Tube Surfing: Dan Dare, Death's Head and World Book Night outrage

Some quick news items...

• (via the Dan Dare Yahoo Group) A bust of Dan Dare is now sitting comfortably on a beautifully made plinth in a prominent position in the library of Southport College (where his creator, Frank Hampson and other original Dare team members, studied) as an inspiration to future budding Hampsons, Harold Johns or Eric Edens.

Once the library has been refurbished next year there is an intention to bring together a collection of Eagle-related material and have a special section set aside to display it.

• Paul Birch has posted an entertaining review of the Death's Head Volume 2 collection on Speech Balloons, noting the history of Marvel UK as both a publisher of licensed comics and publisher of many US format comics during Paul Neary's tenure as Editorial Director. "How many of the countless Marvel UK superheroes pumped out during that time can anyone remember fondly?" he challenges. "Aside from Death's Head II by Dan Abnett and Liam Sharp that is? Not many, I'm sure..."

Off the top of my head? Warheads, Digitek, Motormouth and Killpower, Hell's Angel (re-named Dark Angel after legal threats from the Hells Angels), Gene Dogs, Shadow Riders. Admittedly, I did edit some of those titles so my memory might be better than others. More important, perhaps, than the characters, was the sheer number of talented folk Paul and the MUK team nurtured between them, now widely known to the general comic audience: artists like Bryan Hitch who had worked for MUK for some time but was rightly given the limelight along with Liam Sharp, Gary Frank and many more.

• Let me join in with the widespread disappointment at the BBC's decision to totally ignore readers of science fiction and fantasy on World Book Night in its BBC2 show, The Books We Really Read: a Culture Show Special (currently available here on iPlayer). Over on the Forbidden Planet International blog, Joe Gordon notes there was "outraged chatter on Twitter about this over the weekend" over the slight.

"The simple fact is that SF&F novels absolutely dominate the bestseller charts and have done for a couple of decades now," notes Joe. "Terry Pratchett, Peter F Hamilton, Iain M Banks and many more almost always go right into the top ten national bestselling hardback list when their new books come out. You can’t do that if you are just a small, easily ignorable niche market." Too right.

Joe reports that long time SF&F commentator (and bestselling author in his own right now) Stephen Hunt (founder of ace SF web site www.sfcrowsnest.com) has decided that instead of our usual moaning of the mainstream media’s dismissive and ignorant approach to our beloved genre that something should actually be done and the BBC made aware of how poor their decision was and how it meant they failed to serve the interest of a large percentage of viewers (who are the ones who fund the Corporation, after all). He has a fairly flaming response to the lack of coverage on his blog already.

"As the hour went by, strangely absent from this detailed parade of what people actually like to read was “a certain” genre, you know… the unclean one, speculative fiction, as in fantasy/horror/science fiction… which together accounts for between 20/30 per cent of the fiction market, depending on what measure you choose to believe.

"I can forgive the committee of World Book Night itself, whose selection of 25 titles to give one millions free copies away was made by a board which clearly apes the views of the Booker panel – which is that fantasy, horror and sci-fi, much like hardcore porn, has no place in any respectable fiction list, but the BBC?" (Philip Pulman's Northern Lights was on the World Book Night list, but only, the BBC made clear, as an example of Young Adult-crossover – heaven forbid it should be an actual example of fantasy).

Outraged, Stephen has set up a Facebook page as well as planning a petition of Brit SF&F authors to complain at the complete lack of coverage by the BBC. So if, as individual viewers based in the UK, you want to complain to the BBC about failing to cover a single fantasy, horror or science fiction novel, the online form to do this is located at... https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/ ... the more complaints, the better! Don't forget to mention the snobby show that started all this.


Perhaps, if enough people write in, we'll get a decent SF show on TV - and no, I'm not talking about Outcasts, which made it clear it was more about the "human condition" than SF, and has rightly bombed in the ratings as a result of boring its audience to death...

WexWorlds Sci Fi and Fantasy Fiction Festival Invades Wexford

Artemis Fowl creator Eoin Colfer, Darren Shan (The Saga of Darren Shan) and Hugo Award-winning author Ian McDonald (Brasyl, Desolation Road) are among the many creators who will be attending the first WexWorlds Festival, in Wexford, Ireland from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd November 2009.

WexWorlds is the first Sci Fi and Fantasy Fiction Festival in Wexford, the brainchild of Eoin Colfer and the Wexford Arts Centre, and is supported by Failte Ireland, Wexford Borough, Wexford Council, Wexford Library, Wexford Chamber, hotels including Talbot and Whites of Wexford, book stores and other businesses.

Over the course of the weekend a range of activities will be taking place – including talks and readings, science experiments, comic art workshops, an exhibition on the process of writing for a comic, activities for younger children, discussions about fantastic literature, a selection of competitions and performance events – at varied venues in Wexford town, which will include Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford Library, book stores, related businesses and hotels.

Other professionals expecting to attend include:

• Judge Dredd and Warhammer comic artist Paul J Holden

• Transformers artist Nick Roche

• Author Oisin McGann (Small Minded Giants, Strangled Silence).

• 2000AD comics writer Michael Carroll (also author of The New Heroes series).

• Author Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon).

• Comics writer Andrew Donkin (Transformers, Batman, Doctor Who).

• Freakshow and Eagle Award-nominated comic writer and publisher for Atomic Diner comic books Robert Curley

The majority of the events over the weekend will be free, with only a minimal charge (€5) for three of the workshops.

As well as books and comics, the weekend is a celebration of all fantastic fiction, so there will also be workshops on costuming, light-hearted sessions with kids and foam weaponry, and movie screening. The festival will coincide with an exhibition by emerging visual artist Vera Klute at Wexford Arts Centre.

Situated on the south-east coast of Ireland, Wexford’s history is steeped in myth and legend and makes this a perfect location for a festival of the fantastic. A story tells of its origin in the mists of time, when Garman Garbh was drowned on the mudflats by waters released by an enchantress. The vast expanse of harbour thus created was named ‘The lake of Garman’ or Loch Garman, the Gaelic name for Wexford.

Wexford is also home to one of the top fantasy fiction writers: Eoin Colfer, author of the famed Artemis Fowl series, currently working on the much anticipated new follow-up to Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which is due to be released a short time before WexWorlds.

Accessible from mainland UK and Europe via sea (Rosslare Harbour) and air (Waterford/Dublin), with bus and train access from major cities in Ireland, this festival in Wexford will make a great weekend away for any international and national tourists with a taste for the fantastic.

The orgnaisers say they're currently working on programme development and will update progress on the festival website in due course.

• If you are interested in participating – as an artist, trader, visitor or volunteer – please email info@WexWorlds.net or visit www.wexworldsfestival.com

Tube Surfing: 3 February 2009

• Look out for an upcoming issue of Egmont's TOXIC which, in addition to the regular strips and features, will feature an additional free 32-page comics supplement that is set to feature the return of a classic British comic strip character or two along with new ones, with art from creators such as Paul J. Palmer and Paul Harrison-Davies and scripts by downthetubes John Freeman, the Temple APA's David Hailwood and a host of others.
TOXIC is now edited by former Assistant Editor Andrew Davidson, with Staff Writer Luke Paton putting together the supplement now that Senior Editor Matt Yeo (also the brains behind Bulletproof Comics) has left Egmont to form his own company, SkyJack Publishing.
Issue #132, the latest issue of TOXIC, on sale now, is a Bakugan special and includes two free Doctor Who Rollers as giveaways along with a TOXIC mouse mat and a wicked whoopie cushion! Ah, aren't free gifts great!

• (via Joe Gordon at Forbidden Planet International): Wim Lockefeer has posted several reports on this year's Angouleme BD Festival via the FPI web site (Day 1 Here; Day 2 Here, with more to come) and photos on Flickr from this major event celebrating comics on a grand scale. From past experience, the whole town of Angouleme is literally taken over by comics. Je ne suis pas jalouse. Nope, we're not jealous we're not there at all. Honest… Here's one of his pics, of Judge Dredd -- "Je suis la loi!!”, who graces the outside of the town's CIBDI comics centre, which has panels decorated by comics artists.

• (with thanks to Matthew Badham): The Guardian has just published its list of science fiction and fantasy books you must read as part of a 1000-title list of books "you must read". Part One includes Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships and Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; Part Two features Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, China Miéville's The Scar and Larry Niven's Ringworld; and Part Three rounds off the suggestions with titles such as Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids.
While there are some modern day titles in the list, such as Neil Gaiman, Miéville, Reynolds and Dan Simmons, for example, there are some unforgiveable omissions: Terry Pratchett and the brilliant Charles Stross, to name but a few...

• Strip: The Art of Ken Reid is the focus of Alex Fitch's latest Podcats on Panel Borders, broadcast last week on Resonance 104.4FM London. The last of a quartet of shows about four generations of British Cartoonists, Alex talks to writers Alan Moore and Pat Mills about their favourite cartoonist, the late Ken Reid who drew Rodger the Dodger in the 1950s Beano and a variety of underrated strips in children's comics such as Wham! and Whoopee! including the creepy classics Faceache and Frankie Stein, up to the 1980s...

• Drawn! A graphic art exhibition is running daily until Sunday 8th February 2009 at Brent Museum, London. Cartoonists, illustrators, students and designers have expressed and interpreted themselves and their view of 'graphic art' in the Museum's latest exhibition and you're invited to test your own understanding of the term and be prepared to draw your own conclusions! The exhibition features finished work – comics and large print illustrations, sketchbooks and biographies from Marc Ellerby, Antonia Hazlerigg, Drew Hussey, Jenika Ioffreda, Meiko Kikuta, Elena Sainz, Adrian Stapleton ... and also features a couple of little-known Hergé illustrations. More info at www.brent.gov.uk/museum

• London comic shop Orbital has relocated to 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JF (previously the Photographer's Gallery). Orbital appropriately now also have an exhibition space, which opened with a selection of new art pages by Tom Humberstone from the latest issue of his Eagle award winning title: How to Date a Girl in Ten Days.

• Luther Arkwright creator Bryan Talbot has been busy updating his MySpace page with a sparky new look, with a revamp of his official site in the works. "It's been going for over 12 years now and is looking a little dated," he notes.

• Jason Nitti has been busy with his fun blog SuperUseless Superpowers. Great fun and some smart art: I like "PreMOMnition" (The power to see what your mother is doing at all times) and "Psychic Amnesia (Mementodamus)" in which the superuseless superhero foresees the future while instantly forgetting anything he has just foreseen. Known in some circles as Untotal Recall...

• Adam Grose has posted the next installment of his new Dragonfly strip on the Clown Press web site

• (via Speech Balloons) Classical Comics will again be exhibiting at the Education Show to be held at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre between 26-27th of March this year. For more information visit: www.education-show.com

Planetary Stories with a British flavour...

(via writer Erwin K. Roberts): The coming of the new year also brings new issues of the quarterly sister web magazines Planetary Stories and Pulp Spirit, described by their editor as an online homage to the S-F pulp magazines of the 1930s through the 1950s. Some stories in the latest issues have a British element, hence this news story.

The Planetary Stories masthead proclaims "Galaxies Smashed, Worlds Saved, Time Travelled." The lead story in the 13th issue is "Acroscaphe" by Lou Antonelli and Edward Morris. Here, at the height of the Cold War, is a potential First Contact tale. The Royal Navy discovers a strange sphere floating in the mid-Atlantic. A NATO wide team is assembled to investigate.

While Planetary Stories covers the science-fiction and fantasy areas of adventure fiction, Pulp Spirit ranges across many other genres. Issue #4 features two westerns, a Spicy Armadillo story, plus Erwin K. Roberts' latest contribution.

In "How The Name Came" by Erwin, a Yankee pilot lands (literally) in the middle of a British special operations mission on some of those 'very special islands' in the WW2 Pacific Theatre of Operations. Strange and Terrible Things follow.

• Planetary Stories #13: www.planetarystories.com/PS13.htm
• Pulp Spirit #4: www.planetarystories.com/PulpSpirit4.htm

Planet of the Apes Chronology Book Published

A new independently-published book about the Planet of the Apes films is now available. The 322-page Timeline of the Planet of the Apes, by Rich Handley, is described as 'the definitive unauthorised chronology' and is released to coincide with the franchise's 40th anniversary.

As fans of the movies and TV series will know, Planet of the Apes continuity is complicated and at times appears to be contradictory - this book aims to sort out the mess! Even the cartoon series is included.

Find out more and order copies of this worthy project, which is very reasonably priced at under eighteen quid, at: www.hassleinbooks.com

Tube Surfing: 20 July 2008

• Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett has been interviewed by The Guardian. "His is the pen behind Eighties comic-strip heroine Tank Girl, virtual band Gorillaz and the opera Monkey," the article opens, "and soon you'll be seeing his animated title sequence for the Olympics on TV. He tells Mark Kermode how a shy boy turned into a great graphic art rebel...

• Over on Bear Alley, Steve Holland has posted a galley of book covers that have graced the work of the brilliant SF author Eric Frank Russell. Like Steve, I have devoured much of his work, thanks to being introduced to him by peter pinto of Lancaster's Interstellar Master Traders (no offence to perte by the way, but the shop, contrary to the bigger-on-the-inside appearance given by photos on its web site is actually much smaller-on-the-inside!). Older British comics fans may remember peter as one of the people behind Dark They Were and Golden Eyed, one of the first comic shops in the UK back in the 1970s. The founder of that fondly-remembered shop, Derek 'Bram' Stokes, also lives in Lancaster and can be found working behind the till of one of its charity book stores.
He chose some odd titles, did Eric - the Space Willies surely one of the strangest...

• Empire magazine has an online listing for its pick of the 50 greatest comic book characters, starting with Todd MacFarlane's Spawn at Number 50 and Superman at Number One. Good to see British and European characters included such as Tin Tin's Captain Haddock (No. 49), , the Mekon (No. 39), Johnny Alpha (No. 27), Obelix (No. 23), Halo Jones (No. 18) and Judge Dredd (No. 7). Not forgetting, of course, characters created by British writers such as Warren Ellis' Jenny Sparks (No. 44) and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Rorsharch from Watchmen.

• Talking of Watchmen, Entertainment Weekly has an interview with Alan Moore online and Empire has posted a trailer for the movie, set to debut in 2009. Moore continues to remain scathing of film adaptations of comics. "I increasingly fear that nothing good can come of almost any adaptation, and obviously that's sweeping," he says. "There are a couple of adaptations that are perhaps as good or better than the original work. But the vast majority of them are pointless." Moore also talks about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol. III): Century and his upcoming novel, Jerusalem, and also reveals what he currently rates as one of the best TV shows ever: US TV cop series The Wire. (Older readers will recall how Alan Moore and Jamie Delano used to race off from Westminster Comic Mart drinking sessions to watch the latest episode of Hill Street Blues back in the 1980s...).

Round up gathered with thanks to Matthew Badham and the team at Forbidden Planet International

Tube Surfing: 9 July 2008

• Jas Wilson has sent me a copy of Smuggling Vacation, now available in all good bookshops. I'll post a longer review later in the week as I've only had chance to flick through it today, but I love the art and the story I've read so far. There's a very French bande dessine style and panache to the book, evocative of the work of Hunt Emerson, Lew Stringer and others... and it's damm funny, too.
Soon to be available from Smallzone, anyone outside the Midlands wanting a copy right now can get one from the Smuggling Vacation website at www.smugglingvacation.co.uk or order through any bookshop (ISBN:9780955917004) priced £6.99.

• As previously reported and hotly debated here, rumours of a remake of The Prisoner have been circulating for many years, all of which proved to be unfounded. However, as Lew Stringer reports, the new series is now definitely on, co-produced between ITV Productions, Granada International and AMC, the US cable network behind the critically acclaimed Mad Men. Starring Jim Caviziel (Passion of the Christ) as Number Six and Sir Ian McKellen (X-Men) as Number Two, the six part mini-series begins filming in August in Africa and is expected to premiere worldwide early in 2009. (More info at AMC's official blog: blogs.amctv.com/the-prisoner).
Lew has drawn an exclusive Prisoner-inspired cartoon, exclusively for the upcoming Prisoner convention PM2008 at Portmeirion, North Wales (the original location for the 1960s series), which will be auctioned off on the day.

• Former 2000AD and Megazine editor David Bishop is posting a series of articles on writing for TV, the first titled "How One Doctor Led Me Toward Doctors". He charts the right and wrong ways of submitting scripts in the UK and as usual has plenty of useful advice to offer would be writers.

• Like others, Warren Ellis has posited a different future for the web, away from the "curator" style of sites such as BoingBoing (while recognising a continued need for such a terrific site) to something more formative and creative, citing services such as Tumblir as an example of what he's thinking of

• The Guardian has interviewed Russell T. Davies on "Life After Doctor Who", dismissing a small enclave of Doctor Who fans who have railed against his popular interpretation of the character. "They are not real fandom," he argues. "They are a core of mostly men who like to complain. Fandom is bigger and richer than that, and they are only about 1,000 people who give everyone else a bad name and build their life around a show."
The award-winning producer, who is soon to collect his OBE and will be delivering a masterclass on Saturday 23 August at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, says says if he had his time again there is "nothing" he would do differently on Doctor Who. However, he admits that the year-round schedule on the show has been "exhausting". He always planned to work on the show for four or five years, the longest he has pursued any one project.

• We're sorry to belatedly report the death of SF writer Thomas M. Disch, author of titles such as Camp Concentration, who committed suicide on 4 July. He had become, we're told, increasingly depressed over time. His EndZone LiveJournal is still "live", unlike him: one tribute simply and succinctly reads "Good night, Tom. Sorry the darkness was bigger than you could handle." Steve Holland offers a concise bibliography on Bear Alley.

(TubeSurfs courtesy of Jas Wilson, Matthew Badham and others)

NetFinds: SF in Six Words

A nice little find this evening... back in November 2006, Wired Magazine published the results of an appeal for some very short SF stories - six word stories to be precise.

The challenge to sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games was inspired by Ernest Hemingway, who once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn."). He is said to have called it his best work.

Dozens of writers put their words to paper and while Arthur C. Clarke refused to trim his ("God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist."), the the rest obliged with some concise masterpieces, including Alan Moore ("Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time"), William Shatner ("Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket."), Frank Miller ("With bloody hands, I say good-bye."), Charles Stross ("Osama’s time machine: President Gore concerned.") and Orson Scott Card ("The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.").

(Netfind courtesy of Michael Norwitz: ""Human infertility? Gengineering! Results tasty, too.")

• Read all the six word stories here on the Wired site.. and perhaps post your own here...

The Ten Doctors

(with thanks to Paul Eldridge for the link): Talk about your labours of love: in March last year Doctor Who fan Richard Morris began his epic fan story The Ten Doctors, now at one hundred pages and counting -- a complex but beautifully drawn cartoon-styled Doctor Who story, with snappy dialogue and a skilled script that sees every Doctor encountering the other, along with a host of companions to boot.

"The Ten Doctors is a geeky little thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long, long time," says Richard, aka "Captain Shipsinker", who hails from Nova Scotia and describes himself as "a director, gamer, and medievalist".

Since its initial publication on Richard's blog, The Ten Doctors has gathered a well deserved, dedicated following. Richard's pencil art -- he does not appear to work in inks on some of his strips, although inked and coloured versions of some pages of The Ten Doctors have been provided by eclecticmuse, aka Stephanie Jackson -- are well drafted, displaying considerable comic storytelling skills, especially considering the number of characters involved.

The story opens with the tenth (and current) Doctor visiting The Eye of Orion (last seen in The Five Doctors) to reflect after the events of The Runaway Bride.

He meets up with his previous incarnations, and an epic adventure, packed with uneasy alliances, acerbic exchanges between Rose and Ace, and all the kind of nastiness you'd expect from Cybermen, Daleks... and the Master.

Richard's studied his Who chronology carefully and skilfully plots a tale spanning many of the show's favourite eras. Well worth checking out - if you haven't already.

Once you've enjoyed The Ten Doctors, I also recommend checking out some of his other strips: 24fps, a delightful jab in the eye at the world of animators, animation and the general public who doesn't understand them; Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic - which recently reached its 700th episode -- and The House of Paulus, a strip set in Roman times (no Gauls in sight!).

Afterlife Released

After a year of long evenings after work, indie British comic creator Michael Crouch has finally produced Afterlife, a one-off science fiction tale.

Afterlife is the story of a group of people on the distant Earth colony world of Nightfall. During a routine mining operation they discover a large stone cross buried underground with a hole in each extremity. A satellite in orbit, their only connection to home, is experiencing unexplained communications black-outs. On top of that is the discovery that this barren world was once home to a race of warriors, long since dead. Or so it seemed.

Pooling their knowledge and skills together, the colonists piece the events together eventually leading them to take a giant leap of faith. Only then can events resolve themselves and the colonists learn that there may be more worlds than the purely planetary.

"I've printed this up as a 32 page comic containing the full 28 page strip in black and white with a colour cover," Michael tells downthetubes. "I had it printed by Warpton Creative, who have done a very nice job of it. It is released under my publishing name, Storm Comics (www.stormcomics.com) and is available from the web site now for £2.25. I am currently working on a historical story which I aim to publish as my second release later in the year."

• Storm Comics: www.stormcomics.com

Nebulous Returns

The SF comedy series Nebulous returns to BBC Radio 4 at 11 pm on Thursday 15 May for the first in a new series of six episodes.

Set in 2099, the comedy series involves the Key Environmental Non-Judgemental Taskforce (KENT) in their fight against alien threat and ecological disaster. Starring Mark Gatiss as Professor Nebulous and David Warner as his nemesis Dr Klench, the series is written by Graham Duff, who also appears as the Professor's assistant Rory Lawson, and is directed by Nicholas Briggs.

The illustration of the KENT team is taken from the Radio Times and is by Graeme Neil Reid who describes its creation on his blog.

• The first series of Nebulous is available on BBC CD from Amazon.co.uk

More Moore

Ronald D. Moore, that is - not Alan. US broadcaster Fox has ordered a two-hour sci-fi pilot, Virtuality from Ronald D. Moore (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) and produced by Universal Media Studios. Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun along with Ronald and Michael Taylor are executive producers.

The plot centres on 12 astronauts on a ten-year journey aboard the Earth's first starship, the Phaeton. Also on board are virtual-reality modules giving the crew members a chance to be adventurous and take on different personas - which all works fine until the virtual system is invaded by a mysterious bug.

Production on Virtuality begins in July. Sounds to us like Moore's chance to wreak revenge on all those often tiresome Star Trek holodeck stories...

Twilight Zone and Flyings Saucers come to Comics

The newly revamped icv2.com reports that UK publisher Walker Books is launching a series of eight graphic novels based on classic episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone. The first two volumes will be out in October, just one year shy of the show's 50th Anniversary.

Mark Kneece, who has written for Marvel, DC and Kitchen Sink Press, is adapting the episodes, all of which were originally written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, and the graphic novels are being illustrated by artists from Savannah College of Art and Design's Sequential Arts Program.

The first two graphic novels adapt two first season episodes, Walking Distance (pictured left, from October 30th of 1959, in which Martin Sloan, a successful middle-aged man, attempts to re-enter the world of his childhood) and The After Hours (pictured above, from June 10th of 1960, the story of a woman trapped inside a department store where the mannequins come to life once the store is closed).

icv2 also reports on plans by Bluewater Productions to release the graphic novel collection of its Flying Saucers vs. The Earth comic book series in August, adapting the classic 1956 film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, under its "Ray Harryhausen Presents" banner. Full story here

Friday Fun: Unsold SciFi Pilots

After getting a phone call from a TV producer this week seeking comics that could be adapted for TV - and suggesting a few British independents and UK publishers he should try -- it seems it's TV pilot pitching season out there in meeja-land. Here's some more ideas from the wacky 1970s and 1980s -- anyone remember their original airings?

It's a Science Fiction World...

-- or at least, that's the view of a leading American professor, talking about a new article he's written for Indiana's Martinsville Reporter-Times.

"Science fiction is no longer kids' stuff, but serious literature," acclaimed Jules Verne expert Arthur B. Evans, Laurel H. Turk, who is also Professor of Modern Languages at DePauw University, tells the paper. "It's partly because we are living science fiction on a regular basis."

Dr. Evans is featured in an article headlined "No longer considered pulp fiction" with reporter Ronald Hawkins describing Evans as a good example of the increased respectability that science fiction has gained over the years.

"Evans is a French professor at DePauw, but he also teaches a science fiction course at the university, one of many institutions of higher learning that offer such courses. Evans also is the managing editor of Science Fiction Studies, a scholarly journal that began at Indiana State in the 1970s and moved to DePauw in 1991 after time in Canada." The respected journal which publishes critical articles and book reviews only, recently reached its 100th issue.

Evans discusses how science fiction has changed since the days when stories focused on the possibilities of space travel. "Today, there are all kinds of interesting themes," he says. "There's a lot about nano-technology, biological futures, viruses."

The professor also discusses the difference between science fiction and fantasy. "It's fantasy if it's got magic and no perceivable laws of science in operation," the professor tells the paper. "If it's about the supernatural, it's not science fiction. An example of the differences in literature would be that the Harry Potter books are fantasy, whereas Jules Verne's ' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea would be science fiction."

• Read the complete text at the newspaper's Web site.

Tin Man to premiere in May in UK

The UK Sci Fi Channel has announcded the top-rated mini series Tin Man, inspired by The Wizard of Oz and screened on SciFi Channel US last year, will air in May.

As we reported last month and last year, the fantasy adventure, produced by RHI Entertainment, earned the miniseries "most watched miniseries in Sci Fi history" status with 6.3 million viewers over the three nights in the US.

Starring Eric Johnson of Smallville fame in the title role, the series has already aired on the SCI FI channel in Poland, and Tin Man will premiere on Sundays at 8.00pm from 11th May in the UK.

In Memoriam: Sir Arthur C. Clarke

It seems to be a really bad few weeks for the science fiction and comics medium, with yet another reminder that my generation is in "mortality country" (as Alan Moore describes it). Today comes the news of the passing of writer Arthur C Clarke, perhaps best known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey but whose credits encompass much more than that, who has died aged 90.

Clarke, who was born in Minehead, Devon in 1917 and was a radar specialist in the Royal Air Force during World War Two, said he wanted to be remembered as a writer "who entertained readers and hopefully stretched their imaginations as well" when he celebrated his 90th birthday in December, died at home in Sri Lanka, where he had lived for 20 years. Indeed he will.

As his official biography on the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation rightly states, his achievements, unique among his peers, bridge the arts and sciences. His works and his authorship have ranged from scientific discovery to science fiction, from technical application to entertainment, and have made a global impact on the lives of present and future generations.

Along with Ray Bradbury, E.E. Doc Smith, John Wyndham, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Poul Anderson, he was one of just many SF authors I read avidly as I grew up but his work was among the stories that I think most memorable. A Fall of Moondust, (also made into a radio serial, recently released on CD), Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama are the most memorable, to me, of his some 30 novels (he wrote over 100 books in total, fiction and non). My father and I were among the many bemused but enthralled by the film of 2001: A Space Odyssey when it was re-released in the early 1970s, a story which takes readers from the dawn of man to the rebirth of an astronaut as a star child in the future (yes, that's what it was about...).

"He was a great visionary, a brilliant science fiction writer and a great forecaster," British astronomer Patrick Moore told The Guardian. "He foresaw communications satellites, a nationwide network of computers, interplanetary travel; he said there would be a man on the moon by 1970, while I said 1980 - and he was right."

"I think he was probably the first science fiction writer to break out of the science fiction ghetto," Terry Pratchett told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning. "He became a national treasure."

Tribtutes and Obituaries
• Scientists and authors pay tribute (Guardian, 19 March 2008)

• BBC Obituary
Sadly, the BBC has seen fit to repeat allegations of abuse made against Mr Clarke in its obituary, which were proven totally false. The Sunday Mirror, which made them, was forced to apologize for their baseless reports. Quite why the BBC repeats them now, when the organisation has itself published a report on the wrongful nature of the allegations back in 1998, is a mystery.
• The Guardian by Anthony Tucker
• The Chicago Tribune
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Wired Magazine

Links
• The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation
• NNDB Entry
• Wikipedia Entry
• Guardian Arthur C. Clarke Author Page
• Buy Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography by Neil McAleer

Clarke's Three Laws

1. "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
2. "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."
3. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Alistair Reynolds Signing News

SF author Alastair Reynolds will be signing his new book, House of Suns at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 12th April 1-2pm

Alastair’s first novel Revelation Space was published in 2000 and was short-listed for the BSFA and Arthur C. Clarke awards. His second novel Chasm City won the BSFA in 2002. Up until 2004 he was working as a scientist within the European Space Agency, and after living for 16 years in the Netherlands he has now returned to his native Wales.

House of Suns begins six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, when Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. But now something is trying to destroy them and they have to find out who or what it is before their ancient line is wiped out.

More War Toys from Starkings and Moritat

Elephantmen: War Toys #2 (or 3), from US publisher Active Images, goes on sale next week (27 February) in all sensible (and some insensible) comic shops.

Written by former Marvel UK head honcho and First Tiger Richard Starkings (he who got me into the world of comics publishing in the first place) War Toys #2 features by Moritat, recently singled out by Newsarama's Ryan the Iowan as Best Penciller of the Year in his Yearly Review Power Rankings.

The cover is by Boo Cook, with a variant cover also on offer by Ladrönn.

In War Toys, Africa and China are at war. The battlefield: Europe. Enter: MAPPO's genetically engineered soldiers, The Elephantmen with Starkings and Moritat telling the story of the war to end all wars in a special three issue mini series!

In this latest issue of the future saga, France has fallen to MAPPO... but even the Elephantmen have sustained heavy casualties. As Africa's forces advance into the North of Europe, Hip Flask, Ebony Hide and Obadiah Horn find that their way forward is not as easy as they thought it would be.

• Click here for a special five-page preview

Oz Comes to the UK

(Updated 20/3/08): The top-rated mini series Tin Man, inspired by The Wizard of Oz and screened on SciFi Channel US last year, will air in May on the UK SciFi Channel.

As we reported last year, the fantasy adventure, produced by RHI Entertainment, earned the miniseries "most watched miniseries in Sci Fi history" status with 6.3 million viewers over the three nights.

The screening follows SciFi's successful bid for exclusive pay TV rights to the critically acclaimed drama across three European regions; the Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the UK.

The agreement - negotiated by SCI FI’s Head of Acquisitions Monica Iglesias and RHI Entertainment’s President Production & Distribution Joel Denton - also includes mobile, internet and VoD catch up rights for the UK.

The series is an epic re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that gives the story a heavy science fiction fantasy emphasis and gives only allusionary references to most of the original story. Gone is the Wicked Witch Of The West and country-bumpkin Dorothy Gale… leather-clad sorceress Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson) is pitted instead against DG (Zooey Deschanel), a young woman living in the American Midwest is who transported to the decaying world of The O.Z (The Outer Zone) to fulfil her destiny.

Richard Dreyfuss delivers a powerful performance as The Mystic Man – the contemporary version of The Wizard – alongside Glitch (Alan Cumming), an odd man missing half his brain; Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a wolverine-like creature longing for inner courage; and Cain (Neil McDonough), a heroic former policeman (known in The O.Z. as Tin Men) seeking vengeance for his scarred heart.

The acquisition of Tin Man continues SCI FI’s relationship with international distributor RHI, through which the channel secured similar UK, CEE and Benelux rights for the new Flash Gordon series, which is the inspiration for a new comic being produced by a British team.

Starring Eric Johnson of Smallville fame in the title role, the series is already airing on the SCI FI channel in Poland, and Tin Man will premiere on Sundays at 8.00pm from May 11 in the UK.