Comic Book Review: The Best of Judge Dredd

Comic Book Review: The Best of Judge Dredd edited by Tharg It is the dark future of the 22nd Century.  Nuclear war and environmental devastation have made large portions of Earth’s surface barely inhabitable, and the majority of the remaining population is crowded into sprawling urban areas called Mega-Cities.  Overpopulation, high unemployment, and a general… Continue reading Comic Book Review: The Best of Judge Dredd

Book Review: Father of Lies | Mirror Image

Book Review: Father of Lies | Mirror Image by John Brunner and Bruce Duncan, respectively. Belmont Books was a minor publisher of paperback books with a specialty in speculative fiction, which lasted from 1960 to 1971.  Apparently in an effort to mimic the success of Ace Doubles, they produced a series of “Belmont Doubles” that… Continue reading Book Review: Father of Lies | Mirror Image

Movie Review: Bender’s Game

Movie Review: Bender’s Game Futurama was a science-fiction cartoon created by Matt Groening (The Simpsons) for the Fox Broadcasting Company.   It starred Philip J. Fry, a New York City pizza delivery worker who is “accidentally” cryogenically frozen for a thousand years.  In the bizarre future world, Fry has trouble fitting in at first, but… Continue reading Movie Review: Bender’s Game

Book Review: The Year’s Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy Second Annual Volume

Book Review: The Year’s Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy Second Annual Volume edited by Judith Merril This 1957 volume contains speculative fiction stories from magazines published in roughly the previous year, hand-picked by the editor to represent the best the field had to offer at the time.  (I’ve previously reviewed the fifth annual, which switched the… Continue reading Book Review: The Year’s Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy Second Annual Volume

Manga Review: My Hero Academia #1

My Hero Academia #1 by Kohei Horikoshi Izuku Midoriya’s dream is to become a superhero, like his idol All Might.   The problem with that idea is that Midoriya belongs to the minority of people on his world who were born without a Quirk, a superpower of some kind.  His former friend Katsuki Bakugo, who… Continue reading Manga Review: My Hero Academia #1

Book Review: One of Our Asteroids is Missing | The Twisted Men

Book Review: One of Our Asteroids is Missing | The Twisted Men by Robert Silverberg (writing as Calvin M. Knox) and A. E. Van Vogt, respectively. This is another Ace Double, two books in one, upside down from each other.  According to Larry Niven, during the 1960s Ace Books was known for being particularly skinflint… Continue reading Book Review: One of Our Asteroids is Missing | The Twisted Men

Manga Review: Batman: the Jiro Kuwata Batmanga

Manga Review: Batman: the Jiro Kuwata Batmanga by Jiro Kuwata In the mid-1960s, the Batman TV show was a huge hit not just in America, but also in Japan.  As a tie-in, 8-Man creator Jiro Kuwata was hired to create a manga version of Batman for the local market.  While the television show was more based on… Continue reading Manga Review: Batman: the Jiro Kuwata Batmanga

Book Review: Cat Breaking Free

Book Review: Cat Breaking Free by Shirley Rousseau Murphy Joe Grey is a talking cat with superfeline intellect and digestive abilities.  Fortunately, he has chosen to use these powers in the service of justice as a civilian investigator for the small California city of Molena Point.  Along with his fellow talking cats Dulcie and Kit,… Continue reading Book Review: Cat Breaking Free

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights by too many to list.  Trust me, a lot of great names. Between the late 1940s and somewhere in the 1990s, one of the most pervasive fears of the American public was atomic war. For the first time in known history, humans were… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights

Anime Review: Elfen Lied

Anime Review: Elfen Lied There is a secret laboratory off the coast of Kamakura, Japan.  There a naked woman wearing an eyeless helmet, codenamed “Lucy”, is undergoing experimentation.   When the helmet is damaged, allowing Lucy to see, she sets about freeing herself, slaughtering many of the lab’s personnel in the process.  Yes, even the… Continue reading Anime Review: Elfen Lied