Magazine Review: High Adventure #194: Wheeler-Nicholson Special

Magazine Review: High Adventure #194: Wheeler-Nicholson Special edited by John P. Gunnison This volume of the pulp reprints series has five stories by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who in addition to writing many fine pulp stories is important to the history of comic books. In 1935, he founded National Allied Publications, which published the first comic… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #194: Wheeler-Nicholson Special

Comic Book Review: Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #19: Superman

Cover by Ross Andru & Dick Giordano

Comic Book Review: Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #19: Superman edited by Julius Schwartz This is an imaginary story–aren’t they all?” –Allan Moore, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Back in the Silver Age of DC Comics, especially in the Superman titles, status quo was very much a thing. The Superman/Clark Kent/Lois Lane… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #19: Superman

Movie Review: From Russia with Love

James meets Tatiana.

From Russia With Love (1963) dir. Terence Young James Bond (Sean Connery) is being stalked through a garden maze by a mysterious figure. The stalker manages to get the jump on Bond and strangle him with a wire garotte concealed in his watch. Our hero is dead! But no, we swiftly learn that this was another… Continue reading Movie Review: From Russia with Love

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: Time Gladiator

Book Review: Time Gladiator by Mack Reynolds (aka “Sweet Dreams, Sweet Princes”) In the early 21st Century, the United American State has become a caste society. The Upper 1% have most of the wealth and power, while the Lower 90% have been automated out of jobs and must subsist on the People’s Capitalism, a welfare… Continue reading Book Review: Time Gladiator

Book Review: Subversive Sci-Fi: Reflections on Futuristic Films That Broke the Rules

Book Review: Subversive Sci-Fi: Reflections on Futuristic Films That Broke the Rules edited by Prof. Christopher McGothlin, M.Ed. Disclaimer: I contributed to the Kickstarter for this book. In over a century of movies that can be considered “science fiction” of one sort or another, there have been a number that challenged the status quo in… Continue reading Book Review: Subversive Sci-Fi: Reflections on Futuristic Films That Broke the Rules

Book Review: The Destroyer #26: In Enemy Hands

Book Review: The Destroyer #26: In Enemy Hands by Richard Sapir & Warren Murphy When JFK realized that there were certain threats to America and the world that could not be handled by normal government agencies and it wasn’t wise to rely on random good people stepping up, he turned to bureaucrat and former CIA… Continue reading Book Review: The Destroyer #26: In Enemy Hands

Book Review: Dangerous Visions and New Worlds

Book Review: Dangerous Visions and New Worlds edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre Subtitled “Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985” this book is a collection of essays about how science fiction (or perhaps “speculative fiction” is a better phrase) changed and adapted to reflect the changing issues and social concerns of the Cold War period, and… Continue reading Book Review: Dangerous Visions and New Worlds

TV Review: The Guardians of Justice

Red Talon reports to President Nukem

TV Review: The Guardians of Justice On an alternate Earth, World War Three began in 1947 with the rise of Robo-Hitler and the remnants of the Nazis, who’d finally managed to complete an array of mad science superweapons. All seemed lost until Marvelous Man (Derek Mears) arrived. A human-looking alien with seemingly limitless power, Marvelous… Continue reading TV Review: The Guardians of Justice

Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September/October 2021

Cover by Brian Stauffer

Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September/October 2021 edited by Janet Hutchings “The years keep coming and they just keep coming.” It seems like just a few months ago I reviewed a 75th anniversary issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, but in fact it was five years ago, and here’s the 80th anniversary issue. It’s… Continue reading Magazine Review: Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September/October 2021