Author Archives: JD DeLuzio

Newspace

Outer space, superheroes, and the Abominable faux-man in this installment:

Both lend themselves nicely to cheap sexual humor: Modern science considers whether it was a Big Bang or Big Bounce?

What do the Queensbury Rules say?: Recently discovered ‘middleweight’ black hole raises some interesting questions.

Still no longer a planet: little Pluto nevertheless has a fifth moon. Very nice, Pluto! We’re putting that one up on the fridge!

Cryptozoological heat-wave relief: The National Geographic recently received this photo of a snow monster from Mount Rainier.

Meanwhile, back on earth, or someone’s version of earth, The Onion weighs in on the most unrealistic aspect of the Man of Steel

ComicCon Vlog below:

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Summer Reading: Persepolis

If you’re looking for something a little different to read this summer, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, published to great acclaim in the early 2000s, remains a modern classic among graphic novels. It begat both a sequel and an animated adaptation. We consider the original here.

The story brings you into the world of a child growing up during turbulent times. If you’ve ever wondered how a dystopian government could take hold of society, read Persepolis, and find out how one actually did.

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Newspace

This week’s newspace is all over the place, with something for all interests– assuming Malware hasn’t taken you out Monday morning:

In the name of the moon, I will right wrong and triumph over evil!: The quintessential anime show, Sailor Moon, returns next summer with a brand new series.

Less well known, but fondly recalled: The Canadian 80s show Fraggle Rock receives a new incarnation as well, this one focusing on The Doozers of Fraggle Rock.

Hey, it’s new to the site: Our Crossover Comix page gets an update from 2001, when Superman and Supergirl met Gen 13.

Maybe they’re in the pay of hardline Creationists?: In Alberta, drunken louts may be responsible for the theft and destruction of dinosaur fossils.

Meanwhile, out in space: Is this the Solar Flare of the Year?

And speaking of space: A recent survey inquires as to people’s “belief” in UFOs, but the response at least examines the ambiguity of that question (can you NOT believe people have seen things they personally couldn’t identify?), just as the survey tries to correlate belief in aliens to feelings about Barack Obama and the Incredible Hulk.

And on that superheroic note, we bring you the extended trailer for Dark Knight Rises, the full source of last week’s viral Spider-man/Batman fight video, and…. Uh, some other video that may be of interest:

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Weekend Review: Mothra

Godzilla had a message about the atomic age; Rodan featured creatures out of their time, and it raised concerns about what developments in science and exploitation of the earth might unleash. Mothra, well…

“We promise you no one will ever disturb you or your island again.”

— Shin’ichi Chûjô (Hiroshi Koizumi)

Although not as well-loved as the first two1 kaiju monsters, Mothra, in many ways, receives a cinematographically superior debut, and is arguably the best-directed of the original Japanese giant monster movies. Even its nationalist (and some argue, racist) elements bear thoughtful consideration, if one views the film from Japan’s point-of-view in ’61.

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Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-man

Spider-man swings back into the theaters, with new actors, a new director, a mutated origin, and brand-new webs of continuity.

Given how recent the Raimi/Maguire franchise is, I won’t even try to avoid occasional comparisons. Better questions remain, however: does this film hold up on its own, and will it appeal to the fans?

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Newspace

Have they found it, by God?: Physicists have fairly good evidence of that particle they prefer to call the the Higgs boson.

Where are the green-skinned astrobabes?: NASA reveals the Orion Space Capsule.

I read this book as a kid: Space-tourist company Excalibur Almaz plans to take tourists to the moon for a mere $150 million.

Not a Microsoft product: Power generating windows may prove an important source of solar power.

Turkeysaurus Rex: We’ve known for awhile some dinosaurs were feathered. It may be that (to some degree) all dinosaurs had plumage.

No word on griffins: The American National Ocean Service has announced that mermaids don’t exist.

Because the sequels were total movie gold: A&E plans a TV-movie that will tell the backstory to Psycho.

Forthcoming on Youtube: Harry Potter and the Ten Years After, a fan film, previewed below–

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Summer Reading Review: “Summer of Night”

Dan Simmons has achieved his greatest fame with clever, complex SF novels such as Hyperion and Illium. He plays with mind-bending concepts, though his work has at its core a fairly conservative world-view. Both the genre-bending and the political leanings should probably be kept in mind when one reads his earlier, more conventional thriller fiction.

Thus we come to Summer of Night, a Lovecraft/Stephen King-influenced horror novel wherein a group of supremely competent children in 1961 Illinois uncover an eldritch evil whose awakening will bring about the apocalypse.

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Weekend Review: “Bigfoot” (2012)

Just as the Marvel films built broader recognition for their characters and developed a continuity that would come to fruition in The Avengers so, perhaps, did SyFy plan this film. Years of low-budget creature features like Sharktopus and Jersey Shore Shark Attack established their reputation for really bad monster movies. Then, they announce this thing, a low-rent, tabloid-influenced Kong knock-off starring Barry “Greg Brady” Williams, Danny “Partridge” Bonaduce, and featuring Alice Cooper.

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