I don’t often review books, mainly because I’m either too soft a touch or, if the book is too bad, I don’t want to talk about it. But here is a case of something well worth a review, not just because the book it’s good, but because it’s historically important. Roy V. Hunt: A Retrospective is a treat, both for pulp fanatics and for artists. You can read my review here.
Fritz Lang’s visuals for Metropolis (1927) fascinate me. The story is pure socialist creed, but the imagery remains powerful even after nearly 100 years. I remember seeing the re-mastered version with Queen’s soundtrack during college. And I’ve seen the anime remake as well as enjoying Queen’s 1984 video– “Radio Ga-Ga” –immensely. (An interesting year for that video to appear on the scene, in my opinion.) Michael Wm Kaluta created outstanding images for a remake book of Metropolis some time ago. It was his drawings that inspired the title of my…
Well Space Explorers, it’s time for a couple of Buck Rogers posts. Why…? Mainly because he’s one of the first space heroes and one we still love today. There’s just something about the guy…I’m sure everyone has their reasons for being a fan. I love the early strips from the late 1920’s. They still have enough “wow” appeal to make them enjoyable reading today, nearly 100 years later! So here you go, two little tidbits of Buck Rogers’ lore. One will be familiar and one will not. Happy daydreams! Read…
Okay Space Explorers, today I want you to put on your special quartz reflecting ray goggles and join me for a journey into infinity! What Mad Universe (1948) is a delightful science fantasy story written by Fredric Brown. Keith Winton gets caught in a blast created by an experimental moon rocket crashing back to Earth. The electrical nature of the explosion shoves Winton through the walls of our universe and into another reality—where pulp science fiction stories are real! This is one of my favorite pulp stories. Well, why not? It’s…
I’m a huge fan of H. Beam Piper’s works, particularly his Paratime Police stories. The city of Dhergabar is often mentioned in the stories. It is the First Level city where Paratime Police have their headquarters on “Home” timeline. The name has always struck me as funny, linguistically. Today in The Rocketeer I explore what could possibly be the linguistic roots of the word, Dhergabar. Join me over on Substack to read, “Explorations: The Roots of H. B. Piper’s Dhergabar” — https://tinyurl.com/2p83auhy
Today’s Rocketeer is meant to shift your vantage point of perception. I hope it will. Read “Feminism…what?” over on Substack and ladies, see if you can’t relate to what I’ve written here.
It’s Wednesday and that means that The Rockeeter is out today with a new article! Time travel, consciousness travel, parallel travel, even some “quantum leaping”–yup, they’re all in there. See for yourself over on Substack!
Well Space Explorers it’s Wednesday and that means that it’s time for the your weekly missive from Captain Light over on Venus Base. Read The Rocketeer on Substack. Today’s post is called, “The Original Science Fiction.”
After this week my Rocketeer articles will come out on Wednesdays. But due to some funky scheduling, last Wednesday’s post has came out today. It’s called, “The Gernsback Continuum: Gibson Closes a Door.” Check it out over on Substack!
Well, space explorers I’ll bet you thought ‘ol Captain Light was lost to the solar tides of some other sun, didn’t you? Not so! I’m not saying that our space fleet didn’t have some outrageous circumstances and near misses…of course we did! But we’ve zoomed back to Earth at last. And now it’s 2023. Who’d ever thought we’d get here? Why it’s the future or I’m a devil of Jupiter! The Rocketeer newsletter is going to have a new format now, something much more high tech—online posts on Substack. Very…