Steven Howell Wilson's Blog, page 46

REVIEW & REMEMBRANCE – Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum’s X-Men

Like most fanboy geeks who grew up in and remember well the 1970s, the All-New All-Different X-Men were a big part of my personal mythological landscape. Perhaps the strongest influence was exerted by the issues written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Dave Cockrum, numbers 94 – 107 of the series.

These issues ran from August, 1975 through October, 1977.  Those were cover dates, though, so it’s more like May, 1975 through July, 1977. The book was bi-monthly, which meant it c...

Katniss Everdeen is Not a Hero (At Least Not Yet!)

Spoilers, bloody SPOILERS! You've been warned!

Katniss Everdeen, central character of the film The Hunger Games, is not a hero…

Why do I say that? More importantly, why do I care? I care because The Hunger Games has caught on among a lot of young readers. A book or series of books (especially a series) grabbing the attention of middle and high school readers is not news. At least it isn’t news since J.K. Rowling proved that alchemy works by turning a fanciful little story about...

RECAP - My Programs at Balticon 46

So I had some interesting conversations and learned some tidbits while doing my programming at Balticon. Thanks again to Jonette, Paul and the whole team for letting me participate. I had a blast!

Readings: Catherine Asaro, Phil Giunta, Steven H. Wilson
Phil, Catherine and I each read for 10 - 15 minutes. We also chatted about Catherine's Rock Opera for the Fringe Festival (which I participated in about three years ago, doing Volpone with the O2B2 Theatre). This included discussions of ASCA...

REVIEW - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm

This book has been on my shelf for over twenty years, unread. Not surprising: the odds are in favor of any book in my collection being unread. I may have mentioned that my personal library exceeds 2,000 books and 10,000 comic books and magazines. I have an extremely acquisitive nature, so I buy books and comics and magazines much faster than I can read them. When I was a college student with a part-time job and no girlfriend (half my college career), I frequented used books stores, sometimes...

My Balticon Schedule (and Holy Crap it's full!)

I'm doing an awful lot at Balticon, next weekend at Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn in Hunt Valley, MD. Stop in and hear me talk entirely too much!

speaker
Readings: Catherine Asaro, Phil Giunta, Steven H. Wilson
Friday at 9:00 pm in Pimlico
Catherine Asaro, Phil Giunta, Steven H. Wilson reading from their works. Please note that the authors are listed in alphabetical order, NOT in reading order. They'll determine reading order amongst themselves.
Speakers: Phil Giunta; Steve Wilson; Cather...

Review - Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

There was a good deal of unrest amongst longtime fans of Dark Shadows, the original 1966 gothic soap opera on which Tim Burton's film is based, when previews made it clear that the movie wasn't taking itself too seriously. Johnny Depp, as two-century old vampire Barnabas Collins, looked a lot like Michael Jackson (as many also said he did when he played Willy Wonka a few years ago), and preview footage was full of people from 1972 responding to an 18th Century vampire as, well, people...

Memories Unearthed Whilst Cleaning

My wife and I bought our first house in 1988 when I was 22. Neither of us ever had an apartment, though I did live in the dorms at UMCP for three years. We went straight for home-ownership on what I was later told was an income which qualified us for Section 8 housing. We lived on a very tight budget!

So I've been out of my parents' house for 24 years. I left a lot of stuff behind, as you do. I also, in the course of two subsequent moves, put a lot more stuff (mostly books and papers)...

REVIEW - The Ghost and Mrs. Muir - All Formats

Most people my age are familiar with this work because it was once a "long-running" TV series. "Long-running?" Two seasons? Well, that's what's on the fly-leaf of the 1974 Pocket Books mass market paperback edition. Perhaps the copy-writer was thrown by the fact that the show ran in syndicated re-runs well into the mid-70s, and didn't realize there were only 48 episodes. One must also keep in mind that, in 1974, a "long-running" show ran about five se...

R.I.P. - Jonathan Frid

Last week, the man who brought to life a cultural icon, the vampire Barnabas Collins on TV’s Dark Shadows, died at the age of 87. His death came only weeks before the anticipated release of a feature film based on his best-known work, and only days after I’d received a flier advertising his planned appearance at a Dark Shadows fan event in July.In fact, Mr. Frid is reported to have a cameo role in the Tim Burton film which stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas. Played for laughs, it’s...

Downers! Really depressing stories and how I grew with them

First, a word from our sponsors...

Okay, EFF does not sponsor me; but they do very, very good work. They've asked friends of Internet Liberty to please post this statement on their blogs this week, and I am more than happy to comply: 

Congress is currently considering CISPA – the Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act – a bill that purports to protect the United States from “cyber threats” but would in fact create a gaping loophole in all existing priva...