SFU: Queerness and Edgar Pangborn’s 1954 novel A Mirror for Observers

Class is in session over at DePauw University’s Science Fiction Studies, #109, Volume 36, Part 3, November 2009, where Brian Attebery of Idaho State University argues that the works of science fiction & fantasy author Edgar Pangborn seem “to be grounded in a queer perspective.” According to Attebery, the best example is Pangborn’s SF/F novel, A Mirror for Observers (1954), which details the relationship between a Martian named Elmis and a gifted Earth boy named Angelo.

Pictured: A Mirror for Observers, 1958 Dell paperback.

The books that inspired Dungeons & Dragons

James Maliszewski of Escapist Magazine just wrote a neat article entitled “The Books That Founded D&D,” which explores the books that inspired Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax to create the world's first tabletop, role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, back in the early 1970s. Among the books: Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian adventures in which John Carter “is groping through black pits” on Barsoom.

Sci-Fri: NASA and Microsoft launch Martian website, use crowdsourcing to map Red Planet

Earlier in the week, NASA and Microsoft launched a new website called “Be a Martian! Part education and part fun, it is an attempt by the space agency to enlist the public in the study and mapping of the Red Planet. “There's so much data coming back from Mars. Having a wider crowd look at the data, classify it and help understand its meaning is very important,” said Michelle Viotti, a representative from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Wonder of the Worlds, 2005 novel by Sesh Heri starring secret agent Harry Houdini

Wonder of the Worlds (2005), a novel written by Sesh Heri, is a scientific adventure in which secret agent Harry Houdini journeys to the Red Planet with scientist Nikola Tesla and author Mark Twain to retrieve a crystal stolen by Martian agents from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Here’s the product description from Amazon:

An adventure for all times! Mark Twain teams up with Nikola Tesla in this historical fantasy pitting them against secret agents from Mars. These Martians have been sent by their tyrannical emperor to steal Tesla's latest and greatest invention: a crystal engine! Along with reporters Lilly West and George Ade, and the young Harry Houdini, Twain and Tesla journey to Mars aboard a fantastic flying machine to take on the conquest-driven Martians! This is an adventure in the tradition of H G Wells and Jules Verne!

Apparently, Sesh Heri has developed his own scientific theory of geomorphology.

Shirley Temple took a trip to Mars?

The website Mexican Memorabilia has a slew of Mexican and Latin American magazine covers and other collectibles from the 1930's and 1940's depicting the famous Hollywood child actress Shirley Temple. One of the items: a sci-fi pulp titled Un Viaje a Marte (1937), by J. H. Rosny.

Martian Rails cities: Ares University

Martian Rails, the new board game made by Mayfair Games about railroading on the Red Planet in which players build tracks and haul freight, has a long list of interesting cities that players can utilize to generate revenue for their rail companies. For example:

Ares University - A small university settlement at the intersection of the Equator and the Prime Meridian. There is no “center” on a planet’s surface. However, the intersection of the two principal great circles seems fitting, for this is the center of learning on Mars. “Ares” is the Greek name for the planet Mars.

Martian Rails is loaded with references to Martian SF!

Review of 1893 feminist and utopian Mars novel Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance

I just found a neat old book review of Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance (1893), a feminist science fiction and utopian Mars novel. Initially attributed to “Two Women of the West,” the novel was actually written by Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Here’s the entire review from the The Review of Reviews, Vol. VIII, No. 1, July 1893:

Montage of deaths from 1990 film Total Recall

A creative fan over on YouTube has painstakingly compiled a four-minute video montage entitled “All the Deaths in Total Recall (including Johnny Cab).” In short, it shows all the deaths (human, animal, robot) from the Mars film Total Recall (1990), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Rachel Ticotin, Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox.



The film Total Recall is based on the classic Philip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966).

Wanted: Photo of author Leigh Brackett and her 1964 Corvette

Thanks to a recent blog post by File 770, Mike Glyer's fanzine about the news of sf fandom, I learned that Martian science fiction author Leigh Brackett owned a 1964 Corvette. If anyone has a photo of Brackett and her Corvette, please consider sharing with the rest of us. Thanks!

Millions in UK tune in to Doctor Who tv special “The Waters of Mars”

BBC’s highly anticipated Doctor Who television special “The Waters of Mars” landed on the small screen Sunday evening in the United Kingdom. More than 9 million viewers tuned in to watch the Doctor, British actor David Tennant, and his companion, Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan, confront Zombies at Bowie Base One on Mars in the year 2059. Trumpeted by many as the “scariest” Doctor Who episode ever, “The Waters of Mars” is receiving mixed reviews. For example:

Freas Martian enjoys Doctorow launch at Merril Collection in Toronto

Dressed in a Gunner Cade shirt, blogger, copyright activist and SF author Cory Doctorow launched his latest novel, Makers (Tor 2009), this past weekend from the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy at the Toronto Public Library. As shown in this photograph posted on Doctorow’s blog, the well-known Martian painted by SF&F artist Kelly Freas seemed to enjoy the show.

Oddly, the Freas Martian is not usually associated with the writings of author Judith Merril, the “little mother of science fiction,” for whom the Merril Collection is named. Rather, it is usually associated with Frederic Brown’s humorous novella, "Martians, Go Home!" (1954), which was later expanded into the novel Martians, Go Home (1955).

NaNoWriMo writers on course with Mars novels

Although it is only November 15th, Joi Weaver and Tresa Cho, two twenty-something women writers and science fiction fans, are on course in penning their respective Mars SF novels for National Novel Writing Month 2009.

Joi’s untitled novel, which is set in the year 2052 and stars a woman named Dejah Sorenson who recovers NASA’s long-lost Phoenix Lander, has surpassed the 95,000-word mark! You can read the bulk of her novel to date, and gain some insight into three of her characters (Dejah Sorenson, Nathan Chandrayaan, Maxwell Hamm) on her blog, Dreamer of Mars.

Cho’s novel, which is entitled Of All Things Forgotten and revolves around humans on Mars, has passed the 50,000-word mark! Read an excerpt on her NaNoWriMo page, then check out her blog, Science Fiction and the Women who Love it.

Pictured: Artistic rendition of Dejah Sorenson.

“Red Dust,” a new SF Western by Amanda Lord

A few months ago, Crossed Genres, the online magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy with a twist, published a short story entitled “Red Dust” (2009), by Amanda Lord. Essentially a SF Western set on Mars, “Red Dust” revolves around an artificial intelligence unit named Lewis. Here are the opening lines:

Call me Lewis. I have lived here on Mars for nearly fifty years. I was the most advanced AI in existence when they shipped me to Mars. Now? Fifty years of red dust in my gears. Fifty years of pieces wearing down, wearing out. I have sent missive upon missive back to Earth, but, I won’t send this one. When the colonists come in two years’ time, they may read this. They’ll come with new bots, newer AI to replace me. I won’t be here to greet them. ...

Amanda Lord earned a B.A. in English and a M.S. in library science. She maintains a LiveJournal and lives in a dilapidated Victorian house in New York State with her husband Joel. “Red Dust,” her first publication in a SF magazine, will be reprinted in Crossed Genres’ first short story anthology, scheduled to be published in February 2010

Authors Guild et al. files revised $125m Google book settlement; ignores Chabon, Doctorow & Newitz’s privacy concerns

Late last evening, the Authors Guild and its allies (Association of American Publishers, Google) filed a revised edition of the proposed $125 million Google Books Settlement, which is being dubbed Settlement 2.0. While the Authors Guild trumpeted the revised agreement and posted details of the “big changes,” the Open Book Alliance, a consortium of opposition groups that includes Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo, blasted it as "a sleight of hand."

In related news, Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), noted that Settlement 2.0 does not add any reader privacy protections, something science fiction writers Michael Chabon, Cory Doctorow and Annalee Newitz were strongly in favor of.

The New York Times provides a solid overview of the latest developments. For more details, check in at The Laboratorium, the blog of New York Law School Prof. James Grimmelmann.

Fascisti su Marte, a 2006 Italian political satire

Essentially the work of popular Italian satirist Corrado Guzzanti, Fascisti su Marte (Fascists on Mars) imagines a 1939 expedition to Mars in which a group of followers of Benito Mussolini attempt to turn the Red Planet to Fascist black. Originally developed in 2002 as a skit for Italian television, Fascisti su Marte was expanded to more than 100 minutes and screened at the 2006 Rome Film Festival.



Here’s the first six minutes of Fascisti su Marte.

Gutenberg geeks print copy of Percival Lowell’s 1906 scientific study Mars and Its Canals

There’s a riveting seven-minute video over on YouTube that shows some of the geeks at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, printing a copy of Percival Lowell’s infamous scientific study, Mars and Its Canals (1906), compliments of the bookstore’s new print-on-demand Espresso Book Machine.

Speaking of geeks at the Harvard Book Store, blogger, copyright activist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow will be signing copies of his new novel, Makers (Tor 2009), on Monday evening, November 16th. I took a quick look at the downloadable freebie. He should have titled it Battery Ventures.

Joel Jenkins working on fourth novel in his Dire Planet pulp SF series

Pulp science fiction author Joel Jenkins recently revealed on his blog that he is entrenched in writing Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet, the fourth novel in his Dire Planet series. Inspired by legendary authors Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard, this sword & planet collection chronicles hero Garvey Dire and his swashbuckling adventures on the planet Mars.

Pictured: Dire Planet (2005), the first novel in the series.

New reprint of ERB's A Princess of Mars ideal for litigious students

Maryland-based publisher Arc Manor's new reprint of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic novel, A Princess of Mars (1917), is ideal for litigious students like Justin D. Gawronski, the Michigan high schooler who became so emotionally unbound after Amazon’s Kindle e-reader deleted his summer reading notes to George Orwell's novel 1984 he initiated a class-action lawsuit against the Internet giant.

Part of the attractively-priced Phoenix Science Fiction Classics series, A Princess of Mars includes critical essays by acclaimed author and Arizona State University professor Paul Cook and by Alexei Panshin & Cory Panshin, co-authors of the Hugo Award-winning nonfiction book on the history of science fiction, The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence (1989); a chronology of the life of Edgar Rice Burroughs; a bibliography of science fiction works; and, most importantly, special margins providing students with a liberal amount of space for taking notes (view sample).

Sci-Fri: Mars Solar Garden blossoms

Earlier this week, Mars, the global snack food and candy company, flipped the switch on the Mars Solar Garden at its U.S. corporate headquarters and manufacturing complex in Hackettstown, New Jersey. The 18-acre field of solar panels is capable of generating 2.2 megawatts per hour of clean energy. That's about 20% of the plant's power needs, or enough power for roughly 1,800 homes. Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, who once headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, attended the ceremony, saying the Mars Solar Garden proves corporate profits and environmental stewardship are not mutually exclusive.

“Child-Empress of Mars,” a new interfiction short story by Theodora Goss

“Child-Empress of Mars,” a new short story written by Theodora Goss, was just published in the acclaimed Interfictions 2 (Nov 2009), an anthology of interstitial writing edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak and published by Small Beer Press of western Massachusetts.

I haven’t had an opportunity to read "Child-Empress of Mars" but according to a review by T. S. Miller for Strange Horizons, it is “a pseudo-pastiche of Edgar Rice Burroughs […] a rewriting of the early genre of ‘interplanetary romance’ by someone more likely raised on post-Tolkien high fantasy, the spectacular result of which somehow ends up being nearer in many ways to Roger Zelazny's thoughtful SF yarn "A Rose for Ecclesiastes."”

Interestingly, three pieces of artwork based on Goss’s short story will be auctioned off as part of a fundraiser for the Interstitial Arts Foundation:

• “The Child Empress of Mars,” mixed media art doll, by C. Jane Washburn. Bidding opens November 12th.

• “Dream of the Child Empress of Mars,” mixed media diorama box, by Connie Toebe. Bidding opens November 15th.

• “The Child Empress of Mars,” decorative piece, by Laramie Sasseville. Bidding opens November 26th.

[via Charles Tan of SF Signal]

New audio adaptation of The Martian Chronicles coming down the canal

Phil Nichols, a Ray Bradbury media aficionado and collector stationed in the UK, announced recently that The Martian Chronicles will be given its first complete full-cast audio production. Based on a fresh script written by Jerry Robbins with input from Mr. Bradbury, the full-length dramatization will be produced by The Colonial Radio Theatre of Boston.

"I plan on adapting the entire book, so I'm not sure on the running time yet. I hope to have the script finished mid-December for Ray to read through. At that time I should have a rough idea as to the length. I don't plan on an abridgment of content by any means. If we're going to do Martian Chronicles, we're going to DO Martian Chronicles," Robbins said.

Stay tuned for more info. Meanwhile, check out Tor.com’s sixth in a series of seven interviews with Ray Bradbury on the “visual nature of his fiction, the art of collaboration and the process of writing.”

The Martian Race, a 1999 novel written by Gregory Benford

The Martian Race, by Gregory Benford (1999)

Pictured: Paperback (New York: Aspect / Warner Books, 2001), 444 p., $6.99. Cover illustration by Don Dixon. Here's the piece from the back cover:

As NASA bogs down in politics, tycoon John Axelrod mounts a privately funded expedition to the Red Planet. Axelrod's not high-minded -- he expects the televised flight to net him billions. But for astronaut-scientist Julie, Viktor, Marc, and Raoul, the mission's not about money. It’s about discovery ... and surviving for two years on a frigid, alien world that can kill them in countless ways.

For a time will come when -- in order to live -- the explorers must embrace everything that makes them human ... and everything that will make them Martian.

In the afterword to The Martian Race, Benford wrote, “This novel attempts a portrayal of how humanity might explore Mars in the near future, at low cost and with foreseeable technology. Undoubtedly, reality shall prove the details wrong. Still, I hope to sound a note of realism in the sub-genre of exploration novels, to depict just how demanding true planetary adventuring will be.”

An excerpt from The Martian Race is available at SFFWorld.

Benford discussed his novel in a 2000 interview with Locus.

Quite a few individuals have reviewed The Martian Race, including Donna McMahon of SF Site, Steven H. Silver of SF Site, Amy Harlib of SciFiDimensions, Chris Aylott of Space.com and T. M. Wagner of SF Reviews.net. In addition, Amazon has reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal, as well as from nearly 50 fans.

German cover art: Hilding Borgholm’s 1961 novel Schatz in der Marswüste

Here's some cover art that reminds me of the East German Stasi: Schatz in der Marswüste (Treasure in the Martian Desert, 1961), a novel by Hilding Borgholm. The novel is #277 in the Utopia series of SF&F books published by Pabel-Verlag in West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.

Sale: Archive of 34 letters and notes written by Edgar Rice Burroughs to his daughter

L. W. Currey, Inc., a rare, fine and collectible book dealer in New York State that specializes in science fiction and fantasy literature, has an interesting listing on AbeBooks: An archive of 34 letters and notes written by pulp author Edgar Rice Burroughs to his daughter, Joan Burroughs Pierce, covering a twelve-year period from 1927 to 1939. Plus 16 black-and-white photographs of Hawaii taken by ERB, with his typewritten captions on the backsides. Price: $18,500.

Pictured: A financial statement from 1909. Apparently, a “Girl” cost only $5.

Kim Stanley Robinson: “The world has become a science fiction novel”

Today’s Guardian newspaper in the UK has a nice article entitled “Kim Stanley Robinson: Science Fiction's Realist.” The bulk of the article is a discussion about Robinson’s new novel, Galileo's Dream (HarperVoyager 2009), but it also mentions his recent criticism of the judges of the Man Booker Prize for neglecting SF, and his observation that “The world has become a science fiction novel.”

BBC releases clip for Doctor Who television special “The Waters of Mars”

The BBC recently released a three-minute video clip for its forthcoming Doctor Who television special, “The Waters of Mars,” which is set on the Red Planet in the year 2059 and features zombies. British Actor David Tennant stars as the Doctor and acclaimed Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan plays the role of Adelaide Brooke, his companion and head of Bowie Base One on Mars.



"The Water of Mars" will be aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on Sunday night, November 15th, and on BBC America in the United States on Saturday night, December 19th. The DVD and Blu-Ray are scheduled to be released in early 2010.

[via John DeNardo of SF Signal]

Martian Rails commodities: Airweed

Martian Rails, the new board game made by Mayfair Games about railroading on the Red Planet in which players build tracks and haul freight, has a long list of cool commodities that players can transport to generate revenue for their rail companies. For example:

Airweed – A native plant of Mars that converts oxygen from the soil and thin atmosphere. The plant then stores the oxygen in pods. The plant was discovered near the Equator but is being introduced to areas away from the Equator.

Do you like board games? Martian Rails is loaded with references to Martian science fiction!

After the Mars Exodus, a new LGBT novel written by Jackson Scheerer

Here’s an interesting work you can preview or purchase through the self-publishing website Lulu.com: After the Mars Exodus (2009), a new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender novel written by Jackson Scheerer. Focusing on the themes of religious tolerance and social justice, here's a description of After the Mars Exodus:

It has been over fifty years since a renegade Christian sect colonized Mars to make its own version of a perfect world. Michael Simonson was being raised into this world when he realized something that complicated things: He was attracted to men. Afraid that he would be executed for disobeying Martian law, he used the money his parents gave him for college to buy a one way ticket to Earth.

Captain Marley Rock is having his own crisis. Although he was raised to be socially aware, he had for the past twenty years been working for a travel corporation he believed to be unjust and evil. For his last mission on the PIV Copper, his fate will cross with Michael's and send them on an adventure neither they nor the crew would ever forget.

Jackson Scheerer is a bisexual and transgender author and activist who lives in Wisconsin.

All the colors of Mars: A list of 17 works

Many months ago, while perusing science writer Oliver Morton’s brilliant nonfiction work of scientific journalism, Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World (2002), I came across a footnote which mentioned some SF books about Mars that have the names of colors in the titles. Building on Morton's footnote, I've compiled “All the Colors of Mars: A List of 17 Works”:

Authors Guild et al. get more time to revise $125m Google book settlement

The New York Times reports that the parties to the proposed $125 million Google Books Search settlement (Authors Guild, Association of American Publishers, Google) have asked for an extension to submit a revised agreement for court approval. The revised agreement was due today, but U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin has approved a request to extend the deadline until Friday, November 13, 2009.

In related news, the Authors Guild still has not posted biographies of its Executive Director, Paul Aiken, and its Board of Directors. Looks like Congress and the IRS need to initiate another round of nonprofit reform.

Looney Tunes: Another rapist sports a tattoo of Marvin the Martian

According to the online rap sheet maintained by the Oklahoma Dept. of Corrections, Henry Paul Hawthorn, a 38-year-old man who was convicted of second degree rape in February 2003, has a tattoo of Marvin the Martian on his left forearm.

NaNoWriMo writers rocket through Mars novels

Tresa Cho and Joi “SaintJoi” Weaver, two twenty-something SF fans and women writers, are rocketing through their respective Red Planet novels for National Novel Writing Month 2009.

Cho’s novel, which is entitled Of All Things Forgotten and revolves around humans on Mars, has passed the 25,000-word mark! Read an excerpt on her NaNoWriMo page, then check out her blog, Science Fiction and the Women who Love it.

SaintJoi’s yet-to-be-titled novel, which is set in the year 2052 and stars a woman named Dejah Sorenson who recovers NASA’s long-lost Phoenix Lander, has hit the 45,000-word mark! Read a huge chunk of the novel, if not all of it to date, on her blog, Dreamer of Mars.

Keep the rockets burning, Tresa and Joi!

Review of graphic adaptation of Stanley G. Weinbaum’s 1934 story “A Martian Odyssey”

Michael May of the website Comic Book Resources recently wrote a short review of the graphic adaptation of Stanley G. Weinbaum’s acclaimed and influential short story “A Martian Odyssey” (1934), which was published this past summer in Eureka Productions’ Science Fiction Classics (Graphic Classics series, Volume 17, 2009):

"Stanley G Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey” is another story that’s done an immeasurable service by the art. [...] Weinbaum’s bio in the back of the book lets us know that it was a highly influential story (Asimov apparently listed it as one of the top three), but like Verne’s work, there’s no real plot stringing the events together. Enter Ben Avery with some modern slang and George Sellas with his animated, pulp-inspired visuals. The adaptation looks and sounds like a Flash Gordon cartoon and it’s just as exciting, pulling you through the astronaut's adventures in constant wonder about what kind of awesomely absurd creature you’re going to meet next."

Pictured: Scene from the first page of the graphic adaptation of "A Martian Odyssey".

"Trail of the Rocket," a 1951 Oldsmobile television infomercial

Remember the good old days, when General Motors was the envy of corporate America, Alfred P. Sloan was more than just the name of a business school, and auto executives didn’t have to worry about being harassed by filmmaker Michael Moore? Singers Lucille and Johnny remember those days, as broadcast in this beautiful 1951 Oldsmobile television infomercial called “Trail of the Rocket.”


Watch Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 on YouTube

The plot: Lucille and Johnny, whose radio show is sponsored by Oldsmobile, are invited to visit an auto plant in Lansing, Michigan, to see where Olds builds its famous Rocket engine. While touring the factory, Johnny becomes concerned that another visitor is a Martian spy whose mission is to subvert Earth's autonomy!

Mars is My Destination, a 1962 novel written by Frank Belknap Long

Mars is My Destination: a Science-Fiction Adventure, by Frank Belknap Long (1962)

Pictured: Paperback original (New York: Pyramid Books, 1962), #F-742, 158 p., 40¢. Cover painting by John Schoenherr. Here's the piece from the back cover:

There was trouble brewing on Mars -- bad trouble. Two giant industrial empires fought for control there, and their struggle imperiled the whole Mars colony. Civil War -- atomic civil war -- could break out any second, leaving Earth’s only foothold in Space a mass of radioactive rubble. But both antagonists were too politically powerful for the Colonization Board to take a direct hand. One man was needed to take charge -- one man who could act fast and decisively, brutally if he had to. Ralph Graham got the job. And then people began dying around him...

An obituary of Frank Belknap Long appeared in the January 5, 1994, issue of The New York Times.

Digital art: Military pin-up girl on Mars

A couple of years ago, Norwegian digital artist Henning Ludvigsen was commissioned to do the cover for Issue #22 (August 2007) of ImagineFX, a British fantasy and sci-fi digital art magazine. The result: “Martian PinUp.” Read Ludvigsen’s October 2008 tutorial on the creation of the piece, in which he discusses the concept, shape, colors, background, hair & make-up, camouflage and sweaty skin!

Sci-Fri: Martian torture chamber

Popular Science magazine has a short but interesting article that details experiments in the basement of the German Center for Aeronautics and Space Research in Berlin in which earthly micro-organisms undergo tests in a chamber of Mars-like conditions. The air inside the hermetically sealed steel chamber consists of 95 percent carbon dioxide, some nitrogen, and traces of oxygen and argon. The temperature: –50˚F

Review of Gilbert and Edgar on Mars, the new novella by Eric Brown

Adam Groves of the horror website Fright.com presents a brief but informative review of Gilbert and Edgar on Mars (Nov. 2009), the new novella written by British science fiction author Eric Brown and published by PS Publishing. In short, Groves concludes that Gilbert and Edgar on Mars, which chronicles the Red Planet adventures of literary giant G.K. Chesterton and pulp author Edgar Rice Burroughs, “is a spirited romp, opulently written and full of old world charm. It references Mars-friendly writers like Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick as well as the fiction of its reality-based protagonists, and does so without sacrificing the sense of fun and adventure that’s part and parcel to all good pulp fiction.”

PS Publishing has posted the first 17 pages (PDF) of Gilbert and Edgar on Mars.

Release date set for comic book adaptation of William Shatner's 1996 novel Man O'War

Comic book company Bluewater Productions announced that the first issue of Man O’War, its adaptation of the eponymous 1996 science fiction novel by Star Trek actor and bestselling author William Shatner, will be released in February 2010. Written by CJ Henderson in consultation with Shatner, the storyline for the comic series will be a continuation of the established plot in the novel, as opposed to a direct adaptation. Here’s how Bluewater describes the issue:

In the near future, friction mounts between the Earth and its Martian colony. Only diplomat Benton Hawkes stands a chance of bringing the warring factions together. There's only two problems -- Hawkes hates Mars, and even if he does go, there's an assassin out to kill him before he can get there.

The artwork and cover art for Man O’War was created by Pat Broderick.

Outpost, an online serial Sci-Fi adventure novel by Julian Phillips and Tom Luong

Here’s an interesting collaborative project. Longtime writer Julian Phillips, who lives in the Middle Kingdom of California, has taken the blueprints of a story drawn by aeronautics-engineer and film-maker Tom Luong and constructed Outpost, an online Sci-Fi serial novel. Set in the year 2075 and starring space transport pilot Guy Reisling, whose job it is to ferry supplies and goods from Earth to the first successful human base on Mars, Phillips & Luong have posted the first six chapters of Outpost.

Also, if you have $10 million to acquire Outpost for a major feature film, please contact Tom Luong or Julian Phillips!

Creepy Soviet animation based on Bradbury's 1950 short story "There Will Come Soft Rains"

I just finished watching “Будет ласковый дождь” (1984), a powerful but creepy 10-minute Soviet animated adaptation of “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950), Ray Bradbury’s classic short story of post-apocalyptic desolation. Wow! Titled after a beautiful early 20th-century poem penned by Sara Teasdale, Bradbury's tale is set on Earth in the year 2026 but included in his collection The Martian Chronicles.



Directed by Nazim Tulyakhodzhayev and produced by Uzbekfilm Studio, “Будет ласковый дождь” has a freaky soundtrack with English subtitles. Bradbury media fan and collector Phil Nichols in the UK has written an excellent synopsis and review of “Будет ласковый дождь,” replete with stills. Check it out!

Publication of The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition pushed back to early 2010

Subterranean Press announced recently that the publication and release of the long-anticipated The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition has been pushed back to early 2010:

“The interior of the book has been completely proofread and is ready to be sent the the printer. The sig sheets are in house, as is the finished artwork. Our regular printer rep had to take a short leave from work, so we’re just now sourcing the hand-marbled paper we intend to bind TMC in. We want everything with this book to go smoothly, and weren’t comfortable finalizing all the details without her guiding eyes on everything that passes through. This shouldn’t delay the book past February, but we’ll let everyone know if it’s going to take longer than that.”

A limited “massively expanded new edition of the Ray Bradbury magnum opus” that contains an introduction by SF author John Scalzi, 22 previously uncollected or unpublished Martian stories by Bradbury, artwork by Edward Miller and other goodies, The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition is going to be a book to treasure for ages!

House health care bill is longer than Kim Stanley Robinson’s colorful Mars trilogy

Irrespective of how folks feel about healthcare reform in the United States, this much is clear: One of the proposed bills crafted by the House of Representatives, H. R. 3962, is a lengthy work. How long is it? 1,990 pages! According to U.S. News & World Report, that is longer than:

The City Outside the World, a 1977 novel written by Lin Carter

The City Outside the World (1977), a novel by Lin Carter

Pictured: Paperback original (New York: Berkley Publishing, 1977), a Berkley Medallion book, 215 p., $1.50. “For Jack Williamson, the Old Master.” Here’s a description from the back cover:

Mars: The skull of a planet picked clean by the wind of time. North. Beyond the desert of Meroe, past the ancient cliffs of the dust-locked continents, past the dry wharfs of a city thay was old when Earth was new, the caravan crept into the unmapped waste called Umbra. It was into this shadowed land that the lost nation of the People had ridden -- and vanished -- in a time beyond memory. It was here that the outworlder Ryker followed the golden-eyed Valarda and found the Child-of-Stars.

The City Outside the World is the third book Lin Carter’s "Mysteries of Mars" series. The other novels are The Man Who Loved Mars (1973), The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974) and Down to a Sunless Sea (1984).

Barsoom Pictures Inc. files ROE application to film John Carter of Mars in Kane County, Utah

Barsoom Pictures Inc. recently filed a Right of Entry application (ROE 5387; PDF 2.7 MB) with state and county officials seeking permission to film a portion of the long-awaited Disney/Pixar film John Carter of Mars (2012) on two sites in Kane County, Utah. According to bureaucratic paperwork released by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget:

“ROE 5387 is a Right of Entry application to set up a movie set to film a movie project on trust lands. Set construction will involve temporary road construction to access the property as well as set construction which will include scaffold type sets depicting structures, buildings, walls, platforms, towers, sand dunes ect. Movie sets are proposed for the parcels of land identified below. Set construction is proposed from January 1, 2010 through April. The project will involve up to as many as 250 people for cast and crew. There will be numerous construction vehicles and equipment as well as filming equipment on site for the project.”

Check out the map. Totally geek!