Three Years In SPACE

My 1970s sci-fi nostalgia (or, as I prefer to call it: pop culture archeology) blog, Space: 1970, just celebrated its third anniversary. Three years of  writing about the science fiction films and television shows - and related memorabilia - of the 1970s and early 80s (closing rapidly on 700 entries now)... and people seem to like it. Stop by if you get a moment.

Space: 1970 in GEEK Magazine

One of my other (and more popular) blogs, Space: 1970, has received a positive, brief write-up in the latest issue of GEEK magazine, a very slick publication on newsstands now.

I find it interesting that they refer to the "retro-hipness" of the site, when the material I cover over there certainly wasn't considered very "hip" or cool when it was new. I got called lots of unpleasant names ("geek" being among the least offensive) back in the 1970s for liking that stuff. I also got beat up on occasion and had lots of comic books, Star Trek paperbacks and Starlog magazines stolen from me and torn up in my face. More than a few adult authority figures berated me for my interest in science-fiction and other escapist entertainment, calling me stupid for wasting my time with it.

It's nice that I've lived to see a day when there is such a thing as "geek culture," when Star Wars and Star Trek are undisputed mass-market, mainstream entertainments and big-budget super-hero films have become Hollywood's most anticipated blockbusters. And it's way cool that my own silly little ramblings online are considered a notable (or foot-notable) part of that pop cultural shift.

Still, it would be nicer if I hadn't had to get beaten up so much back then....

Wednesday Cover: Logan's Search

Here's the fiery cover to third volume in William F. Nolan's "Logan" trilogy, Logan's Search, published in 1980. The artist is uncredited, though the style looks familiar. (Bob Larkin, maybe?) Anyway, I'm in a "Logan" mood tonight, as I picked up the new DVD release of the 1977 Logan's Run television series yesterday, and have been re-watching the show. I'll be reviewing the DVDs at both my DVD Late Show and Space: 1970 sites in a day or two.

Just a quick note to remind folks about my Space: 1970 site, a 70s nostalgia blog devoted to the sci-fi movies and television shows of the polyester decade. Space: 1999, Battlestar Galactica (the original), Quark, Logan's Run, Star Wars, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century - all of these are covered at Space: 1970, along with many more shows and films.

I've seen a huge increase in traffic over there since New Years, and I've been posting new stuff there almost every day. If you grew up during the 70s - or just have an interest in / fondness for the genre - you should check it out.

A Week and Half Into Ten

It's been a busy first week and a half of 2010.

Which is, actually, a good thing, as it means that I'm being productive and getting work done. In the last ten days or so, I've wrapped up the script and lettering for the first new Captain Midnight comic book story in decades, plotted another one, and, with very little preparation time, re-built my DVD Late Show site from scratch & re-launched it yesterday with five new reviews. I expect to have at least one - and maybe two - more articles posted before the end of the week.

I'm still transferring old reviews to the site, but there are now almost 250 articles in the archives, dating back to March of '05, when the first incarnation of the Late Show debuted at filmmaker Kevin Smith's now-defunct Movie Poop Shoot site. (If you're curious, that very first review was of the Mexican horror flick Alucarda.) It'll probably take me another month or more to track down, revise and re-post all of my old reviews.

One of my other pop culture blogs, Space: 1970 saw a surge in traffic this past week, thanks to a link on Grognardia, a gaming blog. In less than 24 hours, the blog gained more than thirty new "followers," and countless other new visitors. Who knew there were so many other old guys and gals out there nostalgic for the 70's sci-fi stuff I write about?

Tomorrow, I need to dig in on another Kolchak The Night Stalker script for the forthcoming ongoing comic book series from Moonstone, and once I deliver that, I need to knock out a short crime pulp story for one of the publisher's upcoming prose anthologies. My story pitch was approved yesterday, and I have until march to write it and turn it in. I don't want to say which classic adventure character I'll be writing about this time, but I'll give you a hint: he wears green.

I've also been asked to contribute a story to yet another prose fiction anthology dedicated to a classic pulp hero. That story's due in April, and I'm really anxious to get it in the book. Again, I'm not going to name the character right now; I'm trying to stop announcing things too far in advance of completion - sometimes projects fall through, get delayed indefinitely, or I just drop the ball and blow them, and it's embarrassing when folks keep asking when they're coming out. So, at the moment, I'm just saying that I've been asked to contribute a story, and keep checking back here for further announcements.

So, it looks like if I can buckle down and stay on task, I have enough writing jobs (even if they don't pay much of anything) to keep me busy until late spring. At that point, I expect to have a couple of new projects ready to shop around to publishers. During that time, I have other stuff lined up, too - preparing the Femme Noir online strips for publication in book form for Ape Entertainment, lettering my own Kolchak and Captain Midnight comics, etc. (And, as always, doing what I can to facilitate the long-gestating Gravedigger & Planet X books, too.)

I just hope that my unusually high productivity over the last ten days or so is something I can maintain. Late last year, I was finally diagnosed as having ADD. In retrospect, this seems so obvious - the behavior patterns and difficulties I've struggled with since I was a kid are textbook ADD - but it never occurred to me before. My doctor and I are experimenting with treatments, and if we can nail down the right one, I'm hoping to experience a serious improvement in my work habits and, well, just about everything.

I'm determined to make 2010 my best year - creatively, professionally and personally - ever.

New Blog - Space:1970

Because it turns out that I like having specific forums for specific pop culture obsessions, I've started up yet another blog. This one's called Space: 1970 and is dedicated to the sci-fi films and television series of the 1970s.

Stuff like Star Wars, Space: 1999, the original Battlestar Galactica, Space Academy, Jason Of Star Command, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, and The Planet Of The Apes were hugely important to me as a kid, and while I have written about some of that here at Atomic Pulp, I discovered with my Spy-Fi Channel blog that sometimes it's preferable to have a special place to write about a single subject.

So, in any case, if you're interested in that kind of material, I hope you'll check it out.