Robots in the Victorian Era
Hard to believe someone might believe this was real: History of Robots in the Victorian Era. A retrospective of lesser-known sf of the 19th century.
X-Treme Measures
Some readers may flinch at the very scent of a superhero comicbook. Decades of flat artwork, turgid prose and hypertrophied subplots have frightened off all but a handful of masochists from the world of capes and glutes. It’s a trend Marvel Comics means to change.
The Scientist-Hero Returns
I was a little nervous as I waited for Half-Life 2 (Vivendi, 2004) to start. The original Half-Life (Sierra, 1998) is one of the reasons this column exists — the game brought atmosphere and intelligence to the first-person shooter without skimping on the visceral kickassocity, and brought me […]
Not So Happy Ending
Talk about a long journey. Stephen King wrote the first line of a short story called “The Gunslinger” in 1970, at the beginning of his career, and the first volume of the Dark Tower series was published in 1982. Nearly 35 years after its humble beginnings, the series […]
Kamikaze Hearts of Gutter Punk Lesbians
During the “Sharon Mitchell film festival” held at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Boston on June 6th 2000, the legendary porn queen showed clips from her XXX films spanning her 3 decades long career and provided a running commentary for the audience. Sharon held the crowd in rapt […]
Another Shot at Immortality
It’s Enki Bilal’s first visit to Toronto, and he’s looking a little weary. It’s been a full day of interviews promoting a new film he’s written and directed, an FX-bloated fantasy called The Immortal. Now here he sits, pressed against a wall of books on The Beguiling’s crowded […]
The Cultural Gutter 