Mike Norton is awesome, and he proves it by summing up my greatest hopes for a spin-off of the just wrapped Lost, as part of his series of “Found” strips.
(Though, clearly the “Number One” and “Number Two” nomenclature suggests that it might turn into a different island altogether…)
I have stayed away from internet discussion of Lost the last few months intentionally, and tried to avoid completely the back-and-forth over the finale. My $.02 is that the finale was clearly the ending to the story that Lindelof and Cuse had been telling all these years, and while it wasn’t the ending that I would have written, it represents the most satisfying conclusion to all of the character arcs in the series of any long form serial television to date. I will acept that the ending might not have been to everyone’s taste, and I think that “I didn’t like that story” is an acceptable objection, but all of the naysayers who insist that the ending is somehow proof that they were “making it up as they went along” were watching a different TV series than I was (or, in many cases, often weren’t watching it at all). As for the mysteries that weren’t solved? It was clear by midway through the last season that the things many of us in the audience thought were important to the larger story really weren’t, and that many of the Big Mysteries were just set dressing. That said, I think that the show-runners intentionally left them open to interpretation, while at the same time putting enough evidence on screen for viewers to work out the solutions themselves. And if you think that six seasons of fantastic character and relationship drama is spoiled because you aren’t told exactly where that pallet of food came from in season two, you’re probably better off watching something else. As Linda Holmes said on the NPR site last week, “There comes a point where you are asking for the midichlorians…”
I was so caught up yesterday playing with our new iPad that I completely forgot to mention the release of my new comic with BOOM! Studios, the authorized prequel to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Dust To Dust #1 (Cover A) $3.99
Writer(s): Chris Roberson
Artist(s): Robert Adler
A science-fiction publishing event! Who hunted androids before Rick Deckard? Taking place immediately after World War Terminus ends, the problems with artificial life – androids – become apparent. The government decides they must become targets, hunted down, but who will do the dirty work? Two men are assigned: Malcolm Reed, a ’special’ human with the power to feel others’ emotions, and Charlie Victor, who’s the perfect man for the job – or is he? Meanwhile Samantha Wu, a Stanford biologist, fights to save the last of the world’s animals.
The first issue hits stands this week. If you’re still on the fence, you can check out an 8-page preview of the first issue online.
I’ve raved before about the work of Kerry Callen, but I don’t think I knew before last night that he submits designs to Threadless as Angelrobot. Check out this beauty that Kerry posted on his blog last night.
I must have this on a t-shirt, so head over to Threadlessimmediately and vote for it!
(via) Do you remember the “premake” trailer for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which imagined what the movie would have looked like had it been released in 1951, assembled from old film clips? Well, get ready for the premake of The Empire Strikes Back, circa 1950.
Some of you may remember me mentioningThe Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions, the anthology that is picking up where the Farmerphile fanzine leaves off. Recently the cover art (by Keith Howell) and the table of contents has been released.
All new fiction set in the World of Tiers, the origin of the Wold Newton Family, Khokarsa (from Farmer’s novels Hadon of Ancient Opar and Flight to Opar), and the worlds of Flesh, “The Lovers,” and Greatheart Silver.
Parallel universe and time travel stories about Philip José Farmer himself.
A classic story, never-before-published stories, and a speech by Philip José Farmer!
Contents:
Foreword by Paul Malmont
The Bite of the Asp by Randall Garrett
Newly Born, Newly Dead by Philip José Farmer
It Could Make a Great Fantasy by Laura Wilkes Carey
My Summer Husband by Philip José Farmer
Sail On! Sail On! by Philip José Farmer
Read On! Read On! by James Gunn
Comment on “Sail On! Sail On!” by Philip José Farmer
The Legend of Mishiwapo by Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer’s Adventures in Hollywood by Jack Mertes
Bordering on the Absurd by Danny Adams
Infamy by Edward Morris
Le Maréchal by Paul Spiteri
The Pollinators by Rhys Hughes
Is He in Hell? by Win Scott Eckert
The Blakeney Family Tree by Win Scott Eckert
No Trees of Earth by David Bischoff
A Kick in the Side by Christopher Paul Carey
Flesh Endures by Dennis E Power
The Final Flight of Greatheart Silver by Chris Roberson
A Writer’s Prayer by Philip José Farmer
The Worlds of Philip José Farmer will be a numbered limited edition trade paperback. The release date is June 26th, during Farmercon V. Meteor House will only be printing 50 to 100 copies more than are pre-ordered, so…
…to be sure you get a copy of this book, send an email to:
mike @ pjfarmer.com
…and reserve your copy today. You don’t have to pay for the book when you pre-order and if you request, the book will be signed by those contributors attending FarmerCon V, which is also acting as a launch party for the book.
US$ 20.00
6×9 tpb, 264 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-615-37005-7
Copies are limited and already going fast, so contact mike @ pjfarmer.com and reserve your copy now!
(via) This video? This video right here? This is wacky.
Directed by Francesco Calabrese, it repurposes loads of 80s scifi movie imagery to
visualize the song “Tiger” by Amari. And, as mentioned, it is wacky.
Speaking of covers, Vertigo has posted a whole slew of them on their Graphic Content blog this afternoon, including one near and dear to my heart. Behold the sublime majesty that is Mike and Laura Allred’s cover to iZombie #4.
iFanboy has posted a whole host of splendid Mike Mignola covers for upcoming Dark Horse releases, and among them is this little gem, featuring everyone’s favorite dour Puritan adventurer. It’s the cover to the second collection of the Solomon Kane series with scripts by Scott Allie and art by Mario Guevara. It’s due out October 20, 2010, with a $15.99 pricetag. Kane is my absolute favorite of all Robert E. Howard’s characters, I must admit.
The video for Butch Walker and the Black Widows’ “Synthesizers,” in which Matthew McConaughey reprises his role as David Wooderson from “Dazed and Confused.” I like it.
The backgrounds for Secret Saturdays are fantastic. Here’s Jay Stephens talking about the look they were going for:
I really wanted a lot of solid blacks and gritty texture to stay on the screen, which is fairly abnormal these days, and I sent the crew a bunch of old Roy Crane scans to emphasize the ‘spotted blacks’. I think we’ve achieved a really nice comic-booky, updated Jonny Quest vibe with these.
Some of Jay Stephens’s character designs for Secret Saturdays. One of the most appealing things about the show is the look of it. You can see the Alex Toth in its DNA, but Jay’s unique style is always apparent. (All images from Jay Stephens’s blog.)
In the end, Cartoon Network picked up the show, now called The Secret Saturdays (though for a while there was a bit of a kerfuffle where the network wanted to call the show The Secret Adventures of Zack Saturday, but thankfully saner heads prevailed). Here’s the text of the original press release:
“THE SECRET SATURDAYS: Jay Stephens has created a new comedy/action series, in which Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday are a family of world-saving adventure scientists called The Secret Saturdays. Living in a hidden base, they are part of a network of scientists who protect against all the hidden and terrifying things in this world. To The Saturdays, ordinary folktales aren’t just legends — they are real-life mysteries and adventures. Traveling from the hot Gobi Desert to the icy Marianas Trench, they explore ancient temples and bottomless caves and tangle with twisted villains like the masked madman V.V. Argost and his half-human/half-giant spider.”
The networks weren’t interested in the funny animal version of CRYPTIDS, but they did express an interest in a version of the idea featuring human characters. Here’s Jay Stephens describing the second version of the pitch.
Now, I love a good adventure cartoon as much as the next guy, and I told them I thought I might be able to rework the pitch. I immediately went for a kind of Hanna-Barbera action show look from the mid-‘60’s… like Mighty Mightor, Space Ghost, Galaxy Trio, and especially Jonny Quest and the Herculoids. I absolutely love the work of Doug Wildey and Alex Toth… great monster drawings! So I drew up a bunch of creature sketches, and reconceived the team as human adventurers. The basic story was the same… our stars were Cryptid-friendly heroes who, instead of solving mysteries like Scooby-Doo, wanted to keep them a secret.
(Though, clearly the “Number One” and “Number Two” nomenclature suggests that it might turn into a different island altogether…)
