SciFifty

Dante Hicks, Holden McNeil and the Apostle Rufus: What sick mind could conceive of them? Oh, sure, Kevin Smith… bingo!
 
A not-so Silent Bob, Kevin is a writer of books and comics and a writer/director of movies. His body of work includes Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and, well, even Jersey Girl, which by the way had a very good performance by George Carlin as the father of Ben Affleck’s character,
 
Kevin is a Jersey Boy and very proud of it. His first film Clerks was filmed at the convenience store where he worked and was financed by the sale of his comic book collection. It is therefore totally fitting that he is one of the hottest tickets at Comic-Con 2008 this month.

The Comic-Con event is Entertainment Weekly's panel, "The Visionaries: Filmmakers" Friday, July 24th in Hall H. A word to the wise: The venues are not emptied out between events, so get there early to claim your seat.

Comic-Con rules!

Posted by webninny at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my favorite current authors is Dean Koontz, especially the Odd Thomas series. I’m an even bigger fan of the Frankenstein series which started with The Prodigal Son which introduced a new take on the mythology.

The end of the second book, City of Night, promised a third chapter, but Koontz has yet to deliver.

I was prepared to write a note to his online spokesdog, Trixie, but discovered on the Koontz website that she passed away last summer. Trixie lives on through the Website but sending her a faux-angry note about a yet-unpublished book now seems wrong.

So with that I reach out to you directly, Dean Koontz. When can we expect the next book in the enjoyable Frankenstein saga? Please get it done and published so we can all move on.

I may still reach out to Trixie via Totos, but only to offer her a scratch behind the ears and to ask her to look out for our treasured family samoyed-sheppard mix, Spike, who passed away several years ago.

Posted by webninny at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Remember the ads for BB guns in the back of D.C. Comics?  They were removed by suggestion from Harlan Ellison that they were "inappropriate for children.”

Posted by webninny at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two of the best science fiction scripts of the sixties were written by Mr. Ellison, the Star Trek episode called City on the Edge of Forever won a Hugo award. McCoy is accidentally sent back in time where he meets Edith Keeler a forward-thinking social worker. He saves her life and thus changes the course of history. Needless to say Kirk and Spock follow him through the same time portal and when they are reunited Kirk prevents McCoy’s action and history spins out as it should.  

The second script was for The Outer Limits called Demon With a Glass Hand. The hero of this story is an amnesiac with a glass left hand which is a complex talking computer missing three fingers. The other fingers are in the abandoned office building he finds himself in and will provide the answers he needs. His quest is made more difficult by evil, time traveling aliens and the knowledge that 1000 years into the future all humans are missing.
 
Both stories are complex, relatable to the human experience, and offer no easy solutions. The You Tube clip I mented yesterday is from a new documentary called Dreams with Sharp Teeth from Grizzly Man producer, Erik Nelson. It is being released in New York the first week in June.

Posted by webninny at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night when I was looking for a clip on You Tube I came across a video of Harlan Ellison called Dreams With Sharp Teeth.  Harlan was expounding on the subject of writers valuing their work enough to demand payment.  It was Harlan alright, bigger than life, abrasive and brilliant.
 
I was immediately caught in a time warp back to the 60s when I was avidly reading speculative fiction and Ellison was one of my favorite writers. His Nebula-winning story, A Boy and His Dog, introduced me to the term "novella" and each month’s fantasy and science fiction magazines were searched for one of his short stories.

Posted by webninny at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)