Artist and comic book illustrator Jon Vermilyea will host an art show entitled “Attack from Space: Art and New Silk Screen Book” at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles this Friday, September 4, 2009. The show features the original silk screen artwork for his new limited edition book, which is based on the Topps 1962 Mars Attacks trading card series. Vermilyea studied cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Thanks to the generosity of Subterranean Press and PS Publishing, you can read SFFH author Joe Hill’s introduction to the forthcoming limited edition of The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition (late 2009), a “massively expanded new edition of the Ray Bradbury magnum opus” that contains, among other treasures, 22 previously uncollected or unpublished Martian stories written by the timeless guy of Sci-Fi. Hill’s intro to these 22 stories is entitled “Undiscovered Mars, Unseen Bradbury,” and here are his opening lines:
In August 2008, I put together a post about the four “Top Martian Sci-Fi Audiobooks on iTunes,” based on the iTunes official list of the Top 100 purchased Sci-Fi & Fantasy audiobooks. Now, in August 2009, I have decided to review the iTunes Top 100 to see how the list has changed over the past year. While it is unclear to me how the Top 100 is calculated and how often iTunes updates the list, only one Martian SF audiobook is ranked:
Here’s a powerful flashback for those of us who are too old to go back to school: “Was Bert captured by Martians?” an episode from the Ernie and Bert muppet series on the pioneering educational television show Sesame Street. Originally aired in December 1985, here’s a description of the episode, taken from the Muppet Wiki:
BBC Radio 7 will broadcast a reading of female SF&F author C. L. Moore’s classic science fiction/fantasy short story “Shambleau” this week. Originally published in the November 1933 issue of Weird Tales magazine, the story is essentially a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Medusa, and stars Moore's interplanetary hero Northwest Smith. Here’s the broadcast schedule for “Shambleau,” with descriptions provided by the BBC:
If United States District Court Judge Denny Chin approves the proposed $125 million Google Book Search settlement in New York City on October 7th, the lawyers that represent the Authors Guild and its allies will bank $30 million of the $125 million as legal fees.Sir:
May I congratulate you on your recognition of science fiction in your review of A Martian Odyssey. It is seldom that an S-F book receives mention in publications not exclusively devoted to this field, even though interest in science fiction has been increasing at a rapid rate ...
But as ... for dreaming ...' remember that almost all modern inventions, including radio, television, the atomic bomb, airplanes, autos, etc. were once dreams ... Science fiction is where many scientists and engineers dream ... If an engineer, for example, has an idea which does not, at the moment, seem practical, he can write a story about it. Someone else, reading the story, might contribute a further step in the realization of the dream. But if that same engineer should write the "impossible" idea into a technical article, it probably would not be published, and if published, might mean his professional ruin ...
Louis E. Garner, Jr., President
Washington Science-Fiction Assn. Washington, B.C.
[Time magazine, letter to the editor, June 27, 1949]
The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf & Book Review provides a positive review of the advanced reading copy of The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition by Ray Bradbury, a limited edition book being co-published by Subterranean Press and PS Publishing. Scheduled to be released in late 2009, this “massively expanded new edition of the Ray Bradbury magnum opus” contains the original The Martian Chronicles (1950) (with an introduction by author John Scalzi), 22 previously uncollected or unpublished Martian stories by Bradbury (with an introduction by author Joe Hill), two previously unpublished screenplays of The Martian Chronicles (1964, 1997), an essay by Bradbury, and artwork by Edward Miller.
Here’s a quiet but fun activity that mom and dad can enjoy when the kids return to school next week: Mars Exploration: Fact and Fantasy (2002), a Dover Publications coloring book written and drawn by Bruce LaFontaine. This “fascinating book chronicles factual and fantastic aspects of Mars in 44 dramatic ready-to-color illustrations," among them a scene from Edgar Rice Burroughs' timeless novel A Princess of Mars (1912, 1917), Ray Bradbury's classic collection The Martian Chronicles (1950), and Arthur C. Clarke’s underrated work The Sands of Mars (1952), as well as the Hollywood film versions of The War of the Worlds (1953) and Invaders from Mars (1953). Enjoy the fun!
Author and poet Mary Turzillo revealed in a recent entry in her LiveJournal that two of her science fiction works set on Mars are provided as recreational reading to astronauts aboard the International Space Station: The novelette “Mars Is No Place for Children” (1999), which won a Nebula Award; the novel An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl (2004), which was serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. 
Unless this is some clever hoax, the guy who plays the character Tal Hajus in the forthcoming low-budget, direct-to-DVD film Princess of Mars being produced by The Asylum, a motion picture studio in Burbank, California, has posted some photos from the film set on Flickr, including several of actress and former porn star Traci Lords, who plays the role of Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars.
Author Jason Stoddard announced recently that a revised edition of his science fiction novel Winning Mars (2005), which was released on the Internet a few years ago as a freebie under a Creative Commons license, is available for pre-order as a pay-for-it hardcover or paperback book. Here’s a description:
#7. Both SF&F author Ray Bradbury and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx created an illustrated man.
Thanks to Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine, I just finished listening to Mike Boris read “Skinhorse Goes to Mars” (36 mins.), a short story written by award-winning SF&F author Jay Lake that
The plot thickened today in the colossal legal and financial battle over the proposed $125 million Google Book Search settlement as the Open Book Alliance, a new character, launched a website opposing the proposed settlement, saying it “threatens to monopolize the access to and distribution and pricing of the largest digital database of books in the world.”
Offworld (Bethany House Publishers, July 2009), a new Christian novel written by author and journalist Robin Parrish, is generating quite a bit of interst in the mainstream press and the blogosphere. Set in the 2030s, here’s a description of Offworld, taken off of Amazon.com:
“Aztec Mummies & Martian Invaders: Mexican Sci-Fi Classics,” the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s tribute to the “Mexploitation” craze that infected the Mexican film industry in the 1950s and 1960s, will wrap-up with the film Santo el Enmascarado de Plata contra la Invasión de los Marcianos (1967), on Saturday, August 29, 2009. Starring Wolf Ruvinskis, Beni Galan, and Eva Norvind, here’s a synopsis of the film, provided by UCLA:
The Hollywood Reporter reports that British actor Dominic West and actresses Samantha Morton and Polly Walker have joined the cast of the forthcoming Disney/Pixar film John Carter of Mars. West will play the role of Sab Than, prince of the Zodangans; Morton will play the role of Sola, the daughter of Tars Tarkas (played by actor Willem Dafoe); Walker will play Sarkoja, a tyrannical Thark.
Electrolux, a global leader in home and professional appliances, has selected eight finalists to compete for first place in its Electrolux Design Lab 2009 finals, a global competition to be decided in London on September 24, 2009.
“Morning on Mars” (2009), a new piece of flash fiction by Kent Gutschke, was published recently on his blog, Martian Death Ray. Here's the opening:
“Mars: Population 1,” a one-man science fiction play written, directed and performed by James Allerdyce, and which has a short run at The Players Loft in New York City until Saturday, August 29th, has received a “Critic’s Pick” review from Mitch Montgomery of Back Stage. “An interesting treatise on how our imaginative ideas about space travel affect our escapist culture,” here’s the promotional piece for the play:
Google Book Scanning Project Gains Three Major Tech Opponents
Decades after his son and Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944, former Rough Rider and President Theodore Roosevelt trooped to Mars to battle Jorge Hitler, evil Nazis, and the Areans, a pure race of green-skinned Martians. TR’s campaign, which involved H.G. Wells' time machine, the ghost of Thomas Edison, and an alliance with the impure blue-skinned Martians, is documented in Tales From the Bully Pulpit (2004), a 64-page graphic novel written by Benito Cereno, illustrated by Graeme MacDonald, and colored by Ron Riley.
“The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance” (2003), a short story written by Hugo Award-winning author Michael Chabon, will be reprinted in the forthcoming anthology The Secret History of Science Fiction, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel (Tachyon Publications, October 2009). 
#8. Both SF&F author Ray Bradbury and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx are intimately familiar with Playboy magazine.
Looks like I need to add one more item to my summer reading list: “Martians Never Die,” a short story written by Lucius Daniel. Originally published in the April 1952 issue of Galactic Science Fiction magazine, "Martians Never Die” has a niece piece of Mars art by the illustrator Ed Emshwiller. Here are the opening lines of the story:
Tripod Entertainment, an animation production company with international tentacles, has just launched the official website for the forthcoming film War of the Worlds: Goliath (2010), a 90-minute, animated, retro-futuristic, steampunk sequel to H. G. Wells’s classic science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds (1898). The website has a video trailer for the film, a lengthy behind-the-scenes video clip about the origin and production of the film, and a link to the Production Blog and Gallery. If you’re not familiar with the storyline of War of the Worlds: Goliath, here’s a lengthy synopsis:
Mervi’s Book Reviews has a recent and lengthy audiobook review of Buried Deep (2008, 13 hours, unabridged), a 2005 SF-CSI novel written by award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy author Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The fourth novel in Rusch’s Retrieval Artist series, Buried Deep is set on Mars and seems to have many of the elements I enjoy in a Red Planet novel. Here’s a synopsis, taken from Audible.com:
Major Objection to Google Book Search Settlement
The Asylum, a motion picture studio located in Burbank, California, is scheduled to release a low-budget film entitled Princess of Mars direct-to-DVD in late December 2009. An adaptation of the classic 1912 story written by author Edgar Rice Burroughs, Princess of Mars stars actor and model Antonio Sabàto, Jr. as Civil War Confederate soldier John Carter and former porn star Traci Lords as the Martian princess Dejah Thoris. The film, 90 minutes long, is classified as science fiction.
According to a press release issued by the University of Liverpool on August 18th, the institution's Science Fiction Foundation Collection has acquired a rare first edition of Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905), an influential science fiction novel written by British author Edwin L. Arnold that tells the story of an American soldier’s journey to Mars. The novel was "poorly received upon publication in 1905, but has since earned a reputation as one of the most important works of 20th century science fiction." According to Andy Sawyer, the university's SF librarian, “Due to the lack of interest in the original publication of Gullivar Jones, however, the first edition of the book became rare and collectors have not seen a copy come up for sale for more than 20 years." The university acquired its copy through a bequest from the late British book dealer Ken Slater, who died in February 2008.
Armed with new clarity about his mission, speculative fiction writer Shawn Scarber aims to finish writing his military science fiction novel War Dogs of Mars by mid-November 2009. Set on the Red Planet, War Dogs of Mars is about a small force of freedom fighters who attempt to “push back the pigs of the USSR who have been seduced by the evils of the black market.” If you’re interested in following Scarber’s “mundane thought process as I work through this thing, I’ve set up a special twitter feed just to blab on about my process."
Bill the sci-fi guy of the blog From A Sci-Fi Standpoint has a written a nice review of Frederik Pohl's novel Man Plus (1976), which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in the mid-1970s. As Bill notes, most of the novel takes place in a laboratory on Earth, where a fellow named Roger Torroway is transformed into a cyborg capable of surviving the harsh environment on Mars. “A fairly average reading experience, overall,” Bill gives Man Plus a rating of 3 stars out of 5.
Thanks to Jeff Doten of the website Barsoomia, I found this beautiful piece of Mars art depicting John Carter that kind of looks like an Art Deco painting or print created in the early 20th century by American artist Rockwell Kent. Actually, this mock pulp magazine cover was done recently by Pixar artist William Erik Evans. He "designed it to look like an old pulp magazine cover that John Burroughs [son of author Edgar Rice Burroughs] would actually write for."
In a recent entry in her LiveJournal, author Caitlín R. Kiernan set forth her plan for the next few months:
#9. Neither SF&F author Ray Bradbury nor Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx attended college.
Tired of all the damned Hollywood remakes, the geeks over at the Den of Geek have drawn up a list of the “Top 10 potential sci-fi franchises Hollywood ignored.” The novel Desolation Road (1988, Pyr 2009), by British SF author Ian McDonald, is #6 on the list. Here’s what the geeks have to say:
In a wide-ranging, 13-minute video interview entitled "Ray Bradbury: The Illustrated Man", posted on the website of publishing house Macmillan, the timeless guy of Sci-Fi talks about cartoons, comic strips, carnivals, graphic novels, Mars, Disney, flying, and his classic novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Although the interview is really part of a promotional campaign for the new authorized graphic adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury also reveals that a graphic novel adaptation of The Martian Chronicles (1950) will be coming down the canal in the near future!
A recent interview with Doctor Who actor David Tennant and writer Russell T. Davies on the BBC’s forthcoming television special “The Waters of Mars” reveals that the Time Lord feels threatened by his new companion, an older woman named Adelaide, played by actress Lindsay Duncan. Here's an excerpt from the interview:Q: The Doctor has had pretty steady companions for a few series, and then for the specials the Doctor has been solo with new companions. How was it to shoot those specials? How did that change the dynamic on the set for you?Pictured: Actress Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide.
David Tennant: It's been slightly different in each one. In the first one, we had Michelle Ryan who, for all intents and purposes, was the companion, and she was fantastic. Although she was a very distinct character, she was in the mold of the traditional young, beautiful woman, who is also feisty. But, in the next special, the closest thing we have to a companion is Lindsey Duncan, who is an older woman, which is not something the show has done before. And, she probably thinks she's more in charge than the Doctor is. In many ways, she is, actually. So, that's a different dynamic.
The blog Barsoomian Dreams has an interesting new vignette entitled “Sunrise” (2009), written by a Martian and translated into English by Jennifer Johnson. It’s about a human who sees the sunrise break over the outer rim of the Valles Marineris. Here’s the opening line: “The ice from last night was melting on the rocky plateau that lay before him.”
Allison Hoover Bartlett has written an awesome article in today’s Los Angeles Times entitled “Intrigue, ingenuity and controversy in the library world.” It’s about the value of original book dust jackets and the counterfeiting market. On a positive note, Bartlett's article mentions a reputable company called Facsimile Dust Jackets of San Francisco. Check out these cool facsimiles of first edition dust jackets that you can buy for just $22 each:
Issac Asimov’s Mars (1991), an anthology of nine stories set on Mars that originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Edited by Gardner R. Dozois.
Strange Horizons, a web-based weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction, recently published
As a lifelong Roman Catholic who frequently sins by coveting my neighbor's wife and worshipping the money changers on Wall Street, I found a lot of humor in science fiction and fantasy author John C. Wright’s written account of his recent conversion to Roman Catholicism from atheism. The funniest thing is that Mr. Wright’s conversion account mentions the Man from Mars, Tolkein, Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, Nietzsche, Sartre, Caesar, Scrooge, Bishop Berkeley and Mr. Johnson, but doesn’t mention Jesus Christ.
#10. Both SF&F author Ray Bradbury and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx are Angelenos who once palled around with a motley crew doing crazy things.67.JPG)
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