Comic Book Review: Jughead with Archie Digest Magazine #134 by various creators The Archie characters and setting first appeared in Pep Comics #22 (December 1941) as part of the M.L.J. Magazines comic book publishing line. Inspired by the wholesome Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney, Archie Andrews was a “typical American teenager” with a stable… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Jughead with Archie Digest Magazine #134
Tag: virtual reality
Magazine Review: Science Fiction Adventure Classics #12 Winter
Magazine Review: Science Fiction Adventure Classics #12 Winter edited by Sam Moskowitz This is a magazine I could find very few details about. It reprinted 1920s and 1930s tales from Amazing Stories; it’s listed as quarterly, but seems to have been published on a more irregular basis. This issue is apparently from 1970 though there’s… Continue reading Magazine Review: Science Fiction Adventure Classics #12 Winter
Comic Strip Review: Guilded Age Volume Three
Comic Strip Review: Guilded Age Volume Three written by T. Campbell & Phil Kahn, illustrated by John Waltrip Note: The following review contains SPOILERS for the previous two volumes. The Peacemakers are an elite band of adventurers who are contracted by the city state of Gastonia, which is majority human but has people of other… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Guilded Age Volume Three
Magazine Review: Asimov’s Science Fiction May/June 2021
Magazine Review: Asimov’s Science Fiction May/June 2021 edited by Sheila Williams Back in 1977, Isaac Asimov was one of the top three or so science fiction writers in the world, and had a very strong personal brand. So when Davis Publications wanted to create a “name brand magazine” for science fiction like Ellery Queen Mystery… Continue reading Magazine Review: Asimov’s Science Fiction May/June 2021
Manga Review: .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Vol. 3
Manga Review: .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Vol. 3 Art by Rei Izumi, Story by Tatsuya Hamazaki Note: The following review contains SPOILERS for both earlier volumes of this manga and other works in the .Hack franchise. In the near future of 2014, “The World”, an immersive VR experience, is the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online… Continue reading Manga Review: .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Vol. 3
Movie Review: Ready Player One
Movie Review: Ready Player One (2018) directed by Steven Spielberg It is the dark future of Columbus, Ohio in the year 2045. Ecological disaster and economic collapse have made the outside world unbearable for many of the world’s citizens. Fortunately, there’s an online virtual world known as the Oasis that they can escape to. But worse… Continue reading Movie Review: Ready Player One
Anime Review: SSSS Gridman
Anime Review: SSSS Gridman Yuta has amnesia, that’s true, yet somehow Tokyo doesn’t seem quite right to him. Was it always so foggy in the city? And why is he the only one who can see kaiju (giant monsters) just casually hanging out in the distance? And did old model computers have superheroes talking directly… Continue reading Anime Review: SSSS Gridman
Movie Review: eXistenZ
Movie Review: eXistenZ (1999) directed by David Cronenberg In the not so distant future, virtual reality games are a commonplace. At a deconsecrated church, genius game designer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is about to plug a dozen lucky volunteers into a demonstration of her new title, eXistenZ. But just as she’s activating the main… Continue reading Movie Review: eXistenZ
Book Review: The Fourth Galaxy Reader
Book Review: The Fourth Galaxy Reader edited by H.L. Gold Galaxy Magazine had a decent run with a lot of good stories, so it’s not surprising that even this fourth collection of fifteen science fiction reprints from the 1950s has a strong selection. (I recognized almost all of these!) There’s an introduction which runs down inferior… Continue reading Book Review: The Fourth Galaxy Reader
Book Review: Ready Player One
Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Wade Watts is a gunter. That’s short for “Easter egg hunter,” which has nothing to do with the holiday. Born into grinding poverty as the child of refugees in the energy-starved dystopian future, Wade was orphaned at an early age and put into the hands of a neglectful… Continue reading Book Review: Ready Player One