Books & Comics

A single image covers 67 years of Penguin science fiction book covers

Check out this weird timeline of book covers, showing which colors dominated on their Penguin book covers over the years. It looks like War of the Worlds had a long yellow period, while Journey to the Center of the Earth was cream-colored for decades. Arthur Buxton created this graphic to honor Jules Verne’s 185th birthday…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

This Friday: Michael Chabon joins Glen David Gold and… Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen?

If you’re in San Francisco this Friday, you really ought to stop by the Nerdist Writers Panel, where Adventures of Kavalier and Clay author Michael Chabon will be part of a pretty interesting lineup, benefiting the writing education nonprofit 826 Valencia: Join Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay;…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

11 Preposterously Manly Fantasy Series

What makes a book series manly? Is it the action? The violence? The lack of female characters? Is it male wish-fulfillment? Misogyny? Or a combination of all these things? I don’t know the answer for sure, but I do know that these 11 fantasy series are all in their own unique way, very, very manly.…

Books & Comics Rob Bricken

Here’s the first look at Star Trek 2‘s new Klingons (kinda)

The cover for IDW’s Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #4 movie prequel comic hit the internet recently, and what was on the cover? None other than the first apparent look at nu-Trek’s Klingons. The image is below, in case you think it’s a spoiler. It very much looks like there’s a ’60s-style, classic TV series…

Books & Comics Rob Bricken

Brilliant motion comic tells the story of a man hired to kill Death—without animation

How do you turn comic book panels into a movie without animation? Edson Oda‘s ingenious short film Malaria uses comic panels on individual sheets of paper, placing and moving and manipulating them in a way that manages to be far more cinematic than motion comics ever are. It enhances the tension of this quiet Western…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Scifi authors pose half-naked on this genderflipped book cover—for charity

What possessed four of science fiction and fantasy’s superstar authors to strip down to their skivvies and gather around Hugo-award-winning writer Mary Robinette Kowal? It’s not just to skewer the skin-baring cover illustration of Poul Anderson’s Young Flandry (although that was certainly part of it). It’s all part of Jim C. Hines’ charity poses drive…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

The Webcomic Guide to the Apocalypse: The Dying Earth

Last week, I explored two early plague-themed stories of the apocalypse in webcomic form. This week, we’re once again going back in time to look at the very earliest tales of the end of the world, this time delving into tales in which the Earth reaches its expiration date. In this short comic, I trace…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Saturday Webcomic: The Princess Planet is a land of myth, magic, and cornball puns

On a world where nearly every girl is a princess, not every princess is going to sing to birds or go off looking for her one true love. Princess Christi, the star of Brian McLachlan’s The Princess Planet decides to trade in her ball gown for a spandex suit. With her snowman companion, Princess Christi…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Pulp Science Fiction in Spain, Before And During Totalitarianism

This is the fourth part of a four-part series on the pulps under totalitarianism. Read more: Pulp Scifi Under German Totalitarianism | Pulp Scifi Under Russian and Soviet Totalitarianism | Pulp Scifi Under Japanese Totalitarianism Like most European countries Spain has a tradition of science fiction and proto-science fiction which predates the genre’s 20th century…

Books & Comics Jess Nevins

A Chart that Shows a Dismal Trend in Sales of Print Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Science fiction and fantasy book sales, as measured by Nielsen Bookscan, have dropped dramatically in recent years. Just in 2012, science fiction book sales dropped 21 percent, and fantasy book sales dropped a startling 28 percent. In one year. Before you panic too much, bear in mind that Nielsen is only measuring print book sales…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

10 Ways John Milton’s Paradise Lost Is Like a Bad Comic Book

Yes, it’s a great achievement of English literature. Yes, it’s a deep work of spiritual belief and should be given due consideration. And yet, for some reason, Paradise Lost stumbles over the same things that bad comic books do. We’re going to look at ten mistakes that serial-fiction writers make — even the famous seventeenth…

Books & Comics Esther Inglis-Arkell

Great science fiction authors tell us which novels they wish they’d written themselves

We look to the great SF authors and get inspiration from their work — along with a healthy dose of envy, sometimes. It’s impossible to read the works of authors like Vernor Vinge and Maureen McHugh without wishing we could have pulled something like that off. But which works do the great SF authors wish…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

You’ve really never seen the Land of Oz like this before

We’ll be seeing a lot of strange versions of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz this year, including Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful, and possibly the long-delayed Dorothy of Oz movie with the voice of Patrick Stewart. But these might just be the strangest visions of Oz you’ll see for quite some time.…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Deadpool Shot First: A Collection of Ridiculous Deadpool Crossover Art

Deadpool gets around. Not only doess the “merc with a mouth” make life for Marvel villains (and heroes) a merry hell, he’s so popular that fans can’t help but insert him into other pop culture universes in their fan art. The results, like Deadpool himself, range from the sublimely awesome to the awesomely ridiculous. Here’s…

Books & Comics Rob Bricken

All the Space Adventure and Superhero Angst You’ll Find in This Week’s Comics!

Some of the most beloved comics creators are putting out work this week — Darwyn Cooke and Paul Pope are both unloading some creator-owned goodness, Frank Cho is putting Wolverine in the Savage Land, and there’s a new issue of Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga. And meanwhile, Batman is still facing massive destruction in “Death of…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Physicist aims to publish a science fiction novel to raise $2 million for new laser weapons

A physicist is asking for help publishing his wild new science fiction book series — and possibly also creating a new superweapon that would change the face of war forever. Australian-born physicist Adam Weigold is trying to raise $20,000 on Kickstarter to pay for editing and marketing for his novel Dragon Empire, which is about…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Quite Possibly The Weirdest Book Covers Since the Invention of Paper

It feels kind of mean to laugh at the covers of self-published and indie books — but some of the DIY covers out there do lend themselves to a kind of delightful head-scratching. There’s a tumblr devoted to mocking Lousy Book Covers, and not surprisingly it’s becoming insanely popular. (And Shumate also runs a site…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Read an exclusive short story from one of the year’s most acclaimed collections

Manuel Gonzales’ bizarre, fantastical story collection The Miniature Wife is getting rave reviews from the likes of Charles Yu and Hannah Tinti. It was named one of last week’s best books by Publisher’s Weekly, which also gave it a starred review. And people are comparing Gonzales, executive director of the Austin Bat Cave, to David…

Books & Comics Manuel Gonzales

A Memory of Light delivers a better ending than Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series probably deserves

Let’s start with a spoiler-free review, shall we? A Memory of Light is an incredibly fitting end to Robert Jordan’s sprawling, immersive and often aggravating Wheel of Time saga. It’s both epic and weirdly perfunctory, as Brandon Sanderson — who of course took over for Robert Jordan when he died in 2007 — manages to…

Books & Comics Rob Bricken

Everything changes for DC’s Medieval ass-kickers in Demon Knights #16 — and here’s your first look!

Hundreds of years before Superman guarded the skies, a group of ageless fighters stood up against evil. DC Comics’ Medieval team book Demon Knights features Etrigan, Vandal Savage and a host of other classic heroes kicking butt and engraving names. Issue #15 of the comic saw a massive showdown — and the departure of the…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

A single image covers 67 years of Penguin science fiction book covers

This Friday: Michael Chabon joins Glen David Gold and… Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen?

11 Preposterously Manly Fantasy Series

Here’s the first look at Star Trek 2‘s new Klingons (kinda)

Brilliant motion comic tells the story of a man hired to kill Death—without animation

Scifi authors pose half-naked on this genderflipped book cover—for charity

The Webcomic Guide to the Apocalypse: The Dying Earth

Saturday Webcomic: The Princess Planet is a land of myth, magic, and cornball puns

Pulp Science Fiction in Spain, Before And During Totalitarianism

A Chart that Shows a Dismal Trend in Sales of Print Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

10 Ways John Milton’s Paradise Lost Is Like a Bad Comic Book

Great science fiction authors tell us which novels they wish they’d written themselves

You’ve really never seen the Land of Oz like this before

Deadpool Shot First: A Collection of Ridiculous Deadpool Crossover Art

All the Space Adventure and Superhero Angst You’ll Find in This Week’s Comics!

Physicist aims to publish a science fiction novel to raise $2 million for new laser weapons

Quite Possibly The Weirdest Book Covers Since the Invention of Paper

Read an exclusive short story from one of the year’s most acclaimed collections

A Memory of Light delivers a better ending than Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series probably deserves

Everything changes for DC’s Medieval ass-kickers in Demon Knights #16 — and here’s your first look!

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Trump Posts Concept Art of His Presidential Library, and It’s AI Slop

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‘Fallout’ Season 2 Was a Hit Despite That Unsatisfying Release Strategy Change

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