Book Review: The Best of Analog

Cover art by Alex Schomburg.

Book Review: The Best of Analog edited by Ben Bova After the death of long-time editor John W. Campbell in 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Fact needed a new person at the helm. The winner of the selection process was Ben Bova (1932-2020), who intended to stay only a few years, those years winding up… Continue reading Book Review: The Best of Analog

Comic Book Review: Amazing Man Vol. 1

Comic Book Review: Amazing Man Vol. 1 by Bill Everett and various creators. John Aman (probably not his birth name) was an American orphan taken in by The Council of Seven, a mysterious group of wise men headquartered in Tibet. After twenty-five years of intense training, John passed a series of physical and mental tests… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Amazing Man Vol. 1

Book Review: Great Science Fiction About Doctors

Cover by Don Ivan Punchatz

Book Review: Great Science Fiction About Doctors edited by Groff Conklin and Noah D. Fabricant, M.D. While medical doctors are common and important in science fiction, stories directly about them or the field of medicine are a bit rarer. It was one magazine’s speculation that it would be difficult to fill an anthology with really… Continue reading Book Review: Great Science Fiction About Doctors

Movie Review: The Adventures of Tartu

Jan Tartu presents his papers at the German Consulate.

Movie Review: The Adventures of Tartu (1943) directed by Harold S. Bucquet Dateline: London, 1940. The Blitz is on, and recovery crews are working on a damaged hospital. One of the German bombs failed to go off, and Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) is called on to disarm it. (I got Danger: UXB flashbacks.) This task is complicated… Continue reading Movie Review: The Adventures of Tartu

Anime Review: Bang Brave Bang Bravern!

Lewis Smith has always wanted to pilot a giant robot.

Anime Review: Bang Brave Bang Bravern! (Japanese title: Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern!“) In the not so distant future, the latest weapons development is combat mecha. These “Titanostriders” are a lot like more agile tanks, with all the strengths and weaknesses that implies. On Oahu, there’s a joint military exercise with the Americans, Japanese and Germans… Continue reading Anime Review: Bang Brave Bang Bravern!

Comic Book Review: The Complete Battlefields Volume One

Comic Book Review: The Complete Battlefields Volume One written by Garth Ennis, art by various. World War Two has been a favorite subject of comic books since the beginning of that conflict. Garth Ennis grew up on British war comics, and enjoys writing about the subject. So it’s not surprising that he did three miniseries… Continue reading Comic Book Review: The Complete Battlefields Volume One

Book Review: The Saracen Blade

Cover by James Mooso

Book Review: The Saracen Blade by Frank Yerby The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II was born in Jesi, Italy in 1194. But another child was born on that day in that place. Pietro, son of Donati the armorer and his lovely wife Maria, was delivered by one of the same midwives as she’d gone into… Continue reading Book Review: The Saracen Blade

Movie Review: Grand Hotel (1932)

Otto considers the short time he has left.

Movie Review: Grand Hotel (1932) directed by Edmund Goulding “People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.” So speaks Dr. Otternschlag (Lewis Stone). long-time resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin. But he spends much of his time in his cups to deal with the pain of the facial scarring he got in the Great War, and… Continue reading Movie Review: Grand Hotel (1932)

Manga Review: Tezucomi Vol. 1 & 2

Manga Review: Tezucomi Vol. 1 & 2 by Various Creators 2023 would have been Osamu Tezuka’s 95th birthday year, and in commemoration of the great manga and anime creator, this series was commissioned to show other artists’ take on his famous (and not so famous) works. For reasons, most of these were French and Spanish… Continue reading Manga Review: Tezucomi Vol. 1 & 2

Anime Review: Pluto

Gesicht confronts the darkness in his own past.

Anime Review: Pluto On an alternate Earth where robotics technology is far more advanced than our own, self-aware robots have spread into almost every facet of society. Some are virtually indistinguishable from humans, and in recent years, robots have been granted at least some civil rights. But some robots are more powerful than others, with… Continue reading Anime Review: Pluto