Books & Comics

You No Longer Need To Be an Artist To Appear In Your Own Comic Book

If you haven’t been able to convince publishers your life would make for an awesome comic book, and can’t draw more than a crude stick figure facsimile of yourself, you can thank the imaging researchers at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology in Japan. They’ve created a fun system that can automatically generate manga-style comics starring…

Why are there so many apostrophes in scifi and fantasy names?

Grammarian Mignon Fogarty takes a look at one of fiction’s enduring mysteries: How did all of those apostrophes find their way into the names of aliens, distant lands, and future peoples? Over at Grammar Girl, Fogarty looks at the influence of writers like Anne McCaffrey andRoger Zelanzy, as well as the possible impact of real-world…

What happened when a fictional character penned an autobiography

When Yankee Lawyer: The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt came out in 1943, a lot of readers were confused. After all, Tutt was a fictional person, the hero of a series of legal novels. Or was he? Many fans became convinced that Tutt was a flesh-and-blood human being. Ephraim Tutt was the creation of Arthur Cheny…

A superpowered poet meets a conspiracy during the Summer of Love

The year is 1967, and Banning James, a young poet with the ability to psychically inflict his own experiences onto others, thinks he’s on his way to Boston. But his plans change when he gets caught up in an anti-Vietnam War protest, one that ends with an act of destruction that never occurred in our…

DC is moving the JLA to Canada and turned Lobo into a male model

While everyone is still freaking out about Ben Affleck’s Batman, it seems like DC thought it would be time to announce some other news that may not be so popular: Specifically, that the Justice League of America is heading north and that Lobo will now apparently be played by Twilight’s Robert Pattinson. I’m serious. That’s…

Exclusive Excerpt from Francesca Lia Block’s Post-Apocalyptic Odyssey

In Love in the Time of Global Warming, Francesca Lia Block does an off-kilter spin on Homer’s Odyssey, set in a post-apocalyptic world. Pen, a 17-year-old girl, searches through the ruins of Los Angeles for her missing family. We’ve got an exclusive excerpt right here! I drive as fast as I can away from the…

The 7 Most Common Misconceptions About Science Fiction Publishing

Science fiction book publishers sail the multiverse like a fleet of unstoppable hyper-cruisers. And many of us dream of being beamed up to one of these motherships. But at the same time, a lot of people don’t understand how the system works. Here are the seven most common mistaken ideas about science fiction book publishers.…

Iron Man becomes a guided missile, in stunning new concept art

We’ve seen a ton of Iron Man 3 concept art before — but we didn’t see the concepts from suit designer extraordinaire Phil Saunders… until now. Saunders finally released some designs for Tony Stark’s cutting-edge armors, and they are glorious. One interesting piece of information that Saunders released, along with his early designs for Extremis…

The Most Astonishing Real-Life Treasure Hunts

Sometimes our world seems bland in comparison to what we read in books and see in movies and television. Where are our chances at adventure, fame, and fortune? Well, here are 12 real-life treasure hunts — some of which have never been solved! Top image: Masquerade by Kit Williams. 1. Forrest Fenn In the 80s,…

Our exclusive interview with legendary fantasy artist Brom!

Brom is only 48, which is pretty young to have his career summed up in a single book. But the recently released The Art of Brom does just that, from his humble beginnings (seriously, you have to see the dinosaur picture he drew when he was 5) to his reign as one of the fantasy…

This Fall’s Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

If you want to read your eyeballs out this fall, you are in luck. Here are some of the science fiction and fantasy books we’re most excited about this season. Top image: Beyond the Rift by Peter Watts Remember, these are only a fraction of the books arriving this fall to fill your bookshelves with…

Even Jack Kirby’s comic book margin notes are a delight to read

The Marvel Age of Comics Tumblr posted this page from X-MEN #9 by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone, and you can still see Kirby’s border notes, where he spells out each panel’s subtext beat by beat. Since the notes at the top and bottom of the page are difficult to read, here’s the transcript: HEY!…

12 Incredibly Embarrassing Superhero Transformations

“Stability” isn’t a term superheroes get to hear much. People die and come back, teams are constantly changing members, and new villains are always popping up. Heck, most heroes can’t even depend on their own bodies to stay constant, thanks to magic, mad scientists, and/or otherworldly rocks. Here are a dozen heroes who once changed…

io9 Book Club reminder: On 8/27 we discuss The Shambling Guide to NYC

In August, the io9 Book Club is reading Mur Lafferty’s goofy-smart urban fantasy novel, The Shambling Guide to New York City. We’ll meet August 27 to discuss it, and we hope Lafferty will join us later that week for a chat! Still not decided? You can read io9’s review of the book here. https://gizmodo.com/now-this-is-the-urban-fantasy-heroine-we-want-513271146 What…

Where Do All Those Amazing Discoveries Go, Anyway?

It seems as though every day we read (and write) about another amazing new breakthrough, be it medical, technological, epicurean, or other. And then we wait… and wait… and wait… and… hey, just a minute. Where’d that quantum computer go? It’s frustrating, sure. But don’t worry. Doghouse Diaries knows exactly what happens to all the…

Alan Moore’s lost ‘80s project resurfaces in This Week’s Comics

When Alan Moore wasn’t busy making Watchmen in the ’80s, he was writing a screenplay for a twisted version of Beauty and the Beast titled Fashion Beast. This lost epic finally arrives as a graphic novel this week, along with Jeff Lemire’s new Vertigo series, the Dark Tower finale, a Robocop you never saw and…

The Most Suspicious File of All

We’ve all done it. We’ve all clicked on a link that we probably shouldn’t have, confused a gremlin for a Mogwai. But if you ever click the mother of all suspicious links, you deserve whatever’s coming to you. You’d just better pray someone invents the computer version of an Aliens power loader before it’s too…

Warren Ellis is publishing a book in 2014 called Spirit Tracks about “the future of the city,” based on this talk. He wants us to get back to talking about “the city as haunted space” and “the present as haunted by the future.”

All the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can’t Miss in August!

Summer movie season is pretty much over — but books are just getting started. This month’s books include bracing space opera, poignant magical realism, dark subversive futures, epic fantasy. And most of all, lots and lots of mind-blowing action. Here are all the books you can’t afford to sleep on in August. Image: Jon Sullivan…

Kazu Kibuishi’s Awesome Challenge: Creating New Harry Potter Covers

Eisner Award-nominated comic book artist and author Kazu Kibuishi admits that he was “surprised” when Scholastic approached him about designing brand-new covers for all seven “Harry Potter” books. He needn’t have worried: The founder of the stunning “Flight” comic book anthology series has brought a whole new dimension to J.K. Rowling’s enduring series. Although Mary…