In the 1998 New York Times Review of Science Fiction, Samuel Delany writes about the history of African-American writers of science fiction, race and racism in science fiction and why Octavia Butler might wonder, “Why, when you invite me, do you always invite that guy, Delany?”
In his video essay (also available in text form), Matthias Stork details the elements of what he calls, “Chaos Cinema” and their effects on film and viewer experience: “The film doesn’t seduce you into suspending your disbelief. It bludgeons you until you give up.”
The Library of Congress’ “The Origins of American Animation” collection includes Krazy Kat, The Kazenjammer Kids and Keeping Up With The Joneses shorts dating from 1900 through 1921.
A couple of looks at the art and history of film title sequences.
Here’s George Méliès’ 1902 Trip to the Moon/ Le Voyage de la Lune on the anniversary of the 1969 Moon Landing. I’m sure Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have some stories to tell about the Moon People.
Ryan Holmberg reads Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s Black Blizzard closely with Tatsumi’s memoir, A Drifting Life, and discovers Black Blizzard is an adaptation of pulp mystery writer Shimada Kazuo’s story, “Black Rainbow,” then puts Tatsumi’s work in the context of other mass entertainment of its time. The piece itself is […]