Tag Archives: Watch The Skies

The Art of Fandom

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This was originally published in Watch The Skies, January 2024 issue.

For a couple of years now I’ve focused my written pieces for Watch The Skies on films and television. While that sort of entertainment is wonderful, I feel that we need to shift from film to other forms of art. As a group, science fiction fandom has some of the most imaginative and talented creators anywhere. If there’s a way to create something, they’ll find it. If it can tie in with a favorite book or show, so much the better.

My hope is to get some of our members to show off their creations here in the fanzine this year. I would love to see what other folks are making and how it’s related to their fandom.

I’ll go first! Normally our group sees my artwork on the cover of the ‘zine each month. That isn’t the only form of art I create. I draw, paint, model and craft as well. As part of an online crafting group I was able to enter a contest for the creation of a “magic potion”. Using a bottle and a number of other supplies, I was able to create the “magic potion” Release. It’s a real, full size bottle with sculpted pieces, painted glass and hand sketched parchment. While it didn’t win the contest, I was really pleased with the results.

So ~ what are you working on! Let’s show it off!

Kaiju Trees

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Sometimes the fun part of coming up with cover art for the fanzine each month is trying to figure out what an alien landscape will look like. Sometimes that’s the most daunting part as well. What if it’s not described well? What if your vision is absolutely NOT what the author had in mind?

This month Watch The Skies is reading Kaiju Preservation Society by Scalzi.

Spoiler alert – there are different trees in this novel… and I had fun making them. Here’s a background preview of this month’s cover:

Pair a what?

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The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Time travel is something that gets a strong reaction when it’s coming from a science fiction point of view. This time travel is coming from a mystery point of view and that helped the story a lot. It had a cast of characters that were believable. The setting was limited, but contained a number of interesting bits that could keep a reader guessing.

My biggest issue with this book was the way the main character is portrayed. The main character is a woman, but is written exactly like a man with makeup and a pony tail.

I think this is a worthy entry into the time travel genre – a discussion generator.



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Still Watching

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We’re closing in on the end of the 23rd year of the fan group Watch The Skies. It’s been an amazing run and I genuinely hope it rolls at least another 23 years or more.

We still publish a fanzine each month and I still get the opportunity to make cover art for the various issues. The August book we were discussing was called Paradox Hotel. I liked the visual concept of various versions of the hotel being slightly out of focus with each other. A blurry filter over the camera lens. I pulled together some images and set to work. Here’s the cover for the August issue:

You Should Be Watching – RETRO REVIEW

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This post was originally published in Watch The Skies June 2023 edition.

Andromeda Strain (1971)

I’ve been going back and re-watching some older science fiction films, or in some cases watching them for the first time. I had never seen The Andromeda Strain so I grabbed some popcorn and hit play.

There are a number of things I noticed while viewing this 50+ year old film.

There are aspects of the film style that place it squarely in the era of the late 60s / early 70s. Unavoidable things like changes in film making, the quality of the picture (at least compared to modern, high definition sets), special effects without CGI and updates to sound. There are minor turns of phrase that might raise eyebrows today. Some things the characters say or how they respond to things can be very different than a viewer of today would expect.

Beyond simple style or dated cultural issues there is technology. Some tech you simply can’t avoid seeing changes in. Cars, helicopters and planes are all mechanical items that we have contact with or at least passing familiarity with, so those are easy things to spot. Interestingly, the computer technology has made an unexpected change. In part, the attempts to be ‘futuristic’ have made of the tech in the movie actually look spot on to things we have today. Using a stylus on a computer screen in 1971 was so far in the future as to seem unreachable or at least something movie goers wouldn’t expect. These days we have a stylus for our personal tablets and phones that are so common we barely think twice about losing them. The computers themselves were a surprise to me. The ‘main frame’ driven tech is very old in the way the movie makers were likely thinking of it, but to those outside the computer industry it’s almost passable as an AI or super computer, so it would still fit the bill as ‘science fiction’.

Certain special effects make me wonder if the film makers actually killed lab rats and monkeys to get this movie made. Those scenes were definitely not for the squeamish. Any scene like that today would require disclaimers at the start of the film and would be ruthlessly scrutinized. I didn’t see the note at the end of the credits stating that no animals were harmed in the making of the film. Perhaps I missed it.

The version I watched had an interview with Michael Chriton. I was fascinated to hear about his drive and sense of humor (one of his pseudonyms meant dwarf when he was actually 6′-9” tall). The scope was broad for this movie but still had a tight run time. There’s a more modern (2008) remake that was broken into two 90 minute films, but I suspect it won’t land on my watch list. If there’s such a thing as a spoiler alert for a 50 year old movie, this film is a bit of a downer. The biological space thing escapes into the world at large. It is mutated and non-lethal, but it’s out there and there’s a secret science department in the government working constantly to stop it from mutating and killing people again. That part was a lot less entertaining after living through the pandemic and seeing how people reacted.

In the end, I’m glad I went back and checked out this classic. It’s good to have a sense of where things come from, knowing the roots of thing. If you’ve got the chance, you should watch this version of the film.

Check out the trailer HERE

You Should Be Watching

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Jung_E

This was originally published in Watch The Skies April 2023 edition.

In another dystopian future entry, the Korean film Jung_e presents some very real questions about what developing A.I. means and presents a picture of how that can effect the people most closely related to any project connected to that development.

The earth has warmed, the waters have risen. Humans have moved off the earth to various space platforms. Three of these platforms band together and declare war on the other platforms. In an attempt to create a winning edge, the allied forces take an elite soldier and attempt to clone her brain. This cloning is intended to create a soldier with all the skills, subtlety and loyalty of the original soldier in an easily replicated way. These clones will turn the tide and win the war for the allies. The experiments continue to run into an unknown obstacle, frustrating their attempts to complete this new A.I. soldier.

There are a number of pieces that are drawn into the film. I see a little bit of Robocop in there. I see a little bit of Ex Machina. There’s a touch of Ghost In The Shell. These are the things I see mixing and swirling around the story of the soldier and the doctor working on creating this new brand of soldier. It brings up a number of questions, but doesn’t necessarily answer them. This is a movie worth watching for the discussions it will give you after watching, along with a couple of very exciting action sequences. You should be watching Jung_E.


You should check out the trailer here:

Uncommon Indeed

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Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is another book I would not have picked up on my own. This was a recommendation / selection from the Watch The Skies fan group / book club. I’m quite glad I did get it and read it.

I would place this story in the same category as “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Victories Greater Than Death”. The main character is trans, and Asian. Not anything I relate to, but this book is written in such a way that the empathy is there. I was pulling for Katrina. I wanted Satomi to help her.

The characters are interesting. The setting has the feel of a place the author knew well. The story has a lot of hope in it, and that feels like something we could use more of. You should pick this one up.



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Art Still Happens

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It’s been some time since I’ve said anything about it, but I do still create graphics (art feels like a strong word for what I do) and put it out there in the world. This is the cover for this month’s Watch The Skies fanzine, without the text.

Inspired by Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

You Should Be Watching

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Hot Skull

This was originally published in Watch The Skies March 2023 edition.

The main character

I didn’t go looking for this show, but then when I found it I was in. I don’t find shows about deadly plagues nearly as interesting these days, but this show managed to bring me in.

Hot Skull is a dystopian story involving a new, terrifying pandemic called ‘Jabber’. It’s called this because the first symptom is the victim speaking gibberish. This pandemic has caused panic and an authoritarian agency has taken control, herding people into various locked communities and using armed troops to enforce curfews and quarantines. The antagonist is a man named Murat who struggles against this agency, as he seems to be immune to the effects of the disease. Everyone wears noise canceling headphones and eye each other with suspicion while out in public.

The story is dark. The characters are very real. There aren’t Hollywood stereotypes at play here… this is a Turkish language series. Yes, subtitles but worth it. Looking at a pandemic from a non-American point of view is just one aspect of this show that makes it worth the effort.


You should check out the trailer here:

The City We Became

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The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read, finished and enjoyed this one. It was a very real feeling set of characters who moved through and met the very Lovecraftian challenges arising in New York City together. As a reader I clearly got the mental struggle each of them went through as their lives changed when the spirit of the city itself became part of them. It was refreshing to see the wide variation in points of view as well.

I likely would have enjoyed this story a lot more if I were in some way involved or invested in NYC. Honestly, being a Boston person my whole life, it made a lot of the ‘feel’ a little bit off for me. I could easily see a reader diving deep into this story and being in love, but that wasn’t ever going to be me.

If you’re a fan of existential horror, you’ll probably like this book quite a lot.



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