 Wolven, while he works in his monstrous lab concocting his follow-up to his Magic in Comics post, offered up this archival interview he conducted with author Hal Duncan on September 14, 2006. Hal Duncan is the author of Vellum and Ink, both discussed below, and also Escape From Hell!, which came out last year. Wolven: 1) For the record, what is your name? HD: Hal Duncan. W: 2) Many would say that "modern magical practice," as spoken of by people like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Phil Hine, and those others counting themselves as "modern magicians," rests in an idea of the manipulation of language as a way to manipulate concepts and thereby dictate perception and interaction with the world. HD: a) I think it would have to. I'm an atheist, nihilist, existentialist, materialist, when it comes down to it, albeit with an idiosyncratic view on materialism which doesn't preclude the irrational, the indefinite and the downright chaotic, so any theory of magic that requires a spiritual / material distinction, that posits it as an appeal to supernatural entities or incorporeal agents active in a "higher" realm, doesn't hold water for me. If magic were to exist, to me it would have to be a natural phenomenon. Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 07.15.09 by Widge @ 3:27 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. Okay, so we told you about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (of which there's a deluxe edition coming out in October), the novel that featured the original Jane Austen text, embellished with zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. Now Quirk Books is following it up with...well...just watch. Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 06.25.09 by Greg Hyatt @ 6:39 pm
Comments on this: 5 so far. Add your own.  What if Gene Roddenberry and Stan Lee had an ugly-ass baby? ScottC's Note: Everyone, please welcome guest columnist Greg Hyatt. When asked to describe himself, this is what he said: "I was sent from the distant future to prevent a devastating war between humanity and bionic Civil War re-enactors, Stranded in the past after the completion of his mission, I currently resides in Kansas City where I enjoy superheroes, '80s cartoons and New Wave music." There have been Star Trek novels for decades. And in the nineties, Marvel Comics made sure their characters were everywhere. We got animated series, action figures, trading cards, Pogs, and novels. Marvel also had the Star Trek license in the nineties. Which means not only did we get a line of Trek comics, we got special issues like Star TreX and Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Second Contact. And that second title is where Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X comes in. The novel is a sequel to the comic, which takes place moments after the end of the film First Contact. The crew of the Enterprise-E didn't make it back to their time on their first attempt. They were actually thrown back to the then-present Marvel Universe where they teamed up (after a brief battle) with the X-Men. There are problems with the timeline and Kang the Conqueror asks (orders) the two groups to repair them. Of course they do and the Enterprise crew returns to their time. (After all, you can't alter the status quo even slightly in a licensed product!) Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 06.03.09 by Widge @ 3:05 pm
Comments on this: just one. Add your own. Historians have long debated the actual birthdate of Prof. John Hodgman. Some place it as February 29th, some as Arbor Day, and there is at least one who states that Hodgman has always existed and was never actually "born"--but the current consensus among scholars is that it is June 3rd. So we say a good evening to one of the world's greatest historians. Why is he great? Because he knows his own birthday--and all of these other historians must simply debate the matter. That is concrete proof. Here we have his classic tale of Hobo Matters: Direct link for the feedreaders. This was taken, of course, from the audiobook of The Areas of My Expertise. The bad news is that due to a hobo conspiracy, it is no longer in print. The good news is that despite their best efforts, the dark forces that control the earth have not destroyed all the copies and you can still snag it. Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 05.19.09 by Widge @ 11:30 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  So Christina, the daughter of Chazzie Lifetime Achievement Award winner Robert Anton Wilson (who is partly responsible for this madness of a website here--yes, blame a dead man, go ahead, he won't care) has relaunched Prof. Wilson's official website. Also some news that she's putting together an auction of his stuff to help settle some final debts of his. So we tried to get everybody to rally to his aid while he was still with us, we don't want to leave Christina in a lurch either. So we'll try to keep you posted on when the auction goes live. In the meantime, check out the site--because the quote front and center is one of the best things you'll read this week. Categorized as: Books
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