Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 16, 2007 in Pulp Fiction
Shown above is the cover (click to see at full size) of ‘The Science Fiction Book: An Illustrated History’ by Franz Rottensteiner, featuring an illustrated layout by Thames and Hudson. In the mid-70s I was very much a Star Trek fanboy (and later a Space: 1999 fanboy), so my parents purchased this little treasure for me.
The book was published in 1975 and gives a detailed look at every theme to be found in science fiction from that era, however it doesn’t have the Star Wars photos since the film hadn’t come out yet.
Now that I live in the 21st Century the book cover looks rather charming and dated with it’s disco typography. And the irony is that the book explores what it views as the charming retro look of 1950s pulp magazines and the like. I find it somewhat ironic that in the year 2007 I loving look back at my dog eared version of a book about the future I live in. Now that I live in the 21st Century my only regret that I have is the fact that manned space exploration hasn’t advanced much since the 70s.
A side note on Franz Rottensteiner: I did a quick google and Mr. Rottensteiner is still very much alive and kicking in Austria. He did another book on Fantasy in 1978 and is the publisher of a liteary magazine.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 12, 2007 in Pulp Fiction
I owned that paperback copy of “Sirens of Titan” above, what was great about Kurt Vonnegut was that he played a role in making science fiction respectable:
“Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.
His novels — 14 in all — were alternate universes, filled with topsy-turvy images and populated by races of his own creation, like the Tralfamadorians and the Mercurian Harmoniums. He invented phenomena like chrono-synclastic infundibula (places in the universe where all truths fit neatly together) as well as religions, like the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent and Bokononism (based on the books of a black British Episcopalian from Tobago “filled with bittersweet lies,” a narrator says).”
“he first new Tolkien novel for 30 years is to be published next month. In a move eagerly anticipated by millions of fans across the world, The Children of Húrin will be released worldwide on 17 April, 89 years after the author started the work and four years after the final cinematic instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of biggest box office successes in history.
The book, whose contents are being jealously guarded by publisher HarperCollins – is described as “an epic story of adventure, tragedy, fellowship and heroism.”
It is likely to be a publishing sensation, particularly as it is illustrated by veteran Middle Earth artist Alan Lee, who won an Oscar for art direction on Peter Jackson’s third film The Return of The King. Lee provided 25 pencil sketches and eight paintings for the first edition of the book, one of which is reproduced here for the first time in a national newspaper.
Tolkien experts are already tipping The Children of Húrin – which features significant battle scenes and at least one major twist – for big budget Hollywood treatment. Takings from the Lord of the Rings trilogy box office takings to date total some £1.5bn.
Chris Crawshaw, chairman of the Tolkien Society, said: “It would probably make a very good movie, if anyone can secure the film rights.
“Tolkien saw his work as one long history of Middle Earth: from the beginning of creation to the end of the Third Age. The Children of Húrin is an early chapter in that bigger story.”
The author’s son Christopher, using his late father’s voluminous notes, has painstakingly completed the book, left unfinished by the author when he died in 1971. The work has taken the best part of three decades, and will signify the first “new” Tolkien book since The Silmarillion was published posthumously in 1977.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 9, 2007 in Pulp Fiction
We found a fun gallery of covers from Fate magazine which was focused on the occult and supernatural. The cover designs get sort of dull in the 60s, but the illustrations from the 50s have a quirky kitschy quality to them:
“Disney is optioning rights to the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi series “John Carter of Mars” as a potential franchise for the studio. The pic begins with a Civil War veteran whose retreat into a cave to avoid capture by Apache Indians takes an otherworldly turn as he’s transported via time portal to the planet of Barsoom and taken prisoner by 12-foot-tall green men. Burroughs wrote eleven volumes of Carter’s adventures and Disney is hoping the film will launch a franchise.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 22, 2006 in Pulp Fiction
Oz magzine was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963–69 in Sydney, Australia and, in a second and more famous incarnation it became a “psychedelic hippy” magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London. Strongly identified as part of the underground scene, it was the subject of two celebrated obscenity trials. On both occasions the magazine’s editors were acquitted on appeal after initially being found guilty and sentenced to harsh jail terms.
Most of the issues have been scanned at high resolution and can be found at the Oz Library (just keep in mind that the issues may be ‘not safe or work’):
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 12, 2006 in Pulp Fiction
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Library is hosting an exhibit from December 3, 2006 through January 31, 2007 featuring the art of Hubert Rogers, who painted dozens of covers for Astounding SF from 1939 to 1942 and again from 1947 to 1952:
“Originally from Canada, Rogers found fame as an illustrator in New York. His paintings and drawings appeared in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction at the moment that a group of writers who would become famous and influential around the world began to publish their earliest and most important works. Rogers created both original color paintings which were published on the covers of the magazine and black and white illustrations for the interior pages.
The exhibition will include original oil paintings, sketches and finished pen and ink drawings as well as publisher’s proofs of the color covers for the magazines. Many rare issues of Astounding magazine and other publications will be displayed, as well as books and magazines featuring his inspirational wartime posters and his work as a portraitist.”
“Several pulp heroes of yesteryear will be brought to life on the big-screen courtesy of none other than Dark Man and Spider-Man filmmaker Sam Raimi. The project would unite a number of famous pulp heroes from Street and Smith Publications, which had once been among the top pulp publishers. Characters that we were informed would be included in the film are Doc Savage, The Shadow and The Avenger, and quite possibly other (or all) major Street and Smith characters.”
Below: The December 1941 and the February 1942 issues of Doc Savage.
“Possibly one of the main reasons for Analog’s continued survival and success is a consistent editorial policy over a long period of time. From 1938 to 1971, it was edited by John W Campbell jr., certainly the most famous and influential and, I think, the longest serving of all SF editors. His towering influence shaped not only Astounding (as it was until 1960) but the careers of many leading authors and, through them, the whole field of science fiction. What is less well known is that, since 1978, Analog has again had a single editor, Stanley Schmidt, who is probably therefore the second longest serving SF editor. It is impressive that a magazine that has survived for more than 75 years has, for 60 of them, been directed by just two men. (Gardner Dozois, by the way, has edited Asimov’s for nearly two decades, so Dell certainly seem to believe in backing their editors).”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 20, 2006 in Pulp Fiction
“Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Hellboy” Director Guillermo del Toro says one of his future projects will be to bring horror master H.P. Lovecraft’s classic tale of existential Antarctic dread, “At the Mountains of Madness”, to the screen:
“Hundreds of would-be hobbits have flocked to London’s West End theatre district to audition for parts in the musical stage version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”. Candidates had to be less than five feet seven inches tall, and were each required to be able to sing two songs suitable for the stage production of the three-volume tale, which became a worldwide movie blockbuster.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 12, 2006 in Pulp Fiction
This is a must visit website for Lord of the Rings fans! This interactive Elvish translator converts English into into Tengwar script, which is the script used to write Elvish languages such as Quenya and Sindarin:
“An over half-year production schedule has been set for the Will Smith sci-fi film I Am Legend, according to Production Weekly. The film is the adaptation of the Richard Matheson‘s 1954 novel to be directed by Constantine director Francis Lawrence. Set in Los Angeles after a biological war, the film centers on the sole healthy survivor, a man who finds himself in a battle against nocturnal mutants. Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth… but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood.”
Below: Cover designs from various printings of the book:
A new James Bond novel is being written – 40 years after the superspy’s last outing. The estate of the late 007 author Ian Fleming has commissioned a “well-known and highly respected” writer for the task. The writer’s identity is being kept a closely-guarded secret until publication.
The 15th Bond adventure will be published in May 2008 to mark the cententary of Fleming’s birth. Corinne Turner of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd said: “We are delighted to have secured this particular author who we have had in mind for some time now. “He is the perfect writer for this project and we are greatly looking forward to his take on James Bond, in what we are convinced will be a stunning novel.”
There hasn’t ben a new Bond novel since 1966 when Octopussy and the Living Daylights and were published after Ian Fleming passed away.
I guess the main question is if the new book will be set in the swinging sixties? James Bond and the Cold War go together like Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian era, it would be sad to get away from that.
