Michael Adamthwaite b. 1981 (Nerds and Monsters, Arrow, Horns, Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, Fringe, Sucker Punch, Behemoth, Riverworld, Twilight: New Moon, Smallville, Reaper, Watchmen, Flash Gordon [TV], Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Dead Like Me, 10.5, Stargate SG-1, Jeremiah)
Camille Chen b. 1979 (Grimm, American Horror Story, Touch, Meteor [TV], Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over)
Adrienne Wilkinson b. 1977 (Star Trek: Renegades, Nobility, Charmed, Angel, Xena)
Scott Speedman b. 1975 (Underworld: Evolution, Underworld)
Burn Gorman b. 1974 (Game of Thrones, Pacific Rim, The Dark Knight Rises, Torchwood)
Jhonen Vasquez b. 1974 (Invader ZIM)
Maury Sterling b. 1971 (Extant, Dollhouse, Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise, Angel, Dark Skies, Outbreak)
Ricardo Chavira b. 1971 (Warehouse 13, Piranha 3D)
Padma Lakshmi b. 1970 (Star Trek: Enterprise)
Zak Penn b. 1968 (writer, Pacific Rim 2, Alphas, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand, Elektra, X-Men 2)
James Nguyen b. 1966 (Birdemic 1 and 2)
Joe Jusko b. 1959 (artist, Marvel Comics)
James Rebhorn b. 1948 died 21 March 2014 (Coma [2012], The Adventures of Pluto Nash, From the Earth to the Moon, Independence Day, Cat’s Eye)
Beau Starr b. 1944 (Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Final Days of Planet Earth, The 4400, Earth: Final Conflict, Relic Hunter, Total Recall 2070, Halloween 4 and 5, V, Knight Rider, The Powers of Matthew Star)
Zito Kazann b. 1944 (The X Files, Angel, Charmed, Buffy, Sliders, Waterworld, The Flash, Werewolf [TV], Automan, Tucker’s Witch, Knight Rider, The Greatest American Hero, The Six Million Dollar Man)
Don Stroud b. 1943 (Little Bigfoot, Babylon 5, The Alien Within, Carnosaur 2, Cyber Seeker, Frogtown II, Quantum Leap, Super Force, Hyper Space, The Powers of Matthew Star, The Incredible Hulk, The Amityville Horror)
C. J. Cherryh b. 1942 (won 1982 Hugo for Downbelow Station and 1989 Hugo for Cyteen)
Judy Levitt b. 1940 (InAlienable, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Moontrap, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
Lily Tomlin b. 1939 (The X Files, The Incredible Shrinking Woman)
Ron O’Neal b. 1937 died 14 January 2004 (Hyper Space, Beauty and the Beast [1987], Knight Rider, The Greatest American Hero, The Final Countdown, Brave New World)
George Maharis b. 1928 (Superboy, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Logan’s Run [TV], Bionic Woman, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, Death in Space, Journey to the Unknown, The Satan Bug)
Yvonne De Carlo b. 1922 died 8 January 2007 (American Gothic, The Munsters)
Vittorio Gassman b. 1922 died 29 June 2000 (Quintet)
Betty Blythe b. 1893 died 7 April 1972 (She [1925])
Edgar Rice Burroughs b. 1875 died 19 March 1950 (author, John Carter)
Last year, the Picture Slot went to Yvonne De Carlo as Lily Munster, both as a fabulous babe and as the most iconic genre role of anyone on our list. This year, I went with a Frazetta illustration of John Carter, Warlord of Mars, just as a reminder the story existed before it was turned into a massive failure at the box office.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: In late summer, Hate Week is celebrated.
Reality: For the most part, I like to present a new prediction every day, but I'm repeating this from early September of last year because I love George Orwell's work. We don't pick one set week out of every year to hate our enemies, though if you look it up on Google you'll see several college sports rivalries consider the run-up to the big game a sort of Hate Week. In terms of politics, Hate Week goes on all year now, with websites like Raw Story and others giving left wingers the stories of people they should despise and The Drudge Report and others giving right wingers the same. We also get the occasional international outrage that we are supposed to get indignant about, like Boko Haram or ISIS or the downing of a plane in the Ukraine. Orwell was not very accurate on details, but there's a reason he deserves to have his name turned into an adjective, as the tone of our political discourse certainly has the feel of his book.
Stan Goldberg 1932-2014
Comic artist Stan Goldberg worked most of his career at Archie Comics, but in the early 1960s he was at Marvel, and as a colorist he decided the color schemes of many of Marvel's most famous characters, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor and the Hulk. He is also the artist in one of the oddest crossover issues in comics history, Archie Meets The Punisher, which I have trimmed and made this month's splash illustration.
Best wishes to the family and friends of Stan Goldberg. He is never to be forgotten.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
It's time for FM-2030 to give his bold vision of a world that works exactly as he wants it.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Great insight on the hatred business in this country. And make no mistake about it, it IS a business. I too have fallen into that trap, I follow one of the "news" sources that you list. The polarization is getting to me, I wish I could find a fact driven, neutral source of information that I can trust. Fear drives us all, and the prevailing wisdom is to choose sides. There HAS to be a better way, for no other reason than to sidestep the manipulation that occurs. You seem to be comfortably centered. Any tips on accruing such peace?
ReplyDelete"Comfortably centered" is one of the last phrases I would use to describe myself, but thanks for thinking so.
DeleteAll I can say is that I make an effort to avoid clickbait and in my estimation, that's what the political websites are for the most part.
The "simplest" way to find the "center" would be to only read foreign coverage. Admittedly, you'd still be in the very western "objective->superior" complex and you'd miss out on plenty of stories that don't catch other countries' eyes. You'd also have to remember other countries have their own agendas.
DeleteWord choice and story choice are the bane of anyone claiming a desire for objectivity. To get the former, the articles would have to be remarkably terse and dry like a fire department incident report or police blotter. But even a police blotter drops objectivity with persons under suspicion or in custody.
Just as a word choice example, here are three separate headlines from a current news story from different sources:
[redacted], Shooting Instructor, Fatally Shot By 9-Year-Old Student
9-year-old girl accidentally shoots and kills instructor during lesson
Girl, 9, kills gun instructor with Uzi
Each one gives the story an immediate flavor. There shouldn't be any headlines at all since that is a very simple way to immediately make a story subjective. What I see as relevant facts here would be girl (subject/object (passive voice)), shooting instructor (subject (passive voice)/object), firearm (object/subsumed into verb?), and death (subsumed into verb or as adverb/adjective). Even of these, "firearm" and "death" can be taken as propaganda against guns if they're used in the article. "Shooting instructor" could be considered propaganda as well since "they're supposed to know better" and that can also be used against guns. And usage of "girl" could be decried as an effort to shield children from guns.
The latter would require just a plethora of material to be read so as to not fail to see everything.
Hi, Dicky, thanks for stopping by. You picked an interesting example which is very hard to make completely objective, so many parts of the subject matter being controversial.
DeleteFrazetta and Roger Dean? Could this be Illustrator Week?
ReplyDelete