vintage
Vintage articles and footage from the science fiction archives.
Greatest Sci-Fi Artists of All Time
When engaged with science fiction as a genre, we are transported by the visual work of great sci-fi artists. Without their work in bringing books to life, and making films a reality, the science fiction world would be impoverished. While literature provides us with the opportunity to imagine science fiction worlds on our own, the work of artists allows us to share that vision with other fans and those outside the genre. Science fiction owes a great debt to the greatest sci-fi artists of all time.
By James Lizowski10 years ago in Futurism
Must See Episodes of 'The Twilight Zone'
If you have never seen an episode of The Twilight Zone, then you cannot call yourself a true fan of television. The Twilight Zone is always among the top of any credible list of the best television shows in history. Created by Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone has 156 self contained stories that stick with an audience in a way no other show does. Some Twilight Zone episodes are great because of how creepy they are, while some episodes are great because of the powerful moral lessons they teach. While I recommend you watch the whole show, here are the best episodes of The Twilight Zone. Luckily they are all available on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
By Jason Schwartz10 years ago in Futurism
Universe Collecting
“People still read books! This generation has hope!” – Harlan Ellison I love science fiction because I collect universes. Each novel, each story, is another world unto itself. I started collecting, or hoarding, as some family members might call it, when I was ten years old.
By Joshua Sky10 years ago in Futurism
The Science Fiction of Music
My first novel, Big in Japan, is about a neurotic American prog-rocker coming of age in Japan. My second, Jellyfish Dreams, is about a biologist’s quest to reanimate his dead fiancée at the instigation of a black hole beneath his sofa. Readers who’ve read both books usually remark on how different they are, but I don’t see it that way. For one thing: crazy artist, mad scientist—same difference. For another, even if you agree with (a quote I’ve seen attributed to) sf comics genius Warren Ellis that “Prog rock was sick and wrong then and it is sick and wrong now,” one can’t deny that prog drinks as liberally from the sf well as it does from the epic and fantasy ones. And so, a primer on some of history’s more salient prog-sf conjunctions:
By M. Thomas Gammarino10 years ago in Futurism
Buried Screwball Facts About Nikola Tesla
Travel anywhere outside the United States and the name of Nikola Tesla is known. Ask the average person on an American sidewalk? They’re apt to recall the 80’s rock band. Or they’ll nod and mumble about Elon Musk’s motor company.
By Matt Cates10 years ago in Futurism
Isaac Asimov's Autobiography: In Memory Yet Green
I ran into my pal, Matthew B. Tepper, a fellow Isaac Asimov enthusiast at the L.A. Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. To date, he owns 465 of the 515 books Asimov wrote. I asked him if he had any suggestions of what I ought to read that most people hadn’t from his oeuvre. He brought me into LASFS’ extraordinary library. Therein he pulled out the first volume of In Memories Yet Green, Isaac Asimov’s autobiography and said “read this.”
By Joshua Sky10 years ago in Futurism
Sci-Fi's Obsession with Ancient Greece and Rome
Sometimes science fiction returns to the past for places, people, and themes to enrich its mind-journeys into the future. Such is the case with these sci-fi movies, TV episodes, and works of fiction, each one drawing from the ancient worlds of Greece or Rome to dress its story. Brit Marling, a screenplay co-writer of Another Earth, says that this isn’t really surprising. “We’re retelling the same dramas from Ancient Greece,” Marling said. “These stories are so fundamentally old, the mythology that they come from, the hero’s journey — the way a narrative works. Science allows you to take the same story and see it from a new perspective because the science is always new and fresh.” Science fiction’s interest in the ancient world goes beyond mere allusion, as in the middle name of Captain James Tiberius Kirk (Tiberius, in case you’re wondering, was a somber, reclusive Roman ruler who nevertheless left the empire in a better state than he found it). If you’re deeply interested in how the speculative worlds of the future and the worlds of ancient Rome and Greece intersect, you may be interested in a serious paper by academic Tony Keen, “The 'T' stands for Tiberius: models and methodologies of classical reception in science fiction.” If that sounds a little heavy, enjoy the following summary of a few times when togas, laurel wreaths, aliens, and spaceships partied it up in one crazy combination.
By Sarah Quinn10 years ago in Futurism
Space
In a recent Omni article, "New Words Were Needed," I looked at some of the commonalities between modernism and science fiction. After inventorying some of the ways science fiction transposes modernist formal concerns to the level of story, I wrote, "And those are just some of the techniques of modernism; I won't even mention postmodernism."
By M. Thomas Gammarino10 years ago in Futurism
Flesh Gordon
Since aliens from outer space are constitutionally way ahead of us puny Earthlings in everything from interstellar technology to galactic government, it was merely inevitable that they should have the edge on us in the dubious field of pornography. And it was equally inevitable that America's favorite space-age hero (or a near facsimile) should go getting himself involved in battling this erotic menace from distant worlds. Such cosmic combat is the main theme in a sci-fi spoof Flesh Gordon, a Graffitti production, directed by Mike Light-Veteran and produced by Bill Osco and Howard Ziehm, who apart from producing the hardcore entertainments of Mr Light were also involved in Hollywood Blue. With the million dollars they made from these three porn movies, Messrs. Osco, Ziehm and Light decided to risk all on an X-rated space movie, the first of its kind in the world (or any other world), and the most outrageous interpretation of the science-fiction ethos since Barbarella, one of the best sci-fi cult classics of all time. Playing the principal role of Flesh Gordon is 24-year old Jason Williams, with Suzanne Fields, a 35-23-36 green-eyed blonde, as Dale Ardor, his female lead.
By Eddie Wong10 years ago in Futurism
