As this week winds down we’re closing in on the end of the nomination period for the Hugo awards. For the past 20 years Watch The Skies has been publishing a fanzine that is eligible for the award. For each of those fanzines, cover art is needed. I’ve done a bunch of them.
Lately I’ve started to move back toward creating art that is NOT strictly digital. The cover art for this month’s edition actually started as an acrylic painting. Yes, I needed to get a picture of it and add some digital things like a border and title, but the base is still a painting.
When I say in my bio that I’m a fan, author and artist… it’s not always in that order. I know I’ll never win any awards, but it’s still important to create. Here’s the painting with out the border or text (high res photos do my no favors – this actually looks better in person).
I had big plans for stuff this weekend. I did. Somehow the wheels came off that vehicle and here I am skidding to a stop on a Sunday night facing another long work week where I doubt my productivity improves. This is another one of those “heavy sigh” posts. IF you don’t want to stick with it, I understand. Short version – I withdrew from being part of the con staff team for Discon / World Con.
Some of you know that I was part of convention staffs for many years. It’s a volunteer thing, but it was being part of the fandom community. We had something really special and we made a lot of folks happy. Then that all stopped, rather abruptly. When it stopped I decided that being a department head and helping create a positive convention atmosphere could be handled by others and decided to focus on growing my own presence as an author or an artist as a guest at conventions. While it was still work, I did what I could to make it an enjoyable thing. I really do love it when fan groups get together.
A friend suggested / recruited me to be part of the team that is putting together the World Science Fiction convention this year. I was a little hesitant because I know the work that goes into pulling together a smaller con – world con was going to be significantly bigger than that. I decided I would be part of the team. I know how it all works but I wouldn’t be in charge of anything or anyone – I could just work hard and help out.
Some folks in the fan community are aware of the controversy surrounding the con breaking ties with the person they invited as the editor guest of honor. This has become a significant mess – and I sympathize with the people being put in a position where they are forced to deal with this. There was no way everyone was coming out happy after all was said and done.
The problem – and here’s where it gets to the part about *me* – is that it has brought out some of the worst behavior in the fan community I’ve ever seen. Bluntly, it’s extremely disappointing. I withdrew my support from the convention and left the staff. No, it won’t likely have much of an impact on them. No, I am not writing this as some kind of side picking or declarations of “correctness” for the community at large. It’s because there’s something more important that I think we can all work on.
Here is a slightly edited version of what I wrote to the folks that needed to know on the con staff:
The recent controversy surrounding the removal of a GOH is the starting point, but not wholly the cause for my withdrawal.
The first I heard of this was seeing an ’emergency meeting’ with regards to this being posted. It was the single night of the week that I didn’t have a meeting, but calling something an emergency does tend to garner attention. I signed on.
While on the zoom meeting, and within the first 5 minutes of my presence there, one of the attendees (and I’m sorry that I didn’t stay to record his name for later reference) declared that if you were associated with this Baen board you were either a racist or you were tolerant of racists. Sweeping generalizations about people he doesn’t know and has never met based on a single piece of information. He declared ME a racist or tolerant of racists. He’s never met me. He never saw me. He simply decided that the members of a particular group could be easily labeled and lumped together. Tell me again what everyone’s upset about? I left when the shouting started. I do not have time for that.
There continued to be a lot of talk – and I have been following along. From discord (staff server, not public) – so I don’t mangle the wording:
but I can only apologize for my own bad behavior. It’s no excuse that some of the other children were being naughty as well.
The “I was bad but so were others?” defense? Really? My daughter does better than that. You’ll say “he apologized” but was it really an apology or just an “oops I got called out”? Because there certainly was no retraction there.
“…but I can see the concern about losing people if she goes too. I just don’t figure we want those people.” (emphasis mine)
“Those people”? What sort of person does that sound like?
This is all coming up during the week with some of the most challenging weather conditions in a century across the country (including loss of power for con chair), but waiting until the weekend to make further announcement (after potential meetings, discussion and thoughtful consideration) was unacceptable and we need to have a vehement response immediately?
For the record, advocating violence is not acceptable. Yes the convention should and has made it clear that attendees will be safe. None of that is wrong. Civilized free speech ends when your speech declares the existence of others needs to end. It is not acceptable. Painting with the same paint, just pushing the brush in a different direction is not different, nor acceptable either – and that’s exactly what the “team” has done. It doesn’t feel like a team and certainly doesn’t seem very welcoming to me – never really has. This just cemented it.
I realize that my family’s health issues have kept me from being more assistance than I would normally be for con staff, but stepping directly back into that has made me believe my time, effort and emotional well being would be better off doing something else. IF people on the team want to wrap themselves in a blanket of self righteousness and deal in absolutes while casting unfounded aspersions at other people on the team they’ve never met, I don’t have the willingness to try to be part of this.
Thank you for taking the time to read this if you’ve hung on this far.
That was what I sent, but I want to emphasize something here. WE are ALL responsible for our own behavior. Each person must consider what they are saying and how they go about putting their words out toward others. Words have power. Words have meaning. Turning the same type of words, set in the exact same kind of argument framing as those you argue against back toward them will never help. The convention staff is a microcosm of where we are as a whole in the fan community. People are using the slight anonymity of an online presence to say things they would never say if they were standing face to face with the same people. I am frustrated and saddened that it has reached this point, but I feel that leaving the staff of something I was very much looking forward to was important for my own well being.
I’m going to focus on continuing to build an open, accepting and welcoming fan presence with Watch The Skies. I hope that will be something that fans can work with and share in building.
This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – February 2021 – Dust.
I attempt to keep the recommendations for this article series away from one specific network or subscription service. Focus that lands entirely on Netflix would rapidly exclude and push away any reader that didn’t have, or didn’t want a subscription to that particular service. In that spirit, this particular article covers one short film individually, but I want to highly recommend going to the channel itself. Dust is on YouTube. It features dozens of films ranging in length between two and twenty minutes. They’re great for a quick hit of science fiction. As long as you can get to YouTube, you can watch them all for free. As I scrolled the various videos available there I realized I’d seen at least one of them before, some years ago. The short film “The Black Hole” lasts just under three minutes and is just as good now as it was four years ago. There’s a lot to see and recommend this channel to science fiction fans.
I was spurred on to writing this by a recent article over at IO9 pointing out the short film “Avarya”. I won’t go into depth on this film because it is certainly short and I don’t want to give too much away. I will say that as science fiction fans, and particularly those familiar with the three laws of robotics, this one is really well done. Fantastic animation, great voices and just the right length (coming in at 19:31) to fill a quick lunch time bump or give some inspiration between binge watches. It does take a bit of a dark turn as the article title suggests, so be warned!
Go and subscribe to Dust and see all the excellent films available there!
I’ve railed against the stagnation of ideas (based on bankroll rather than creative capitol) in the past. I don’t need another version of Dune, King Arthur, or Lord forbid Robin Hood. Seriously… move on. Find one of the hundreds of fantasy books out there to work from. I mean it. I am really not looking forward to a LOTR series, no matter who’s making it. I saw the abomination that was what they did to the Hobbit. I am really uncertain about the series they’re planning based in the world of Willow. There’s just a lot of stuff out there that strikes me as a particularly bad idea.
Having said all of that, there was one mentioned that I might be able to get behind.
There’s a report out that says George Clooney may be attached to a remake of Buck Rogers. A couple of parts to unpack there.
Loved the ships. Smitten with Col. Deering.
First, while I don’t always like the work that Clooney does, I respect that it’s generally fresh and worthy. There are a number of things he’s been part of that are quite good. I enjoyed his part in O Brother Where Art Thou and thought that was a fantastic remake of the Odyssey. This is one of the things that gives me hope for this remake or restart or whatever name they put on it these days. IF you’re going to re-imagine a story, get clever. Change the time frame, update the language, make it accessible to a more modern audience.
Second, while I was a fan of the television show when it aired back in 79/80 that wasn’t the original series. Buck has been around since the 1920s. He had a couple of big radio show runs and was a staple in the comics industry for a lot of years. I also wanted to say I was a “big fan” but I was far more interested in / taken with Battlestar Galactica. That show was easily a bigger hit with me. Gil Gerard and Erin Gray did a fantastic job making a disjointed show work… but even as a kid I saw that it was just that – disjointed.
So, I’m going to hold out hope for this one. I think an excellent space show would do really well right now. We haven’t aged ourselves up to the date when the title character is supposed to “wake up” in the future, so there’s still a ton of room to work with. Hopeful.
Are there any other “remake” candidates you think might actually work?
Over the past few years I have written about health related things a couple of times. I haven’t written a great deal about the current conditions we live with – here in the middle of a global pandemic. A friend wrote a piece the other day admonishing folks to have a certain level or preparedness when it comes to things going pear shaped on the medical front. I’m going to repost all of the story I’d done previously further down, but I am need to emphasize a few things first.
One of the most important things you can do is be aware of your own health. Don’t lie to yourself about it. That’s not going to help anyone. Once you are honest about things with yourself, try to figure out if there are any things you should be doing to help yourself to maintain. Sure getting better is an important goal, but sometimes stable is where you need to start. Staying healthy is a long term struggle.
Sometimes in that struggle, things go wrong. Stuff happens. It happens to all of us – some of us more than others. (One of the lines from Animal Farm that has stuck with me all these years, “some animals are more equal than others…”). When it comes to being the support person for medical related problems I have gained a fair amount of experience. As I typed in the notes to my friend, this is not my first rodeo. I have been “support guy” for 3 hospitalizations a year (on average) for the past 15 years. Medical problems/emergencies/surgeries can be scary things, even to those who are familiar with the processes involved. There is a list of things you should consider in order to be prepared. I’m going to cover a few here.
It’s a good idea to have what the military guys call a “go bag”. It’s a backpack or some kind of gym bag or something that has emergency stuff in it. Get some casual / loose fitting clothes and put them in a plastic bag in there. Also in there:
Insurance Information List of Medications and Medical Conditions Toothbrush, hygiene products. A novel, puzzle book, electronic game to pass time Extra phone charger, AC adapter Personal Emergency Contacts
Set up a Text Group to notify key individuals at once.
Appoint a main point of contact among your emergency contacts to avoid confusion.
Make sure everyone has a role – who takes care of the pets (and how)? Who gets the mail (where does it go)? Who needs to call others? Who has access to your vehicle and home? Who will secure and watch your home in your absence?
Vital on this list – get your will, your living will / medical directives AND a durable power of attorney done. No, it won’t be free. YES, it matters a lot. Do it as soon as you are able. This is not the territory of the ancient and infirm. You need these documents and you need to put them on record at your doctor’s office. Keep a copy in whatever secure location you have at home. Make sure people on your list know about them and can get to them. This is NOT a secret!
Make copies of your (general/big item) medical history and your list of meds. Shrink these copies down to a small but readable size. Get self laminating sheets from the dollar store and make them durable. Jamb those things in your daily carry item (wallet/purse/fanny pack). Have an extra (durable or not?) copy that you can simply hand to the EMT/Paramedic/nurse/police officer and not worry about losing. Keep this information up to date!
Laminate!
Don’t Panic. You help nobody if you can’t help yourself remain calm. Freak out later, take care of your people first. IF it’s possible, get a second person to listen to what everyone says. Don’t be afraid to take notes. YOU must be your own advocate!
Track all the things. Discharge paperwork, dates of service, home instructions/restrictions. Yes, it’s like homework but it matters. Keep all this in a safe and accessible place. The insurance company doesn’t know what happened and will probably have lots of questions later.
Ask friends for help, and give help to your friends when they need it. It’s a very hard lesson to learn when people you thought were “tight” with you bail at the first sign of trouble. Take care of yourself and those you care for.
This is an edited version of what I wrote before, chronicling our early roller coaster ride of heart and health related issues. There has been a LOT more since this was written:
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I wrote this for our fanzine as part of our first meeting at The Midtown Scholar. I felt it was important to give a little sample of how the community of fans of science fiction and fantasy can really come together and make a difference, but I don’t want to limit the number of people that see it. I have had many wonderful experiences with this fan group and genuinely hope to have many, many more. Rare Constancy was originally written as part of an advocacy fanzine to help raise awareness of heart problems among fans. I’ve kept the advocacy bits in here, but I also hope the connections I’ve made to some wonderful and amazing people show through as well.
I’ve not experienced heart problems myself. I hope I never have to. I hope you never have to either. I’ve got some small experience dealing with hospitals, ICUs, cardiologist visits and all that mess. You can keep it if it’s all the same to you. Nothing against the people doing those jobs, I’m just not a fan of hanging out there more than I really have to.
Rare
Just over 5 years ago (at the time of this writing) my wife and I were expecting our first child. It wasn’t a simple process with the doctors because there was a certain amount of risk involved. Rebecca, my wife, had been diagnosed with a heart condition when she was very young. She had been taking medication for this “condition” which was diagnosed as various things, including Cardiomyopathy, all her life. The doctors monitored and checked and made copious notes, but in the end we were ready to go. We were thrilled, excited and running about trying to “be prepared” just like any other first time parents. We thought we had it all nailed down. As the saying goes, just when you thought you had all the answers somebody changed the questions.
A couple of weeks after our beautiful daughter was born wonderfully healthy and without complications, my wife started having trouble breathing. She had a cold and was as tired and wrung out as any first time parent. We did our best to cope with everything. Despite our best efforts my wife’s health got worse. Worse to the point where we needed to get back to the doctor. As it happened, this was fortuitous timing. She described it as drowning. Very, very slowly drowning. My wife had pneumonia. That’s bad in and of itself, but it didn’t respond to medication well because as it turns out pneumonia wasn’t all she had going on. That was where things really started to go downhill.
In terms that I can understand, congestive heart failure means the heart weakens leading to things like fluids building up through out the body and that does things like puts pressure on the lungs making it hard for them to expand properly. The fluid also adds pressure to the heart (already less than perfect in my wife’s case) and makes it’s beating less able to pump things out, therefore allowing more fluid to build. Lather, rinse, repeat until dead. My daughter was born mid November and before Christmas my wife was in the hospital with congestive heart failure. I was home with our newborn and lots of long days and nights.
I’ll be honest. Those days are a blur to me now. I don’t remember what I did other than sleep mostly dressed with one hand on the baby basket rocking it in my sleep. I could mix formula without conscious thought and have a diaper changing time that would shame most pit crews. Christmas in the hospital isn’t a great thing. The staff there do their best to keep spirits up, but tinsel on a gurney doesn’t look festive to me, it just looks sadly out of place.
After a couple of weeks attempting to get things cleared up and get medicines straightened out my wife was released from the hospital. The doctors gave directions to have very limited fluid intake and a low sodium diet in order to avoid a reoccurrence of the fluid buildup (and therefore more heart failure).
Constancy.
You are educated people! If something is vague or unclear, ask questions consistently! How much is “limited fluid”? Turned out they wanted to limit my wife to a liter of fluid per day. One liter – any and all liquids – that’s it. How low is “low sodium”? How about less than 1500mg per day. For perspective, a typical candy bar has about 150mg of sodium in it. Yeah, 10% of your daily allowable total for a snack. Try that sometime – see how it works out. The key is to ask every time you don’t understand something. Get specifics. This isn’t easy to do in emergency situations, but once the immediate crisis is past there really isn’t any excuse. Read everything they give you. Consistently follow their recommendations. The only person you’re lying to if you don’t is yourself. The ones that truly suffer are those around you. If you’re in the support position, as I was, this is the key to getting by.
Rare.
Be one of those rare folks that takes the time to ask the questions. It’s your (or your partner’s) health, be interested! You don’t need to be like my wife and ask if you are allowed to watch procedures while they’re happening, but you should get the scoop on them. Usually once the doctor knows you’re interested they’re more than happy to expound endlessly about the minutiae they were forced to memorize that nobody cares all that much about on a day to day basis.
The end you say? Hardly.
Sometimes despite your best effort things don’t go the way they should. After ten months of following this strict plan, counting everything, residing within the limits given, and taking all the medicine as ordered Rebecca started having trouble again. Yes, for those of you scoring at home that brings us around to another holiday filled with heart problems.
Here is something from the glory of e-mail archives, a message to friends in my wife’s own words:
“About 3 weeks ago I started to have a tight heavy feeling in my chest. When it kept coming back after a few days I called the cardiologist. They are a little cautious about these sorts of things considering the situation, so in I went for tests, tests, and a few more tests. The nuclear stress test they did led them to believe I had a blockage which led to a recent heart catheterization. During the cath they realized that I did not have a blockage, but that my arteries don’t all go where they’re supposed to. In other words I was born with an abnormally formed heart. (I blame Dad’s Polish heritage…probably had the freakin’ blueprints upside down or something when they made me. What the hell? I blamed his German heritage for my liver processing the Coumadin so fast that they couldn’t get my levels high enough and I was stuck in the hospital for weeks over Christmas. Good thing Daddy’s got broad shoulders, huh?!) Don’t ask how someone can be seen for a heart condition for as long as I have and they just now realize what exactly the problem is. Apparently, the whole thing is pretty rare…”
Rare.
There are times when it’s not such a great thing to be the rare one – and despite television’s take on all things medicinal – heart trouble is one of those times. The rare condition my wife had is actually called ALCAPA (Anomalous Left Coronary Artery originating from the Pulmonary Artery). Rare in the United States means it affects 1 in 300,000 live births. ALCAPA represents approximately 0.25-0.5% of congenital (born with) heart defects. When it does happen (these days at least) they either find it in infancy because the baby shows signs of heart failure and they fix it or it kills the baby. In the odd instance where the child survives and reaches adulthood with a misdiagnosis or without being diagnosed at all, the defect is most commonly found post-mortem. Usually the person just drops dead with no signs of anything having been wrong – because the heart is only working in the neighborhood of thirty percent of its actual capacity.
Thankfully we have a fantastic cardiologist. Once he figured out what was wrong and how rare it was to have an actual, still breathing case of this he told us the straight version of things. He said there was a pretty good chance this was a once in a practice kind of thing for him. He may never see another case like my wife if he practices from now until retirement. I say he’s fantastic because rather than try to fix it himself he wanted to direct us to his mentor (who had seen three or four of these cases). Rare indeed.
To make a very long story a little shorter, we ended up consulting with the mentor (a fine thoracic surgeon). He, in association with his partner, had written a peer reviewed paper on the condition and had done some studies on surgically repairing the condition. I say if you need a repairman, get the guy that wrote the directions when you can.
So at age 33 my wife joined the zipper club and had open heart surgery to repair the defective arteries and place a new valve in her heart. It was a very successful procedure with fewer complications than expected. The only glitch in the entire process was with the camera they had set up to record the procedure for teaching purposes. If something in the process is going to fail – let it be the camera that’s recording the whole thing. The procedure was smooth and the hospital stay relatively short. Recovery time from open heart surgery is not so short.
Constancy.
I am amazed and blessed with the friends my wife and I have through fandom. They are chosen family for me, and they are always there. I had a friend from this crowd volunteer to sleep on the couch one night each weekend during those recovery months so that I could get some rest (my wife wasn’t allowed to pick up our infant daughter for six months after the surgery for fear of tearing something). When my schedule became too tight and I couldn’t manage everything I had a friend from the group burn one of her vacation days to help out. I know how few of those everyone gets, and to have a fellow fan surrender one in the name of helping out is something I am grateful for to this day. Be constant for your friends and fellow fans, it means more than you know. When times get really tough your true friends remain.
Cooked meals, companionship and helping hands all from connections I made through fandom. Fellow fans are my chosen family and have been for a very long time. The sense of community is amazing for such a diverse and scattered crowd. Once connected all those years ago I found a rare and constant bunch. They all showed me how amazing (and crazy) they could be when the chips were down. I’m hoping to continue to expand the circle of fans I know because I can’t imagine who might need my help out there, but if I can pay even a little of these things back it will be worth it.
This was originally published in Watch The Skies Fanzine – January 2021
The house where J.R.R. Tolkien lived when he wrote some of his most famous work is up for sale. There are a number of people making a concerted effort to purchase this house and turn it into some kind of literary center, including a garden of some significance. There is a news article about it on Tor’s website. This article sent my mind wandering down the path of historic preservation and the collection of authorial works. There are other displays from famous authors in many forms, in many places but I realized I don’t know the first thing that goes into creating or curating a collection like this. Thankfully the wonderful world of fandom allows me to connect to people that know an awful lot more than I do. I decided to reach out to one!
Mary Spila is a long time member of our fan group here at Watch The Skies and just so happens to be one of the librarians for our state. I pulled together the teeny amount of info I know about this sort of things and asked her a few questions about it. Here is the interview:
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First, thanks for being willing to help fill me in on these sort of things. I think the work you do is important and more people should know about it. What is your official job title and what sort of things are entailed in the work that you currently do?
I am the cataloger at the State Library of Pennsylvania. I am responsible to cataloging everything that in put into the collection. This includes books for the Main Library, Law Library, Government Documents, and the Rare Materials Library.
Does the state library have a collection of letters (or more than one) similar to the sort of works that might be on display at the Tolkien house, should that project become a reality? What sort of things are in that collection?
The Rare Collections Library of the State Library of Pennsylvania holds items from the founding of theState of Pennsylvania, and the United States. This includes the “Assembly Collection”, books that were purchased by Benjamin Franklin for the General Assembly, and the beginnings of the State Library Collection.
The library has The largest collection of Pennsylvania Newspapers, some of which go back to the late 1600s. There are copies of materials that were printed in Pennsylvania back to 1685.
The collection also contains rare items that include a copy of Hartman Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicles; a map and documents signed by Hannah Penn and Lord Baltimore regarding the borders between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Several years ago we were gifted with a collection of materials from Steve Didko, Pennsylvania Comic Book artist best known for his work at Marvel and DC. That collection contains pencil sketches, ink drawings, and published comic books. It is the basis of the State Library’s graphica collection, which highlights the works of Pennsylvania authors and artists in the comics industry.
How does the library team decide what to keep and when? There has to be a limit on space, right?
There are library policies and procedures for purchasing and removal of materials from the Main and Law Libraries. For the Main Library this includes genealogical materials, Pennsylvania newspapers, things that are about Pennsylvania and its history, as well as materials requested by State Agencies and Legislators. The Law Library contains materials that directly related to the courts, laws, and legislation of Pennsylvania and the United States.
We are also a Federal and State Documents Depository Library, and those materials are kept until superseded.
Outdated, damaged, and superseded materials from both libraries, are removed from the collections and replaced if needed.
Does the library have special systems in place to care for the works in their care?
The Rare Collections Librarian and Technician have some basic skills with materials maintenance and repair. For materials that are in need of more extensive work they are sent out to professional restorers.
Materials in the Main and Law Libraries, are generally replaced if they are damaged beyond use, as repair of modern books is not cost effective.
Are there special rules about who can see these collections and when?
For materials in the Rare Collection, an appointment needs to be made with the Rare Collections Librarian. Permission may be denied based on the condition of the item.
Given the significant increase in authors using electronic means to both write and communicate with each other in recent times, what sort of things might the library have to display in the future? Have there been discussions of this among various members of the librarian community?
Electronic resources can be “Displayed” in electronic formats such as the Library’s website and social media.
I’d really like to focus more on that last bit. I wasn’t clear about how I phrased my question about displays. I didn’t consider the internet as part of the library at all, I was visualizing some kind of digital kiosk on location in the library itself with a big ol’ touch screen or something like that.
Even if there were a physical device for an electronic display, what is displayed would still be tied into the library’s website. Physical tech requires the library to have the time, funding, and personnel to maintain it, and most libraries don’t have any to spare.
People are already carrying personal devices where they look for information and entertainment. It is more cost effective to put things on the website and the library’s social media, where it will reach a wider audience and is not limited to times when the library will be physically open. Many libraries are even recording their current physical displays and putting them on their websites. The website, or some future incarceration, will end up being the primary way that libraries interact with users.
I know this isn’t what you are looking for, but that is the reality, especially considering that library budgets have been falling.
A very big thank you to Mary Spila for being willing to share her time and expertise with us on this subject! IF you have knowledge about an industry that relates to the publishing world or science fiction in general, we’d love to hear from you too! Let us know ~ we want to hear what you have to say!
This was previously published in Watch The Skies fanzine – January 2021
The lost Star Wars film.
A very Star Wars look, right?
Diving into 2021 does not mean we’re charging forward and looking at something new. In fact, this is a retro view that I had somehow missed along the way. Like 40 years missed along the way. I admit I’m not a super fan when it comes to all things Star Wars. Yes, I saw the original films when they came out. Yes, I had a ton of the toys. No, I’m not a member of the Jedi church. I love them and they hold a place within me even if I don’t keep up with every single release. It’s a film (and TV show and book and toy…) franchise like no other and it turns out that something really interesting was tacked onto it. Fantasy.
That’s right, fantasy. George Lucas commissioned a fantasy film. He wanted this fantasy film to be shown before or in association with Empire Strikes Back. You read that right. Empire Strikes Back – tied directly to a swords and horses fantasy film. It was made, it was shown, then it was lost.
Recently, during the preparation for a discussion about the influence of films on fantasy gaming I was digging for clips and information about various movies I’ve watched or heard about over the years. There are a lot of excellent films out there is you love fantasy. Then I stumbled onto a thread about fantasy and Empire. That’s how I came to know about Black Angel.
The age of Black Angel is part of why I wanted to put it here, along with the story of how it was made, lost and subsequently recovered. It is a very moody piece. The scenery is amazing. The background music is haunting. There is a look and feel to this film that is undeniable. In the notes about the film it was revealed that parts of the crew for the movie Excalibur watched this and took copious notes. The look and feel of Excalibur and Black Angel are quite similar. Some of the techniques used in Black Angel were picked up and used in Empire as well.
As a fan of the history of science fiction and fantasy it’s a neat treasure that’s available for free. The mood, the look, the sound all make Black Angel worth the short run time.
I have written in the past questioning the “we won” thought process of geekdom taking over the world. I am happy that there are so many geeky things in the world now. I love that so many things have cropped up and made their way to the public eye. Seeing so many things creates this feedback loop wherein I start to wonder if I’m really seeing fandom or if what I’m seeing is a naked cashing in on something that has reached the level of ‘fad’ and will soon fade into the background again. I will say now that I work very hard at NOT being that fan. You now, the one that claims if you didn’t suffer enough or if you aren’t a fan of precisely the right thing or you haven’t been into it long enough that you’re not truly a fan. That’s a load of crap. If you took up your geeky hobby or fandom last week you’re still a fan. You don’t have to be a fan of the same things I am, nor do you have to enjoy them the same way I do.
As with anything that pushes to the forefront of popular culture, levels of quality come into question as well. Sure, I saw a full set of Dungeons & Dragons dice the other day at the dollar store. Does that make them good dice? Does that make them bad dice? I didn’t buy them ~ I have no idea what the quality is. What it does mean is that if there’s a kid out there that wants some new gaming dice and he can scrounge up a buck, he can buy some. I’m happy for that. The dice may or may not meet my quality standard, but my standard has evolved over time. I’m really digging for quality now.
I am looking for high quality when it comes to the game I hold dear and how it is represented. A while back I posted wrote a couple of pieces about sword and sorcery films. I listed the top ten, and then added to (or amended) that list when I went hunting for newer material. One film conspicuously absent from my list was the Dungeons & Dragons movie.
Yes, blue lipstick guy.
Insert heavy sigh here.
For anyone that doesn’t know about it, New Line Cinema put out a Dungeons & Dragons film back in December of 2000. I was really excited to see it. I wanted it… I was willing it to be amazing. My Jedi mind trick failed or my will was not strong enough or maybe the time just wasn’t right. I loath that movie. It’s terrible AND didn’t do much more than pile ridicule onto fans at the time. Bear in mind this was a full eight years before the MCU’s first film came out (Iron Man – 2008) and still a year before the first of the LOTR series hit theaters (Fellowship of the Ring – December 2001). This movie did every single thing I feared about putting D&D forward into the public view. Big names were in this film. Jeremy Irons won an Oscar. Seriously. I’m not a fan of Mr. Irons, but they got an Oscar winner in there. I was also not a fan of casting one of the Wayans brothers in the movie. It has nothing to do with diversity – I think there should be more of it. It has everything to do with putting a stand up comic in as comic relief and not writing *any* clever lines to help him. He was hands down the worst character in the film – and yes I’m counting blue lipstick guy. The movie was just not good. Seriously, on a $45M budget it made back less than $16M domestically. That’s a bomb. I think it speaks to the strength of the brand that they were able to get funding for another two films (and YES, the third one did drop direct to DVD). It didn’t help matters that the following year’s release of Fellowship showed what a fantasy movie could look like. LOATHE IT.
What brought all this bile up you might be thinking.
I am filled with trepidation. A big name utterly failed to help the last one. There’s a lot of interest in D&D since the Stranger Things series came out… but… it could just go so very, horribly wrong. I find myself right back where I was twenty years ago. I so very, very much want this movie to be amazing. I want it to be “Fellowship” good. I have no faith in Hollyweird. The crusty old people pulling the purse strings will mess this up somehow. I say this based on the film adaptation of Ready Player One specifically, but not exclusively. There was an entire segment of that movie that could have (and should have) revolved around the D&D part that was written into the book. It’s not like D&D is unpopular right now. Rather than use that an entirely new section was written in as a homage to some other director and a film adaptation from 40 years ago (The Shining). My only glimmer of hope is that Joe Manganiello has also been said to be attached as one of the story creators. Joe has been very public about his love of the game and the fact that he continues to play.
A lot of people claim they love, respect, adore, play Dungeons & Dragons but I don’t see it. They’re going to screw this up… again. I don’t want them to, but I fear they will. I so very, very much want this to be amazing. I’ll have to revisit this post after I see the movie. It’s scheduled to release in the US in May of 2022.
I’m almost certain we’ll be back in movie theaters by then.
This article was originally published in the November issue of the Watch The Skies Fanzine.
It’s a mind blowing number when I sit and really think about it. I have taxed my brain and attempted to remember how exactly I heard about the science fiction reading group at the big book store down the road from my house and I don’t recall. One of the clearest early memories I have of the group was getting the opportunity to chat with the author of a book called Red Moon. He had an endlessly fascinating set of stories about Soviet era space medals and theories on that program. That was way back in May of 2001. Red Moon stands out, but I still have physical copies of all the books from that year and I remember reading all of them. I can give details about what was in them and tell you if I enjoyed them. Not too shabby for something that started so long ago, but that’s not all.
20! Almost old enough to drink!
Over the years WTS has grown and changed and had manner of excitement. The books have been our constant. The good, the bad, the ugly we read and discussed our random (or not so random) selection each month, and then dove into whatever other subject struck our fancy from the world of fandom. We’ve had authors, artists, editors, cosplayers and actors stop in to visit with us. Live readings, staged events, book signings and parties. We’ve gone to the movies and watched old movies at members’ houses. Myriad members have come and gone, but many have stuck around and have become long time friends. We have helped at conventions and worked at charity events. We have celebrated and we have mourned. Our group has stuck together.
When trying to decide what to write about and how that sense of togetherness was the stand out piece. The most important thing I have found is my tribe. My people. I go out of my way to be at every meeting I can. I am upset and out of sorts if I can’t actually get to a meeting to see and hear from my friends… my science fiction family. It means a lot to me.
We’ve moved locations. Severing ties with the book store of origin we’ve relocated two (maybe three?) times. We’ve landed at a library now, and that seems fitting. We’re in the middle of a pandemic as I write this. Our group is undeterred and meets virtually now. It lacks some of the more personal aspects of meeting in person, but it sustains us. I suspect that even when we are able to meet in person again we will attempt to keep some form of virtual presence available.
We publish a fanzine. This is one of my favorite aspects of the things we do. It gives us a place to put our news, celebrate the work of friends of the group, talk space science, recommend movies or even get some advice. The fanzine has provided me with valuable lessons on working to a deadline and given me the confidence to put my art forward. Not all of my cover art for the fanzine is display worthy, but I am proud of having produced more than 140 pieces of art for it. That experience gave me a supply of work to display as part of a convention art show and helped me get one of my pieces published. We have an archive that allows us to look back on all of this.
Looking back is not the only thing I want to do here. I also want to look forward. We have a lot of history, but we also have a mountain of potential. Being part of the library book club groups gives us new channels to attract more members. We’re still hunting up amazing works of fiction to read and discuss every month AND still getting out there in the fandom community. I’ve thrown a couple of suggestions out there to extend our reach in the coming year. I’ve got requests out for new voices to join the fanzine. Hopefully we’ll get to return to in person meetings. I really hope we get to return to in person conventions as next summer the World Science Fiction Convention will be in our back yard when it takes place in Washington DC. I look forward to another twenty years of this crazy, awesome family we call a fan group.
Finally, but most importantly, Watch The Skies would not be the same without the true foundation of it all. I want to put a special thank you here for Jeff Young. Jeff is the leader, editor and book seller extraordinaire who is our anchor point. Without Jeff this group does not survive, and I for one am delighted that he hasn’t chucked me yet. Jeff, thank you for all you do. It matters.
