August 13th, 2013
Looks like I’ve been falling down on my Giant Spider reporting duties. A retro black-and-white giant spider film has been released called, oddly enough, The Giant Spider.
There’s an IMDB listing for it as well.
Tags: giant spider, Monster Movies, Movies, Spiders, video
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction, video | 3 Comments »
August 12th, 2013
Robert E. Howard fans (I’m looking at you Mark Finn) will be interested to know that the estate of late REH-scholar Glenn Lord has donated “more than 15,000 pages of manuscripts, sketches and ephemera” to the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center.
Knowing what Howard manuscripts go for on the open market, that’s probably a 7-figure bequest. I’m sure REH scholars will be pouring over that treasure trove for years to come.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, manuscripts, Robert E. Howard
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August 12th, 2013
Unlike the Zelazny or Bradbury book acquisition posts, the only common theme among these books is who I bought them from and why. The who, in this case, is Cold Tonnage Books in the UK. The why is that they had a 40% off sale if you bought more than £500 worth of books. I saw this as a chance to pick up several important first editions cheaper than I would have been able to otherwise. So this is a mixture of first rate titles in areas I collect, valuable firsts too cheap to pass up, signed, pristine copies of some relatively cheap books, and a few odds and ends.
Aldiss, Brian. Moreau’s Other island. Jonathan Cape, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Aldiss on the front free endpaper.
Aldiss, Brian. This World and Nearer Ones: Essays Exploring the Familiar. Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
(Aldiss, Brian) Aldiss, Margaret. Item Eighty-Three: Brian W. Aldiss: A Bibliography: 1954—1972. SF Horizons, (1973). Chapbook, Fine. Non-fiction.
Asimov, Isaac. Nine Tomorrows. Doubleday, 1959. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with moderate wear at heel and slight wear along folds. A very nice copy of this important Asimov short story collection. Currey, page 19. Replaces an Ex-Lib copy in my library.
Brackett, Leigh. The Sword of Rhiannon. Boardman, 1955. First hardback edition (“First published in Great Britain, 1955″, as per Currey), a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel and foxing to interior gutters, in a Very Good dust jacket with 1/4” of wear rubbing/chipping (dust jacket is present, but image has been worn away) at head, a similar, smaller amount of wear at heel, a shallow chip with associated wear at top rear, and crease along front cover spine join running the entire length of the jacket, and wear along extremities; despite all that, the rest of the jacket is quite bright and attractive. Currey, page 53. Cawthorn & Moorocock, Fantasy: The Hundred Best Books 75. A fairly uncommon book these days.
Ellison, Harlan. All the Lies That Are My Life. Underwood/Miller, 1980. First edition hardback, one of 400 unsigned trade hardcover copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Chalker/Owings, page 432.
Ellison, Harlan. Harlan Ellison is Watching. Underwood/Miller, 1989. First edition hardback, #46 of 600 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Chalker/Owings, page 440.
Ellison, Harlan. Stalking the Nightmare. Phantasia Press, 1982. First edition hardback, #240 of 700 signed hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Supplements a copy of the trade edition. Chalker/Owings, page 340.
(Leiber, Fritz) Morgan, Chris. Fritz Leiber: a bibliography, 1934—1979. Morgenstern, 1979. Chapbook original, one of 1000 copies, a Near Fine+ copy with spots of age darkening to cover.
Moorcock, Michael. Sailor on the Seas of Fate. Quartet Books, 1976. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a chip out of the corner of the front free endpaper, in a Fine dust jacket. Currey, page 372.
Roberts, Adam (as A. R. R. R. Roberts). The Soddit, or Let’s Cash In Again. Gollancz, 2003. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Roberts. Parody of The Hobbit.
(Simak, Clifford D.) Becker, Muriel R. Clifford D. Simak: a primary and secondary bibliography. G. K. Hall, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction. I do wish the books were separated from the short fiction listings…
Smith, Edward E., Ph.D. Skylark Three. Fantasy Press, 1948. First edition hardback, one of 500 subscriber copies with a signature page inscribed by Smith bound in: “To Hugh F. Henry—/Three in a row — Hot dog!/And thanks a million for/the compliment./Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.” (Doc Smith had marvelously clear handwriting), a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel and faint foxing to gutters, in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to top 1/2″ of front, slight edgewear at head, and slight dust soiling to rear cover. E. E. “Doc” Smith is someone I only pick up as a target of opportunity, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to pick up a very attractive example of one of the Fantasy Press subscriber copies for one of their most popular writers for approximately $150 after sale discount.
Turner, Gary, and Marty Halpern. The Silver Griffith. Golden Gryphon, 2003. First edition hardback, #34 of 100 numbered copies signed by all the contributor, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, in slipcase.
Vance, Jack (as John Holbrook Vance). The Deadly Isles. Bobbs-Merrill, 1969. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel in a Fine- dust jacket with a few bare traces of dust soiling and a tiny bit of rubbing at extremities. Overall a beautiful copy of this Vance mystery. Currey, p. 497. Hewett, A33.
Also a signed first of Iain Banks A Song of Stone that came in with a couple of dust jacket flaws; I’ll end up marrying the signed book to my existing pristine dust jacket…
Tags: Books, Brian Aldiss, Cold Tonnage, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Fantasy, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Michael Moorcock, Science Fiction
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August 11th, 2013
Editor Rick Klaw has been previewing one story a day from the forthcoming Rayguns Over Texas anthology due out at LoneStarCon3, and today he’s previewing my story, “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids.”
First hit’s on me…
Tags: Books, Rick Klaw, Science Fiction, Texas in 2013, Worldcon
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August 11th, 2013
After meaning to for a while, I finally picked up Highspire’s Aquatic, which is definitely a strong Shoegaze album. Here’s “Glacier,” my favorite track off it.
Tags: Highspire, Music, Shoegazer
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August 5th, 2013
I recently picked up three Ray Bradbury chapbooks, two signed stapled chapbooks from Heritage Auctions, one bound in decorated boards from Half Price Books. One is pretty well documented as a first edition. However, the other two, being for the scholastic market, are not.
Bradbury, Ray. Collected Short Stories. Petersen Publishing Company (The Great Author Series), 2002. Presumed first edition hardback (no additional printings listed), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, presumably as issued. 96 page book which collects three stories (“The Other Foot,” “The April Witch,” and “The Veldt”), reading comprehension questions, and a biography. Not to be confused with the much larger The Stories of Ray Bradbury, which I also have.
Bradbury, Ray. The Dragon. Footsteps Press, 1988. First edition chapbook, #72 of 300 signed, numbered copies, Fine. Has affixed wrappers with a transparent blue Mylar window (there were evidently also red and yellow window variants).
Bradbury, Ray. The Veldt. The Perfection Form Company, 1982. (Possible) First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in stapled wraps, inscribed by Bradbury on the cover. Reading comprehension questions at the back.
I’m not aware of a comprehensive Ray Bradbury bibliography out that, or I would no doubt own it. Does anyone know if The Veldt and Collected Short Stories are indeed first editions of those works or not, or how I would tell?
Tags: Books, chapbooks, Fantasy, first editions, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, pics, Science Fiction | 3 Comments »
August 4th, 2013
Better late than never, here’s the now-defunct Alcian Blue with “Carousel”:
Tags: Alcian Blue, Music, Shoegazer
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August 1st, 2013
Via Gardner Dozois’ Facebook comes news that it’s International Clown Week. I don’t suffer from Clownophobia, but I’ve known people who do.
So let’s take this moment to remember Bart Simpson’s awesome bed:
Alice Cooper even did a song:
And speaking of bed:
Maybe International Clown Week exists to remind us it’s just three months until Halloween…
Tags: clowns, Music, The Simpsons, video
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July 31st, 2013
“The players here are using devices called Matryomins. They’re single-oscillator theremins that happen to be contained inside a matryoshka doll.”
167 of them.
Tags: Music, Theremin, video
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July 28th, 2013
Here’s another “Is it Shoegaze or not” entry, with Belle and Sebastian’s “Sleep Around the Clock,” which is more bouncy retro low-fi pop, but there’s enough of a shoegaze tinge to it (a little like Black Tambourine) that I’m throwing it in here.
Plus I like the sciency theme of the video. So there.
Tags: Belle and Sebastian, Music, Shoegazer, video
Posted in Music, Uncategorized, video | No Comments »
