Comic Book Review: No Hero story by Warren Ellis, art by Juan Jose Ryp Forty-five years ago, the Levellers appeared in San Francisco, superhuman beings created by psychoactive chemicals. Led by maverick scientist Carrick Masterson, they were the world’s first superheroes. Decades later, the membership has changed, except the still-youthful Masterson, and they’re known as… Continue reading Comic Book Review: No Hero
Tag: California
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3 by Robert Bloch Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was a prolific author of horror, science fiction and mystery works. (You may have seen, read or at least heard of Psycho.) This volume, originally “Selected Stories” and by no means complete, features 39 stories published between 1960 and… Continue reading Book Review: The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch Volume 3
Movie Review: Big Trouble in Little China
Movie Review: Big Trouble in Little China (1986) directed by John Carpenter. Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), owner of a small restaurant in San Francisco, probably shouldn’t have stayed up all night gambling with his recently arrived trucker friend Jack Burton (Kurt Russell). After all, he’s supposed to pick up his fiancee Miao Lin from the airport… Continue reading Movie Review: Big Trouble in Little China
Book Review: New Stories for Men
Book Review: New Stories for Men edited by Charles Grayson This 1941 anthology’s title is a trifle misleading, as some of the stories were up to twenty years old at the time of publication. It turns out it’s a sequel to Stories for Men by the same editor a year or two earlier, which became… Continue reading Book Review: New Stories for Men
Book Review: Best New Horror #28
Book Review: Best New Horror #28 edited by Stephen Jones It says something about the number of books published every year, even in this “print is dead” time, that this is the first time I have seen an installment of this British-published horror anthology. Number twenty-eight! Admittedly, my attention was first grabbed by the gruesome… Continue reading Book Review: Best New Horror #28
Book Review: Make My Day
Book Review: Make My Day by J. Hoberman Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was the first president of the United States to have been a movie star. Motion pictures that he’d worked in and that he saw certainly affected his politics, and his politics affected the movies that came out during his time in office. This volume… Continue reading Book Review: Make My Day
Magazine Review: High Adventure #162: The Uranium Pomegranates
Magazine Review: High Adventure #162: The Uranium Pomegranates edited by John P. Gunnison World War Two is over, but the dust is still settling. Bud Harper has been out of the military just long enough to be bored in his old job of bond salesman for Lewis & Co. While delivering some bonds to dynamic… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #162: The Uranium Pomegranates
Book Review: The Mystery of the Timber Giant
Book Review: The Mystery of the Timber Giant by Fran Striker Tom Quest, teen adventurer, and his newspaper columnist friend Whiz Walton are at the San Francisco airport to see Tom’s scientist father Dr. Hamilton Quest off on a vacation to Hawaii. Once done with that, they’ll be off on their own flight to Texas.… Continue reading Book Review: The Mystery of the Timber Giant
Book Review: Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond
Book Review: Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond by Erika Schelby The author is a German immigrant to New Mexico. While studying the history of her new state, she learned that Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the famous Prussian naturalist and explorer, had passed through what would become New… Continue reading Book Review: Looking for Humboldt & Searching for German Footprints in New Mexico and Beyond
Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934
Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934 editor-in-chief Hugo Gernsback Wonder Stories was one of the first dedicated science fiction magazines, started up after Hugo Gernsback lost control of Amazing Stories. It started in 1929 as two magazines titled Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories before being consolidated in 1930. He held onto it until 1936 when financial considerations made him sell it to Beacon Magazines. They… Continue reading Magazine Review: Wonder Stories January 1934