trouncing ITV's screening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by several million, with an unofficial audience of 8.3 million, which doesn't include those who recorded it to watch later. I wonder if it does include the packed room of eager SF fans who crowded into a suite at Eastercon on Saturday night to watch it? The rest of the convention did grow eerily quiet during that time... A trailer for next week's episode aired right after the end of the show, with Tennant's grinning Doctor introducing Rose to Queen Victoria and an exciting looking scene of the Queen, Rose and the Doc running down through a Scottish castle pursued by a werewolf glimpsed howling in the 19th century Scottish Highlands - looks like a proper, old-fashioned scary episode of the type traditionally watched from behind the sofa for younger fans. In fact I may pull my sofa out further from the wall for next Saturday so I can watch the episode properly from behind it.

For those outside the UK who have to wait to see it I can tell you it was fabulous: Tennant walked into those shoes filled so briefly but brilliantly by Eccleston and confidently claimed his territory; in the relay race of regeneration the sonic screwdriver has been passed on. Eccleston's Doctor carried a burden of grief and survivor guilt at being the only Time Lord to survive the last, great Time War; Tennant's Doctor is taking the regeneration not only to mean new body but a new lease on life, as if he has let go of that dark weight. He nicely illustrates the fact that the Doctor is not human or young as he appears though in scenes with the Head of Bo (from the second episode of last year's series) where the two are portrayed as ancient beings and last of their kind, yet somehow still optimistic for the future in a way Ecclestone's Doctor wasn't (or couldn't be).

The scenes where he faces down a returned Cassandra (the very thin lady also from last year's second episode) are brilliant, as are the scenes where the Doctor stumbles on the truth behind a miraculous hospital on New Earth (in a very 70s SF plot) and he faces down the bad guys: he doesn't ask them to stop, he orders them to stop. It sends shivers down the spine because Tennant makes it clear this young looking new Doctor is an ancient and very powerful alien and he simply isn't going to let this happen; he's our hero and he isn't going to let the bad guys win; he is the Doctor and we know it and, I suspect, are going to love him for it.

And all accomplished with some very cool effects and makeup (the feline nurses were brilliant) and a genuine sense of fun - the team even found time to throw in some references to other shows as the Doctor takes Rose to New Earth and shows her New New York (actually since it is the 15th or so since the original it is New, New, New...) in a clear nod to Futurama as well as drawing on 70s genre flicks, especially the zombie and medical horror movies. I can't wait for the next episode!

BSFA winner announced at Eastercon 2006

Just home from a terrific day at Concussion, this year's Eastercon, in sunny Glasgow-sur-le-Clyde ; I'll probably post a bit more on the con later but for now I thought I should pass on the news about the BSFA awards 2006 (although given for books published in the UK during 2005). Many of us crowded into the function suite by the Clyde at 9pm this evening to enjoy the sight of the first award of the evening - the Doc Weir award, given for services to fandom - not actually being awarded because the winner had vanished, allegedly taking a projector to another function, such was his dedication to the running of conventions. He was found by the end of the proceedings, or at least someone was given the award...

The assembled masses, many of us equipped with beards, were also treated to Stephen Baxter's Cabaret (well, not really, but it would have been fun), Interzone #200's cover picking up the art award, Kelly Link picking up the short story award for Magic for Beginners and then Geoff Ryman receiving the BSFA award for Tallest SF Author in the Room.. Er, I mean Geoff picking up the much-coveted BSFA Best Novel award for Air. Geoff was most gracious and tall in his brief acceptance speech and paid tribute to his fellow nomineess - and what a damned fine list it was, I had great difficulty in trying to rank my choices on my ballot slip. More on a fun day out for all the family at Eastercon later.

Dead by Dawn - the latest details

Adele Hartley has passed on the latest details for the imminent Dead by Dawn horror film (and now literary too) fest, which spans from Ramsey Campbell to Tony Todd:

Well, here it is, most of the films we'll be showing at Dead by Dawn's 13th Anniversary next week. Even at this late stage we are still adding things to the programme, so rather than send you a schedule which will change, here's a list of titles, and anyone attending will be able to pick up a full schedule on arrival.

On the evening of Thursday 20th, we're launching our first two anthologies - Read by Dawn Vol 1 (hosted by Ramsey Campbell) and Classic Tales of Horror Vol 1. I'm really proud of both these books - not only do they look and feel gorgeous, but contained within is some of the finest classic and contemporary short horror fiction.

The launch is taking place at the Citrus Club on Grindlay Street in Edinburgh from 6-10pm. Entry is free to Passholders, and £3 to anyone else. There will be some free drinking to be done, nibbles and schmoozing, and of course the opportunity to buy some books...

The Opening Movie of the festival, HARD CANDY, will be on screen at Filmhouse at 11.15pm

Over the rest of the weekend, you'll have a chance to see the following features: Wayne Coe's yummy 80's portmanteau oddity GRIM PRAIRIE TALES, culinary delight in THE LAST SUPPER as a plastic surgeon takes some of his work home with him, Nic Roeg's ever spectacular DON'T LOOK NOW, Shinya Tsukamoto's claustrophobic nightmare HAZE, the World Premiere of Robert Krause's BLOOD TRAILS, Adam Mason's mentalist survivalist does extreme damage in BROKEN, The Thing meets Alien meets Gary Larsson's cows gone bad in ISOLATION, George C Scott survives a haunted Gothic pile in THE CHANGELING, aliens feck with the world and raise legions of undead in the Japanese treat ZOMBIE JIEITAI, Graeme Whifler redefines the neighbour from hell in the deeply unpleasant NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, another portmanteau goodie in the shape of DEAD OF NIGHT, hippy tree huggers get it in the neck in SEVERED and Tony Todd gives it some welly in the outrageous lesbian-prison-movie-with-added-zombies, SHADOW: DEAD RIO
T. More titles to come :)

As for the shorts, the What You Make It programme will mess with your head...WHEN NOBODY IS LOOKING, LA GUERRA, SHAME and THE HIDDEN FACE should all provide good arguments against breeding, the sweet as anything EL DESAFIO A LA MUERTE (THE CHALLENGE TO DEATH) puts a guru in a blender, in LAST BLOOD some mutant vampires coat a post-apocalyptic wasteland in warm arterial spray, a woman finds novel methods of psychological punishment in LOS OJOS DE ALICIA (ALICIA'S EYES), Nash Edgerton returns to the festival with LUCKY which you have to see to believe, three students get a dose of local history in SCHATTENKIND (SHADOW CHILD), BUTTERFLIES is a punchline I'm not about to spoil for you, LE BOURREAU DES INNOCENTS sees a hillwalker wish she'd never left the comfort and safety of inner-city crime behind, HAUNTED BONEYARD (winner of last year's 48 hour film challenge) should bother the claustrophobe in everyone, DEADLY TANTRUM - as the tagline says, 'Meet Geoffrey - he's angry, he's s
tupid, he's got a power saw', in THE ANCIENT RITES OF COREY MCGILLIS a young man grieves his father's death, but not for long, in REPOSE EN PAIX (REST IN PEACE) a man's dreams seem all too real until the happy ever after, in ZACARIAS ZOMBIE (ZACHARY THE ZOMBIE) a child is born undead and finds that dog is man's best meal and in the sublime animation GORGONAS (GORGONS) the world is plagued by a trio bent on cruelty.

As if that wasn't enough, we're running a promo of what will be the finest genre movie possibly ever, with it's director and producer there in person - you'll have to be there to find out what it is, and as for our Special Guest, well we're still waiting to find out if he can fit us into his schedule, so news on that when we get it.

Happily, the World Premiere of BLOOD TRAILS will be attended by a full complement of cast and crew, and five cast and crew from LAST BLOOD will be around too.

Anyone attending or thinking of attending the second all-nighter on Saturday 22 April, you will get to see: LAST BLOOD, ZOMBIE JIEITAI, REPOSE EN PAIX, BROKEN, LE BOURREAU DES INNOCENTS, ISOLATION, DEADLY TANTRUM, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH and SEVERED as well as some other shorts.

See you next week!

Adele Hartley

Testify!

Douglas Rushkoff, a name well-known to many of us from his books and online writings has been working on a book with Liam Sharp for DC's mature readers imprint Vertigo, called Testament: Akedah. The religious component is bound to infuriate some who will no doubt hold forth on the wrongness of it without actually reading it - but since they aren't going to read it why pay any attention to them?!? Besides controversial religious themes didn't stop Mark Millar and Peter Gross' Chosen, a modern day tale of Jesus, which sold out its first issue. The graphic novel collection of Testament is coming from DC in July and I think readers who enjoy the likes of Mike Carey's Lucifer are going to find this to their taste - I'm certainly looking forward to it. Douglas has kindly allowed us to reproduce some thoughts about the series he originally wrote for On The Ledge:

"The Bible may have actually been written in the wrong medium. I'm saying this as a media theorist - a guy who has written books and novels, taught university classes, and made documentaries about the impact of new technology on the way we relate to stories. And particularly on those stories we happen to really believe in.

If anything, working in what is still the rather new space of networked computers has taught me that our relationship to narratives is stuck in a dangerous place. Sure, we watch TV and imagine ourselves as characters, but we have lost access to the gaps in the stories. The places where temporality, interpretation and sequence are up for grabs. We just get lost in the seamless reality and get taken along for a ride.

I've found some less than receptive audiences for these observations.

When I wrote a book presenting the Bible as an "open source" collaboration, I was blacklisted by fundamentalists of more than one religion. They just didn't want their story messed with - even though I had been able to prove it was written with that very intent!

Businesspeople, religious people, educators, and publishers are all equally threatened and confounded by the idea that real stuff is actually occurring in the gaps between the moments that pass for history.

And that's when I realized the perfect place to tell what I've come to believe is the *real* story of the Bible: comics.

Now don’t get the wrong idea. The Bible has been intentionally framed as a dry and sanctimonious tome just to keep thinking people from getting near it. In reality, it’s powerfully dangerous stuff: the ultimate handbook for psychic revolt. It’s filled with sex, temple prostitutes, incantations, incest, travel to other dimensions, conversations with aliens, wars with giants and, on more than one occasion, ritualized anal rape. Think you’re an accomplished magician? Check out the source code on reality hacking, and see if you can handle it.

A comic is camouflage for me to expose the mythic battle underlying Western Civilization, and sequential narrative the perfect way to tell a story taking place simultaneously in multiple universes - including our own. It'll follow a band of cyber-alchemist revolutionaries, in a future just a day after tomorrow - when the draft is reinstated, and the mind virus known as the dollar requires military enforcement. It'll also take place in Bible time - exposing how this plot has been recurring for centuries.

For by insisting we “believe” that the Bible happened at some moment in distant history, the keepers of religion prevent us from realizing that the Bible is happening right now, in every moment. The narrative and its power transcend time. All we need is access and will.

Then reality itself is at our disposal, and we'll be the superheroes."

Shazam!

The Hollywood Reporter carries the news that Peter Segal is now attached to direct Shazam! New Line Cinema are currently developing the new superhero movie based around DC's Billy Batson, a young lad who, when he utters the magic word Shazam becomes Captain Marvel, the world's mightiest mortal (the Cap pretty much rivals Superman in terms of power). The Big Red Cheese has always been one of my favourite superheroes, so I am interested to see how this pans out, although the cynical part of my wonders if it is simply more mining by Hollywood for any superhero nuggets while they are the box office flavour-du-jour.

In recent years the character has only been called Captain Marvel inside the comic while Shazam is used on the cover due to a copyright snafu with Marvel who have a similarly named character - all the more ironic given the Shazam Marvel started life with Fawcett way back in the Golden Age and was attacked by DC then as a blatant Superman copy.

Digital Delany

That great web resource Boing Boing draws attention to a free MP3 online for a very early SF work by one of the genre's true great, Samuel R Delany. The Star-Pit features not only sound, music and various actors but narration supplied by Sam himself; quality is a little variable (it dates from the late 60s) but it is still a little SF audio gem.

Also via the good offices of Boing Boing comes new of a collection of work from various respected SF artists which is being auctioned on Ebay, with the monies raised being used to help support the next generation of developing artists via the Society of Illustrator's Student Scholarship Fund for an student "creating an exceptional work with a speculative or fantastic theme.". A little over my pocket money level, alas, but I'm sure it offers someone a good chance to help support new talent and obtain some cool original artwork.

Jeff'n'Scott

The irreplaceable Jeff VanderMeer sits down with the too-damned-clever R Scott Bakker over some tea, cakes and coloured fungi for a damned good chat about the final part of the seriously good Prince of Nothing series, The Thousandfold Thought, which is just about to hit the UK shelves courtesy of Orbit. Bakker delivers epic fantasy but (thankfully) he injects some serious weight and intelligence into them, meaning the reader gets what they want from a good fantasy without the accompanying pitfalls of generic clichés which can sometimes go along with the field. It is a nice, irreverent piece, taking in books, morality, ancient Samarkand and, naturally, squid as Jeff makes R Scott Bakker Walk The Plank.

Batton talks Supernatural Law

Batton Lash, creator of the Supernatural Law series currently riding high with two nominations in the more mainstream arena kindly shared a couple of words with FPI on being shortlisted:

“The nominations are especially significant for me since I always did the Supernatural Law comic book (and the Wolff & Byrd newspaper strip before that) with the general public in mind and for an audience that doesn't normally read comics. To be recognized by "real world" (i.e.: outside of comics) readers is very encouraging. We know how fabulous comics are . . . the rest of the world doesn't know what they've been missing!”

In addition to the popular print version which is attracting so much interest right now, Batton has been telling us about a new twice-a-week online strip featuring Wolff & Byrd (Counsellors of the Macabre). It’s a nice way to offer more to the existing fans of Supernatural Law while hopefully introducing new readers to the series, so if you are new to it, Batton is offering you the chance to experience SLbefore you buy, which is pretty groovy. I'm thinking anyone reading the online version isn't going to be able to resist the print version - and with the American Library Association nominating for their recommended reading list hopefully the series (and comics in general) will be reaching a wider audience .

Supernatural Law gets mainstream praise

Tales of Supernatural Law, the latest volume by the delightfully monikered Batton Lash, is picking up mainstream praise and approval. The Beat reported that Tales is a finalist in the graphic novel category for the Publisher’s Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards (which reward independent publishing) and ForeWord magazine’s Book of the Year Awards. Way to go, Batton! I wonder if Wolff & Byrd, ‘Counsellors to the Macabre’ influenced Joss Whedon’s creation of Wolfram and Hart in Angel? Nancy Drew: the Demon of River Heights and North Country are also on the final shortlist for the Ben Franklin. Batton's work has also been nominated for inclusion on the American Library Association's recommended reading list.

Dahl goes graphic

I recently added forthcoming Dark Horse titles for August and September to our main site; in among them was an especially interesting little literary rarity being given the graphic novel treatment - a story written by a certain RAF Flight Lieutenant, one Roald Dahl. Gremlins, published during World War Two, is a very early story from the writer who has fascinated generations of children and adults with his books and involves Gus, a fighter pilot who spots the titular Gremlins on the wing of his plane.

Long before they became light-sensitive movie monsters Gremlins were a stape of modern folklore, with pilots, especially in the 40s and 50s reporting sightings of these malevolent little creatures pulling apart their aircraft at high altitude (the extremes of speed and altitude on the brain and blood supply are now thought to be a likely cause of these visions). Famously the original Twilight Zone recycled the idea in an episode with William Shatner as a passenger on an airliner who is convinced he can see a creature on the wing damaging the plane, a story which has been parodied countless times since.

Walt Disney bought the rights to Dahl's Gremlins over six decades ago to use as the basis of an animated movie, but the project was never completed. This Dark Horse hardback reproduces the story and art from Disney and the Artists and Writers Guild for the first time in over sixty years.

Juliet's writing course in Scotland

Our chum Sandy over at the Alien Online carries news that one of Britain's best fantasy writers (one of those female writers that don't exist according to the Times piece discussed a couple of days ago here!) Juliet E McKenna is running her excellent SF&F writing course for budding authors this autumn at Castle of Park in Scotland's Aberdeenshire (the coast of which was part of Stoker's inspiration for Dracula). The course will run from Sunday 1st October to Saturday 7th, with details on the Castle of Park site.

Pooh does the Walk of Fame

Okay, this may not be exactly SF news, but we love animation so we're including it: one of the biggest stars of animation, currently celebrating 80 years in Showbiz, has been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Yup, Pooh Bear, that honey-fixated-but-oh-so-cuddly bear stuffed with fluff now has his very own star, reflecting the importance of animation to mainstream Hollywood (Pooh still generates millions for license holders Disney to this day).

Venom

SciFi Wire drew my attention to a brief interview on MSN with Thomas Haden Church who is playing the Sandman in the next Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie. Thomas inadvertantly confirmed what many of us had suspected - arch Spidey menace Venom will indeed feature in the third cinema outing for our friendly, neighbourhood web-slinger:

"I'm overwhelmed every time I'm around Sam," Church says. "He's been showing me [stuff] since the beginning of last summer. 'This is what we are going to be doing in this sequence, this is what Spider-Man is going to be doing and this is what Venom is going to be doing.' It is a massive, massive process."

SFX

SFX magazine has a chat with Billie Piper and David Tennant available on their webpage. The new print edition of the UK's biggest SF magazine also gives a thumbs up to Mike Carey's The Devil You Know debut prose novel and includes a nice freebie in the shape of a 'fascinating facts' type book. For comics fans there is a plethora of X-Men articles and it is to their credit that the SFX crew have decided that while the imminent new movie requires covering they also need to discuss the long comic book history of mutant power.

SciFi on Seven

Digital radio station BBC 7 continues to broadcast SF&F material. Kurt Vonnegut's and Philip Reeves' ThanasphereMortal Engines are both available this week and, as usual, they are archived for a week, while radio adaptations of The Twilight Zone are broadcast at the weekend.

Parrish Plessis - the game

Marianne de Pierres, creator of the Parrish Plessis novels which manage to combine action with intelligence, sexiness with social commentary and all set in a dystopian future-SF, drops me a line to tell me that Parrish is expanding into the world of gaming! How exciting! I think Parrish's adventures will provide a great setting and group of characters for a game world.

"A Queensland author’s best-selling futuristic adventure novel has been adapted into an action role-playing game.

The vivid and unique future Australia of Marianne de Pierres’ novel, Nylon Angel, has been brought to life by White Mice Worldbuilding, a Tasmanian games start-up.

“It’s incredible to see the world I created move from the page onto the gaming board,” said author Marianne de Pierres. “I think it is a great example of what small Australian companies are accomplishing in the burgeoning creative industries.”

Each gamer kit will provide pre-rolled characters as well as references and rules for players and game referees, set-up sequences and scenarios. Gamers also have the means to start from scratch using White Mice Worldbuilding’s unique character and name generator. Internal artwork is by Australian artist Cassandra Lovell. Cover art works are by international artists, Neyjour (USA) and Catherine Geaney (UK).

The three books of Marianne de Pierres’ best-selling Parrish Plessis series - Nylon Angel, Code Noir and Crash Deluxe - have all been used to develop the game.

Nylon Angel and Crash Deluxe were both nominated for Best Science Fiction Novel in the Australian Aurealis awards. The books have also had success in the UK and Europe where the publishers, Orbit Books, have sold translation rights to six countries. Penguin/Roc has recently released Nylon Angel in North America.

Nylon Angel - the role-playing game will be launched at Conjure, the Australian National Convention, on April 15th by one of Science Fiction's most luminary authors, and father of Cyberpunk, Bruce Sterling.”

Who gears up

The BB of C continues to ramp up the support for the imminent new season of Doctor Who, about to materialise on our screens this coming Saturday (oh yes!!!). Adverts have been running on TV and radio; yesterday I noticed on BBC radio that they were now using mini-ads, only a few seconds long, which had no dialogue, just quite simply the sound of the TARDIS - it is such a recognisable sound it is now being used as shorthand for the whole show. The Doctor Who part of the BBC's huge site has been made-over for the new season, complete with a trailer showing werewolves in Victorian Scotland, Cybermen, cat-women and Rose kissing the Doctor. It also has Tennant's new Doctor looking very assured in the role already, looking the viewer in the eye and telling them that if they go through those TARDIS doors with him 'nothing will ever be the same again.' I can't wait!

Debbie in the Times

Deborah Miller kindly drops me a line to let me know that the Sunday Times this week carried an interview with her. The interview does make the point that a female author + fantasy does not necessarily = soft touch, as anyone who had read Debbie’s work can vouch for, the darkness lurking in the shadows between pages (notably in her first novel, Talisker, published under the name Miller Lau). However, Debbie did point out that the article is wrong in one important respect – the owl outside her home is not plastic!

Actually the article makes a more serious mistake when it says “There aren’t many female sci-fi writers”. Pleased though I am to see such an excellent author getting well-deserved coverage in the mainstream press (we do seem to be becoming more respectable these days, if somewhat slowly, two steps forward and one back fashion) I was rather annoyed at this incorrect statement, so readily asserted and so fundamentally wrong (why can’t journalists do some basic research before making such statements???).

This plays very much on the stereotypical view that SF&F is a male arena, written by men for a male audience, with only a handful of tomboyish girls allowed in to play. Similar aspersions are cast on conventions and I have encountered it when talking about the Edinburgh SF Book Group as the ignorant sneer “oh is that a club for misfit boys?” is trotted out, despite the fact the group consists roughly half and half male and female regulars. But this false assertion that there are few female SF authors is just incredibly irritating; especially given the hard time trailblazers such as Leigh Brackett endured as female SF writers in the 40s and 50s.

While SF&F may well have a pretty big male component in terms of writers and readers it also boasts an impressive array of diverse female voices and a loyal female readership, with many of those authors being major award-winners around the globe. What of Margo Lanagan? Marianne de Pierres? Justina Robson? Susanna Clarke? Juliet E McKenna? Kelley Armstrong? Jude Fisher? Liz Williams? Steph Swainston? Trudi Canavan? Gwyneth Jones? Tanya Huff? Tricia Sullivan? And these are just a few names selected from the small (but perfectly formed) selection of Book Picks on our site alone.

What about Anne McCaffrey? What about Ursula Le Guin? How many generations of readers have grown up reading tales of Earthsea? Lois McMaster Bujold? How many men and women have been challenged by Sherri S Tepper? What about the late Octavia Butler? Storm Constantine? What about Ellen Datlow who has nurtured more writers of either gender than most of us can count? What about Denise Mina now writing the Hellblazer comic, the flagship title from DC’s adult Vertigo imprint? What about mainstream, ‘literary’ authors who write occasional works of SF such as Margaret Atwood?

Alright, you get the point – this is a sloppy bit of journalism by an interviewer who didn’t take a few minutes to check the facts. All the more galling because George at Orbit Books has been keeping me updated on just how well Trudi Canavan’s latest hardback is doing in the mainstream Hardback Fiction Bestsellers in the Times list, so a Times journalist writing a book article really should know better! Really, a few moments checking on Google or even asking a couple of people is all it takes… Perhaps it would have been more correct to say there are more female authors in the area of fantasy than hard SF for instance, but to dismiss the ranks of female writers and fans so simply is to do them a great disservice, especially given the fact that many of them produce not only a cracking read but work which is intelligent, emotional, daring and thought-provoking (really, what more can you ask from a writer?).

Still, it is good to see Debbie getting some mainstream coverage, so perhaps I shouldn’t rant too much. And since it is in the article I assume we are now free to tell the world (if it hadn't worked it out already) that Deborah Miller and Miller Lau were one and the same. But really, come on – some of the best writers in our genre are women. Perhaps we should send the journalist in question a copy of Sheri S Tepper’s Beauty?!?!

Bram Stokers

The Bram Stoker Awards ballots from the Horror Writers Association are live on their site. The Novel catagory includes David Morrell for Creepers , Charlee Jacob for Dread in the Beast , by Gary Braunbeck and KeepersNovember Mourns by Tom Piccirilli. The winners are announced at the HWA conference in Newark, NJ over June 16th to 18th.

Edinburgh SF Book Group rescheduled meet

The March meeting of the Edinburgh SF Book Group which had to be canclled due to the transport strike will no move to the slot for the April meeting, with April's book being bumped forward to the May fixture. So Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go will now be discussed at the meeting on Tuesday 25th of April, with the discussion of Adam Roberts Polystom now scheduled for the May meeting on Tuesday 30th of May.

The Edinburgh SF Book Group usually meets on the last Tuesday of each month in Henderson's on Hanover Street, Edinburgh, from 6 to 7pm, to discuss a work of SF, Fantasy, Horror or Graphic Novel chosen by the members, with all welcome to come along and join in.

More 24

It has been confirmed that Kiefer Sutherland has signed up to play agent Jack Bauer for three further series of 24 in a deal reputedly worth $40 million for the actor. The original series garnered a lot of critical and popular acclaim for the innovative nature; I'm wondering how innovative it can continue to be but obviously the makers have faith in it.